How to: Fast & Fancy Holiday Feast
I also show my love for people through acts of service, a major one for me is cooking and feeding them. I try to “curate” a cozy, yet classy vibe in my home and with the meals I cook for my family.
I bake bread. I use mason jars. The holiday edition of Living is the highlight of my fall. I aspire to be a Martha Stewart-Julia Childs-hybrid one day.
The one thing standing in my way from this goal, aside from a team of staff making everything picture-perfect, is the fact that I work full time, have two small dogs, a small child, and still enjoy running and hanging out with friends. I’m a busy woman. I don’t really have the TIME to do a perfect, on-demand meal...and I’d rather be spending time with my family instead of huddled over my cutting board and stove, especially during the holidays.
So. The menu below? I’ve used this for a couple of holiday dinners for family and friends. You can prep most of it ahead of time and just toss it to cook day-of. It tastes good. It looks fancy. It’s neither crazy-expensive nor time-consuming. It’s perfect.
Turkey Roulade with fancy red potatoes and roasted carrots
This is a take on a recipe from the queen herself, Martha Stewart. I lost the original recipe years ago and am fairly terrible at following a recipe anyway, so this is my own *thing* now.
Turkey
2- turkey breasts, boneless but with skin, about 15 pounds (Ask a local butcher to do this for you! Deboning a turkey breast is way too much work and its 100% worth having the butcher do it)
1 pound of casing-free Italian sausage (Sweet or spicy is your choice, but I prefer spicy)
Fresh sage (I buy two of those plastic packages the grocery store sells in the produce department. I couldn’t tell you what the weight or cup or ounces is of that pack.)
Butter (Lots, obviously)
Garlic, salt, and pepper (You do you here. I want ALL THE GARLIC in my food, so I use most of a head, minced, when I make this)
Potatoes
1 5# bag of red potatoes
Oil (your choice)
Salt, pepper, garlic powder (to taste!)
Carrots
For the carrots
1# bag of carrots
Oil (your choice)
Salt, pepper, garlic powder (to taste!)
Directions - the day before
1. Set up your workstation to pound the turkey breasts thinner, down to about 1inch. Better chefs than me have a meat cleaver; I use a hammer. I put the turkey breast, skin-side down, on a cutting board, cover the turkey with plastic wrap, then put a towel over it and pound the hell out of the turkey. The goal is to help the turkey cook evenly. Wrap everything up well and toss it in the fridge.
2. Cut the sage into small strips. Save a few leaves to garnish the top of the turkey when you bake it.
3. Begin cooking the Italian sausage. When you get some fat in the bottom of the pan, toss the sage and garlic in to cook that as well. Refrigerate everything when it’s done.
4. Slice the red potatoes in half and score the top almost through so it looks like a little fan. Toss with oil, salt, and pepper and cover with a damp paper towel. Put it in the fridge.
5. Cut the ends of the carrots and cut them into long quarters. Toss with oil, salt, and pepper and refrigerate.
Directions - the day of
The turkey is going to need to cook for about an hour (you want it 165 degrees to be safe to eat). It takes about 15 minutes to prep the roulade to go in the oven.
1. Turn your oven to 400F and pull out the turkey, sausage, and butter from the fridge.
2. On a cutting board, lay out the flattened turkey breasts, skin-side down. Put the prepared sausage on the turkey breasts. Roll the turkey breasts up (some stuffing might escape) and transfer to a baking pan. Lay the skin over the tops of the breasts.
3. Melt some butter. Drizzle butter over the turkey skin and season with salt, pepper, more garlic...and lay a couple of those sage leaves on top so it looks pretty. Put in oven for approximately 60-70 minutes or until the internal temp is 165.
4. Once the turkey has about 30 minutes left, put the potatoes and carrots in the oven.
5. When the turkey is done, let it rest for 5-10 minutes out of the oven so the juices settle. Then, cut on the bias and serve on a platter. Platter the carrots and potatoes separately. You’ll look so fancy and impress all your guests.
