Thanksgiving is one week from today, and while many of us will be hitting the road to mooch dinner at someone else's house, at least a few of you are probably planning to stay home. And possibly cook. Maybe even a turkey.

Scary!

If roasting a bird is on your schedule for next Thursday, you need to get a move on today. Don't worry, you don't have to do anything hard, but you do need to start thawing the turkey, if the one you have is frozen. Take it out of the freezer, put it in a shallow pan (to catch any incidental juices that might leak) and stick it back in your refrigerator. And just leave it there -- the whole thing will be defrosted and ready to roast next Thursday morning.

The trickiest part of cooking a turkey is keeping it safe -- if you leave it out on the counter (or in the trunk of your car or on the back porch or ANY place that is more than 40 degrees) bacteria will start to grow and you will be celebrating Thanksgiving in the emergency room instead of in front of a football game. But keep the turkey in your fridge in it's original wrapping until you're ready to roast and you'll be fine.

Need more turkey help? Visit Butterball.com, or call the Butterball Turkey Talk Line at 1-800-BUTTERBALL, weekdays from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm CST.