Amazon's Thanksgiving Deal: Let's Dig In

Okay y'all, did you miss me?

Well, I'm back and I've done some investigation into our first Thanksgiving deal to give you some tools to maximize the items included to stretch your dollars even further!

Amazon has a Thanksgiving deal that's time sensitive (only available from November 12-27), so we're starting with that one.

This deal can feed 5 people for $25 and includes the following:

• One Butterball Frozen Turkey ($0.69/lb.)

• Reser's Brand of the following:

  • Homestyle Stuffing

  • Mashed Potatoes

  • Gravy

  • Green Bean Casserole

  • Cranberry Orange Relish

• Amazon Grocery Crescent Rolls

• Holiday Pie (select national brands)

I think this deal is great for people with small families, less access to a fully functioning stove, and/or disabilities that might make standing in a kitchen doing prep work painful or uncomfortable. Everything except the turkey seems microwaveable although I do see oven directions. One warning I would share is to watch the sodium content of the Reser's brand items if that's a health concern for you or a family member. Pre-prepared foods sometimes have surprisingly high salt contents, which can be an issue around the holidays.

Options Available: I see that Reser's brand has several side dish options available at the same price point under this Thanksgiving deals so there are some ways to customize your holiday meal to make it your own. Cornbread stuffing instead of Traditional stuffing, Mashed Sweet Potatoes instead of Creamy Mashed Potatoes. Amazon is also advertising some less expensive Instant stuffing mix options if Reser's brand doesn't appeal to you. Jellied and Whole Berry canned Cranberry sauce is available under the deal if you're unfamiliar with Cranberry Orange Relish (although I highly recommend trying it; it's delicious!) Canned green beans are listed as well if you prefer those to green bean casserole. For desserts, I see Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Pie, Apple Pie, and THANK GOD, somebody added Sweet Potato Pie for $5.99 each!

I think the trick to most of these Thanksgiving deals will be doctoring the pre-made items to make them your own. I follow Julia Child's guidelines of when in doubt, add a little butter or wine! So, stay with me.

Stuffing: Stuffing can always use more Sage, fresh or dried, prior to cooking in addition to a splash of broth and a few pats of butter or margarine for a little moisture. Baking the stuffing would giving a homemade-like crust on top with crispy edges. Food pantries in my area often give out apples (dice them up), dried cranberries, and walnuts or pecans which would be great folded into either the Cornbread or Traditional stuffing.

Potatoes: For the Creamy Regular Mashed Potatoes, add a boiled mashed potato from your pantry to cover any artificial taste that may be hiding in there. Add a little butter (brown the butter if you wanna be fancy) and maybe a splash of milk to loosen everything up to the right consistency. Wanna be super fancy? Add thyme, rosemary, parsley, and/or sage (fresh or dried) to the pan of your melted or browned butter after melting or browning but before the butter cools and stir it around to let the herbs bloom and flavor the butter. If you used fresh, pour the whole pan into the potatoes. Dried herbs, separate the herb bits from the butter, pour the butter onto the potatoes, and save the herbs for the turkey!

For the Mashed Sweet Potatoes, you're adding some melted or browned butter again, but this time shake a little ground cinnamon, nutmeg, or pie spice into the butter and stir. Pour that mixture into the sweet potatoes and add maybe a spoon of brown sugar in addition to a spare baked sweet potato if you have it to mash in.

Gravy: The Reser's Brand Gravy comes pre-made so taste it before doctoring. I suspect it will be a little salty. But I have a trick! WINE! Maybe a half cup or so...don't drink it. There's time for that later. A pinot grigio or chardonnay will do nicely. Something white and dry.

Add a little at a time and taste as you go. But the flavor should round out and get a hint of lemony flavor to it from the wine. But you're not done yet! Garlic is the final key! Add a teaspoon or two (or three if you really love garlic like I do) of regular minced garlic to the gravy before heating up. Feel free to add fresh or dried herbs to the gravy as well. I would also heat this gravy on the stove rather than in the microwave when using these tips. If you don't have access to wine/don't drink, no problem! Simmer chicken or veggie broth or even water on the stove with dried or fresh herbs and a splash of lemon juice or slices for about 15-20 minutes to make a flavorful liquid to add to the gravy.

Green Bean Casserole: Now this one stumped me, I have to be honest. This is basically green beans in cream of mushroom soup and milk. If you choose this option, I think leaning into the mushroom flavor would be really cool. So, if your pantry gives you canned mushrooms, drain them and sauté them in oil and garlic before tossing them into the casserole. If you can get fresh mushrooms, have a little more fun and try roasting them after coating them in oil and garlic and maybe a splash of wine on the cookie sheet to add some fragrant steam for the mushrooms to cook in. French fried onions can always be a nice touch on green bean casserole but sauteed onions could be just as good and a little more health conscious. Use what you have. Sautéing the onions and mushrooms together in the garlic and oil would be my choice. If you want a crunch on top, try putting some almonds/walnuts/pecans in a bag, crushing them and sprinkling them over the top before popping the casserole in the oven.

Cranberry Orange Relish: For me PERSONALLY, the Cranberry Orange Relish seems like it would be best as an appetizer. I love cheese. It might be my favorite food group. I think you could use the crescent rolls and a muffin tin to make a delicious side dish with a soft or spreadable cheese. I would use goat cheese. Form the crescent rolls into little cups in the muffin tin leaving a rim of dough, fill to about 1/3 of the way with goat cheese, add a spoon of Cranberry Orange Relish and then pinch the leftover dough together in each cup to make little pockets before brushing the tops with butter and baking for about 20 minutes.

Or you could bake the crescent rolls according to the directions and just eat the Cranberry Orange Relish as a normal side dish. Your call!

Pies: Y'all, please do not try to doctor these pies. Just heat them up and add whipped cream. Everything will be just fine.

Turkey: Oooooooh! My favorite part! Welcome to the Thunderdome!

Now look, a turkey seems super scary and it's a huge piece of meat that I'm sure everyone has a horror story about a dry, tasteless bird that took all night to swallow because it sat in the oven ALL. DAY. LONG.

But that will not be your bird this year! Your bird will be juicy and flavorful and perfect for leftover sandwiches and soups and people will want to keep eating it until it's gone!

And here's why: DRY BRINE.

Dry Brining your turkey is the lowest maintenance way to flavor your turkey. Now I am bougie. I do a 7-day dry brine followed by a 48-hour wet brine before popping my turkey (sectioned by dark meat and light meat) into the oven. Most people do not want to do all of that. And I completely understand. But in the interest of putting an edible turkey on your Thanksgiving table, a dry brine is best. You can dry brine a frozen turkey and the brine will work as the turkey thaws in your fridge.

So, what IS a dry brine? It's salt. That's it. In its most basic form, a brine is a salt solution. The cool thing about a dry brine is that the meat (it doesn't have to be turkey) creates its own liquid for the brine by a scientific process called osmosis (My chemistry teacher father would be so proud!) so, osmosis works like this in the terms of this turkey:

1. You put salt on the outer turkey skin, and it goes into the fridge

2. The salt draws the water out of the turkey, flavoring the water with the salt on contact as it comes out of the bird

3. Once the salt has pulled a large amount of liquid out of the turkey and created a salty solution outside of the turkey, the liquid is sucked back into the meat, flavoring the inside as the salt solution goes back into the bird

This brining process can be done in 12 hours, in 48 hours, or how I do it, for a week. The longer the time period, the more of a chance you give the salt solution to be reabsorbed back into the turkey.

Note: Some turkeys come "Pre-Brined" (allegedly). I don't think pre-brined turkeys go through enough of a brining to be sufficient to be put right into the oven. To each their own. If you have a "Pre-Brined" turkey, lower the salt level of your brine mixture to compensate for any process that the turkey went through prior to you getting it.

Brine Recipe: You can use all or some of the items I'm going to list based on what you have on hand. The only thing that you need to brine a turkey is salt.

• Kosher salt (no additives; try Diamond Crystal brand in the red box)

• Brown sugar (dark or brown doesn't matter)

• Herbs (thyme, rosemary, sage, parsley)

• Garlic (Powder or minced, either works)

• Citrus juice (lemon, orange, clementine, whatever you have on hand)

• Black Pepper

Now measurements require an eye, but I'm here to help. For the amount of salt needed for a 10-15 lb. turkey, I would fill a small cereal bowl. You can always add more but you can't remove. For brown sugar, I would say a little less than equal to the salt, maybe 3/4 of the bowl. Herbs, whether you use any or all, at least a tablespoon of each dried herb. For fresh, use a 1/4 cup of each herb. Dried herbs have a stronger concentration of flavor than fresh herbs. Garlic, to taste. I love garlic so that would be 3-4 heaping tablespoons of minced or 1-2 tablespoons of powder. For citrus juice, I would mix lemon and orange if I had it, and use about a 1/2 cup of each, 1 cup in total.

Mix your brine ingredients together and rub it all over your rinsed off bird. It doesn't matter if it's still frozen, the turkey will thaw and brine at the same time. Just make sure you remove the giblets and reserve those in the freezer if you add them to gravy.

I use giant zipper close food storage bags from the Dollar Store to keep my bird sanitary in the fridge. They haven't failed me yet knock on wood. I DON'T suggest leaving your turkey uncovered while brining due to contamination risk and bacteria. Just don't risk it.

Now, I told y'all I roast my turkey in section by dark meat or light meat. If you feel SUPER comfortable butchering your own meat, here is the roasting recipe I use every year for temperature guidance and more details into why roasting in parts is preferred.

Please do not attempt this if you do not feel comfortable with using some force with knives, it is NEVER that serious. I am NOT responsible for any finger, hand, or knuckle injuries that may happen. I have hurt myself learning how to butcher so maybe practice at another time with a chicken and graduate to the Thanksgiving Turkey. I believe in you, but I also want you to stay out of the ER, if at all possible.

There is a safer alternative: this guideline for roasting your bird completely intact. No need to overcomplicate anything and perfectly cooked turkey in the end.

Another note: stuffing turkeys is not recommended...by me along with tons of immunologists and food scientists. There's a genuine concern about bacteria from the cooking turkey dripping into the stuffing and the resulting potential for cross-contamination. There are WAY better options for flavoring your stuffing then by putting it inside a raw bird then cooking it. Don't worry, I'll teach you, it's coming!

I hope this was a good overview of how to use Amazon's Thanksgiving Meal Deals. If you use it with some of my tips, let me know! I wanna see your cool dinners! Check out my previous post to get an overview of this Thanksgiving in a SNAP series!