Thanksgiving Dinner

This year I did my shopping for Thanksgiving dinner this year at Smart and Final. I was really impressed with the prices, in fact I got some super duper deals!

Turkeys were only $.39 a pound with $25 purchase. These turkeys averaged out to be between $5 and $6 each!

Yams were $.49 lb

Cream Cheese was only $.99 each

Champagne, only $3.99 a bottle!

Chips only $.99 a bag

Ham only $1.99 lb

Cornbread Mix only $.39 a box

Dryer's Ice Cream $2.99 each (you must try the Peppermint, it's to die for)

What I like about shopping at Smart and Final for an event such as a holiday is I can do my shopping in one place. They have meats, produce, dairy and so much more. Also, I will be honest, I hate doing dishes so I do buy disposable ware. But what I found out when I went shopping is that Smart and Final carries eco-friendly disposable plates! Easy for me, great on the environment!
Here is my shopping whrrl of everything I bought, well most of what I bought. I actually got a lot of stuff that I forgot to take pics of such as the cubed cheese packages and pecans!

More check-ins at Smart and Final

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Since I cooked all day, I really wish I could have gotten more pics of Thanksgiving but it was so chaotic I barely had time to take these pics!

Yams and Mashed Potatoes

Now there are a few things I found out about Smart and Final that I didn't know before:

They have baked goods. I am not talking tiny donuts and muffins baked goods but if you look at those cupcakes up there, that is from Smart and Final! Don't tell anyone though that I passed them off as my own. Well to make the deal a little better, these were actually marked to 75% off at the end of the day, the day before expiration. Which was fine for me, dinner was the next day.

I also found "Red Band" bananas. These are more ripe bananas that were marked $.10 cents less per pound than regular bananas. Another perfect item for me since I was making pumpkin banana bread!

For the main course we had a Brined Turkey. I bought all my seasonings at Smart and Final (as well as my $5 turkey of course). But what impressed me was the week before, I went to another store and bought a container of cinnamon for much more than what Smart and Final had it for. The container at Smart and Final was also about 5 times larger! When I looked around at Smart and Final at all the seasonings they had I was really impressed. There was a large selection and the prices were truly the best I have seen in the seasoning world.

Here are a few recipes I used:

Brined Turkey

• 1cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock or 1 large can of Chicken Broth and 1/2 gallon of water
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water
  

  Combine the vegetable stock, salt, brown sugar, peppercorns, allspice berries, and candied ginger in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally to dissolve solids and bring to a boil. Then remove the brine from the heat, cool to room temperature, and refrigerate.

  Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:

  Combine the brine, water and ice in the 5-gallon bucket. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining.

This is really easy to do and the best part is, it makes the turkey so moist! By the way, this is an Alton Brown recipe!

Yams:
I boiled the yams for about 20 minutes, then peeled them. I then added 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of liquid ginger. I beat them for about 1 minute them added marshmallows.

For the punch I used Lemon Lime Shasta, Langers Peach Strawberry Juice and maraschino cherries.

The ham was easy! They come with a ham glaze and they are already cooked so I put it in the crockpot and let it be!

*I was given a giftcard by Collective Bias for Smart and Final but all opinions are my own.