Hi Susan,

I am finally getting around to telling you how much we LOVED our turkey this year.  Yesterday was the last of our left-overs and the turkey was still delicious.  I'm not a fan of the dark meat, but my husband is, and he really enjoyed it.  The breast meat was so tender.  And after over 7 days in the fridge, the sandwiches I made were so good - no funky taste that sometimes poultry gets for sitting a while in the fridge.  I also want to thank you for the eggs.  Not only beautiful to look at, but they made great egg sandwiches.  I thought the white were much more tender than chicken eggs.  We really liked them.
 I wanted to let you know how we cooked our bird.  I brined in the Alton Brown recipe, but added a few things of my own - some orange peel (I had a lot of oranges) and a shredded apple.  I brined overnight and cooked at 275 covered tightly for 10 min. per pound, then uncovered and kicked the oven up to 375 and slathered with 1 stick softened butter mixed with some grated orange peel and some rosemary.  I rubbed it with the butter ever 15 min.  It only took about an add'l hr to cook.  (I let it rest a couple of hours because we weren't ready) For the gravy, I poured all the juices out of the pan and added the remaining orange/rosemary butter.  Then a little flour, let it brown, and added the skimmed pan juices and some chicken broth.  It was our best gravy ever.   And the soup - OMG.  So good!  
I hope it's not too early to reserve our bird for next year.  (Although, hopefully Matt will have a job by then, so I'll have to figure out an alternate pick-up)  Also, I save egg cartons - would you like me to leave some on you porch next time we're up there? 

Thanks again for everything - I think we are all in agreement that this was our best Thanksgiving ever!!

Gigi Toton