Boy was the turkey good! We had a fresh one. Still a store bought Butterball, but fresh instead of frozen. To us there is just a whole different flavor, and they are always tender and juicy.
I’m not sure when we first discovered the fresh way, but it has been multiple years ago, more than that I think. This year, since we are a small family, we bought the smallest one we could find in the cooler at the store. It wasn’t much bigger than a chicken or hen, however chickens and hens these days are massive compared to the ones we used to sell at the A&P.
Funny thing, though, Saturday after Thanksgiving I dropped into the store, during the rain, to pick up a few — after holiday and back to work — necessities and there in the same box where that little bitty Butterball had hung out remained the great-big- giant, really high priced fresh birds that no one wanted, or could afford the week before Thanksgiving.
They were clearance priced, and the use-by date was still two days away. So, yep, now we have a big ole giant freshly frozen, fresh turkey in our freezer for what, I’m not sure, but we do like turkey and it was certainly delicious this year, and a bargain.
We skipped dessert all together Thanksgiving, something I dare say we have never done before in our lives, but pies and cakes and the like are just too much nowadays. As much as we try and cut back on the calories, if it is in the house we are going to eat it, and had already eaten that turkey...and that pan of dressing...and the candied sweet potatoes...and the English peas...and oh yeah rolls and mashed potatoes too!
The mashed potatoes, though, were a catastrophe all to themselves. I guess I whooped ‘em too long. Typically I like the mashed potatoes just mashed — and lumpy — but this year decided to get fancy with the mashing and used one of those little hand mixer things. Don’t do it or you will get Silly Puddy. I could hardly swallow that suff, but my wife, daughter, and dad choked it all down with a smile.
Note to self: stick with the hand mashing and leave the whooping to the professionals!
I won’t go into detail on what happened to the dressing but suffice it to say all the “best dressing” hype around the house for the weeks leading up to the big day, were nearly dashed by the lack of the addition of a couple of eggs to the unbaked batter, (a lot was going on) but in the end a little convection oven magic was performed and the taste was still perfect.
Texture....well!
In the end it was all good. Our small gathering of four were all full and the dog got a snack or two out of the deal as well.
We did backslide a bit and made some Gingerbread cookies to nibble on while watching the Egg Bowl and being Bulldog grads we enjoyed our cookies and the game. At least at the very end we enjoyed the game.
That dog, though, my daughter’s dog, Lady, the one that enjoyed a bite or two of fresh turkey, fresh from the oven, turned one year old on Thanksgiving Day and wife Danny baked her a dog cake — completely cleared by the Internet for dog consumption.
She decorated it with Milkbones, yogurt and peanut butter icing, and a single candle and Lady ate the whole thing while we nibbled on those Gingerbread men. Danny said it tasted like a Nutterbutter.
We also decorated the house for Christmas and slipped down to my daughter’s apartment and helped her with a few decorating items as well before taking her out for dinner on the town Friday night. That was fun!
A text from the same daughter on Sunday was a bit startling. Seems a tube of Gorilla glue left on her counter during the Christmas decorating process had been discovered in the middle of the night Saturday by the same now one year old puppy and at this writing on Monday, I think they were still Googling how to get Gorilla Glue off a dog, out of a young woman’s hair, and off the bed linens that the young woman shares with the dog.
It was quite the eventful holiday for which we are still giving thanks.
I “thank!”
