For all of you spending the day cooking, prepping, shopping, sweating and generally working your tail off to get ready for the big meal tomorrow, I have three words:The. Fresh. Market.
Their traditional holiday meal comes pre-cooked with turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish and rolls -- all I have to do is heat it up and set the table. The best $80 we spend all year.
I mean, I know I've gotten all domesticated this year, what with the meal-planning and the cooking chicken and the trying new recipes. But seriously, people -- I do not find joy in spending three days slaving over a meal that will get devoured in about 20 minutes. I know that some of you do, and I respect that -- but I have no plan to join you (unless, of course, you want to invite me to your house for dinner).
After our children were born, my husband and I implemented a pretty firm no-traveling-for-the-holidays rule for our family. There have been a couple of years where we went to our parents' homes for Thanksgiving, but otherwise we've enjoyed the luxury of staying home. That policy also means that we've extended a generally open invitation to our parents to join us at our house for the holidays -- thus, the need for The Fresh Market.
My mother is the one who taught me this trick, after years of doing it all the hard way -- and I expect my children will be stunned to discover (years from now, when they get invited to a boyfriend's or girlfriend's home for Thanksgiving) that not all turkeys arrive pre-cooked with the fixings from the store. And I'm totally fine with that -- I'll just tell them I was supporting the local economy (The Fresh Market is based in Greensboro) and ensuring that I had more time and happiness to spend with them.
Happy turkey everyone!
Note: As always, I received no compensation from The Fresh Market for this post. However, if they offered me a gift card or a discount for my Christmas meal, I wouldn't say no.
I've got no problem with picking up a yummy dinner. Believe me, we've done it before. From Valentine's Day romantic dinner (while the baby slept) to several weeks in a row of "just reheat" meals, we've done our fair share. Otherwise, how would I know that Foster's Market serves a superb Asiago Potato Gratin or that Whole Foods has an entire take-home meal for 4+ for only $15?
ReplyDeleteI admire you for just saying no to slaving over the stove. It's definitely something I'm considering for Christmas.
-Abby
I'm remembering this for future reference. ;) We are cooking a turkey this year, but I'm not wedded to doing it ourselves every year. And I, too, loathe traveling for the holidays, even though sometimes we have to.
ReplyDeleteWe always pick up Valentine's Day dinner from Foster's! It's fabulous, and I look forward to it every year. :)
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
we got ours from the q shack... it blows my mind that people still cook that meal. what's next? we gonna start sewing our own clothes?
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