Where’s the Beef?!

Or to be more precise, ”Where’s the white meat?” I saw an sign in my local grocery store the other day for an early Thanksgiving special on for frozen turkeys and, like many signs I see, it got me thinking.

How often have you gone to a Thanksgiving dinner and said, “Wow, look at the size of that bird!” or “I can’t believe she bought such a big bird”.  But how big is that bird really? Butterball has a calculator to help you find how much to buy for your crowd.

For arguments sake, let’s say you get a 15 pound frozen turkey, how much actual meat are you getting for your dollar?  I’d argue that once you defrost the turkey, cleaned out the giblets, and cooked it you’ve already reduced the weight by at least 25% bringing the new weight to 11.25 lbs. Now we have to figure the weight of all the bones, remaining fat that’s trimmed and what are you really left with? I’ll be nice and say that knocks it down another 25% of it’s weight, leaving you with 7 lbs of actual edible meat.

Now remember, you paid $.54/pound for that frozen 15 lb bird, or $8.10 before tax. Well with the meat you have left you’re now at $1.08/pound which is still dirt cheep, compared to chicken or ground beef.

The moral of this story is, well there is no moral…turkey is cheep and in abundance so bring me some…NOW!

Thanksgiving, ACT 1: The Snippy Cashier at the Wild Flower Bakery

Tuesday. Our trip starts off in the dark, pre-dawn hours of 6am as we loaded up the car and pushed off from Maryland. 6:09am ET was the actual time, but like the airlines, we are "on-time" as long as we have the passengers (wife and dog) out of the gate (front door) by the stated departure time.

We decided not to risk the I-95 corridor on this trip and took the "back roads" of I-66, I-81, I-40 and, I-75 on in to Marietta. The traffic was light, the weather was steady and we made good time, stopping in Manassas and Abingdon, VA for gas (The E was pushing about 27 mpg which is just above it's 26mpg rating).

During the stop at Abingdon, we had lunch at the Subway at the gas station but upon exiting noticed that there was a charming little bakery/cafe across the street, just before the highway on-ramp. We decided to tickle our sweet tooths and stopped in. There selection was small but fresh and we picked out a turkey-shaped cookie with some really yummy icing. Being a small place they only took cash but I didn't have any on me so the wife had to go back to the car and get her wallet. While she was out, I was making small talk with the cashier (I think she was also the owner) who was nice enough. The wife came back in and paid ($1.05 w/tax) and when I asked the cashier if they were open on Sunday because we were going to be back through town she said "No. We're CLOSED on Sundays!"

If it were really busy and we were holding up a huge line waiting to pay then I might understand. Or if she had a large dog gnaughing at her ankle, I might understand. But here I was just being nice and saying that I'd like to give you more business and she bites my head off. Well needless to say I bit the cookie's head off instead and vowed never to go back. As it turns out the cookie was really good so I might have to lift that life time ban on my business if I ever pass through again (not on a Sunday though!)