I have approximately 4,137 screen snips from youtube videos of how to take the temperature of the turkey… I’m still not feeling 100% confident LOL.
Years ago, I just did the roasting whatever way my mother had told me to. Then I moved on to various internet recipes, some better, some worse, but I never really kept track. Lots of low and slow. This year we are just doing straight up 325 degrees.
It’s just the two of us today, so H is roasting a turkey breast. I take care of the sides. Tonight we’re trying some booze-filled chocolates that I ordered to test as potential Christmas gifts. That appealed more than pumpkin pie.
We’ve spent the day pulling out the Christmas decorations and deciding what to do before older GD comes tomorrow. We’ll only have her here three more days before Christmas, and that’s if she doesn’t get sick again. We hope to have her help decorate the tree next weekend, which she will probably repeat on her next visits. During the week we’ll have to protect the tree from her little sister. The Step2 Christmas tree is already set up for the little one.
Slight turkey emergency. A while ago, I had placed a dial thermometer in the back of the oven and it reads over 400. Oven is set to 325. My thermopro continuous probe is out of whack or I’d place it in the oven. (I have a separate instant read one that works, for the turkey.) Turkey has been in about an hour and a half. Suddenly browning super crispy on leg (all that butter!), so I tented it per the recipe instructions. But, now I need to alter due to high oven temp. I turned it off to let it come down. Help, what do I do? I haven’t checked the turkey’s temp yet because that would seem too soon. Put it down to 250 until cooked?
Good news, breast temp is only at 140. I want it to cook for another hour and a half…
With oven temp set at 250, the thermometer I had added in the back of the oven says 300. It’s sitting on the floor of the oven, if that matters.
We just got home from a lovely Thanksgiving dinner at Flemings. No fuss, no muss, and the food was delicious, and service outstanding. We both agreed that this is a nice way to celebrate this holiday when there are just the two of us.
Dinner from Whole Foods was good as always. They do a great job.
How did everyone’s dinners turn out? Anything especially good or especially…not good?
We had a major snafu. My niece (she is 47 and has done the Thanksgiving planning and turkey for years) was cooking the turkey. 19 pounder. Apparently something was wrong with the turkey thermometer as she pulled it out when it SAID it was to the right temperature. She always lets it set on the counter for a bit as is often recommended. To be honest, because we were eating a little later than usual it probably sat out more than typical. Our first clue should have been when we went to get the drippings for gravy - there was not much! Then when my brother started to carve….oops, that turkey was NOT done. The legs were SO not done. They took a little of the outside meat and microwaved it but I - and many others just passed on that! And the turkey was was headed for the trash. Too uncooked, out on the counter too long, NO WAY! I felt bad for her but for some reason at the last minute the day before my brother decided to also get a small ham so there was a main protein on the table! And honestly, who needs the turkey anyway!
Especially good was a wonderful salad my SIL made. Greens, beets, tomatoes, burrata, pine nuts and a good balsamic. I don’t know it just really hit the spot along with the other typical hot sides!
We were at my niece’s and mostly gathering on their patio. I brought along some bugzing bracelets because my friend’s H invented them and they’re highly effective at warding off mosquitoes. My niece said she had no mosquitoes but lo & behold the mosquitoes found my other niece and my sister and they were all grateful that once they put the bugzing on, no more bites!
I just send a text to the inventor and he was very enthusiastic! It’s always nice to know your product is appreciated. My niece whose S always gets bitten was wondering how to buy more bracelets—I think I’ll give her and her kids a few for Christmas!
I can relate! My turkey refused to thaw last year & ended up being tossed. This year, I got a fresh Kosher turkey at Trader Joe’s, and it turned out perfectly. I bought a loaf of stuffing bread at Great Harvest. It had the vegetables & seasonings baked in - all I had to do was cut it into cubes, toast it in the oven, add butter & chicken broth, and bake. I kept it warm in a crock pot. It was easy & really tasty. We had dinner at D’s, with her, SIL, GD & S. It was a very nice dinner, and afterwards, GD (4 in a month) entertained us with lyrical dance to Taylor Swift’s Love Story … GD is a little choreographer! All in all, it was a nice, laidback holiday.
We went to a resort on Mission Bay for a plated three course mid-afternoon meal. We sat outside right above the beach - outside was nearly empty but our server said they were booked up for later in the day. Food was decent but not stellar. We both agreed we didn’t regret going but likely would not repeat.
The nice part was that they had a live entertainer with a lovely voice accompanying herself on guitar. Husband said, lots of Eagles songs. I sang along quietly with to an Elvis ballad. We politely applauded after each song. When she took a break, she stopped by to thank us.
The not nice part was the 5% service fee and 19.5% automatic gratuity (yes, they were mentioned on the web site) and the $6 coffees. Our two $90 meals ended up at $300. Ambience was lovely but not that lovely!
I did two things differently this year - I bought a 16Lb frozen butterball turkey (7 of us) and I started defrosting 10 days in advance. Probably the first turkey I’ve cooked that wasn’t still a little frosty deep inside, and I’m sure made a difference!
And then I cooked the day before. I think because I was not rushing it came out perfectly cooked and gorgeous. I let it cool and then carved into big pieces - the two breasts and two leg thigh quarters. I put it in a tin baking dish with a little broth on the bottom, sprinkled some of the drippings on top and covered with foil. Warmed up the next day while the sides were cooking and it was great! All we had to do was slice the breasts & put on a pretty platter.
You don’t get to do the Norman Rockwell table presentation of the whole bird, but my husband is vegetarian and doesn’t like to carve at the table. You don’t get crispy turkey skin day 2, but the turkey was moist and flavorful. Also, I ate the crispy skin on my own the night before - all for me!
It was nice to not have to deal with the carcass Thanksgiving day. I was able to make gravy the night before.
Made this the nicest, most relaxed Thanksgiving I’ve ever had - even better than when I ordered from Whole Foods.
I roasted two turkey breasts on Wednesday and a whole turkey on Thursday. The made the day before breasts were perfect. It was so much easier than dealing with two turkeys on the day of. I used olive oil instead of butter so the dairy allergy family member could enjoy the turkey too. There was no noticeable difference between olive oil and butter.
The weather was beautiful and we were able to eat outside.(17 plus several toddlers)
I love it but it’s a lot of work both before and after.
My daughter made a turkey breast. She bought this stick of kerrygold butter with garlic and herbs. Smeared it on top, butterflied the breast and cooked. That’s all. The breast came out really well and the butter added a nice flavor to the skin
https://www.walmart.com/ip/105061724?sid=999c372b-23de-4457-9710-56e69ff5dd55
We had snow! I don’t think I paid much attention to anything else going on (kidding) as I just stared out the window. A lot. All of the food turned out well, and it was wonderful having S/DIL and our BFs around our table–the farmhouse table DH bought two years ago for the screen porch that hasn’t been built yet and has been sitting unassembled in his workshop area ever since. He and S brought it up and put the legs on. It looked beautiful and gave us ample room. (We used paper plates/napkins this year because we don’t have a dishwasher/disposal at the cabin and needed to make this easy. Yes, I am as appalled as you are.)
All in all, a great day, but S/DIL are leaving this morning, so I’m trying not to feel let down.
I feel very proud of myself, ha. I looked up how to make soup using the turkey carcass, and actually did it! I sampled it last night and it’s pretty good. We’ll have it for lunch today. 
I invested in a new meat thermometer this year, a digital one. The built in popper on the turkey breast popped when the meat was only 150. So I kept in in the oven until the thermometer read over 165.
Yeah, we were missing a sick granddaughter and her mom. : (
Ooh, ooh where can I get those?
Zingdevices dot com is the website. You can order these prototypes and make a donation. EPA approval is still pending and who knows when that will be but I have been using his products for over a decade and they have kept me free of mosquito bites, even when those around me are getting bitten. The inventor gave them as favors at several weddings we attended where there were a lot of mosquitoes and no one (including babies present) got bitten.
I hope your Thanksgiving went as well as the wedding for you and the family. I’m always happy to hear about reconciliations that work out well.
Hi and thanks for asking! Yes, it was a wonderful happy day! Honestly, the only times I really missed my sister were holidays. So it was good. I think she’d like to be together more, but every 3-4 months would be fine for me. It was heartwarming to see our kids together. Married, a baby. A good day.
