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.

OK, I'll weigh in here, I've had Christmas Eve dinner for 40 for about 25 years in a row now, LOL. I agree with Chase, you'll need more lasagna. And, unless your family is much different than mine, you won't need two green salads, I always have salad left over no matter what kind I make, plus it's messy to try to eat leafy greens while standing. I'd go with the caesar, a fruit salad, cut out the pasta salad and have more lasagna. It's easier to make a lot of one thing, instead of a bunch of smaller things. The cookies can be made ahead and frozen, so can most cakes, just don't frost them. Breads can also be made and frozen, I've even frozen bread dough for up to 3 months and then thawed it and baked it, ditto cookie dough. The kids will go for the mac and cheese, the lasagna and those "pigs in a blanket" or chicken fingers type of dish. You could do an assortment of chicken wings or strips if you want to add chicken. The best advice I can give you is to make everything ahead that you can, even lasagna can be made ahead and frozen. Good luck, relax and have fun. And make sure everyone knows about that peanut allergy if they are providing food and that includes the catered portion. Annie

LOL Nancy, I'm sure those puppies just can't wait for holidays! They'll probably leave hints about Thanksgiving is year round and Christmas in July! Doing gravy in an electric roaster is kind of a personal preference. I think you'd be better off to take the cookwell and put on the stove. A lot depends on the roaster. Nesco does NOT heat from the bottom. They call it the "circle of heat" since it's in all the sides of the unit which helps keep things from burning on the bottom and the heat is more even. My mother used to make the gravy in the roaster. (I don't remember the brand but it was not Nesco) She'd crank it up full blast but as I recall hers had a heating element in the bottom. A cousin takes the cookwell and puts on the stove. Neither of her roasters are Nesco brand. I have the Roast Air attachment that fits my 6 qt. Now THAT will give you nice crispy skin! I used to just cock the top and let a lot of the moisture out and frequently take a baster and pull the juices out to help dry and crisp the skin, which did work. Now I let it cook and then about the last 1/2 hour or so I turn on the fan and even turn up the heat a bit and the convection action will crisp and brown things up. Be warned though, when the fan goes on, it will blast the juices around so you might want to pull some of them out just in case. The convection action also evaporates it more too. I never thought about the gluten issue on prebasted meats. I usually prefer to get a non-basted if I have a choice but the cheap ones usually are injected. Maybe look at organic or something? I'm not sure about that. Should ask my sister about that since she's Celiac but I know she's still confused on a lot of the things related to it.

Rules of thumb with convection are 25° F lower or 10-20 minutes fewer for the same recipe IF it takes less than an hour. If it's longer, like a turkey, there's much less of a difference. Your oven may have quirks, however. Even though convection evens out the air temperature a lot (that's the main point of it), with a fan you can get a hot spot, depending on what is blocking the airflow, how. If you use a deep roaster, there's no problem. If you tent with foil, there's less of an issue than in a short sided open roaster with no cover. For the last method, keep your eye on it so that you don't get one burnt spot, or have the skin way too done and the inside not cooked. Browning happens at 350° F and above. That's one reason that many cakes are baked at 325-330°--those aren't supposed to brown. Be careful with that automatic temperature adjustment that you have something that you want to be nice and caramelized go wan and pale because the oven is second guessing you. It's possible that there's some kind of magic where their fan heat is a lot hotter than the set temperature, but normally that is not the case. Often a large turkey is cooked longer at a lower temperature specifically so it will not brown, then the temperature is raised near the end to make the skin crisp and pretty. A moist environment helps with the crispness. If it gets too brown too fast cover it. I don't use a lot of foil, but a roll of heavy duty foil can get you out of a jam. :) And it's totally recyclable. In your situation, I'd pretend that this wasn't a new to me oven and just cook the danged turkey, ignoring that there was the addition of convection, but I'd put a lot of extra time (like an hour or even more) extra from the start time, and I'd check it as it cooks. That's a good way to learn more about the new oven too. Remember, a turkey needs to rest for a good long time. It's probably the long resting that made those turkeys of Suzanne's so good. If your bird is done way too early, just put some foil over it, and some heavy towels, or let it sit in the cooling oven (if the oven is really cooling, or with the door cracked open). It won't suffer from a good long rest. Wishing you a wonderful meal and much joy from your new range.