Tasty Tuesday!

Hi there!

For this, my very first Tasty Tuesday, I believe I'll do a bit of a live blog.

You see, I'm embarking on an adventure tonight. A personal first, with no one to tell me that I'm doing things all wrong...and this will chronicle my sure-to-be-at-least-mostly-a success. (Did you like that?)

What am I doing, you ask?

Why, I'm roasting a turkey breast!

What? Anticlimactic?

You have to understand, I've come to a place of confidence cooking many things.

Pot roast? No problem.

Chicken--particularly drum sticks and breasts? I could do it in my sleep.

Pork chops? Easy peezy.

Fish? I won't even break a sweat.

But big stuff...like whole chickens or turkeys, or yes, even this almost 5-pound turkey breast...they intimidate me a bit.

Mostly because if I do it wrong, then I've officially ruined FIVE POUNDS OF FOOD.

But today, this changes. Today, I take on the turkey.

Oven was preheated to 325 at the recommendation of the little thingy that Butterball puts with their turkey breasts. I don't have an actual "roasting pan with rack," but my 2-in deep brownie-style pan will do.

So far the only ingredients I've used have been butter spray and garlic pepper. I don't want to do a ton to this thing, and I'm trying to follow the recipe well. It'll take between 2 and 2.5 hours to cook, so I guess as I check on it periodically, I'll update this post and let you know how things are coming along. It'll probably only be every half hour or so, so don't go crazy with the refresh button or anything, as I know all of my avid fans will want to do. (Or at least that's how I picture it, ha!)

So I'll see you again at the first half-hour mark, which will actually be about half-way through cooking since I'm at about a half-hour in right now. So far, no fire--so good. :-)

Also, since I believe it is important to set positive goals for oneself, here is a picture of how I envision my finished turkey breast to look:

I probably won't serve it with grapes and apples on the plate, but you get the general idea. (Seriously...who puts fruit next to a roasted turkey breast? Random.)

See you a little before 6!

UPDATE! (@ 6:00)

We now have only about an hour left to go, and my apartment officially smells amazing. I just checked on the bird and sprayed it down once more with butter spray, but I don't really want to add broth or anything to the pan, though I'll probably use whatever drippings I get to make some kind of gravy.

So, all signs point to success so far! Check back in with me a little before 6:30 as we enter the home stretch!

UPDATE #2! (@ 6:30)

We're actually probably less than 30 minutes away from checking this bird! I don't have a thermometer, though I probably should invest in one, so I'll have to check it out by cutting into it, but we'll see! Still smelling amazing in here, and the bird is looking good!

I'll give you another update around 7, hopefully by then the bird will be finished and resting! :-)

UPDATE #3 (@ 6:55)

I put the bird back in for just a few minutes to ensure that it's totally done. The instructions/recipe said 2 to 2.5 hours and we just passed the 2 hour mark, so I'm erring on the side of caution and hoping I don't dry it out! :-) My last update will be after the bird is out and rested and sliced to give you a verdict on whether or not this adventure was a success. See you sometime around 7:30!

FINAL UPDATE! (@ 7:30)

Oh. My. Gosh.

This is delicious! I was worried that I had dried it out, but it's perfect! And I don't even have to add salt--the garlic pepper had some in it and made everything taste wonderful.

I think we can check this one off as a success. And garlic pepper was the perfect route--added tons of flavor without having use a bunch of salt. And I only used butter spray, so no major fat added from butter!

I foresee turkey sandwiches and lots of other turkey dishes in the next few days!

I hope this didn't bore you horribly; hopefully I'll have something more exciting to tell you about next week. I can't promise that this will be a live blog every week, but with this being such a long-range project and taking multiple hours to cook, I felt it warranted this format.

So you tell me--was our first Tasty Tuesday a success? What did you think of this "semi-live blog" format?

See you tomorrow!

♥ Marlee