IT'S TURKEY WEEKEND!

 I have said it before and I will say it again, turkey is the most underappreciated underrated food.  I don't mean the turkey you get at the deli counter, I mean a real cooked turkey, like the one pictured below.  We should be eating this kind of turkey once a month or six times a year, it is that good.  Let me explain in detail:

THE MEAL: We were only three people(or four if you consider my appetite for turkey) and it was about 15 pounds.  The legs on this bird looked and tasted amazing.  I ate one leg first and helped out with the other one.  See this exciting picture below and I promise you that I really, really enjoyed it, look closely at my eyes.(they were not bigger than my stomach)

THE LINE-UP: One of the things that makes Turkey so special is everything surrounding it.  On Thanksgiving, frequently there is mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, maybe a carrot dish or a green bean dish or some other vegetables and corn.(no cob), and maybe another half dozen dishes depending on the number of people eating.  And, let's not forget the cranberry bread which is missing from this table, because we started eating it a few days earlier and still have some left. The turkey is your clean-up hitter, the Babe Ruth of the meal.  And, if you have a bunch of these things "hitting" your stomach before and after the turkey, it just makes turkey even better.

THE LEFT-OVERS: I love bones, but not the bone itself.  The meat that is on the bones is fabulous and there's a lot more than you think there is.  Friday for lunch I ate the carcass, but not the bones.  Here's a picture of what it looked like before it was trimmed.  It was a terrific lunch, but admittedly it is not a pretty sight to watch me rip apart the bones and gnaw at them.  A video of this could go viral and upset the whole family.

FRIDAY DINNER: There are plenty of things to choose from, all the side dishes are still in play.  With a lot of pieces of turkey left, I went with the big salad with lots of turkey thrown in.  I don't fool around with salad, I keep it simple.  The picture below has lettuce, some egg, some cheese, thousand island dressing and of course a bunch of turkey.

SATURDAY: I prepared a turkey sandwich to eat of the road with thousand island dressing.  If your turkey pieces are not big enough, press down on them into the bread or roll so it will be easier to eat.  If a piece falls out while you're eating it, go after it! Don't leave any piece of turkey uneaten, this is serious stuff.  The picture below shows my sandwich and the special snack I put together for the road.  I will try to eat the snack after lunch, but I'll be thinking about it.  Instead of grapes, throw some pieces of turkey in a baggie and pop them in your mouth, it's the perfect snack for driving. For dinner, I'll let the others nibble away since I won't be home in time.

SUNDAY: It's clean-up time, if anything is left.  I could go with another sandwich or turkey snack or even a turkey salad for dinner again.  If you do this right, all the sides are gone and the turkey is being finished. Why do we have to wait a whole year to do this again? The bottom line is that this was, "some good eatin' on a turkey weekend!