Thanksgiving Mini-Feast in July

After several days of rather light meals, I was craving some comfort food and what is more comforting than Roast Turkey. I have been intrigued with Kelsey's Essentials after making her Cannelloni last week which was superb, so I explored the Cooking Channel website to see what else she has done. In the process, I discovered her very first show was the pasta episode and her second show was all about roasting.

From her second episode, I served Roasted Beet Salad and Roasted Turkey Breast with Stuffing and Carrots. I started with the turkey by combining unsalted butter with chopped rosemary, sage, minced garlic, dry mustard, grated orange zest, salt and pepper. Half of the compound butter was rubbed under the loosened turkey breast skin and the remainder was spread all over the outside of the breast. The breast then went in a roast pan on a bed of onions, carrots and celery and went in to a 325 degree oven for a couple of hours.

I scrubbed some beets and quartered them since they were large. I put them on a sheet of aluminum foil; covered with another sheet of foil and sealed completely before putting them in a 425 degree oven for an hour. While the beets were roasting, I made the vinaigrette by combining red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt and sugar and whisking in olive oil until completely emulsified. I toasted some sliced almonds in a dry skillet until golden brown and set aside. Once the beets were done roasting, I peeled them while warm and sliced them. I tossed them with half of the vinaigrette and tossed the remaining vinaigrette with Mache salad greens. The dressed greens went on the plate with some of the dressed, roasted beets, some sliced fresh pears, a little bit of crumbled goat cheese and toasted almonds. This salad would completely rival any beet salad found in top rated restaurants. I think I have a new favorite home salad (of course I am very partial to beets in general).

The turkey breast came out of the roasting pan and went on to a carving board tented with foil to rest for 20 minutes. During the resting time, I cooked some carrots and made some stuffing. I rarely use packaged convenience foods, but sometimes they just fill the need. I made a package of Stovetop turkey stuffing as one of our sides.

Overall a very delicious dinner but I would work on making a homemade stuffing next time. We are both looking forward to having me explore more of Kelsey's Essentials.