Small Business Saturday

Are you ready for Thanksgiving??  I am.  Usually the Bradster and I go down to my son and daughter-in-law's for holidays but this year I'm cookin' because they are coming here.  Including what the Bradster and Miss PeggyRae are bringing we are gonna have a feast.

I've been taking a hint from my mom and trying to do as much ahead as possible.  Yesterday I made up my herb butter for the turkey.  I used fresh thyme and sage (from my garden), lemon zest, and lots of cracked pepper and salt.  I need it to be very flavorful because I'm gonna rub it all over the turkey before I put it in the cooking bag.

I hesitated to show this picture of my rolls because it shows how incredibly filthy my oven is due to melted cheese on toast.  My appliance guy told me that if I want my stove to last do not use the self-cleaning feature.  And, bless him, he said just scrape out the burned stuff and nothing else.  I've taken him at his word.  My KitchenAid stove is getting close to 25 years but sometimes the oven does let out a little smoke.

I had to try one of the rolls to make sure they were edible and they were.  This is a Parker House Roll recipe from my breadmaker book and it is a winner.  You just throw everything into the breadmaker, including an egg, and turn the thing on.  It mixes, kneads, and does the first rise for you.  You then take the beautiful dough and divide it up and make rolls.  It rises again until double in a warm place covered with a clean towel.  Then bake at 350 for about 20 minutes.  Another trick from Mom was to paint the hot tops with butter.

When totally cool I wrapped in heavy foil and froze them.  I take them out the morning of to thaw.  It just takes a few minutes in the oven while the turkey is being carved to heat them up.  Outstanding with gobs of butter.  It is Thanksgiving, after all.

I took advantage of the turkey deal at QFC and bought an 11 pounder.  It has been in my fridge since Sunday and is still rock hard.  According to the formula (for every 5 pounds, allow 24 hours) it should be thawed by this evening.  My old fridge (also pushing 25 years) runs pretty cold but I suspect that by Thursday I should have a thawed bird.

Okay - let's talk about Small Business Saturday.  Now you know that Miss MoneyPenny does not do Black Friday because it is just too crazy.  Back in the late 90s Miss MaggieMae and I almost got into a fist fight with some rotten teenagers who came in the wrong way and took our parking spot that we had been looking forever for.  I still can't believe that I didn't flatten their tires.

Anyway, I do support SBS.  My whole family has been about owning small businesses, including my son and both husbands.  I'm one of those people who believe that small business is the backbone of our economy and if you want to get tough and build character try opening a small business.  That being said I still love Costco.

One of the things that I'm gonna do on Saturday is get my hair cut and toes done at my local beauty shop.  From there I could stop by Chimacum Corners and pick up some local produce.  I could also stop at Hadlock Building Supply and Garden Center which is one of my very favorite stores.  Then I could grab a pizza from Ferino's on my way home.  To cap it off I could hit the 4:30 showing at The Rose of the new Stephen Hawking movie, The Theory of Everything.

So you can see how easy it is to support local small businesses.  And it is kind of neat that they know your name and greet you when you walk in.  You are not gonna get that at Target or Walmart.

I was watching Melissa d'Arabian yesterday and she had a good idea for using up turkey leftovers.  This is her recipe and I'm gonna give it a try:

Turkey Pad Thai

Recipe courtesy of Melissa d'Arabian

Turkey Pad Thai

Total Time:

15 min

Prep:

10 min

Cook:

5 min

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Yield:

4 servings

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 limes, 1 juiced and 1 cut into wedges for serving
• 1/4 cup fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoon sriracha hot sauce
• 1 1/2 cups shredded or cubed cooked turkey
• 8 ounces linguini, broken in half
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 eggs, slightly beaten
• 1 large carrot, grated
• 1/2 cup chopped peanuts
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
• 2 cups bean sprouts
• 3 scallions, cut into 3/4-inch pieces

Directions

To make the sauce: In a bowl, pour the boiling water over the brown sugar and stir to dissolve. Add the lime juice, fish sauce, rice vinegar, and sriracha and stir. Place the leftover turkey in the pad Thai sauce and let it absorb the flavors while prepping the rest of the dish. Next, prepare the pasta: cook the linguine one minute less than the manufacturer's directions. Drain, and set aside.
Heat the oil in a wok or large saute pan over high heat until very hot, almost smoking. Add the onions and stir fry 1 minute. Add the garlic and stir. Then add the eggs and cook for 30 seconds, stirring. Add the linguini and turkey with sauce and cook, stirring for a few minutes. Remove from heat and toss in grated carrot, peanuts, cilantro, bean sprouts and scallion. Serve with lime wedges, if desired.

Recipe courtesy Melissa d'Arabian