This, to me, is one of the most delicious ways to prepare turkey breast, and in the summer it's hard to beat. If you don't want to do this now, cut and paste this and save it for the dog days of summer. There’s a classic European dish of roasted veal breast in tuna sauce, vitello tonnato. Julia Child adapted it for poached turkey breast instead of veal. (It’s much cheaper and more tender, and it works very well.) This recipe is ideal for hot weather, especially for a luncheon for several people. You make the entire recipe a day or two in advance: the day of the lunch, all you have to do is take the dish out of the fridge and, if desired, decorate it a bit. You can serve this dish with a salad, or make sandwiches with it, or just eat it plain. Delicious. If you don’t like capers, leave them out; it’ll still taste great. I’m reproducing the recipe exactly as Julia has it, but I would note that when I made it I found that the Dijon mustard tended to overpower the other ingredients; even though she calls for 2 to 3 tablespoons, I’d start with only 1 tablespoon and add a little more if needed. (I know it takes chutzpah to overrule Julia, but there you have it.) While it calls for poached turkey breast (and I include her directions for poaching a turkey breast) if you just want to try out the sauce, you can ‘cheat’ and go to the deli and get several slices of precooked turkey breast and use that. (I’ve done that ; works great, although it ends up costing about three times as much as poaching a turkey breast on your own.) She makes the point that you don’t serve it as sliced turkey with a sauce on the side; you need to smear each slice with the sauce and let the slices absorb the flavors for a day or two. You can make the sauce in either a blender or a food processor. If you have a food processor, though, the sauce is extremely easy to make. In fact, my Cuisinart has a push-tube with a hole in it that is designed to drip oil at just the right speed for emulsifying with the other ingredients. Tacchino Tonnato from Julia Child’s The Way to Cook (Cold Sliced turkey breast in tuna and anchovy sauce) For 8 or more servings 1 - 7 oz tin (1 cup) tuna packed in water, drained 1 - 2oz tin of flat fillets of anchovies packed in olive oil, drained One-fourth cup capers, squeezed dry The grated peel of one half lemon 2 to 3 tbsp Dijon-type prepared mustard (you may wish to start with just one and add more if needed) 1 large clove of garlic, pureed, then mashed to a very fine paste with one-fourth tsp salt 4 egg yolks 1 to 1 ½ cups or more virgin olive oil Drops of lemon juice Salt and freshly ground white pepper One 6-pound poached turkey breast (recipe follows this one) or 16 to 20 generous but thin slices of cooked turkey breast Decorations: 1/3 cup capers, drained; coarsely chopped parsley; lemon wedges The sauce. Puree the tuna, anchovies, capers, lemon peel, mustard and garlic paste in the machine, then add the egg yolks and puree several seconds, until the mixture has thickened. Finally, with the motor running, start adding the oil in a very thin stream of droplets, and continue without pause until three-fourths of a cup of oil has gone in and the sauce has thickened into a heavy cream. It will not be as thick as mayonnaise, but should hold itself in creamy suspension. Process in one-half cup more of oil, depending on how thick a sauce you wish to have. Season carefully to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper; the sauce should have character, but should not be too strong in taste or it will kill off the turkey. Slicing the turkey. If you are using a poached turkey breast, discard the skin. Carefully remove in one piece the whole side of each breast from the carcass. Cut the meat at a slant crosswise (across the grain) into elegant slices less than 1/8 inch thick. Assembling. Spoon a layer of sauce in the bottom of a serving platter, and arrange the turkey on top, spreading each slice with a coating of sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 to 48 hours before serving. Serving. Let the platter sit at room temperature for 20 minutes to take off the chill. Meanwhile sprinkle on the capers and parsley, and decorate with lemon wedges. Poached Turkey Breast Set up a 6-pound bone-in breast of turkey breast up in a kettle just large enough to hold it comfortably, surround it with 1 cup each of chopped carrots, onions and celery, and a large herb bouquet. Pour in 2 cups of chicken broth, 1 cup of dry white French vermouth or dry white wine, and enough water to cover the breast by ½ inch. Bring to the simmer on top of the stove; skim off the gray scum, which will continue to rise for several minutes. Salt lightly, then cover the pot loosely and maintain at the bare simmer for 2 to 2 ½ hours, adding a little boiling water if the liquid evaporates to expose the turkey. It’s done when a meat thermometer, pushed in to the thickest part of the meat near the shoulder (but not touching bone) reads 162 to 165 F. Let the turkey cool in its broth for at least 30 minutes. Refrigerate uncovered; when chilled, remove the turkey to a covered container.

20 minutes a pound is a good estimate of time but you really should invest in an instant read thermometer....no guessing, pull it out at 155-160 and let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes.

You've started the "how to cook anything turkey related" debate months before Thanksgiving! Ha, no worries. I'll start the ping pong match. Cooking time varies on size and sizes vary so for me, cooking any meat in an oven or BBQ requires a thermometer. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees, start checking the internal temp every 5 minutes at about one hour, and figure anywhere from 1-1.5 hours of total cooking time. When the internal temp reaches 155-160 degrees, it's ready to take out and be tented with aluminum foil for 10 minutes of rest before being carved. If you want to be real spiffy, before slicing, use a boning knife to separate the meat from the ribs, then slice the now boneless hunk of meat vertically. Very nice presentation and the pieces are juicier than if sliced thinly the traditional way. If the breast isn't already brined, you have time to give it a bath in a bowl of salted water before cooking. Doing this will insure moist meat that won't dry out. Google "brine turkey breast" and you'll find out how. Many suggest a variety of ingredients but the important ones can be used alone, water and salt. Rinse it well and dry before cooking. Very easy and very significant results. Even if you only have a few hours to brine the breast, it will make a difference. Remember to put the bowl into the fridge (or put in ice cubes) to keep the meat cold. For an easy path to moist turkey breasts, Trader Joes sells kosher turkey breasts. Apparently, brining is a step used in making it kosher so these need no further treatment and always come out juicy (when not overcooked).

Thank you for your well wishes, Linda. I've decided that widowhood is definitely not for the faint of heart. I've been a member of the club for ten plus years and although I'm a strong and stubborn ole Yankee who tolerates living alone perhaps better than most...there are times when it's more challenging than I would wish. I have no children of my own and the very few relatives that remain are too far away to be part of my active life. My neighbors are a self-absorbed lot not open to sharing much of anything with their own let alone with a single old lady. I learned very early on that married couples of almost any age bracket in this area do not want to socialize with single women...no matter what their age. They're really rather a strange collection and one of these days before I take my final trip...I plan to write about this entire experience. I've lived all over the world and I've never seen a population such as this. I don't know if they're a sign of the times or just a local oddity. Unfortunately...I don't have the option of moving so I just meander through daily life enjoying it through my eyes...giving and helping where I can...and ignoring the lesser attractive parts. It seems to be working! I would love to have some Le Cruset pieces but with the glass top stove...and my own slowly failing eyesight...it's probably safer that I don't. It's beautiful cookware. :-) When I bought this stove I bought a new edition of flat bottomed cookware from Cuisinart that has turned out to be a wonderful asset. It conducts heat very easily and evenly...and performs miraculous fetes over very low temperatures. I think its performance is probably why I've never invested in a crock pot. But once the holidays have passed and shopping becomes less of a physical challenge...I plan to take a look at what's available just to satisfy my need-to-know. Happy Thanksgiving, Linda...and once again...thank you for your help.