Make breadcrumbs out of old bread (hard, not mouldy). Chop shallots, as many as you want, melt them in a frying pan a bit and add them in. Add in , thyme, salt, pepper. Normally I also tear up some fresh sage too but I'm not sure that goes with lamb. I add a slug of olive oil to moisten it - you can use butter - and water or a light stock. Put it all in some kind of ovenproof dish and cook it alongside food for the last 30 mins.

Have no stuffing rather than use a packet.

Meat thermometer. Especially with a turkey. I's a fine line between dried-out crap and salmonella.

I do like lamb a lot though. Rosemary & garlic. I have seem a recipe that involves inserting anchovies (I reckon freeze them first to make insertion easier), but Mrs. H. is not a fishy person so I've never tried it.

I must practise my gravy. I'm not very good at it either. People will forgive you for packet gravy at Winterval.

I'm English, and as such I crave disappointment. - Bill Bailey

Rather unfortunately, though, no one else in the immediate family likes it. A Greek friend of mine just clued me in to a lamb recipe that involves slow cooking it on the grill. I may try this regardless of the opinions of the rest of the family.

The holiday meals I miss the most are the ones that would take place on my dad's side of the family when his mother was still alive. Coming from a family of small game hunters, the table was always set with an overabundance of various meats: squirrel, wild turkey, pheasant, rabbit and, when someone got lucky lucky, venison.

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There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.
Cicero, The Republic

First, make a roux. Equal parts oil (butter, or olive oil) and flour.  Heat oil, stir in flour.  After about 30 seconds the flour taste is gone.  As the flour cooks it loses it's thickening ability, but gains a nutty 'cooked' flavor. 

Assuming a basic white roux, 2 tbs roux will thicken up about a cup of liquid.  Slowly add hot liquid to warm (not hot, else you get steam explosions) roux, stirring frantically. 

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}

If you brine a chicken (only needs 1 hour) or turkey (needs about 6 hours), you can overcook it and nobody will know because it will still be juicy as hell.

World's Best Stuffing:

1 lb bacon, chopped into 1/4 inch strips
6 medium onions, sliced thin
1 tsp salt
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup fresh parsley leaves, chopped fine
3 Tablesspoons sage leaves, shopped
12 cups dried French bread (1 lb loaf chopped)
1 cup chicken stock
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
butter

cook bacon.  drain all but 3 tablespoons of grease.  cook onions and 1/4 tsp salt in bacon grease.  cook until deep golden brown.  add apples and cook 5 more minutes.  mix eggs and stock.  toss all remaining ingredients in a large bowl and pour egg and stock mixture over them.  put in oven-safe dish, pat with butter to taste, bake at 350 F for 30 mins or so.

clock and i discovered if you pour scrambled eggs over the leftover stuffing and bake again, it makes an awesome breakfast strata.

<burppphhh>

The Czar of Accounting. No Nit Too Small To Pick

for Dad and me.  1 duck is enough for 2, with some leftovers for the next day. Usually enough leftovers for soup.

It's not at all greasy if cooked properly. 

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}

Let the roasting dish cool, and scrape off the fat that hardens into a white layer above the meat juices (for lamb only as it's usually too fatty otherwise).  Doesn't matter if you don't get it all - it's delicious tasty fat and I often leave about a third in the dish.

Pour some wine in (about half a cupful, red for red meat, white for chicken and turkey) and a pint of water, then put the roasting tin on a low heat on your hob.  Scrape the crunchy bits off the bottom of the pan, you might have to keep doing this as some bits can be stubborn to get off.

When all of the juice and fat has melted and the gravy is simmering, stir in plain flour (slowly or it'll go lumpy) with a whisk until the gravy is thickened - as it cools it will get thicker so judge the flour accordingly.

Nothing to add to the method per se, but if you have vegetarians, you might try a miso gravy. I've been meaning to try one as I'm all veggie now, but haven't (I don't exactly cook a lot of foods that require a gravy, except mashed potatoes, which I'm generally fine with just butter).

"There will be time, there will be time / To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet." -- Eliot

I'm a cheat, but I get good flavour to my gravy by pouring off some of the meat fat into a decent pan (I have heretical views on this front) and making a brown roux in that, that is, one where I cook the flour until nutty coloured, then add liquid to stop it cooking before adding the juices from the roasting pan, and then deglazing the pan into the gravy.

So, I agree with everyone else, except I say really cook the flour in fat before you add wet things.

I (well, really some helpful dude on YouTube) give you:

Part One
Part Two

Steam 'em and suddenly find yourself enlightened: "Wow, these fuckers can have flavour!"

And make stuffing. You can get bread crumbs for stuffing packaged at the store, but don't but a packaged mix. I'll see if I can dig up and post the awesome stuffing recipe msrat found a few years ago. N.B. it's best with turkey.

RE Gravy: Use the drippings from your roast, of course, and remove all fat from the drippings before cooking down and adding flour.
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There is absolutely no correlation or causation amongst intelligence, power, talent and wealth.
Kha-Nyou