Butterball’s Turkey University was my first cooking class. Oh sure, I’ve gone to those fancy demo classes, the kind where you wear pretty shoes and bring wine and sit at a table with your girlfriends pretending you’re paying attention while the chef talks about how to make ten dishes with chocolate in them, but honestly, those aren’t cooking classes.

Butterball University was a Cooking Class. They gave us an apron and a turkey and a roasting pan and we COOKED.

Scary! Except it wasn’t, it was fun, and that was due entirely to the women who taught our class.

Marty Van Ness and Carol Miller (and a plastic turkey, of course).

Marty Van Ness is a Turkey Talk-Line supervisor; she joined the Butterball Turkey Talk-Line in 1993 and has been giving up her Thanksgiving mornings to help befuddled cooks ever since.  Like most of the Talk-Line experts, Marty has a degree in Home Economics. She  is warm and funny and smart, and to say that she knows turkey is an understatement.  Marty knows turkey, and she is able to convince you that you know turkey, too, which is a real talent.

After you cook the turkey, you have to CARVE it.  Who knew?!?

Marty clearly enjoys working on the Talk-Line.  “I love to help the callers with their questions. It’s great when you can help them make a great tasting Butterball Turkey. I guess I like the ‘problem solving’ aspect.”  Her favorite tip is “always use a meat thermometer.”  During our Butterball University class, someone asked if there was anything specific she was supposed to say when she answered the Talk-Line phones.  Oh sure, Marty said, you want to get the words Butterball Turkey Talk-Line in there — but then she added, “And at the end of the call, I like to say, ‘Have a HAPPY Thanksgiving!”  And you could tell that she meant it.

On Thanksgiving day, Marty will be at Butterball headquarters in Naperville, IL, answering Talk-Line questions and talking to the media — so who’s cooking Thanksgiving dinner?  “My husband roasts a stuffed Butterball turkey, makes a sweet potato casserole from scratch with a recipe he looked up online (I never made one before), makes his family’s favorite strawberry jello dish, and cooks Brussell sprouts. I make the gravy, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie.”  If I get snowed in that day, I’m going home with Marty.

Marty models a vintage Butterball Talk-Line apron.

I asked Marty what her favorite thing to cook was (other than turkey, of course).  Marty has some seasonal favorites: in the fall and winter, she makes Beef Bourguignon (beef stew with red wine) and split pea soup; in the summer, she whips up Asian marinated pork tenderloin (on the grill) with Yakitori plum sauce  and “a fab Asian salad (takes 3 days to make — great dressing and a little heat — yummmmm).”  On second thought, I wonder if Marty would let me move in?

When she’s not talking turkey, Marty plays bridge.

Marty and I will be teaming up for a live web chat on November 25, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm CST. You can find more details at Butterball.com — we hope you will join us!

This post is one in a series sponsored by Butterball, as part of my job as a Turkey Talk-Line blogger.