When I was younger, Thanksgiving was great for two things: mashed potatoes and stuffing.  Turkey?  Eh.  This was back in the days when brining was unheard of, and invariably, I found turkey to be dry and pretty awful, and useful for not much more than a delivery system for more gravy.

Oh what a difference a new cooking technique can make.  I really adore roasted turkey now – thank you brining!!  I don’t really make it outside the holidays, and I really should.  It’s not terribly expensive, it’s pretty healthy, and oh yes, I like it.

Leftovers aren’t an issue either.  I don’t have any recipes that take turkey, because I don’t need them.  My brother makes sandwiches, and I just eat it straight out of the fridge.  I may go nuts later this evening and fry up a couple pieces of bacon and make myself a club sandwich.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to whoever it was out there that informed me of this wonderful thing called brining.

We do a turkey breast and carve it in the kitchen and bring the goodies out on a platter to the table.  And it always makes a mess, even though I let the turkey rest, there’s still turkey juice going everywhere as I cut it up.

I had a flash yesterday.  (Doesn’t happen often!)  I have baking sheets that have a lip on them that is about 3/4″ high.  I have a cutting board big enough for the turkey breast that still fits within the baking sheet.  Result: The turkey juice that runs off the cutting board is caught by the baking sheet instead of running all over the kitchen counters!

After carving about 1/2 of it (that was more than enough for dinner and a couple midnight sandwiches) I took the remainder and just put the entire thing in one of those GIANT Ziploc bags to put in the fridge.  That way, I can carve the rest of it today when it is cold (and easier to cut up – I don’t know about anyone else, but I have trouble with the meat shredding when I cut it when it’s just out of the oven) and it was one less thing to need to do last night when I was in a turkey food coma.

And I’m trying to figure out what on earth to do about dinner.  I don’t want to make anything that will result in leftovers, and I really don’t want to have any pots or pans to clean up, because I’ll have plenty of those tomorrow.

I have the makings for a salad, but it doesn’t sound terribly satisfying at the moment.  There are a few frozen things in the freezer I could microwave, but none of them are screaming, “This is REALLY what you want!”

If I’d been smart, I’d have ordered Chinese last night. :)

Another good argument for proper meal planning.

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!