I've read about all that turning and flipping and breast-side down proceedure, but I guess I'm just lazy.  I shove the turkey in at 325 degrees for however long it needs (depending on its weight) and forget about it until its done.  I don't bother with brine or anything, but I spice the cavity real well and put in a fresh herb bundle of mainly rosemary and fresh bay leaves.  I don't use a "pre-basted" turkey (, in my opinion) or anything like that, and they always turn out nice a juicey for me.  The only consession I make by way of special turkey prepping is to make sure the bird is at room temperature before I put it in the oven by leaving it on the counter for about an hour before it goes in.

I don't like the idea of "stuffing", so I make "dressing" outside of the bird.  I use semolina bread, with leeks, onions, garlic and celery.  Fry the veggies up in tons of butter (I am lucky enough to have access to farm butter), add a ton of freshly grated 'Regianno, moisten with cream and chicken stock, bind with eggs, …into a baking dish at 325 'till its done.  For spices/herbs I use parsley, celery seed, salt, pepper.  That's it.  It sounds plain, but its really delicious, and a kind of flavorful-but-neutral back drop for the other dishes.  Sometimes, if I'm feeling "Southwestern", I'll use cornbread and add roasted green chilis (from a can) to the dressing, but alway, always, celery, onions, and garlic. 

For sweet potatoes, I candy them in a mixture of real maple syrup, brown sugar and butter.  For spices I use Chipotle powder or Chipotles en adobo, paprika, black pepper and garlic.  I bake them at 325, but I let them go for longer than alot of people do to bake more of the moisture out of them and to make sure that the potatoes are super-saturated with the spicey syrup.  If I'm in a more traditional mood, I just use the maple syrup, brown sugar and butter (and salt and pepper).

For cranberries, I stew them in Ruby Port with cardomom and bay leaves, but this year I thinking of trying them stewed in Harvey's Bristol Cream sherry instead of the Port…just to try something new. 

Hi Pete , and thankyou for the wonderful complements !

I'll bop over to Just Recipes and see what I can do.  The problem is…I rarely use recipes!  I'm a kind of fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants cook, and tend to make decisions on the fly.  Mainly I use recipes I find in magazines, etc. as a kind of springboard, or jumping-off point.  I can't tell you how much maple syrup or pounds of sweet potates or how much brown sugar I use because I truely don't know!  The only place I stick with a proper recipe is in baking cakes, etc., but even there, I will switch up spices and flavorings to suit myself.  I also combine parts of different recipes with each other.  Chocolate ganache can go on just about anything, right ?  But I will go over to Just Recipes and take a wack at quantifying some of the dishes I posted in Roast Turkey.