Have a wonderful and tasty Thanksgiving everyone.

In my fridge there is a 7.92# Shady Brook Farms turkey breast!  The first market I went to last evening had at least a dozen of them.  Much better than the year I had to go to 3 different stores to find one.

I always get the biggest one I can get my hands on, because the leftovers will NOT go to waste.  I like turkey, but don’t eat it a whole lot.  My brother LOVES turkey.  Last year he had 8 meals in a row of turkey sandwiches after Thanksgiving.  We’ll see if he can break the record this year.

As it stands, we will again have enough food for a small army, even though it’s just my brother & myself.  But I won’t have to cook for at least 3 days afterwards!

The cheese & sausage plate will be a meal in and of itself.  I’ve got summer sausage, hard pepperoni and…  There’s one other thing and I can’t remember what it is off the top of my head but it’s in the fridge.  For cheeses, we have good old sharp cheddar, pepper jack, salsa jack (never heard of it before, but it looked interesting,) smoked gouda and dill havarti.  I also have a roll of Salame Panino.  (Salame rolled in mozzarella!) It just looked really yummy.

Can’t wait!

First, Thanksgiving may be weighing too heavily on my mind – I could have sworn I heard a turkey in the neighborhood this morning.  And I don’t live in an area where we have wild turkeys wandering about.

I have just about everything I need for Turkey Day – except the Turkey, and today will kick off that quest.  I usually get a fresh* turkey breast, and it is always a little more challenging than I expect it to be.  You can’t buy it too far ahead of time, or you’ll have to freeze it, which kind of defeats the purpose of getting a fresh one, and if you wait too long, then they’re all gone.  And there have been years where one of the stores I shop at just never got them in!  (The poor butcher that I pestered several days in a row was as perplexed as I was – every day he was told they would be arriving and they never did.)

And I need to do a bit of rearranging of the fridge contents so it has a spot until Thursday morning.

Wish me luck!

*I don’t think that frozen is terrible or anything, I’ve just heard too many horror stories of the turkey refusing to defrost…

Apartment Therapy’s The Kitchn did a whole write up on the Turkey Day relish tray last week. I’ll be perfectly honest – I had NO idea this was such a big deal. Apparently there are all sorts of modern variations on the theme being employed across the country!

I really thought it was just one of those odd things my family did. We have a cut glass tray (no partitions) that holds the sweet pickles. (Yes, I have a brand new jar just for next week! Or until I break down and open it in the next couple days.) We also have a cut glass bowl that would old some seriously gawdawful California Black Olives. I never understood the draw on those, and once it was just my brother & I for Thanksgiving, that one went out the window.

But, the post has been rattling around in the back of my head all week, and I got to thinking… I have had olives that I really did like. Perhaps it’s time to hit one of the olive bars at the local markets and pick up a few olives that are actually edible! Maybe some pickled onions?

Perhaps this year we’ll bring a new tradition to the table.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!

This year, I’m teaching my brother how to handle the turkey breast. (Since it’s just me & him, no sense in a whole turkey.) Honestly, it couldn’t be easier and given that I actually don’t like turkey *that* much – he can cook it next year. :)

I do a salt/sugar (2:1) brine with some peppercorns thrown in. Give that a couple hours, rinse & pat dry. Slather in melted butter and rub in the spices that suit your fancy. McCormick has a “steakhouse grind” that I’ve used and liked on turkey, and I’ll likely go with that again. Roast at 325 until internal temp reaches 165 degrees. Let rest, carve and enjoy!

No fancy or exotic sides – my brother likes to have what we’ve always had since we were kids…which is box stuffing and instant mashed potatoes and crescent rolls. It’s not exactly gourmet, but it makes him happy. A *must* for me is the dish of sweet pickles.

We got a late start today, so by the time we eat, it very well could be midnight. But, in the meantime we’ve got Cheesy Ranch Bacon Dip (details after the jump) and some ready-made spinach dip under the “Simply Enjoy” brand. The spinach dip is kind of “eh” – it’s not seasoned very well, and there are some large chunks of *something* in it that wasn’t chopped up quite right. (Texture of water chestnuts, but who knows.)

We’re skipping dessert cause we need an entire pie in the house like we need a hole in the head. That, and my brother doesn’t actually like pumpkin pie. (I’m not sure we’re really related sometimes.)

Have a lovely day and may nothing burn and all the sides finish at the same time.

Cheesy Ranch Bacon Dip

1 pint sour cream
1 packet ranch dressing mix
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 to 1/2 cup bacon pieces. (Hormel’s bacon pieces work very well for this)

Mix it all up, let set up in the fridge for a bit and enjoy

Safeway has saved me again this year – much to my joy and shock. Most of the time they never seem to have what I need, but today they had their act together.

I refuse to believe that I have to do my holiday food shopping a month in advance, so I don’t. I needed a fresh turkey breast (it’s just me & my brother, a whole turkey would be insane) and it’s pointless to get one if it’s so far ahead of time that you have to freeze it anyway, and I don’t want to deal with the defrosting nightmare of a frozen one.

Giant hasn’t had fresh turkey breasts in stock any year I’ve tried to purchase one from them for the holiday. From talking with the butchers, they always order them, but they never seem to actually *get* them, or get near as many as they actually order. I know Wegman’s sells out in no time. But Safeway, every year, they have a good supply of them the weekend before the holiday, and I was able to pick up a nice 6 pounder with a sell-by of 11/24, so no need to do anything but keep it wrapped up in the fridge until brining time.

Yes, if I was smart, I’d pre-order one, but I never think of that far enough ahead of time.

The kicker of all this? I really don’t like turkey that much at all, and in my younger days, I’d threatened that if I was to make Thanksgiving dinner, it would be lasagna.