EMPS: Talking Turkey

Friendly turkey balloons at my local Safeway.

For this week's Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot, Carly wants to see anything turkeyish, which is at least as valid as my interest in "pumpkin anything." After all, we are almost to Thanksgiving. Obviously we haven't cooked this year's thanksgiving dinner yet, but there are definitely plenty of turkey-related photographic opportunities these days. Let's visit my favorite Safeway, where the turkey products are currently varied and plentiful.

Healthy but boring turkey products. And by the way: bison.

The usual, year-round turkey products at Safeway are mostly the health-oriented, easy to prepare ones such as ground turkey, bits of boneless breast and turkey-based lunch meats. But this time of year, where's the fun in that? This is where I looked in vain for turkey drumsticks, having already unsuccessfully looked the night before. Someone from the meat department (he had the butcher's smock and everything) had just finished helping another customer, so I asked him whether they would have turkey legs for sale this year. He immediately led me here:

Parts is parts.

Yes, that's what I wanted. I explained that I already had a boneless roast, but wanted to supplement that with the drumsticks. I even hoped to arrange them with the roast to make it look more like a whole turkey. He chuckled. "I'd like to see a picture of that!" he said.

The usual. But not this year.

Okay, so he had noticed the camera, but at least he didn't seem to mind. I made the rounds of the cases, photographing the different turkey options. There were the usual frozen Butterballs, which I've bought off and on for many years. There were also Safeway brand ones, which I also photographed but the picture is boring.

Frozen, but fully cooked.

For those who don't mind thawing and heating, but don't want to risk messing up the actual roasting, there were frozen, oven-roasted turkeys. There were also ducks, capons, turkey breasts, and lots of chicken parts. But I grabbed my drumsticks, paid for them and went home.

At home: everyday turkey. And bologna. And ham.

Now, I could have done the EMPS from what was already in the house, although it would have been boring. For example, there was turkey in my pack of Oscar Meyer lunchmeat. I also had a jar of turkey gravy already.

My "turkey roll."

But the star of our modest Thanksgiving dinner will be what my mom used to call a "turkey roll." This is a Butterball brand boneless turkey roast. They mostly come in white meat only, but I prefer dark, and get the kind that has both. (John likes the white meat.) My mom made an all-white turkey roll a few times when I was a kid, including once at the summer home we used to rent each year on Lake Ontario. Both times it was extremely dry and awful, which made me shy away from buying anything like that as a younger adult. But the ones I've bought over the last several years have always been quite good. One caveat, though: in our oven, at least, it takes about an hour longer than the directions say unless I roast it at the higher temperature listed in The Joy of Cooking - or at least split the difference.

So, how will that look on a bed of stuffing, flanked by drumsticks and roasted? Stay tuned!

Karen