Current Favorites: Thanksgiving Edition
What I'm Picking Up at the Grocery Store These Days
The Thanksgiving period is one of the biggest shopping days at grocery stores around here. Yes, it’s busy at Christmas, Easter, and the first time a big snow storm is predicted. But Thanksgiving, a holiday that focuses on a feast, gets the edge in what I witness.
This year, I took it easy on myself - purchasing from my favorite grocery store (Dorothy Lane Market) cornbread dressing, gravy, cranberry relish, rolls, and 1/2 of a pumpkin pie. That left me with only needing to roast a turkey breast, make mashed potatoes, cinnamon brown sugar sweet potatoes, and warm up / dish out the DLM contributions.
My secret: I use small crockpots to keep the mashed potatoes warm - just add about two inches of chicken stock to the bottom to keep them from drying out. And to roast the sweet potatoes - layering fresh cut pieces in the crock pot with with dashes of cinnamon, a sprinkling of brown sugar, and just a bit butter.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving - just the two of us with lots of great food and quiet time together. We watched “White Christmas” followed by “Home Alone”.
We had just enough leftover sides to make dinner for us on Friday. And while there is still some leftover turkey, that will be gone by Monday thanks to Turkey sandwiches or one of my favorite go-to weekday lunches: turkey warmed up with black beans topped with a little bit of grated cheese and 1/4 of an avocado.
I want to talk about “Christmas Butter”
The best butter truly is Kerrygold - salted, of course. I bake with it, slather it on toast, and use it to make the best soft-scrambled eggs. And I’m surely not the only one that has noticed that like all staples, butter has gone up in price in recent times.
Yet, if you watch the sales, you can get a great price on Kerrygold Butter in time for your holiday cooking and baking. This past week, it was on sale at Kroger with a savings of $1.70 each which was my cue to begin stocking up. (Meijer and Whole Foods will eventually put it on sale)
See, grocery stores often do what’s considered a “loss leader” sale to encourage shoppers to, well, shop. If you come in to purchase something that’s on sale, you’re likely to buy other things while you’re there. Now, perhaps Kerrygold isn’t a loss leader for Kroger like turkeys.
Anyhoo, back to Christmas Butter. The stores put this creamy salty perfection on sale between Thanksgiving and Christmas so I stock up on enough butter to last me until the spring when the stores will present me with another opportunity to stock up which I then call Easter Butter. (Some stores put Kerrygold on sale in time for St. Patrick’s Day and others go right up until Easter.)
Unfortunately, Easter Butter must last until Christmas Butter season rolls around which I always underestimate which means I spend a month or two of buying full priced butter to satisfy my toast and baking needs.
Current Favorite “Girl Dinner”
One thing I really love about the grocery store this time if year is the unique holiday products that they stock. I grabbed a package of Rustic Bakery’s Gingerbread Artisan Crisps. After my first bite, I was in love but couldn’t remember where I had snagged them (turns out: Dorothy Lane Market).
On evenings when I’m just too tired to cook - or JB is too tired to eat much - we go for an easy meal. Soup (Progresso chicken lemon orzo) and some sort of bread / rolls for him. And I have a big cup of Trader Joe’s Chicken Stock and several of the gingerbread crisps topped with Marin Petite Breakfast Brie Cheese.
Perfection.
Savory with a smidge of sweet. And a fair amount of protein and comes together in five minutes.
Did you cook for Thanksgiving? What are you stocking up on? What are you finding in your local grocery stores this season? Do you have a go-to “girl dinner”?