Dedicated to Molly 3

Are you the kind of Thanksgiving cook who just bring some sliced white turkey breast to the table, or do you present the whole beautiful bird in all its golden splendor, adorned with parsley and maybe cranberries or grape clusters?

When I was doing this I went out and looked for grapes at the store. I thought small clusters of red, green, dark purple grapes would look good nestled in the parsley..plus, you and your guests can nibble on them while you are carving the turkey...I only bought dark purple, the other ones were too expensive...but it would have looked so much better with 3 kinds of grapes. On this picture, there are some loose cranberries in with the dark grapes.

At the end of the day, if you serve this, your kids will know they just had a real authentic Thanksgiving!

Dedicated to Molly 2

Taking a peak in the oven ...almost done. The little pop up thing is up...but I give it more time anyway, just to make sure. Besides, the alloted time is not up yet.
MMMmmmmm.....!!!!!!! Now isn't thismore fun than a boring turkey breast. How are your kids going to know if they prefer a wing, a drumstick, some breast meat, or some really nice tender dark thigh meat??? Kids gotta learn this!

Dedicated to Molly 1

When I heard that Molly is planning to serve just a turkey breast for Thanksgiving, I gave her a little pep talk on how kids need to really think it is Thanksgiving and you do that by bringing the big golden bird to the table for all to see. Afraid of carving it? It is easy...go look on the Internet for instructions. I think it is cool when the dad at the head of the table carves it.

Now here is my story. I bought a turkey that weighed 15 1/2 pounds last Friday and paid $4.03 for it...a Norbest turkey. (Go to norbest.com) I let it that in its wrapper in the fridge for 4 days. I took it out and put it in a clean sink, and unwrapped it, rinsed it, patted it dry with paper towels, preheated my oven to 325 degrees and lowered the rack.(all these instructions were written on the turkey bag itself). I then prepard some carrots, onions and celery to put inside the cavity. I took the giblets (I always throw out the neck) and put them in a pie tin to bake (for the dogs). This is all so easy to do.

Baking a turkey is easier than making scrabbled eggs!

I put it in the oven and didnt' look at it for 2 1nd 1/2 hours. I used a glass 10 x 14 oblong, and when i checked the turkey, the juices were bubbling away almost to the top! So I used a measuring cup and scooped out half of the juices into a bowl. This juice/broth can be used for gravy. By the way, I used no slat at all...did not salt the bird, not even in the cavity. I did not slather the bird with butter.

You can see from the picture that thebird turned nice and golden..I did not even tent it with foil at the beginning like the instructions on the wrapping said to do.

SO...To Review:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Rinse and pat dry thawed bird
after removing neck and giblets from cavity.
3. Put some chopped carots, celery
and 2 onion halves in bird cavity
(we do this for a nicer smell when it is baking)
4. Put bird in pan (tie legs together with dental floss)and place in oven.
5. Check on it after a few hours and
scoop out any excees liquid so it doesn't overflow.

On the package it tells how many hours for how much bird.
My 15 pound turkey took 4 1/4 hours.

The fun part of Thanksgiving is have kids wander into the kitchen and take a peek in the oven as it gets more and more golden!!!!

Rachel's Recipe:Chipotle Smashed Yams

This is from my sister who really is a great "foodie". I tried the recipe and found that I have to modify it in the future to maybe 1/4 teaspoon sauce...and not any of the chopped chilis. This recipe was "out of orbit" hot for me and John. Wait. I just realized I did not put any butter in it..I wonder if that would have cut the heat a bit. Good things I have some more yams in the cupboard. I will do a re-make!

"Chipotle smashed yams"

Of course I can handle a lot more of the sauce and peppers..
but this is the basic.. it is so good.
2 large yams..peeled, cubed, cooked
2 tablespoons butter
cut up one chipotle pepper from can
use a tablespoon sauce from can
little salt
mash all together while yams are hot.. yummy..

Cote d'Or Dark Chocolate

I was at BigLots the other day and saw these dark chocolate bars for sale for $1.00 each.
This is for 3.52 oz. of 86% cocoa solid chocolate ! Other bars of different brand names average $1.99 to $2.99 or more for this much dark chocolate.
The expiration date was 1/24/09 so I bought just one so I could open it and see it and find out if it was already starting to go bad. It was perfect. (By the way, if you have some chocolate slightly old -it'll have some white streaks and will be crumbly) you can melt it and make nut clusters or just plain chocolate drops...they turn out nice and dark and fresh looking after they cool.)

John and I prefer this dark chocolate, as well as the Lindt 85%. The Ghirardelli 60% cocoa chocolate is too sweet for us now.
During this time of Thanksgiving, I am very thankful for chocolate!
By the way, I went back and bought 7 more! Gotta have a chocolate stash, you know!

The Secret of Life

At the end of the movie "Last Holiday", Gerard Depardieu asks Queeen Latifah, "Do you know what the secret of life is?" "What?" "Butter"

Individually Wrapped Prunes!

Now what will they think of next?! These will be easy to grab and throw in your purse on the way out the door so you can have a nutritious snack when you get the "munchies". I discovered these on the Internet...I have not yet seen them in stores. I wonder how much they cost. I wonder if the wrapping will give them more clout...and if kids will be more likely to eat them, since it is fun to unwrap your little treasure.