Happy Thanksgiving
BEST
"I'll make the turkey." As soon as I said it I instantly became nervous. Why did I say that? I have never cooked a turkey before in my life and as a witness to the many experiences the other women in my family have had with cooking the turkey on Thanksgiving...I knew I was in over my head. There is so much pressure being the Turkey cooker. It is the star of the show and if you mess it up, people will remember, oh yes they remember. Then you become the bad Turkey cooker.
Enter stage right "Google search: How to cook a turkey." Which also lead to "How to thaw a turkey" and "How to brine a turkey." After gaining some courage through my conversations with our friend Melissa, who's family was attending our T-Day dinner, I went to the store to buy the frozen bird. The smallest one they had was 15 lbs, way more than what we needed but it was go time.
I brought the sucker home and had to clear out the fridge so I could wedge it in there to thaw. I was pretty nervous about the thawing process because most of the research online mentioned that improper thawing could basically breed bacteria and give all your turkey eating guests salmonella. The next morning my little bird felt nice and soft, but I knew some of those 15 lbs were still probably a little icy. So into a sink full of water it went to finish off the thawing.
6 hours till dinner it was time to step it up. Feeling very fancy pants I began to brine my turkey. Which is really just a culinary term for soaking the bird in salt, herbs, lemon, orange, onion and water. After a nice long soak and the preheated oven ready to go, the turkey found a new home in a cozy little roasting pan. So far, so good...could this be too easy? I guess the hardest part it the actual cooking part so I shouldn't get too confident. Into the oven you go my little turkey!
Every hour I opened up the oven and gave little turkey a rinse in our delicious brine water. Ding! Four and half hours later it was time to whip out the thermometer and check the temperature inside to make sure we cooked off all those nasty little dinner ruining bacteria. I have to say the outside looked picture perfect. Golden brown and juicy. If I had to pose for Norman Rockwell I could have. And when the thermometer showed we had a perfect internal temperature I was on my way to a home run. Of course the ultimate test is how does my first little turkey taste? I can proudly say...just as good as it looked. I thought about snapping a picture to capture the moment...and as I write this I wish I would have, but I didn't. Except the one I have locked away in my mind along with the confidence that...yes I can cook a turkey.
Worst
We are just about to be launched into the craziest shopping time of the year. Consumers are attacked from all directions by businesses competing for their money. Sales, discounts, and coupons oh my! One of the newest tactics for these businesses is rewards programs. Stores offer you "reward points" for every dollar you spend with them. Which helps us consumers rationalize spending more money because we just get more points and therefore more rewards.
Babies R Us is now a staple in my life...one stop shopping for all the Babyhead supplies we need to stock up on. So when BRU began a rewards program not too long ago I signed up hoping to get a little something back for my continual bulk purchases of diapers and formula. So the day finally arrived when the magical envelope came in the mail from BRU with all my fabulous "rewards." Here is what I received:
-Earn $5 for every $150 spent from Dec 12th to Dec 25th...5 bucks for every 150? That doesn't even cover the tax, or the amount of gas it would cost me to drive out there and spend $150.
-Buy 9 Value boxes of Pampers and get the 10th free...mind you Value boxes have like 100 diapers in them and already cost around $45. So why would I spend 400 bucks on diapers just to save 45? And where on earth would I store 1,000 diapers?
-Member shopping Night on Dec 10th 8 pm -11 pm save 20% on one item but excludes diapers and formula... I guess this would be worth it if you were buying a big ticket item like a stroller or car seat, but the last thing I want to do between 8pm and 11 pm is be at BRU with crowds of bargain shopping parents. You couldn't give your "Members" just a whole day? Just 3 hours...really?
Be wary my friends. Even though these rewards programs are free... the cost of aggravation from reading through your "rewards points" and asking why these businesses think we are all a big bunch of suckers...comes at a high price.
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