I am only making a couple of things, since I will be having dinner with my cat. I'm making an herb roasted turkey breast (fresh herbs, onions, lemon, olive oil). The recipe gives instructions on making an apple brandy gravy, but since I don't eat gravy I'm not making it. Then I'm making a roasted sweet potato salad (fresh herbs, green pumpkin seeds, olive oil, dried cranberries, spices and stuff). No stuffing as I cannot control myself and the only kind I really like is sort of a pain to make. Dessert will be honeydew melon, if I want some. I took the turkey breast out of the freezer this morning and stuck it in the fridge. Hopefully it will be defrosted by Thursday. Then the leftover fun will begin. I can't wait for that. If I get inspired, I might make a black bean salad or something.
I don't cook a whole meal, I just provide one dish at our family dinner, so I'm out of the game that day. The menu was decided over a month ago. I'm making a Cooking Light recipe for Snickers Cheesecake, lol. I'm also making a winter squash recipe, though I've not decided which. I found a butternut squash and cheese dish on the epicurious site that had great reviews and sounded different. Then I found a recipe in a Living Fit magazine for a sweet potato, kale, ricotta dish that is baked in a phyllo crust.
Needless to say, we don't follow a diet at the Barnett Thanksgiving dinner, lol. But we do restrict portion sizes, never get seconds, and leftovers are forced on the scrawnier of the bunch
But seriously, next year I'm gonna be more prepared and I would like to cook ahead of times lots of veggie dishes and maybe a veggie sort of stuffing like I saw on the low carb show the other day.
I still want to try Linda's Pumpkin Chili mmmmmmmmmm !!!!!!!!
I ended up cooking after all. Actually, we are not celebrating Thanksgiving until Sunday, because our parents have been out of town. I had not planned to do anything on the actual day, but lay around and watch tv. My son wanted to do something, so I threw together an impromptu meal of turkey breast, stuffing, sweet potatoes, deviled eggs, fresh cranberry sauce, and rolls. Nothing green, nothing particularly healthy, lol, just what my son asked for. I picked up a pie at the bakery. Everything was good, except the cranberry sauce. It tasted like potpourri I packed up everything that was leftover and sent it home with him.
Linda, how did your sweet potato salad turn out? It sounds SO good!
I never cook my turkey the day before but wednesday I said ah let me cook it so I don't have the mess on thursday, wouldn't you know I took it out after 4 hours of cooking and it was RAW!!! Our oven is on the fritz too. It took 8 hours to cook that bird and it was not stuffed. I just thank God I didn't cook it Thursday b/c we wouldn't have eaten until late that night and we were originally scheduled to eat at 12:30 pm (inlaws are old and need to be home b/4 dark which is 5 pm here). So wednesday night all my food was cooked and Thursday I just heated it up. We only have 2 burners working on top of the stove as well. Its a GE extra large oven stove, got it 9 years ago and all I have to say is I'll never get another one, what a rip off.
One thing I will do next year again is cook EVERYTHING the day b/4 because it made thursday so nice, I just heated everything and had little dishes, so the day was enjoyable.
BTW when you reheat turkey the next day make sure you save some turkey juice, put the turkey in a baking pan, pour the juice over it and cover it tight with foil, this will keep the moisture in and the juice will make the turkey tender. With the foil on it, re-heat for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. No one would ever know. Using the juice even on fresh turkey is the key to moistness.
Linda how did your sweet tater salad turn out....??? drooling mouths wanna know.
Pass the double mochas, pretty please? The old bod is *****in' about getting up today.
I passed on the early morning sales this morning. Not only am I unemployed and poor but I actually have most of my shopping done and really didn't see anything that would drag me out of be at 5am thankyouverymuch! The only shopping today will be normal grocery shopping.
The salad came out really well. I was very pleased. The only caveat I would give is the balsamic vinegar. I happen to love the taste. Some people may not like it as much as I do. I would say go easy on the dressing because it's easy to add more but ya can't take it out if there is too much. I'll post the recipe in the recipe section after I submit this one. I made a herb roasted turkey breast, which I'll also post in the recipe section. It really was wonderful. My house smelled like fresh sage, fresh bay and fresh parsley.
Suzanne, so ya got conned into cooking huh? Sounds like a pretty fancy meal to throw together. Kudos for you for being able to do that at the last minute. Inquiring minds do want to know how you knew this tasted like potpourri anyway. Leenie Beanie, it sounds like Santa needs to bring you a new stove for Christmas. It is awful how things don't last anymore, but they just don't. How was that cheesecake anyway?
I haven't had breakfast yet, it's just 7:30 here and nothing sounds good. The house smells like a turkey hangover today and the smell on the second day when you are still full it NOT appetizing. I did pretty good yesterday. Kept the salad eating to one good sized serving, ate scads of white turkey breast, no skin as it makes me feel green and no dessert.
Well I had better go post those recipes before I start getting emails to hurry it up. Have a great day and don't spend all your money.
I cooked but it was a really easy day. Frozen broccoli in cheese sauce. Corn for the non-green eaters, my guys did some of the shopping and brought home betty crocker garlic and herb mashies(instant but really good, I had never tried before, beats the **** out of peeling ) Crescent rolls, baked some yams(they are just perfect as is) They love stove stop cornbread stuffing. (doesn't get much easier than that) So now that you've seen what my guys ask for, you can see why I never was much of cook. Never had to.
Now, for you experienced "real" cooks. I saved the dripping from the turkey(oh yeah, they also love Boston Market turkey gravy I don't cook, I heat )
I refridgerated the drippings and scooped off the white fat at the top and was left with amber looking jelly...ugh but I figured it must be like stock? I also took the left over carcus yesterday and boiled it down and took all the meat off the bones. I refridgerated that stock but it's cloudier. I don't know what to do with this stuff. I figured maybe pot pie or soup. Maybe I can freeze for later use. I really suck at this stuff and my Betty Crocker cook book isnt' helping. I even did a google search and everything for leftovers is for the meat. Nothing about stock. HELP! PLEASE!
I'm glad everyone enjoyed the day and hope everyone has a great weekend.
PS hey Leenie, I am not a big fan of the new GE products. I had replaced the old GE appliances a few yrs after I bought this house. they were all like 25 yrs or older and the only reason I replaced them is because the were an awful color and were not energy efficient. Well the new GE appliances were horrible and I'm already replacing them. But that unfortunately is the way things are made now. Everything is disposable. To expensive to fix and a very short life span. (unless you pay the big bucks for the top brands like viking or bosch) I just bought a Bosch dishwasher, I've been thru 2 GE and a kenmore.
Time will tell.
Gee wish I could help you with the stock, I think what I would do is just make soup, throw in some veggies and maybe barley.
The only thing I like about the GE oven is its HUGE inside and the other day we went out looking at TV's for DH and I went over to the oven/frig section to browz, not one oven had a large oven We bought a temperature gage thingy today to check the oven out, I'm hoping it was a one time thing but I seriously doubt it.
Well my outside Christmas decorations are up, my tiny tree is up (its tiny b/c my living room is wall to wall toys and there's no room for my BIGUNS Tree ) maybe in a few years lol. Our stockings are up and thats about it. Girls are fun to buy for.
Location: On the road in our travel trailer! Ask me sometime!
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I know this is an old thread but I had to post a solution to your stock problem! I LOVE homemade stock and it fits into my Med diet so well! I keep all leftover poultry bones, veggie ends, etc in a bag in the freezer till I have enough then I boil it all until I get a nice tasty stock. Then I strain it to get all the bones, etc out. Then to store it I pour it into muffin pans and freeze them. I take them out of the pans, put them in ziplock freezer bags and Voila! Instant pre=portioned stock in the freezer to use! I think they make like 1/2 a cup portions, I can't remember right now. I make poultry broth, veggie broth and beef broth and keep them labelled in the freezer. No more buying cartons of broth at the store and dealing with the high sodium counts!
Weekly Chat - November 21st - 27th
I'm making an herb roasted turkey breast (fresh herbs, onions, lemon, olive oil). The recipe gives instructions on making an apple brandy gravy, but since I don't eat gravy I'm not making it. Then I'm making a roasted sweet potato salad (fresh herbs, green pumpkin seeds, olive oil, dried cranberries, spices and stuff). No stuffing as I cannot control myself and the only kind I really like is sort of a pain to make. Dessert will be honeydew melon, if I want some. I took the turkey breast out of the freezer this morning and stuck it in the fridge. Hopefully it will be defrosted by Thursday. 
Then the leftover fun will begin. I can't wait for that. If I get inspired, I might make a black bean salad or something.
I packed up everything that was leftover and sent it home with him. 
Sleeping Beauty reporting in.. HA
The old bod is *****in' about getting up today.
but I actually have most of my shopping done and really didn't see anything that would drag me out of be at 5am thankyouverymuch! The only shopping today will be normal grocery shopping.
I'll post the recipe in the recipe section after I submit this one. I made a herb roasted turkey breast, which I'll also post in the recipe section. It really was wonderful. My house smelled like fresh sage, fresh bay and fresh parsley.
) maybe in a few years lol. Our stockings are up and thats about it. Girls are fun to buy for.
