My own Thanksgiving Turkey!

I made my first own thanksgiving turkey this year. A friend of ours came from Ventura on thanksgiving evening planning to buy an already cooked turkey. Unfortunately, all the cooked turkeys have been sold out at Vons. What's up with that? I would think that they would have made more for last minute people like us.
Anyways....he bought a frozen 10 pound turkey instead. Initially, he had no idea that it took 3 to 4 days to thaw a turkey.
Well, I took the turkey and soak it in the sink to thaw it. It's suppose to take about 8 hours that way. We didn't get to cook the turkey until Saturday morning though. First, we brined the turkey overnight. Brining adds moisture and flavor to poultry and helps to keep it from drying out. Add 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of honey to 1 gallon of water. The honey is to counteract the flavor of the salt and to maintain the flavor of the turkey. I also added 5 pieces of bay leaves and a handful of black peppercorn. Boil the ingredients with the water and wait till it cool before soaking the turkey in. You do not want a half cook turkey. You need to find a huge enough pot or bucket to fit the entire turkey. We didn't have a huge enough bucket so we had to use one of the waste paper bin instead. Haha...of course, we cleaned it out first!
The next day, remove the turkey from the bucket and pat dry to remove the salt from the surface of the turkey. We put 5 to 6 stalk of rosemary and sage in the cavity. That was probably not enough as we did not taste much of the herbs in the turkey. Before you bake the turkey, put some oil on the surface of the turkey and wrap it with foil to maintain the juice. It also takes a shorter time to bake that way. Turn up the oven to 450F and bake for 2 hours or until the thickest part of the turkey registers 175F. If you did not cover the turkey with foil, set the oven to 325F and cook for 2 1/2 hours. And voila.....you have yourself a deliciously cooked turkey!
Now, for the gravy. Take the giblet, neck, heart and liver and chop them into small pieces. Stir-fry with onions, celery and carrots and a pinch of salt. Not too much salt coz' you will be taking the dripping from the turkey later and add it into the gravy. Next, pour water into the pan until it covers all of the ingredients. You can add chicken stock to add flavor. Let it simmer for about 45 minutes. Lastly, take the drippings from the turkey and add it to 2 tablespoons of flour. Mix thoroughly and pour into gravy to thicken it.
To summarise the whole process:

Brining

1 cup salt
1 cup honey
1 handful black peppercorn
1 TBS bay leaves

Turkey cavity

2 TBS rosemary
2 TBS sage

Turkey Gravy

1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
1 celery, chopped
1/4 tsp of salt
2 TBS flour

I think the turkey was quite successful on this first attempt. It was a little too salty for me but Chris said it was just right. Well....if he says it's good, it must be good coz' he doesn't always say so. Haha....Anyways...I hope you all had a great thanksgiving and a good turkey meal!
Oh, last but not least, I forgot to give credit to my friend, Carolyn for this great recipe. It was also her first attempt at making the turkey and it was also a success.