UPDATE for Thanksgiving Eve
(If you didn’t read yesterday’s post, just scroll down)
Am I the only one who forgot ONE INGREDIENT and had to go to the store again today (or do without)?
I started the day making the herbed olive oil. Just chopped the fresh oregano, rosemary, thyme and sage … wait, where’s the sage? Oh §h!≠ nuts, I forgot the fresh sage. I can make this with dried, right?
Next I decided to make the turkey brine. We only have a 3 lb breast, so I used our largest stock pot on the stove - 3 cups water to start, peppercorns, sprigs of the above herbs sans oregano and add bay leaf. Minced garlic. Dash of dried sage, and dissolved four tablespoons of kosher salt. Then, the apple cider I had bought the other day. Now, I wasn’t going to buy this one, but at the BJs where I was shopping they only had cinnamon apple cider and caramel apple cider in the quart size - I did not want a whole gallon. I didn’t want cinnamon, so I thought “I’ll try the caramel” and when I added a big splash in, I sniffed and said “Whoa, I am NOT adding in the brown sugar”. In a good way. Added extra water to cover the breast enough, and set it aside with the lid on it.
Off to the store! I went to a larger Publix this time, still didn’t see any canned pumpkin in the displays, still didn’t ask about it. Picked up my fresh sage and hit the Hot Wing bar, and got outta there pretty quickly. There were five or six people ahead of me in the self-service lane, but like me had only one or a few items each. I did, however, see a number of people with carts full to the brim (some overflowing), so … there’s all different kinds of people out there!
I went to this Publix because it was on the way to the KFC, where I picked up our dinner for tonight and the mashed potatoes and gravy for tomorrow. Yes. I went to the Hot Wing bar and then KFC. Don’t judge me!
It was definitely busier than usual, so I would recommend if you don’t have to go out on Thanksgiving Eve, don’t. But if you do, pack your patience.
Once home, I cut some of that sage into the brine and roasted a couple of heads of garlic in the air fryer.
Later, I made the Orange Ginger Cranberries but put in too much water so they’ll taste great but be more sauce-y than berry-y.
So now, only things left to do today:
- Peel and cut carrot, parsnips, sweet potato and turnip (those beautiful babies in the headline picture).
- Make the Hot Honey Garlic Butter (for carrot) and Maple Sage Butter (for Sweet Potato)
- Make the crepe batter
- Make the Maple Pumpkin Creme Cheese to fill the crepes
After all this, I think I might take a nip of the Wild Turkey before bed tonight.
It’s only one more sleep to Thanksgiving everybody!
** *** ** *** ** ORIGINAL POST for Thanksgiving Eve Day Eve ** *** ** *** **
I love Thanksgiving, and while busy as most, enjoy the planning that goes into it.
Had a strange experience today while shopping and thought I‘d share, and ask if anyone else has experienced anything like same.
Thanksgiving Eve Day Eve is traditionally when I shop for all the fresh produce for the meal from a local store than has better produce prices and generally better selection, especially for South Florida/Caribbean produce like plantains and sour oranges. It is next to a Dollar Store, so I popped in there to pick up cheap air fresheners and see if they still had the Key Lime Pie slices at a good price, which they did.
As I had forgotten to pick up the canned pumpkin the day before, I also looked to see if they had that. Found an aisle-end display with Thanksgiving Day staples — Yams (lots of yams), chicken and beef broth, Stove Top stuffing mix, but no pumpkin. I didn’t worry about it, it was just a dollar store and so I bought my other items and headed to the larger market next door.
Their Thanksgiving Day staples were displayed right near the front, and after scanning a bit, my eyes found, among many cans of yams, about six cans of pumpkin.
But alas, they were the large cans (29oz I think?), and since all I needed was 2/3 cup for my maple pumpkin cream cheese, I passed. After all, I was going to Publix next, and surely they would have canned pumpkin.
Now, granted, our local Publix is amongst the tiniest Publixs that exists. But still, when I went around the Thanksgiving staples display, there were tons of cans of yams, the marshmallows, broth, stuffing mixes, jars of gravy, fried onions, green beans, cream soups, a whole separate display for condensed milk and the ingredients you need to make stuff you make with condensed milk, but I could find no pumpkin.
I tried the canned vegetable aisle, and could not find pumpkin.
I started to look discretely into other customers’ carts to see if they had canned pumpkin, with the idea that I would then ask them “Where did you get that?”
Did I ask an associate? No, I did not. I could have, I know. But I decided to go pick up my parsnips first.
The veggie market had all the other fruits and vegetables I wanted including a beautiful turnip, pictured above, but no parsnips. I was afraid the parsnips would be tiny, but I was pleasantly surprised the bagged turnips were pretty large, the largest of which is also pictured above.
But while I was in the produce section of the world’s tiniest Publix, I spotted this beauty:
Apparently this is a Pie Pumpkin. It was 3 pounds and advertised as on sale for 99¢ a pound (50¢/lb off, which, since it was from Canada, seemed pretty amazing).
So, instead of just asking someone where the canned pumpkin was, I bought this.
I went home, took the picture of my bounty, put all the food into the fridge, and ran to the computer to google “How to make homemade pumpkin puree”.
Turns out you roast it like an acorn squash basically, so you get this:
Anyway, that’s how I spent part of my Thanksgiving Eve Day Eve, by roasting a pie pumpkin. For 2/3 cup puree. Instead of asking someone where the canned pumpkin is.
Has anyone else experienced difficulty in finding canned pumpkin this year? Has anybody else felt that stores are really trying to push the yams? Let me know in the comments below.
Have great T-Day Eve Day, and T-Day Eve tomorrow!
