Every year, after the turkey eating holidays, Vince will buy a couple of turkeys on sale. I prefer smallish to medium turkeys. Vince wants the biggest one he can find.
I knew we had a turkey and a turkey breast in the freezer and I wanted to cook the turkey today so we can have it for lunch and then have the breast meat for a lettuce wrap this week. Towards the end of last week, I asked Vince if he knew where a turkey breast in the freezers. He said “There’s a turkey in the fridge freezer in the cat room”, which is also known as the sewing room!
When I went to get it, I could hardly pick it up. I would have sworn it was 40 pounds . . but only 21.44 pounds. I’m not even sure that’s right because that is one huge turkey.
I get so frustrated at him for buying those big birds. They’re hard for me to handle, I have to get something larger than my big roasting pan to accommodate a bird that size. So, I told him . . I only want to cook the breasts. I do not want to deal with a giant turkey.
Then, I calmed down and decided to cook the thighs and legs, pull the meat off the bone, chop it for Rita’s food instead of using ground turkey. I’ll just freeze all that in one pound packages and save a bit of $$ over paying close to $4 per pound for ground turkey.
Once the meat is done, I’ll take it out, then add salt, onions, carrots, bay leaves, etc. to the broth and cook it a little more and make our turkey bone soup, which unfortunately, has carbs/pasta but I’m not letting a whole pot of turkey broth go to waste and I don’t want to put it in the freezer.
The breasts are huge. Are you getting how much I dislike a HUGE turkey?
I’m not sure what we’ll do with all this meat. I may have to change my entire menu plan for the week and have turkey. I thought about subbing it for the chicken in the wraps but I think they need the chicken to be raw and then browned. I’ll figure something out.
One of the breasts I just seasoned, then covered it loosely with foil and stuck it in the oven.
The other one, I stuck several pieces of rosemary in it, then put it on top of a pretty thick bed of rosemary, covered it loosely and stuck it in the oven.
So, we’re fixing to have a heck of a lot of turkey! One thing I may do is put some of the meat in some of the broth and freeze that. I could make turkey and dumplings or turkey and cornbread dressing . . when I’m ready to consume a lot of carbs!
I’m off to search for recipes where I can use some of this meat . . and all I wanted was one little turkey breast to roast! 🙂
Valerie Zagami says
Sorry but had to laugh at the turkey size! Men are men and forget you do not feed 10 people every time you want turkey!!
annie says
What is it about guys and size? If I send my dh to buy something he always gets the largest of anything available, it is so frustrating! There’s just the two of us, we don’t eat much and dislike leftovers. Grrr!
Chris Jensen says
Does your grocery store offer meat cutting. I always purchase a large turkey and have it cut in half, it saves money and there is more than enough with each half. My store offers this service free.
dezertsuz says
I don’t even like turkey enough to have a small one often, but when I do, it’s just the breast. I hope Vince had to cut that booger up for you!
Nelle Coursey says
Men tend to do that when they shop. Pat always asks me why I don’t buy cheaper bacon. The dogs and I are the only ones that eat it most of the time. I showed him the package of the cheaper brand and it was only 12 ounces. The one I usually buy, which was less than a dollar more, was a pound. Plus the cheaper brand was all fat and we sure don’t need that!
Diane in CA says
Can you freeze dry some of it? In fact, you haven’t mentioned freeze drying in a while, are you still doing it?
Karen says
So many memories – when Mom & Dad were alive they always provided Thanksgiving turkey – Mom wanted a fresh turkey so she’d order one and I’d go pick it up. I think Dad’s mission was to find the biggest bird available! One year the dang thing weighed 25 pounds. Getting it in and out of the oven required two men and a crane!
Judy H says
When my kids were young, I bought a lot of extra turkeys during Thanksgiving season. I would often buy as many as 10 – and all 20 lbs or more. I could cook one and feed us well for most of a month. When I got a meat grinder,, I started grinding up the meat for burgers and such. Anything that called for ground beef or chicken was converted to turkey. I have several recipes that I look forward to after Thanksgiving now. Turkey and spinach enchiladas is probably my favorite. I use the bones to make a broth and can it, too. No part of the turkeys went to waste. I even saved turkey necks until we had enough to cook for rice and gravy. Sorry, but I’m with Vince on this one. The way I see it, if I’m going to fight with a turkey, it may as well be worth my while.