<p>As you all know by now, I&#39;ve been working with Butterball all month - and if there&#39;s one thing I&#39;ve learned it&#39;s that the key to a stress-free turkey cooking experience is proper thawing. </p>

<p>That means <span style="text-decoration: underline;">don&#39;t buy a frozen turkey and expect to cook it the same day</span>. You can do it, of course, but it&#39;s not ideal. To say the least.</p>

<p>So last weekend, my mother and I decided to buy a frozen turkey and - you guessed it - have it for dinner that very night. It&#39;s OK, you see, because I&#39;ve been thoroughly trained in the ways of turkey and I have the directions for super-quick defrosting using a microwave. </p>

<p>(I&#39;m not going to post them here - if you find yourself in a bind call 1800BUTTERBALL and they&#39;ll help you. But hopefully, you won&#39;t need to do that.) </p>

<p>Now, the directions are pretty straightforward, so I put the frozen turkey in the microwave and after a bit we noticed that things were starting to smell...cooked? Burnt? But not like delicious poultry cooking - the smell was different.</p>

<p>I finally looked in the microwave and discovered that the bag and the skin of the turkey had exploded. And it was only then that I realized that I had forgotten to set the microwave on 30% power. It was on HIGH.</p>

<p>Not good.</p>

<p>So I went back to the store, bought another one, and proceeded to defrost it in the microwave - but this time we did it correctly. And lo! The turkey came out perfectly defrosted, and it was delicious once we finally were able to cook it. I just wish we hadn&#39;t messed up the first one, but I guess it can happen to the best of us!</p>

<p>The point of this sad but true story is that today is<strong> National Turkey Thawing Day</strong>. Put your frozen Butterball in the refrigerator today and it&#39;ll be perfectly defrosted in time for Thanksgiving dinner. </p>

<p>Why stress out over this? Defrost it today.</p>
