Time for Turkey

America's Thanksgiving holiday is just around the corner. I know it may seem daunting that this year of 'separate but together' we have to make our own things. Let's break it down into sections. 

One of the things to consider is that instead of having "all" of the sides that you would have at a large gathering, that you pick a few that you can eat that day,  and with leftovers. 

We usually travel to The Mike's family for Thanksgiving. We've already decided to stay home and safe for several reasons: we don't feel comfortable eating inside with the masks off in an intimate space, and we live in a county where the positivity rate is currently 26.4%. That's like an ultra marathon by numbers--and not a marathon I want to be a part of.  I also worked the election and while I had on my mask and face shield, I did help people do curbside voting who had tested positive for Covid.  

For a practice meal, I made a turkey breast, stuffing, and cranberry sauce. When I was growing up, mom would make turkey (or ham, whichever we had won at the Church's Turkey Bingo), mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing/dressing, and a butternut squash.  We would also have green beans, or sometimes (rarely) the green bean casserole. It turns out that while several of us like cream of mushroom soup, we don't actually like green bean casserole!  

Another tip is to make a list of what you want to make and serve, and the time it takes to cook, at what temperature, and if it needs to be cooled (pumpkin pie) or served warm. 

One thing that The Mike thought of a few years ago was to prep a lot of things the day before and just reheat on Thanksgiving day. Mashed potatoes or yams can go in a crockpot the day of to reheat.  Rolls can be baked ahead of time and put in the oven for just a few minutes to reheat/warm. 


First I purchased a single turkey breast from the grocer. (Sometimes in larger metro areas you can find half a bird and get the dark and white meat).  The local store has a brand that is just turkey, no additions that may be questionable with gluten or soy allergies. Best to call the packager to find out what they add to their turkeys. I've made these calls from the store before. Let people look and wonder what, but it also spreads awareness of what should be on the package, and that it's okay to ask these questions!  

I did a small amount of a brine for the turkey breast to help it keep in the juices. I used Alton Brown's version as it has worked well for us with a whole turkey before. When we have done a whole turkey, we used a new, well cleaned (before and after) insulated cooler for the turkey and brine..  I used a small kitchen container for this and submerged it. 

Salt, brown sugar, pepper, allspice, candied ginger. I used water instead of vegetable stock for this.
I let it soak for 15 hours in the refrigerator. 

The next day I got the rub ready to go:  sage, thyme, shallots, parlsey, pepper and salt. Since I was only doing a turkey breast, I used roughly a pinch of the seasonings.  

I used all dry because that's what realistically most people have on hand. Fresh is nice, not buying extra things at this time is nice too. 

After putting in a small container I ground together to break up the shallots and also mix the flavors together. If you don't have a mortar/pestle you can use the back of a spoon. 

Then I added a splash of olive oil and a Tablespoon of butter. 
If you need to make this dairy free, you can just use olive oil and not butter. 

Mixed together. 

Remove the turkey /breast from the brine and pat dry. The skin is already a little separated from the meat.  

Using your clean hands, spread the seasoning mixture under the skin of the turkey. 

I then set the turkey in a pan atop sliced onion, a cinnamon stick broken in half, and sliced apple. (best time to use that apple you forgot at the back of your fridge and that got a little wrinkled--I'm not the only one that has one of those, right?). 

Baked at 350F x 90 minutes. 

If you're going to make the dressing (recipe I will share in another post), that needs to bake for 30 minutes. Thus, 30 minutes before the turkey is to be done, place the stuffing/dressing in the oven. 

Put on a warm platter and then covered with foil to let rest for 10 minutes.  

Warm the plate with hot water before putting hot food on, to avoid 'crazing'/ cracking in the china. 

After removing the foil, you will see just a little bit of juice. This is because we brined, so the meat kept in the moisture instead of releasing a lot of moisture. This is good for a juicy turkey, but bad for wanting juices/drippings to make gravy. 

Served with stuffing/dressing and cranberry sauce. (which I will share in a separate post), and the appetizer snack of sliced bell peppers. 

**One thing that made me spazz out happened in 2012. Mom's last Thanksgiving.  It was a giant turkey: 22# [that my aunt had raised that year] was done before anyone expected it to be. Several of us chipped in, got out the crock pots we had all brought, and I carved the giant bird into sections. Each breast went in separate crockpots with some turkey broth, and the legs and thighs went into another crockpot with turkey broth. We were worried, but they were SO juicy. Maybe it was an organic/free range bird, or maybe it was the brine, or a combination of that and the crockpot with juices. My aunt had ordered the turkey chicks, but didn't get them sent to the processor when it was suggested, so all of the turkeys were much larger than expected.  

 

Winter race, not so bad!

Weekend race 1/20/2013
Entries for biking, running or skiing. This year skiing was canceled due to lack of snow. 

The winter race weekend turned out better than expected. The really  cold weather didn't appear until late on Sunday/early Monday (it was -5ºF Monday morning as we started the car!).  Sunday's weather for the races was a brisk 5ºF with a 10mph wind from the north/northwest.  For the cyclist, marathoners and ultramarathoners this might not have been a good thing. For the half marathoners, it was okay. 

Our course ran on an old railroad bed, now a limestone trail.  We were lucky in that there was limestone rocks/cliffs blocking the wind from us for most of the race. We had a few open areas to cross where the wind might have been horrible at the start of the race, but by the time we were to those points the weather wasn't bothering us as we were heated and just wanting to finish.  

I wish I had taken photos, but I didn't want to take my cell phone out at the start for pics and have trouble getting it back in the holder in the brisk weather.  There were a few moments in the race I thought about taking photos, but the desire to keep the hands covered overruled any desire to capture the photos. 

We had snow before Christmas and most of the snow is gone, having been melted by warmer weather. Saturday we experienced highs near the 50ºF mark. Obviously this was going to be a big change to Sunday's 5º!  The center of the trail changed from being ice packed to being run bare by snowmobile machines. 

At the start, the volunteer said the buses would wait twenty minutes if any of us decided to give up on the race. Turns out the first mile and a half had very little trail showing and were mostly ice covered with up to four inches of opaque stuff on the trail.  Some of us might have wished to turn around, but we'd have to tell our loved ones we bailed on the race, and, since they were out doing the longer distance bike race, we couldn't fathom doing that.

The ice covered path gave way to the center being clear, or the sides being clear, but never was the whole width clear at the same time.  The tree that last year (on a sunny day) held two bald eagles only had their nest visible this year. Even they weren't interested in the cold weather.   

I discovered that running on packed snow is still easy--the dimples in the snow crust covering allow some traction.  I discovered that when running on terrain as this that I don't pick up my legs and instead do a shuffle--which has made for the quads hurting more than I've had in a while.  

I also discovered that even deer like to walk on the snow.  I assume they made their tracks Friday night or Saturday sometime.  For quite a ways on the trail in the snow packed right side, there were many deer tracks frozen into the snow. Again, thought about taking a photo, but was more concerned with the hands staying covered. 

Photo of race conditions.
This is a  good section of trail, since the center is covered in ice.

I started out wearing my Mizuno breath thermal shirt, topped with an UnderArmour short sleeve t-shirt and my brand new Saucony wind protection jacket (I know, not suppose to wear new gear during a race, but this was needed!)  

New jacket--it's a periwinkle blue/purple

For my head, I wore my balaclava and then a wool buff, as well as taking along my Smartwool ear band.  About an hour into the I took off the balaclava and used just the ear band part on my ears/forehead and then my wool buff as a neck gaiter and I would bring that up to cover my head when I got into the breezy sections.  It worked out well and with my iFitness belt I was able to hook the balaclava onto it for keeping.

I wore two Nike pants, one fuzzy lined tights and one of the heavy and thick winter running pants. I acquired these after a winter race in 2011.

My hands normally get quite warm when I run. I start out wearing gloves and then tuck the palm down and have just the fingers covered, I usually take the gloves off after half an hour.  This time, I wasn't able to do that. I started out with a thin cotton pair of Nike's covered with a freebie pair I got at a race.  After half an hour, I put the freebie pair in the pockets and ran with just the thin Nikes. This worked until about mile 8 or so when I realized the fingers of the gloves were just soaking wet; however, they weren't frozen due to my fingers' heat!  I switched gloves to the freebie pair and finished with those.  The wind pretty much went through them, so I put my hands into fists inside the gloves and ran with the fingertips just flopping all over. I thought that'd probably look pretty hilarious to a bypasser! 

All in all, it was a better than expected race. I knew the muscles would remember how to work and that even though I hadn't run in a few weeks, that the fitness I had would still be there in some form.  I came in 15 minutes or so slower than last year, but considering everything, I thought I did a good job.  (and it's hard to run on ice!)

The Mike finished right on the dot at 5pm.  He had anticipated "around 5pm" for his finish.  Tired and hungry, he got some of the after-race hot wings and then a double bacon cheeseburger with fries I ordered from the hotel's restaurant (that thing was HUGE and no, he was not able to finish the burger).  

1/22/2013 dinner:   

Quick salad -mixed greens, shaved carrot, blue cheese crumbles, tomatoes and 
quick balsamic vinegar salad dressing

Cranberry salsa and curried turkey breasts with baked potato

Core of the recipe is from The 150 Healthiest 15-Minute Recipes on Earth by Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., and Jeannette Bessinger, C.H.H.C 

*Disclaimer 1: I picked this cookbook up at yoga last year, and this is the first month I'm actually using it.  *Disclaimer 2: I tweaked the recipe, so I didn't quite follow the recipe precisely. I am listing what I did and then what I left out and the directions are my own. 

Ingredients: 

2T Honey Mustard (I didn't use)

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp allspice

1 T orange zest (I didn't use)

salt/pepper to taste

1 boneless skinless turkey tenderloin (2 pounds or 900g) 

      (I used turkey breasts from the grocery store, two per package, I'm not sure of the weight, but it would have been two very large chicken breasts in size.  I think it would have been about one thanksgiving turkey breast total)

Salsa: 

2 c (200g) fresh cranberries (or 1 bag 8ounce frozen, unsweetened, thawed).  I used half a bag of fresh

1 large navel orange, peeled & halved

1 small jalapeno, stemmed, roughly chopped, optional (I used half a small can of diced chilies) 

1/4 cup (85g) raw honey, or to taste 

Directions (mine) 

Preheat oven to 400ºF. I put 1/2 T of olive oil in the bottom of a roasting pan, then added the turkey breasts. I mixed the turkey seasoning in a small bowl (cumin, curry, allspice, salt/pepper) and rubbed it on the turkey breasts. I covered the pan in foil, then put the lid on the pan and baked for 40 minutes.  (Turkey should registere 160ºF.  I took the pan out of the oven, uncovered the turkey and let it rest while prepping the salad. 

While the turkey was in the oven, in a food processor mix the "salsa" ingredients. I pulsed until pretty much just small pieces were visible.  Slice or shred the turkey, serve the salsa on the side.