Carol just took a call from a cook whose turkey wound up sitting out on the counter all night. “What did you tell her?” I asked.
“Well,” Carol said, “she had put the turkey in at 2:00 am, and had told her son to cover it at 3:30, but he got confused and took it out of the oven to cover it and left it on the counter.”
“Wait, wait,” I said, “why was her turkey in the oven at 2:00 am?”
The caller, Carol said, was going to her sister’s for Thanksgiving, but her teenage sons had to work, so she was cooking a turkey for them, so that they could have a proper Thanksgiving dinner. “I suggested that her sister might send them a care package,” she said.
Then she added, “We were good friends by the time we got off the phone.”
Here’s the thing about the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line: You’re going to get more than just answers if you call; you’re going to get a sympathetic ear and a kind listener. The Talk-Line experts know that half their job is to listen, because often the caller is asking something more complicated than just Can I stuff my turkey without killing everyone? or Is there any way to cook a frozen turkey?
(The answer to both of those things is yes, by the way.)
Thanksgiving dinner scares people — not because a turkey is all that hard to cook (it isn’t) but because there is so much tradition around the meal. And tradition can translate to pressure if you’re the one in charge of the meal.
If you’re feeling frazzled today — or on Christmas Eve, or any of the days in between now and December 31 — and you need to hear a reassuring voice, call 1-800-BUTTERBALL. They’ll answer your questions, but more than that — they will understand why you’re asking.
And that’s truly something to be thankful for.
Not a phone person? The Butterball experts are also answering questions via Facebook and Twitter!
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