The Turkey Test

 I'm now getting up at 3:30 since the time has changed BACK one hour.  Really, it's my usual 4:30, meaning there's not a soul in sight and it's quiet as a mouse ... or a skunk as the case was for so long.  

 I expect them back any day now, but every time I check the game camera, there is nothing.  This time only six videos of not a flicker of movement.  I'm getting tired of this game ... are they there ... are they not.  Oh well, c'est la vie!

Today's adventure involved the turkey test.  Remember those two I picked up for $20?  I have to admit I wanted the Butterball turkey ... they are always amazing ... but I opted for the lesser expensive Valchris Farms.  That Butterball was priced at $70.00 ... for a TURKEY!!  I've never heard of Valchris before and now I wish I hadn't. 

Making a turkey dinner when you don't have anything but the turkey is a challenge, but I just kept telling myself this was Cooper's dinner, not mine.  My plan was to cook it beautifully (as practice for Thanksgiving), keep a few slices for myself and chop up the rest to freeze for the finicky critter I call my Best Bud.

In my defense, I haven't even turned that big oven on since last Thanksgiving.  I always use my little Breville for cooking everything.  It took a couple of tries to figure out HOW to turn it on.

I prepared the turkey with just a little butter and stuck it in the oven.  While it was cooking, I set about baking the snowballs cookies (or Russian Tea Cakes or Mexican Wedding Cakes) I whipped up the day before.  These are probably one of my all time favorite cookies.  Eating just ONE for desert is SO much better than eating a huge piece of spoon pie with whipped cream.

By the way, I'm down to one can of whipped cream, having used up one entire can in about a week.  Yes I tried it on the cookies but it just fell off on the floor.  Jessie (my mini mop) LOVED it!!

At long last it was time for the turkey to come out of the oven.  WOW!!  I even impressed myself!  This is the best looking turkey I think I have ever cooked!  Now to scrounge up something to make it LOOK like an early Thanksgiving dinner for me.

Gravy was the easy part.  Stuffing, a little harder to cut up bread, toast it and stir into a chopped up onion I stole from my OTHER dinner packages, along with a cube of butter.  No potatoes, but I did have some old broccoli I resurrected along with a can of cranberry sauce about to expire. 

Unfortunately as I sat down to eat, I discovered the turkey test was a failure.  Never EVER buy one of those turkeys.  Although it was well cooked and didn't taste TOO bad, every so often I would get a little piece of fat that tasted as rancid as could be.  

How could that happen?  It was frozen when I bought it and I thawed it in the fridge, washing it completely before putting it in the roaster.  It was still a little icy when I prepared it for the oven.

No matter I guess, because the puppies thought it was the best I've ever cooked.  They begged for pieces for an hour.  Maybe Cooper will end up with TWO turkeys for Thanksgiving this year and I'll have chicken. 

 

 

Since there no longer seems to be any critters in my back yard (thank goodness, but I'm not counting my chickens just yet), I wandered off to the local Game Refuge in search of the elusive blue herons.  Every year 200,000 flock to our area where dinner is served free of charge.  It's an amazing sight to see.

Unfortunately I was almost too late.  Pictures tomorrow.  In the meantime, meet Sneaky Pete.  These guys are fat as little piggies since they eat the same thing as the birds.  If you stop and actually look, you will see dozens of them in their frozen stance because if they don't move, you can't see them.  Sort of.

About those meals I've been getting from Every Plate.  The entire box of vegetables and meat is fresher than I can get in my local store and of much better quality.  They deliver on whatever date you want.  

Yes I would certainly order more, but many include pasta which isn't on my list of stomach approved items.  You can skip any week you want and change the delivery address too.  Although a tad cheaper than Hello Fresh, I do like Hello Fresh's recipes better, and so will probably return to that program.