Belated Boo!

Now that we are preparing for Thanksgiving I realized I haven't even posted our Halloween photos ... I'm a little slow these days =). Anna was very excited about Halloween this year and we were the first family out "Trick o' Treating" in our neighborhood. Benji had to warm up to what we were doing but after a few houses he got the hang of things and would go up to doors with Anna.

Today was probably one of the most exciting days in Anna's life: she received her very own "big girl bike". Anna was very lucky that her cousin Emma was sweet enough to part with her bike and pass it along to Anna (Uncle Matt works for Trek Bikes). Anna waited patiently for it to come in the mail from Wisconsin and it was worth the wait! She has big plans to ride all around our neighborhood tomorrow =).

It was already dark when the bike arrived and we couldn't make her wait!

Anna had a Thanksgiving Day Feast at her school for lunch today. I signed up to bring the turkey this year and opted to make a large breast instead of a whole turkey too make things easier on myself. I think this little preschool turkey is the best turkey I've ever made! Last year I made a beautiful turkey for Thanksgiving that I brined in advance and took all of the measures to ensure it wouldn't be dry. Well, it was pretty good but the breast I made today was delicious and SO much easier. I'm bad at writing things down as I go but I'm pretty sure these measurments are accurate for my recipe:

• 1 31/2 to 4 pound turkey breast ( I used a Foster Farms breast from Costco that already had a little bit of herb seasoning on it)
• 4 TB butter softened and mixed with 2 TB each of finely chopped sage and thyme
  
• 3/4 cup chicken broth
• 2 whole carrots
  
• 1 onion
• sprig of thyme
• kosher salt

Brown Sugar Rub:

• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 TB kosher salt
• 1 TB smoked paprika
• 1/2 TB ground coriander
  
• 1/2 tsp ground pepper

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Take turkey breast out of packaging and remove net if it has one. Place turkey in a 9" x 13 " roasting/casserole dish and pat dry. Gently lift skin up and season breast under the skin with kosher salt (eye ball it) then rub herbed butter on breast meat under the skin. Next, rub the outside of the skin with a small amount of softened butter or vegetable oil (just enough to make the rub stick, about 1/2 TB). With your hands rub the brown sugar rub all over the outside of the breast on top of the skin. Place 2 chopped carrots, 1 chopped onion and the sprig of thyme around the breast and pour 3/4 cup chicken broth into the roasting pan. Roast breast uncovered for about 1 hour and 10 minutes to 1 hour 30 minutes or until meat thermometer reads 165 degrees. If it takes more than 1 hour 15 minutes to roast the turkey you'll need to cover it with foil during the last 15 minutes so the skin doesn't become to dark. Let turkey breast set 20 minutes before carving. Reserve the pan drippings to make gravy. This really is good!