This Thanksgiving will be my 9th as a married lady. During that time, we have had Thanksgiving at our house 4 times. That has given me 4 opportunities to master the art of cooking a turkey. I haven’t even attempted it once. And I don’t feel bad about it, either!
“Why not?”, you may be wondering. There are so many tutorials online and great recipes that it’s not a very hard thing to try, especially if you already have some basic cooking knowledge. Well, I have a few reasons, actually.
1. Tim and I both don’t really like turkey. We do eat ground turkey as a ground beef substitute, but in terms of having big slices of turkey on our plates, we can take it or leave it. It turns out that we both will eat an obligatory piece on Thanksgiving, but have no interest in going back for more.
2. Our family is still small, and if the two adults in the house don’t really like turkey, what in the world are we going to do with an entire bird??? It would likely be cut up, frozen and then eventually thrown away a year later (to make room for the next leftover Thanksgiving turkey, perhaps?).
3. So many things taste so much better! I don’t like turkey because even when it is cooked amazingly well, it’s still on the dry side, and its kind of game-y, which I just don’t love. There are so many other wonderful main course alternatives that will be simply divine!
That’s why we’ve never ever made a Thanksgiving turkey, and I’d venture to say that we never will. If we ever host a large family gathering, I will happily pass along the honors of making the turkey to someone else, or if nobody wants to do it, then everyone can be welcomed to our turkey-free table…we’ll have plenty of other things worthy to be gobbled up!
So what DO we put at the center of our holiday table? We’ve done rotisserie chickens before when our table had just 2 people at it, and we’ve also done spiral-cut hams, which we enjoy, but also seem to not quite finish before we have to throw it out. I’ve been told about an alternative product that I can’t believe never occurred to me before (given the fact that we lived in Memphis as marrieds for 6 years!)…..BARBECUE!!!
Let me tell you how to give barbecue top honors at your table this year, and all without having to grill out, or really do much work at all on the big day. Order from pigofthemonth.com. This company is run by barbecue experts who have developed products that will blow you and your guests away. We had the opportunity to try their ribs, and they were finger-lickin’ good!
Let me tell you just how easy it was to serve one of the best “home cooked” meals we have had in ages. First, the ribs showed up on my front door (FedEx let me know what day to expect them so that I could plan accordingly). They were still frozen as they had been packed in dry ice. They were sealed tight, fully cooked, had sauce already on them, and just needed to be thawed (it only took a few hours), cut out of their packaging, put in aluminum foil, and heated up for about 40 minutes. Since my family likes “wet” barbecue, I added a little bit of extra sauce for the last 10 minutes that it was in the oven. Then I pulled them out and let them rest for 10 minutes. I had some baked potatoes that had been cooking in the crockpot (here’s my crock pot potato recipe!). And then I heated up some peas in the microwave. Voila! A restaurant-quality meal on a weeknight. Awesome!
After trying these ribs, I can say without hesitation that I would put them or any other product from pigofthemonth.com on my Thanksgiving menu. The food is top-notch. And just imagine how wonderful it would be to take the main dish off your mind for Thanksgiving. There are so many other things to worry about and put together that you’ll be so glad to not have to make room for that turkey in your freezer, fridge and oven!
What about you? Have you ever gone turkey-free for Thanksgiving? What do you think about having some barbecue on the table???
Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.
lol–Tim looks SO excited in that picture!
We have actually had shredded pork bbq for Thanksgiving before! And I have never made a turkey before either. Thanksgiving is usually at my house, but my sister makes the bird because just the thought of stuffing a bird cavity makes me nauseous.