I am mad. Boy am I mad.
Late Christmas morning, after the gifts had been frantically opened, the Toyland town was all around the
Christmas Tree and the kids were happily settled in to playing with their new gifts, it was time to get Christmas dinner started.
The potatoes were already peeled and in the pot, ready to become our famous mashed potatoes that were so good that a friend is still convinced that we put some sort of addictive substance in the recipe to make him crave them in his sleep. The pumpkin pie was already in the fridge, having been made the night before. Now it was time for the turkey to shine.
I quickly ran upstairs to put in my contact lenses. As I descended down the stairs, I was hit with a smell so awful, I thought that maybe a sewer plant somewhere had exploded. Fortunately (or unfortunately) that was not the case. The real explanation? My husband had unwrapped the fresh turkey that we purchased at the grocery store on December 23rd–a major chain store. That is right, the turkey for Christmas dinner was rotting. It stunk to high heaven.
Now you can see why I am mad. It was a bad turkey. A bad, bad turkey. And now, there would not be the Christmas dinner that we planned.
My husband and I quickly discussed our options. We could take everyone out to Chinese food, ala The Christmas Story. (no turkey sandwiches). Or we could cook the ham that I had bought that same day to be used for freezer cooking later during the week. We opted for the ham.
I’d like to say that everything worked out, but the ham wasn’t much better than the turkey. Oh, it wasn’t rotten, so that was a huge plus, but it was fatty, dry and the spiral cut stopped half way to the bone, leaving us to cut out greasy chunks instead of flavorful slices. No one much wanted to eat it, even the ones in the family who would be willing to eat ham in their sleep.
Yup, it was from the same store.
Meal Planning: Ham Today, Chicken Tomorrow