Some people, on a whim, will fix… French Toast for dinner. On a whim last week, I decided to fix a full out turkey meal, like the kind found on Thanksgiving day, for dinner sometime this week.
I bought the turkey last week and checked every day (after the first few, of course) to see if it was thawed. I rummaged through my collection of EveryDay With Rachael Rae magazines for my favorite turkey day recipes, November 2011. I had fixed the Kiss-of-lemon Roast Turkey (p. 127) a few years ago, and it was a big hit that Thanksgiving (It was me and my sister), along with the Classic Bread Stuffing With Sausage (p. 133), the Ruby Port Cranberry Jelly (which I personally did not like), and the Buttery Mashed Potatoes (p. 147). I fix those potatoes often. And it was those exact items I was craving!
Now, the first time I try a recipe, I follow it exact, if I like, I use it unchanged, if I don’t like it, I’ll note suggestions for next time.So there is a great deal of leeway when I make a meal. This time round, I could not find my zester, which was no big deal as last time I didn’t think the turkey had enough lemon flavor, this time, I had five lemons on hand. I have two left over, and I think it was the perfect amount of lemon flavor.
since I didn’t like the cranberry jelly last time, I stuck with the simplest recipe, which called for one cup of sugar and one cup of water and three cups of fresh cranberries. Yummy. I like it, but next time, I think I’ll add a few things to make seem a bit more complicated and unique.
The stuffing is my favorite! I’ll never change that. It is, in itself, a great anytime meal. I love it and will never change it intentionally. This time though, I made the mistake of not halving the ingredients. I didn’t even notice till after the sourdough bread was prepared and the sausage was all fried up. I kept looking at the recipe and saying really, “two large onions?”, it was when I was chopping those onion that I remembered, “oh yeah, last time I halved the recipe ahead of time…” Ooops.
The only change I make to the potatoes is, when I’m just fixing for me, I simply omit the cream, and don’t spend too much time mashing.
I did bake three loaves of bread the night before also, I was too tired by the time I cooked them, that I just thought, “screw it, I’m not going to let them rise any more”, and went ahead and baked them so I could go to bed. They turned out great, just not high of course. It was a new recipe, and next time I try it, I’ll ignore their destructions and follow my own tried and true and quick instructions, just with it’s ingredients.
Here are some pictures:
Doh! The pictures are on my phone because the battery for the camera was dead, and I don’t have a memory card for the phone because why would I ever use a telephone to take pictures?!!!
Well, here’s the Facebook picture I took after the battery charged while I was carving the turkey.
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