thanksgiving...thoughts in random form.

i guess the older i become random notifications are more apparent and things i've never noticed before appear:

growing up we had the semi-typical thanksgiving dinner:
turkey (sometimes grandmacita adds in a ham), mashed potatoes, some form of broccoli (depending on the new recipes my aunt discovers), cinnamon roll bread (i'm sure there is a more scientific name for it but it has cinnamon swirls in it and is tasty), stuffing (with and without sausage - we hit the motherload on stuffing because there are 2 kinds!), salad, rice & beans, sometimes egg rolls or noodles (depending on how much time my mom has that week/day), and some other veggies depending on newly discovered recipes. so overall, everyone should be JEALOUS as to our family's thanksgiving dinner. i know i am. i haven't been able to spend thanksgiving with the family in a couple of years so i try not to think about the yummy goodness that is going on up north.

over the past few years i've been mastering my culinary skillz and have been able to recreate my grandmacita's rice & beans, my mom's homemade lumpy mashed potatoes, and my cousin alicia's cheesy potatoes w/onions. i (HOWEVER) will not be mastering the turkey as i don't like to cook meat on the bone. it weirds me out a bit. i also have been testing out new and creative ideas via the Food Network. i have a slight addiction to food shows. it amazes me that there are dozens of different ways to make 1 simple item like mashed potatoes. last nite after the Ultimate Thanksgiving Throwdown with Bobby Flay came Unwrapped. i grew up watching Mark Sommers on Double Dare (kids show of random obstacle courses. the best way to describe the show is if the shows 'I Survived a Japanese Game Show' & 'Minute to Win it' had a baby). so i'm learning about the behind the scenes of different thanksgiving foods and it comes up...the craziest replacement for a thanksgiving turkey:

Tur-Duck-Hen
(i pretty much just like saying TurDurken - but it's pronounced TurDuckHen)
can you guess what this lovely bird is? it's not an inbreeding of 3 birds but 3 birds are involved.
it's a turkey cut open cleaned out and stuffed with chunks of duck and chicken/hen. it is also stuffed with 2 kinds of stuffing.

Grocery Ads
this week everyone advertising their turkey sales. one grocery store sells both turkey and young turkey. never realized that there was a difference between regular turkey and a young turkey - i just always assumed everyone in the US bought a butterball.

guess growing up there is a lot to learn.

happy thanksgiving to all!