Saturday, November 25, 2017

Day 249 Happy Thanksgiving-Turkey in a bag-stress free



I stress about making Thanksgiving dinner every year because I am not that good of  a cook (see Day 243).   Thanksgiving is one of my least favorite holidays because cooking the dinner is not a “ labor of love” for this girl but a stress bomb. I also think it’s highly unfair that during this holiday women slave all day cooking (I know that some men  carve or  help by deep frying the turkey) but mostly men get to relax, eat dinner, and watch football.  This year instead of making  numerous calls to my girlfriend, who takes on the role as my “turkey line,” I decided to make it stress free by trying a freezer to oven turkey in a bag.



Reflection
With my son  coming home from college for a few days I did not want to spend my  precious  limited time with him and time with my aging parents, in the kitchen.  Now our family is not one to go out for dinner because we like to chill at home and love those left overs. Remember I don’t cook so left overs are my best friend.  Ordering the dinner to go is another option but my family enjoys the smell of a cooking turkey  and I have a little  of that “I can do it all” pride inside of me.


A friend who knows my yearly dilemma told me that TARGET 's   food section has  a turkey that is fully seasoned and goes frozen to the oven.  I think I heard angels singing when she told me that.  Yes no thawing, no cleaning, no figuring out what seasoning to use, yes no worrying about it being dry because it’s in a bag, and no basting-stress free!

This was the best move that  I ever made. I was able to go away the weekend before Thanksgiving, come home and take my mom to a show and even spend time with my son at a hockey game the night before Thanksgiving and I still pulled it off.


 It was so easy. In four and a half hours I had a brown, moist  and tasty turkey (moister  than my prior years).  In fact, if you did not know my secret you would have thought that  I was Martha Stewart  herself.  This is the best trick in the book. My house smelled good, we relaxed around the table, I managed to get  all the food out at the same time (another thing that I stress about) but most importantly, I had more time with my family.



Thank you Thank you Archer Farms for my first stress free Thanksgiving. This year everyone’s complements were not just because of  my efforts but because of  the taste.

Spiritual Source
Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him: bless his name.  (Psalm 100:4)