Oh, my, Thanksgiving is upon us, although it is late this year. As you read this, you actually have an extra week to buy your turkey and make the stuffing (I make the stuffing the day before, refrigerate it and stuff much of it into the cold turkey).

I have made roasted turkey almost every way possible. I have brined it, roasted it upside down before turning it upside, baked it is plastic bags and wrapped the top in cheesecloth. I have bought Butterball and organic turkeys.

Here’s what I do now. I buy the least expensive turkey, usually about 12 to 16 pounds. I always buy my turkey frozen. My deal is this: the fresh turkey at the supermarket may have been in the cooler for many days. My turkey was probably frozen before it got to the supermarket.

I do thaw the turkey in the refrigerator for at least three days. Usually, by the morning of Thanksgiving, I think it has thawed, but it hasn’t and my hands are frozen and sore by the time I get the bag of giblets out of the cavity.

I stuff the turkey, baste it with butter and white wine. If the white meat is a little dry at the end, I figure that the gravy, the moist stuffing and the buttery mashed potatoes will turn that meat luscious.

If you want my Turkey 101, its gravy and its stuffing, e-mail me at leeawhite@aol.com.

As for my favorite leftover, it is a turkey sandwich and its sides, at least three to four inches tall. My second favorite, if you have enough of everything, is to make a casserole and eat it on Sunday. If you are sick of turkey, freeze the casserole. Also, you can make so much mashed potatoes, then freeze the potatoes in 1 cup packets and make mashed potato bread. For that recipe, e-mail me. And here is another recipe. It’s delish.

Turkey Hash Salad

From Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins, “The New Basics Cookbook” (Workman, New York, 1989)

Serves 6-8

5 teaspoons Dijon mustard

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup light olive oil (or other good vegetable oil)

12 small red potatoes

1/2 teaspoon kosher or sea salt

2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper

12 large cloves garlic

8 ounces bacon cut into one-half-inch pieces

1/2 cup finely chopped red onion

1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

3 cups coarsely shredded cooked turkey

1 bunch arugula, rinsed, trimmed and patted dry

2 bunches watercress, rinsed, trimmed and patted dry

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Whisk mustard and vinegar together in a small bowl. Slowly pour in three-quarters of the oil, whisking constantly. Set the vinaigrette aside.

Prick the potatoes all over with the tines of a fork. Combine remaining one-quarter oil, salt and 1 teaspoon of the pepper in a bowl. Add potatoes and toss until well coated with the mixture. Place the potatoes in a shallow roasting pan and bake, uncovered, for 1 hour, turning occasionally.

Remove potatoes from the oven and allow them to cool. Then cut them into one-half-inch slices and place in a large bowl.

Place the garlic cloves in a small saucepan. Cover with water, bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain, allow to cool. Then peel.

Saute bacon in a heavy skillet until crisp. Transfer bacon to paper towels to drain, reserving the fat.

Add garlic cloves to bacon fat in the skillet and cook over low heat for 2 minutes. Remove with slotted spoon. Discard the fat.

Add red onion, parsley, remaining teaspoon of black pepper and the vinaigrette to the potatoes. Toss gently.

Add turkey, bacon and garlic cloves. Gently fold all ingredients together.

Arrange the arugula and watercress on a large serving platter and place the salad on top. Serve immediately.

On the Side: Cousins Maine Lobster

I have friends who aren't on Facebook. And I am told that young people have given up Facebook for other social media. If I were not on Facebook, I wouldn't know about Cousins Maine Lobster.

And when I found out that it would be at Tox, a brewery in New London I'd never heard of, I arrived around 5 p.m.

Cousins Maine Lobster is a food truck, it turns out, although it began as a restaurant in California. I stopped there on a cold November evening and ordered a lobster roll. The bar looks inviting but I ate the lobster roll in my car. While it is available cold with mayonnaise, I am a Connecticut girl, so I ordered it hot. The buttered roll was filled to the brim with the sweetest, juiciest, most gorgeous lobster I'd ever seen or tasted. And, at $17, it is a bargain.

If you want more than the roll, there is bisque, lobster grilled cheese, lobster tots and lobster quesadilla. How do you find it? Visit their website at cousinsmainelobster.com or their page on Facebook. It's often in Connecticut and Rhode Island. You will love it!

Lee White lives in Groton. She can be reached at leeawhite@aol.com.