SPICED ROAST TURKEY recipe:

I like turkey on Thanksgiving … some people prefer ham: I like a crisp, baked turkey 😊

Bob and I did 2 or 3 family Thanksgivings with our parents and siblings, the early years of our early marriage – eventually, we decided to forgo the hours’ long drives, and stay home with our kids … and occasionally a friend who had no family to celebrate with.

I always tried to make a different turkey recipe every year.

This year, entering into my 3^rd Thanksgiving holiday without Bob physically with me, I thumbed through my extensive cookbook collection; and settled on this spicy baked turkey recipe, I think you will enjoy too 😉

There is just me, so I chose to bake a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey (1) a whole turkey isn’t necessary for one person (2) a whole turkey was getting too heavy to lift to and from the oven – the past 5 years (even with Bob’s help); so, it is definitely too darned heavy now that Bob rides the clouds (3) A sliced and diced turkey breast will go forward into several months meals with only one person enjoying it.

One of the changes I have made to my Thanksgiving cooking, is in choosing to bake my turkey the day before Thanksgiving because that works best for me: the rest (making deviled eggs, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, slicing the pumpkin pie, ect.), I can do tomorrow. I baked bread the other day, for an anticipated sandwich – or two 😊

The kitchen smells wonderful!

I can’t wait to sample this cooked recipe 😉

==Spiced Roast Turkey

If you want to bake a whole turkey, just double the ingredients.

1 Turkey breast * Salt to taste * freshly ground Black Pepper to taste * 1 Tablespoons softened Butter (or margarine) * ½ teaspoon Vegetable Oil * 1 large clove Garlic, minced * 1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard * ½ teaspoon Paprika * ½ teaspoon dried Thyme leaves * 1 teaspoon dried Rosemary

**NOTE: FOLLOW YOUR BIRD PACKAGING DIRECTIONS FOR OVEN TEMP & BAKING TIME; that way, you will be sure to get accurate and satisfactory results.

Heat oven.

Rinse turkey; clean cavities – pat dry.

Baked Spicy Turkey ingredients.

Blend together the salt, pepper, butter, garlic, and thyme leaves: with sanitized hands, stuff each turkey breast side with this mixture slipped under the breast skin. I pin the skin edges down with toothpicks to keep the buttery goodness next to the breast meat.

Butter mixture pushed under breast skin, and skin pinned down with toothpicks.

Blend together the oil, mustard, paprika, and rosemary: rub all over the outside beast skin.

Foil covering because roaster lid not high enough.

Place turkey on a rack, in your roasting pan.

Roast turkey as directed on your turkey packaging. Insert meat thermometer in the thickest part of your chosen turkey (inside of thigh on a whole bird, away from bone … middle of breast for a turkey breast); bake until thermometer registers 180-degrees.

Into the oven with a hope & a prayer ...

Remove from oven, and cover turkey with aluminum foil; let stand for 25 to 30 minutes before carving.

Perfecto!

ENJOY!

Spicy turkey, sweet potato, stuffing with red onion & peas, pumpkin pie - 773 calories. YUMMY!

THANKSGIVING 2021

This year I enjoyed a Thanksgiving filled with thanksgiving; aside from an empty chair where Bob used to sit, this holiday was almost ‘normal’ 😊

I am thankful I am able to stand, walk, and enjoy this holiday season this year; I cut my driving, and hiking back a couple miles … and that really helped. I did do a few 10 to 14-hour drives, and I did do a few 5-mile hikes – but very few. Bob, if he has been watching me as he glides by on the clouds, is no doubt rejoicing that I am finally learning the art of “pacing” myself (notching the turbo speed down), and practicing patience (granny speed hones patience) 😉

This is the first Thanksgiving since 2018 that I have been able to actually enjoy most of the day. I wasn’t sitting in a hospital crying as Bob slept – and I wasn’t laid up in bed favoring a seriously aching leg.

Thanksgiving 2021 dawned, and faded without a hitch, or a tear.

Baked Spicy Turkey ingredients.

Butter mixture pushed under breast skin, and skin pinned down with toothpicks.

Foil covering because roaster lid not high enough.

Into the oven with a hope & a prayer ...

Perfecto!

(https://jeastofeden.blogspot.com/2021/11/spiced-roast-turkey-recipe.html)

My Thanksgiving Supper was small, and light on my aging hips 😉

Spicy turkey, sweet potato, stuffing with red onion & peas, pumpkin pie – 773 calories. YUMMY!

The turkey breast baked to perfection, sliced without being mangled in the slicing, and the entire meal was low in calories: under 800 calories, even with pumpkin pie 😊

When Thanksgiving 2018 came around, I didn’t feel much like eating a holiday Supper – in, or out, of the hospital: my husband’s physical body was dying. Food wasn’t foremost in my thoughts.

Thanksgiving 2019 & 2020 came and went with reactionary baking … but little enjoyment.

2019 was spent in a mental fog of missingness; the pictures from that year showed a haunted face, with empty eyes. I was invited to several homes to be included in the festivities, but decided to stay home and eat solo lobo. I cooked, and ate a decent meal, but I didn’t really taste any of it – I ate for nourishment, and tried to “get in the holiday mood.” First Year Widowhood Memories, unbidden, kept interfering; my heart was having a hard time healing. I cried. A lot; thankfully Yeshua was a constant companion.

2020 was better in the grieving process … but, I spent some time in ER a few days before the holiday slid in, being diagnosed with a degenerate bulged spinal disc; and was laid up in bed with a very painful bum leg Thanksgiving Day. I ate a scaled-back turkey supper that I had baked/froze ahead of time – when I could walk around the kitchen without excruciating pain. That leg pain lasted until the middle of December. But Elohim was faithful - I was able to function; it was slow going, but managable.

When 2021 dawned, I decided to cut back on how hard I push my body. I like to take long country drives – I cut the time spent on the road, by half … and I learned how to use the speed control feature of the car; this took pressure of my driving leg muscles, which cut back on the inflammation of said muscles. I also like to hike: a lot … but, this year, I scaled back on the mileage: instead of 8 to 10-mile hikes, I only do 3 to 5-mile hikes, now … and not every day, like I used to. I am learning to pamper my aging body. I do not like to be laid up in bed for weeks on end ☹

This year at Thanksgiving time, I am enjoying life more fully. Healthier. And less painful emotionally, as well as physically.

I have good people in my life. 

Some are old friends; some are new friends.

Some are family members … some are {adopted} family members, who came alongside me in my early widowhood days; and stayed 😊

Some, I see every day. 

Some, I see weekly.

Some, I see monthly.

Some, I see occasionally when we cross paths every 6 months – or so.

And some, I only have contact with on FB.

I texted/talked with friends and family members before and during the actual Thanksgiving Day; some were having an early holiday Supper the day before (like me) … and some were just sitting down to Supper, but wanted to say, “Hey Val – thinking of you. Love you!”

And of course, there were those that have no contact with me at all – but I love them, and my thoughts went out to them anyway. I really miss my 7-year old grandson. I miss his face. I miss his voice. I miss his presence. I miss watching him grow up.

I know Elohim's promise to me - He is faithful. I will wait it out ... I don't need to understand: I just need to trust Him. And I do.

After the turkey was portioned out, and stored in the freezer; I watched a couple holiday movies … then, spent the rest of the evening before bedtime, researching and planning mini vaca’s for 2022 – hopefully, I will be able to actually spend some time out of State in lodging; hassle free. If not, I’ll be sleeping in my car when the sun goes down, and looking rumpled the next day. But, one way – or another- I INTEND TO GO, and enjoy my life while I still have it to enjoy; driving is my therapy – getting ‘out of Dodge’ balances every aspect of my life. Some of the anticipated mini vaca’s will be in rattlesnake country in four States (WA, and three others); that is a little intimidating, but Elohim will go with me – and before me: I can do this 😉

WHAT WOULD JESUS DO?

 “What would Jesus do?” always seems to fall off the lips of people who do not know Jesus at all; or those who only know him in a back-patting way.

“What would Jesus do?” used to be a private contemplative thought before a person sprung into action to carry out a directive dropped into their heart from the Ruach Ha’Kodesh.

“What would Jesus do?” has become, over the last 2 decades, a shaming judgmental accusation from both the nonbelievers; and those professing to be believers with one foot on both sides of the pathway (aka fence straddlers).

The demonrats and their cohorts (which includes a great deal of fence straddlers) are always judging people for what they perceive as "unkind" and "uncompassionate" ... but, THEY DO NOT SEE WHAT ELOHEI KNOWS.

Misguided, self-righteous {christians} dressing as beggar’s, stumbling into churches and buildings to trick people (and then castigating those people for ‘selfishness’ when the gig is up), is not something Yeshua would do!

Misguided, self-righteous {christians – adult, teen, children) “street ministering” to be caught on camera/wrote up in the Daily News, “doing good deeds”, is not something Yeshua would do!

Christians do not do their good deeds to be seen by others: they do good deeds to be seen by Elohim: for HE DIRECTS their footsteps, and their actions are an outpouring of His love towards others in need of a direct answer from Him.

Christians are not ambassadors of the government – they are Ambassadors of Yeshua; our recognition comes from Him. HE SEES. HE KNOWS. That should be enough for any Christian. We do not have to explain ourselves to anyone else.

We are the physical feet, the hands, arms, mouth full of words of He who a spirit: Yeshua is our example.

When a person, who is a professing Christian is showy in what they "do in the Name of Christ" ... like insisting to buy that cartload of groceries no one asked them to do while humiliating the person the cartful of groceries belongs to, by overriding the objections and forcing their money into the cashier’s hands … they are acting in ignorance of how Christ really taught us to behave. They are behaving in a worldly manner, to be acknowledged in a worldly manner - they are putting ego above honest love.

Love is not prideful. Yeshua never forced His “loving actions” on anyone.

Do what is right. 

Do what is just. 

Do it ALL humbly, and with a pure heart.

That is “what Jesus would do”.