Turkey

You may be thinking to yourself that this is way too late to be posting about Turkey...not so my friend. In fact, in my book, this is the perfect time to be posting about Turkey. I am the proud owner of 5 Fresh and Delicious Jennie-O Turkeys ranging in weight from 10 to 16 pounds and I didn't spend over $5.00 on each turkey.

See, I look at Black Friday differently than most girls. While they are busy trying to get into Macy's, Kohl's, or Target at an insane hour, I am trying to resist going into the grocery stores until they put the fresh turkeys on sale. The frozen turkeys they will let sit around until after Christmas (they are already frozen, why would they need to rush them out the door?), but the fresh turkeys (which the FDA or some other arbitrary regulation organization has mandated must stay above freezing temperatures) have a finite shelf life and thus need to be sold out the doors. So on Black Friday I went out and bought a lovely 16 pounder (her name was Shelly), brought her home, and got ready to roast.

I love turkey and I never seem to have enough leftovers to enjoy my extra sides and to make all of those wonderful turkey dishes that people talk about getting tired of. So I make an extra turkey for exactly that purpose.

I decided to cook Shelly on Sunday when Matt and Mac were resting...here is my method (which worked well for a neutral Turkey who was going to mainly be used in dishes). I think I have posted this before...but I am too tired to look!

Get out roasting pan, turn on over to 400 degrees. Take Shelly out of bag and rinse her off, removing gravy packet (I discarded) and leaving the neck in... While Shelly is draining from her bath, place a rough chopped onion, 4 or 5 whole carrots, and 4 or 5 whole stalks of celery in the bottom of the pan. Pat Shelly dry and place her on top of the veggies. Massage with oil and butter, sprinkle with seasonings of your choice (this time I used salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning). Throw in a beer or two. Roast in the oven for an hour, reduce heat to 325 and finish cooking until Shelly is about 160 degrees (just shy of 4 hours)...remember about carry over cooking. If Shelly was going to be used for eating alone I would have placed her breast down for that first hour, then flipped her over for the remaining part to help all the juices run into the white meat.



Shelly has since been turned into dinner with leftover sides, three turkey potpies (shredded meat, a bag of frozen mixed veggies, cream of chicken soup, and a pie crust) for the freezer, two two-person portions for the freezer, and boiled into a turkey base for soup also for the freezer.

Why the other turkeys you ask? I was at Kroger today and the turkeys kept looking at me like puppies asking me to take them home...so I took three home...then went back for something I forgot and picked up one more...

Three (Randolph, Lorenzo, and Ling-Ling) are in the deep freeze for later use.

Dmitri is in the fridge waiting to join a comrade in the smoker a friend is firing up this weekend...can anyone say smoked turkey quesadillas?!?!?

Best burgers in a loooong time

We had heard from a few friends to try Husky's for burgers. We had passed by the place several times as we have friends that live in the area. Last Tuesday when running errands we drove right by Husky's as we were trying to think of a place to stop and get lunch and decided to give it a whirl. Boy are we glad we did!

The place looks like a typical burger joint where you can grab a beer and watch the game...and it is totally that...plus some really incredible burgers! The customer service was good, the cashier didn't gab my head off, but was friendly, polite, and took care of our order. You have to take time to order too because the selection is impressive. At the top of the menu they have their standard burger choices- choose your bun (we got white sourdough which was a little sweeter than sourdough but still soft and freshly made), choose your meat (beef, Kobe beef, buffalo, veggie burger), choose your cheese, with a Fuddruckers style topping bar to the side of the window. At the bottom of the menu are their suggestions for add ons...we got the California burger...
You also choose your type of fries, you have to see the menu for all of the different combos.

Our food came out in a reasonable amount of time for a fresh burger and it is a huge amount. We gladly shared the 1/2 pound burger and fries. As I said the bun was soft and fresh and had the correct amount of "fall apart-ability" that I think is a great component of a good burger. The hamburger patty (we had buffalo) was tender, flavorful, and juicy, with only a little seasoning which was perfect for the type of burger we had. The toppings (avocado, mushrooms, mont jack cheese) were all copious in amount and the cheese melted perfectly over the burger to adhere all of the toppings to the top part of the burger. I will say that the avocado tasted "packaged", but that is my only complaint with the entire meal. Our fries were well seasoned and perfectly crisp. All in all this is a great place to just go and get a burger.

Scanning other people's plates, the salads and sandwiches offered also looked good and they had some delicious sounding desserts on their menu board. The restaurant was clean and while the price for a burger (about 9 bucks) might seem high, keep in mind that these were seemingly fresh ingredients and the meal included fries and a drink.

Would I suggest you go here? Yes. Will we be there again? Most enthusiastically yes. Am I on my way out the door? Sadly no...but that is only because we are trying to eat well and watch our dining out budget!