i meant to post this a few weeks ago, but clearly.

everyone gets sick of the thanksgiving turkey pretty quickly. after my first plate, i'm usually over it. so i came up with a couple of ideas to make the turkey more pallatable after the first day of eating it (since clearly, a 15-lb turkey is not being eaten in 1 day, unless you invite 30 people over).

idea #1: turkey legs & wings w/rice in the crock pot.
it really was that simple. i put the 2 legs and the 2 wings in the crock pot with about 6 cups of water, 4 beef bouillon cubes, some onions, some celery, some garlic powder, and let that cook for about an hour, then i added about 2 cups of rice so there would still be broth left over, but the rice would cook in with the turkey flavor.

it turned out well, but people still got sick of it after a couple of servings.

idea #2: pulled turkey salad.
i de-meated the turkey (cut off all the meat), put it in a big bowl, and added relish, mayonnaise, onion, celery, dijon mustard, and some other seasonings to taste, along with boiled egg, and mixed until everything was separated.

this lasted about 4 days before it was almost all gone and everyone was sick of it. but it did turn out really well.

what did you do to finish off your thanksgiving leftovers?

26. make thanksgiving dinner alone

i'm really flying through this 52 in 52 list. i really hope i can actually finish it by the deadline, but i will still end up making a donation to susan g. komen because cancer sucks bad.

i'll admit humbly that it's mostly because i'm full of the awesome, but probably more so because i'd feel bad if i didn't donate and my only motivation to finish the list was so that i didn't have to donate. then i would be a horrible person.

on the scale of horrible people where 1 is peter (because he wasn't completely horrible, he just denied jesus 3 times) and 10 is osama bin laden (who was so horrible that he had to be buried at sea), i would be nestled comfortably between president bush (the one who golfs while simultaneously sending troops to war) and president clinton (the one who had sexual relations with that woman). i think that's accurate.

i cooked the entire thanksgiving meal (with the exception of the sweet potatoes my younger sister just had to make) alone. it was so refreshing. i just had time to myself and since i love cooking, i really enjoyed making such a huge meal.

because i've been having issues with allergic reactions, indigestion, and acid refluxy feelings, i decided to forego making homemade macaroni and cheese and stuck mostly to the earthy/grainy foods that aren't so horrible for everyone's cholesterol. here's the menu:

turkey
string beans
mashed potatoes
stuffing (or dressing, however you say it)
sauerkraut
cranberry sauce
corn muffins
deviled eggs
sweet potatoes*

typically we would add baked macaroni & cheese, collards, maybe cabbage, and yeast rolls to that list, but there were only 4 people in attendance this year: my mom, my sister, jesse, and myself. and later that evening, jesse and i went to his parents' house to eat their food. so everyone won, especially jesse and i.

this holiday also rocked for 2 additional reasons: 1, i got a 4 day weekend away from work that i spent mostly with friends and family (thanksgiving thursday, birthday dinner friday, birthday dinner saturday, and relaxation sunday), and...

i got jewelry!

jesse got me this really pretty, 10k white gold ring with 3 diamonds! and it's not even an engagement ring! he's awesome for a lot of reasons, but that's definitely at the top of the list now.

definitely. extra rings? who wouldn't be happy?