I went to
Publix (conveniently located downstairs, at street level, in my condo building) this morning for the Thanksgiving Shopping Trip, and it went well, resulting in an eclectic mix of homemade and store-bought delicacies for our Big Turkey Dinner tomorrow, for less than $100 (family of five and lots of leftovers planned). (I also bought spaghetti and sauce-in-a-jar, just in case anything goes horribly wrong.)
Purchases I have to admit to, because they are such deeply-ingrained holiday dinner traditions from my back-edge-of-poverty childhood on the West Coast (California & Washington State): Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry Sauce (Buy One Get One Free at Publix!) and Sunbeam Brown 'N Serve Flake Rolls (in the white paper tray, with the grooves on the top of the rolls). I don't even like cranberry sauce, or those damn rolls, especially much, but I couldn't NOT buy them. So there you go.
How cool is this?!
When I was checking out, having the whole holiday dinner conversation with two of my favorite Publix ladies, they either took pity on my sadly-deficient cooking skills (especially here in the Deep South), or there is some kind of special going on with the purchase of a frozen turkey, because they gave me a DVD:
PUBLIX - Where Shopping is a Pleasure
(Videos available online at
Publix.com or click the links below!)
And I watched it, here on my computer (less than 10 minutes -- very well-produced), because I don't know how to make Gravy, and I haven't yet found a good, basic recipe, much less with a video to show me how. The first two sections were interesting, too, although hubby does the carving (he'll have to watch it), and I like cooking the turkey in the
Reynolds Oven Bags (yet another throw-back), and it always comes out
perfect: brown, tender, moist & juicy --
yum. But I did learn how to properly stuff the turkey, how to take Tom's temperature and to flip the wing tips down under the turkey when roasting, so they don't get too brown.
I think I've got the
Perfect Turkey Gravy thing down, too, now, so we are good to go--
Gobble, Gobble!