thanksgiving prep, part 1

Good morning! I've taken off a day from the gym so that I can finishing prepping my dinner. The turkey breast which I purchased earlier in the month and have defrosted, was rubbed this morning with Williams-Sonoma Quick Brine. Although this product retails for $16.95, I picked it up after the holidays for $2.99. This brine is rubbed on the turkey for at least 24 hours, no need for a water bath.

From www.epicurious.com, I am preparing roast turkey with maple herb butter and gravy. Luckily the herbs in my garden are still looking good. I have plenty of thyme, which this recipe calls for. I have my Delicious Orchards apple cider, maple syrup, marjoram and lemon peel, which are the primary ingredients. For the gravy, I'm making it simple. I'm using Williams-Sonoma's turkey gravy base. This is another item I picked up on sale. 

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For a side dish, I'm preparing Amanda Hesser's, Brussels sprouts with pancetta. I purchased a 4 ounce container of diced pancetta at Wegmans for $4.49. Ingredients that you'll need, that may not be in your pantry, include thyme, extra virgin olive oil, shallots, balsamic vinegar and rich chicken broth. I'm going to use my chicken stock concentrate that I purchased from Williams-Sonoma. The type I have has been reworked into Williams-Sonoma organic chicken stock concentrate.

My sweet potatoes were made on Monday. I prepared a recipe that I picked up at Delicious Orchards many years ago, sweet potato casserole with pecans....yum!

Still to come Great Grandma Freid's dressing for turkey. If you want to give this recipe a try basic ingredients to have are a loaf or two of bread, onions, small potatoes, eggs and butter. I do swap out half of the butter for chicken stock to reduce the fat intake. More to come today!