THANKSGIVING IN A BOX

Hey, it worked!

We are a family of good cooks and eager eaters. In-laws don't complain about the quality or quantity of food prepared at a Brown family gathering - homemade, fresh, and a good ratio of traditional (high calorie and cholesterol) to healthy... maybe leaning a little more towards healthy with vegetarians in the family.

Past holiday dinners have involved a lot of (worthwhile) effort: planning and coordinating the dishes, purchasing, prepping, preparing, getting the timing right. For me and the other cooks in the family, it meant a LOT of time in the kitchen the day before and the day of a holiday.

This year, two inexorable trends resulted in a change: we are all getting older (for me, it means I don't have the stamina/desire to spend so much time standing in the kitchen), and the prepared food available is of much higher quality than in the past. A major grocery store chain in Sacramento advertised a "Gourmet Turkey Dinner" in a box, and we decided to give it a try.

This dinner was a step above others we had seen advertised, with a fully cooked, organic, Diestel Family Turkey Ranch turkey as the centerpiece. The "premium sides" were sweet potatoes with glaze, dried cranberries and pecans; green beans with garlic and almonds; ciabatta bread stuffing; mashed potatoes (the only food besides the turkey that was already cooked); cranberry sauce (we used Aunt Dorothy's homemade instead); gravy; dinner rolls and pumpkin pie.


My Thanksgiving preparation this year went like this:
1. Order the "Premium Organic Turkey Dinner".
2. Wednesday morning, drive to Raley's and pick up dinner.
3. Unpack the carton (photographing each step, so we could fit it all back in) and examine each item before finding a spot to store it overnight somewhere in our tiny kitchen.
4. Call Mommy to report that we had the dinner, and it looked good!
5. Thanksgiving morning, reload the carton, put it in the back of the car with a couple bottles of wine, and head to the designated host house.

This series of photos shows the carton as we unpacked the three layers, and most of the food set out on the counter in readiness for cooking. The carton included a glossy brochure of step-by-step, minute-by-minute instructions that (at least in theory) would have dinner ready to dish up in two hours. And that was almost the case!

We learned that enough cubed sweet potatoes for a dozen people take 15 minutes in a small microwave, not 9 minutes - and that a 13.75 pound turkey really needs about 2 hours to reheat, not a hour and a half. Experienced cooks can cope with deviations, though - we tossed the green beans into the steamer, heated the gravy on the stove, adjusted cooking times accordingly. Nancy added a winter fruit salad, we started in on the wine...

...and it wasn't long before plates were dished up and the diners were all smiles.

The consensus: let's do this again next year!

We'll ditch the mashed potatoes that came precooked and mashed - Doug's are so much better. The fruit salad was a great addition, and Aunt Dorothy's cranberry sauce is a "must have". We also added a no-sugar-added apple pie from Apple Hill; otherwise, it was GREAT.

To the anonymous Raley's employees who spent THEIR time peeling and cubing the sweet potatoes, washing and trimming the green beans, preparing the sauces, chopping the nuts, stirring the gravy and basting the turkey while we took a walk, read, and relaxed at home - THANK YOU.

FULLTIMERS GIFT GUIDE

It's a heck of a thing to try to pick out a gift for a fulltimer, isn't it? We have limited storage space, wall space, counter space and floor space; we worry about weight (ours, but in this context, our RV's); and gift giving occasions really sneak up when you have to figure in a detour to our mail forwarding service.

Over the years we have been fulltiming, our friends and family members have come up with great ideas for gift giving. I just celebrated a birthday and received excellent gifts - and nothing larger than a book to be stashed away in the rig. If you have any fulltiming women on your gift list, here are some great ideas.

This was the second year my sister Nancy took me out for a bite to eat and then for a spa pedicure - the warm foot soak, massage chair (and foot massage), warm oil... ummmm. After that treatment, my feet definitely are the youngest-looking part of me.

My girlfriend Becky always arranges a "play date" for my birthday - a day trip that includes a little shopping (or window shopping), lunch, and tickets to a live theatre performance. This is something Odel and I never do in "real life", and I always enjoy it. My girlfriends specialize in picking out wonderful earrings, another gift that fits into the rig without problems.

A delicious meal at a good restaurant... my parents took Odel and me to dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours. Great food, relaxing ambiance, a bottle of good wine, and dessert with a birthday candle, of course. It is such a pleasure to have a great meal OUT, with no planning, cooking, or cleanup required. No storage space required, either.

I don't know about other fulltimers, but I really appreciate the gift of a donation to a charity that is meaningful to me. This year, Joy and Greg donated a "flock of chicks" in my name through Heifer International, an organization of great interest to me. I received an emailed card with a personal message from Joy and Greg, and links to Heifer. Wonderful idea, and it gives me a real thrill everytime I look at this picture.

Not too long ago, we had a slow leak in one of Scoopy's tires. Tire monitoring is my one "outdoor" job, and I have a hate/hate relationship with it. I decided that needed to change and, as usual, felt that new gadgets to motivate me to do what every RV'er should do: check the air in the tires regularly and FREQUENTLY.

To that end, we put tire valve extenders on all the motorhome tires (no need to remove the caps to check the pressure) AND I requested a specific, small, lightweight digital tire pressure gauge, capable of measuring up to 150 psi (RV's have BIG tires) as a birthday present. Thanks to my sister Sydney, I now have it. Yes, this was my dream gift - wierd, huh?!

Here is a gift idea that seems pedestrian, but both Odel and I like getting socks! There are so many socks made of specialized fibers now, good at wicking sweat (also known as "moisture") away from your feet when hiking in hot climates, and they aren't cheap! We walk and hike a lot, so go through our socks quickly... who ever has more than they need? Hi-tech socks make a good, small, unbreakable, lightweight gift (and sizes are usually easy to pick out).

Another small luxury both Odel and I enjoy: scented lotion. The desert southwest will suck the moisture out of your skin in a heartbeat, and we use lotion constantly there - so much that we buy it at Costco in it's most generic form. A tube or bottle of something special is a treat.

Of the various gifts Odel has received since we began fulltiming, one stands out as a super-useful favorite: a very soft fleece pullover shirt with a zippered neck. For people trying to follow the sun, it is amazing how frequently we experience cold weather. The fleece shirt goes on morning after morning, just until the chill lifts - another lightweight gift that stores in a small space (I have two of these, myself).

I think most readers of this blog are fulltimers but, if you aren't, maybe these ideas will help you find the perfect gift for any difficult-to-buy-for fulltimer on your gift list.

LOOKING FOR EASY ENTREES

Because I enjoy cooking, and because the search for "springtime" temperatures often coincides with fresh local foods, we are what I call Spoiled Eaters - we eat well 99% of the time. I like browsing in new-to-me grocery stores, picking up local specialities, and trying new recipes I find on the internet.

Cooking gets old, though, at the end of a busy day or a long drive... those days when we end up hungry and tired, wishing dinner would get itself together and serve us. So, I am ALWAYS on the lookout for good (or even better, GREAT) prepared food, something to have on hand to lighten the load of cooking. For Spoiled Eaters, it has to be REALLY good to earn a place in the freezer.

Here is a new find from Trader Joe's that definitely made the cut: Chicken Serenada. The package serves two, a big, moist chicken breast for each, along with a DELICIOUS, slightly sweet, slighty spicy, sauce and sauteed peppers (290 calories per serving).

We ate this "unadorned", straight out of the microwave after finishing a new miso soup recipe I had tried. Next time, we'll have it on brown rice or quinoa, or mashed sweet potatos. Add a side of vegies... let's see, that's one pot of grain on the stovetop (or I could nuke a bag of TJ's delicious cooked, frozen brown rice during the "resting time" after the chicken comes out of the microwave) and a pan of sauteed or steamed vegies.

Quick, delicious, not much cleanup required afterwards... we're gonna' stock up on this one. Price: $6.99.