Saturday, November 24, 2012

Thanksgiving Mechanics

So, I posted about the things I'm thankful for, but I utterly failed to mention the FOOD.  What kind of Thanksgiving post doesn't talk eats?

We had two turkeys.  Hubby really wanted a deep fried turkey from Popeye's.  I was iffy--it's Cajun spiced, deep fried, and I wasn't sure I'd like it, so we got a small turkey for me for Thursday, had the Cajun deep fried turkey on Friday.

Thursday's feast included roasted butternut squash and sweet potato with herbs, corn, tatties and neeps and swedes (our first attempt--too sweet, thinking more tatties and less swedes and neeps), regular mashed with red potatoes and Kerry butter, carrots, baby portobella mushrooms, scratch biscuits, and stuffing made with andouille sausage, mushrooms, celery, onion, and walnuts.  The stuffing was actually made with low carb bread--we bought the loaf, dried it out ourselves for the stuffing.  The gravy was made with fat-free, low sodium turkey broth with xanthan gum instead of corn starch or flour for thickening.  Again, that's a blood sugar/carbs thing.  I had only one spoonful of the mashed, two forkloads of the tatties and neeps, and only a couple of bites of stuffing.  In fact, I loaded up on the carrots, mushrooms, sweet potatoes, and butternut.  They were incredibly tasty!  The turkey, of which I had a nice slice, was incredibly moist.  Very flavorful!

Dessert was homemade cherry crumble made in small souffle/ramekin dishes.  While the cherry filling was low sugar, the crumble was a full-bore mix of white sugar, brown sugar, bleached flour, cinnamon, and Kerry butter.  Why?  Because we've tried this with stevia, Splenda, saccharine.  We've tried it with spelt, quinoa, whole oat, whole wheat, and various other flours.  We've tried it with low-calorie margarines.  Never did we get a nice, crumbly, tasty topping.  Thanksgiving comes once a year.  I was determined to enjoy what I was eating instead of making excuses for it.

Friday's feast with the Cajun deep fried turkey?  Onion rings, Cajun fries, and scratch biscuits.  Only had two onion rings, but I confess I ate a bumpillion Cajun fries (also from Popeye's).  Pumpkin pie for dessert (yeah, store-bought, what can I say?).  And the Cajun deep fried turkey?  Wasn't bad.  Hubby adored it, son didn't eat much, and I thought it was okay.  Hubby wished it was more spiced, I was wishing for less.  It was certainly moist enough, though I found the texture a little mushy--had it not been prefried and then baked for almost two hours, I'd have said it had just the slightest "underdone" texture.  It didn't look it, and the temp was right, but it just had a slightly mooshy feel.  No doubt Hubby will want it again next year, and I guess I'm okay with that.  Not thrilled, but okay.  Gonna miss my "real" turkey, though.  Yes, he'll make both, but wow, what a waste, cash-wise.  Of course, the price of just the Cajun is pretty hard to swallow.

Thinking about Christmas dinner.  We usually have nice steaks-rib eyes or filets, but this year the Husbandly unit is pushing for Beef Wellington, homemade.  Not sure how the mushroom-hating boy is going to deal with that, and I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't go that way.  We only have Christmas dinner once a year--why intentionally choose a food we can be pretty confident our kid's going to hate?  For dessert, I'm thinking a Black Forest-type cake made with Chambord-soaked blackberries and homemade whipped cream.  And either a lemon meringue or a homemade apple crumble.  Not sure yet.

Dinner tonight?  Leftover turkey on low carb bread with low carb gravy, a splotch of stuffing, plus mashed and carrots, butternut, and sweet potato.  I really do love leftover Thanksgiving!

1 comment:

  1. You are right. Thanksgiving and Christmas come only once a year, and each only last a few days of leftover meals. I know I'll weigh in tomorrow, but I won't feel bad if I put on a few pounds. I'll give myself a week of careful eating before I get worried about it. Yesterday the gang went out for lunch after a gentle walk. I passed on eating and just had a cup of coffee determined that the calories I would have consumed at lunch could be better enjoyed as a slice of pumpkin pie when we got home. Premeditated calorie consumption!

    But now the pie is gone, the left over turkey has been frozen for soup in a couple of weeks, and the family has gone home.

    I did an extra 40 minutes on the treadmill this afternoon.

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