It's Turkey Time! Don't Mess Up!

We spoke to Angie Hicks, the creator of Angie's List. She has some important tips for avoiding a disaster in the kitchen on Thanksgiving Day.

According to Angie, "It's really important to prepare ahead of time if you're going to be cooking for Thanksgiving. The last thing you want is the turkey not getting properly cooked or not coming out cooked on time.

" One thing you can do ahead of time is to check your oven. Don't wait until the day or two before Thanksgiving to worry about whether it's operating properly.

" There is a great way to check whether the temperature is set accurately, so if you think your temperature is at 350 degrees it could be only heating to 325 degrees. That's going to add to the time it takes to cook your turkey.

" So an easy way to test that is to bake a cake. Bake a cake in your oven. Follow the directions perfectly so you can see how long it's going to take for that cake to come out right. Then you can adjust your time accordingly or get the oven fixed.

" It's always a good suggestion to keep your oven clean. A lot of us tend to forget about that. Really the only recourse we think about is the smell that might create. But another thing to think about is it's not going to work as well. The heating element won't work as well if it's dirty so it's important to clean it.

" It's so close to Thanksgiving that I would advise you not run the self-cleaning option on your oven. What happens a lot of times is people run it and running it at that high a heat, causes the oven to fail. You don't want to be calling a service repairman out and if you're doing it the night before, that's a bad idea.

"When you're cooking for Thanksgiving you need to have a plan in place, you need to know what you're going to do and you need to know exactly the timing of items going into the oven.

"Also think about alternative ways to cook items, for example if you can cook some things in your microwave that certainly is going to free up space in the oven. Some people find they run out of space in their oven to cook all the dishes they might want to make.

"On Thanksgiving Day make sure you keep people from peeking inside that oven to see how things are cooking. What happens is every time that oven door opens you're letting heat out and the oven's not keeping it's set temperature."

Just following a few simple suggestions could make a big difference in your Thanksgiving Day festivities.

For more information: www.angieslist.com or read Angie's blog at www.angiehicksblog.com.