Yes, I was at Kroger this morning and they had plenty of frozen turkeys, though no more bone-in breasts. What I haven’t been able to find though is fresh broccoli! I went to three grocery stores between today and yesterday and couldn’t find any, not even the pre-packaged fresh stuff. Not sure what’s up with that.

Yep, I bought too early, paid full price because I kept here about a supposed turkey shortage. Stores I've been to since have been stocked full of turkeys, even the Butterballs are on sale for $0.99/lb. Oh well. {shrug}

aldi

Tried Aldi today, the smallest they had was 12 lbs. and it was like a Butterball, injected. That's fine but for three people I was hoping to find just an unfrozen, (or even frozen) small all natural one. All natural meaning not injected with anything, just a small bird. Even the gourmet market had nothing, not even lobster tails for surf and turf. Hubs and I usually do chicken for T-day since it is usually just us. But we have that often. Dad likes turkey soup so I was hoping to find any type of small one but no luck. I'm just not up for fussing with all the left overs from a big bird. Next year I may get more motivated to seek out a small, fresh one.

There still seems to be plenty of everything at my Meijer today. Cases of frozen turkeys, both Butterball and Honeysuckle White and the Meijer brand, and a few fresh turkeys, but no small ones other than frozen. I didn't look for lobster tails but they did have shrimp on sale for shrimp cocktail, although it's frozen. I picked up sweet potatoes for 25 cents a pound, potatoes for 99 cents a 5 pound bag, cranberries for 99 cents a 12 ounce package. I passed on the Cream of Mushroom soup and Ocean Spray cranberry sauce that was down the center aisle, and noticed there were plenty of spiral sliced hams and rack of lamb was on sale, although I didn't buy either of those. The most expensive item I purchase on a regular basis seems to be the Diet Coke and it's not really food at all.

Annie

"The most expensive item I purchase on a regular basis seems to be the Diet Coke and it's not really food at all."

No, you are wrong. Diet Pepsi is food so the same must be true for Diet Coke. :0p

Well, that just makes me feel a lot better. (grin) I wince when I buy a gallon of organic milk for $4.99, but regularly pay $5.99 for a 12 pack of coke, plus 10 cents per can deposit without questioning.

L, I was thinking of you today. I stopped at Meijer on my way to Mother's to pick up some groceries. My brother wanted a small turkey that he could roast for himself and Mother at some future time. I found one that was 9.3 pounds for 99 cents per pound. It was JennieO and was one of the fresh/never frozen birds.they were not there on Monday when I did my grocery shopping, so maybe they put them out just on time for the holidays. As I was picking through the pile for the smallest one, I overheard another customer asking where she would find "vegetarian turkey". The worker assured her they had plenty of options and pointed them out to her. I think they were all frozen, though.

Annie

Yes, I actually went to Meijers Wed. and found fresh (not frozen) turkeys that were smaller. I got an 8.5 lb one, which was the JennieO. We had given up and I was either going to do a duck for dad and I and a cornish hen for hubs, or everyone getting cornish hens or doing a whole chicken. They didn't have any roasting chickens but this turkey was not much bigger so that's what I got. I'm quite happy at this point since I will have the carcass for our traditional turkey barley soup. Still no lobster tails but I won't miss them. Plus we had thought about prime rib, but the smallest roast was 45 bucks, so "surf and turf" was just out, not practical.

OT, I was going to make dad's favorite pie, pecan, but the ingredients were more expensive than an already made pie. I am happy about that actually, as I dislike making pie . . . Otherwise, I got everything I wanted for the meal at a very reasonable price, IMHO. I don't go overboard on the menu items because with just the three of us, all that work would go to waste. I am making a jello cranberry mold for dad, a recipe of Mom's I found yesterday. (Although to my knowledge she never made it). I'm no jello fan but as jello salads go, it's fairly benign. Just orange jello, whole cranberry sauce, crushed pineapple and I added chopped apple. So that was my menu items with the highest "hands on" component. I also got fresh MI cranberries but I'll save those for muffins or some other stuff later on . . .

They also had good looking asparagus on sale, so I'm serving that instead of our home grown frozen green beans. Luckily no one in my tribe waxes nostalgic about green bean casserole.

Reporting back that the "JennieO" "fresh" turkey was one of the weirdest birds I have ever cooked. I'm generally not a fan of that "brand" of turkey but it's all they sell at my local grocery store. The other fresh turkeys I have had were from a farm market and were at least semi-local. This one took forever to cook, 3.5 hours which was one hour longer than the longest time I had seen recorded for cooking such a bird, (8.15 lbs at 15 min. per lb., 350 degrees do the math) and still I couldn't get the meat thermometer to read 160 even though the outside was clearly overdone even though I tented it with foil most of the time. Maybe my oven was pulsing, I don't know. Almost no pan juices too, so the gravy tasted like overdone turkey skin . . . It might have been injected with something too, I didn't read the package that closely before I threw it out. It wasn't a very meaty bird either, so who knows what kind of life and death that bird lived and met. Next year if I have to do this again I am seeking out a local turkey producer one way or the other. I actually live about 45 min. from a town called "Turkeyville" for a reason, so I should have planned this out better . . .

Everything else was delish, IMHO. My Dad complained he had no appetite, I made too much food, hubs carved the turkey wrong, no whipped cream for the pecan pie, and our dog is getting fat. So that was fun . . . not. But it's his usual personality, he has an anxiety disorder that he refuses treatment for, so the nit picking, obsessions, and catastrophic outlook are just thing we have to endure in his company. He very effusively said thank you upon leaving, so he can't help himself with all the rest.