Is it Thanksgiving already?!

Every so often I get in the mood for Thanksgiving dinner. But to go through the hassle for only 2 people hardly seems worth it. One day when I was cruising through Publix they were making this recipe. I remember trying it and really liking it, so I took the recipe card and stashed it away for a rainy day. Well, last week was that rainy day. I decided I would finally try to make this on my own. I go to the store to get the ingredients - only to come home and find I already had a freaking boneless turkey breast in the freezer. Curses! Oh well, that's about how this whole process went for me. LOL

One-Pan Turkey, Vegetables, and Gravy

Ingredients:
3 medium parsnips (rinsed)
5 medium carrots (rinsed)
4 celery ribs (rinsed)
2 large onions (rinsed)
2 bay leaves (I used the ground bay leaves that comes in a regular seasoning collection)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt (divided)
4 ounces unslated butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup flour
2 (14 oz) cans reduced sodium chicken broth
1 boneless turkey breast (3 pounds; thawed)
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
1/2 teaspoon pepper
aluminum foil

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400. Peel parsnips and carrots. Cut parsnips, carrots, and celery into 1-inch pices. Remove ends and peel onions; cut both into quarters. Place vegetables, bay leaves, and 1/2 teaspoon of the salt into medium-size roasting pan. The carrots were my favorite part of this when it was done, so next time I will probably use a lot more carrots! I think my roasting pan must be large; hence why this didn't turn out exactly as it was intended. But more of that story to follow.

(those little flecks are my bay leaves)

2. Place butter in microwave-safe bowl; cover and microwave on high 30 seconds or until melted. Whisk in flour and 1 can of the chicken broth until blended. Pour into pan over vegetables. Place wire roasting rack in pan over vegetables.

3. Remove turkey from packaging (reserve turkey gravy package for another use*** story below) and pat dry. Do not remove the netting from the turkey! Sprinkle turkey evenly with poultry seasoning, pepper, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Well, remember above where I said I went to the store and bought the turkey - when I already had one at home? Yah, well, what I didn't buy was poultry seasoning because stupid me thought I had it at home. Of course I don't! So I ended up using this all blend seasoning from Costco (Kirkland brand) instead. Place on roasting rack or directly on top of vegetables. Cover losely with foil and cook 1 hour.




4. Remove foil. Cook 45-55 more minutes or until internal temp reaches 165 (Note to self: I MUST buy a food thermometer!) Transfer turkey to carving board and remove netting. Let stand 5 minutes before slicing. Transfer vegetables to serving dish; remove and discard by leaves.

5. Whisk remaining chicken broth (up to 1 can if needed) into pan gravy until desired consistency. Transfer gravy to a serving dish. Slice turkey and serve.

So, all in all this turned out quite good. The turkey was moist and yummy! That's a plus! Unfortunately, the vegetables/gravy mix did not turn out so well. Like I said earlier, I think it's because my pan was too big and therefore the gravy wasn't deep enough. So instead of just becoming, well, gravy, it sort of congealled up and there wasn't much liquid on the bottom of the pan after the cooking timeframe. And let me just tell you how annoyed I was! I mean, after spending 2+ hours on dinner and then to not have it come out perfect???? Yes, I was pretty livid. But luckily the little boneless turkey came with a gravy packet! (refer to the *** above). So what I did was heat up the turkey packet, added a little chicken broth and some flour and wha-la! Gravy! For the most part the vegetables were still good. Some around the edge of the pan got too overdone due to the lack of gravy, but most were salvagable. And those vegetables -especially the carrots - were DELICIOUS! So overall this was a great dish. I just need to make some minor tweaks the next time I make it.



(I apologize for the quality of this photo. But after almost 3 hours of cooking, I was frustrated and hungry and all I wanted to do was dig in! But then I thought of you - my faithful, loyal readers - and knew I had to get at least one photo of the finished product. **I made boxed stuffing and then added green beans as well for finishing touches).