and at the eleventh hour...

Plan B for protein prep was chicken Cordon Bleu. I was just starting to prep the chicken this morning when I got a message from a delivery service saying the turkey breast I'd ordered would be arriving between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. I heard the thump of a styrofoam box being dropped at my apartment's door a bit after 11 a.m., so instead of railing at the cosmos for once again yanking my chain by forcing me to start on Plan B without knowing whether Plan A was still in place, I calmly put away my Cordon Bleu ingredients, bagging everything up, then I took out the turkey, worried that it was going to come pre-sliced—something the boss had said would be a deal-breaker (for me, too, frankly, but the way the Coupang ad for the turkey looked made it confusing as to what condition the turkey would be in when it arrived). Luckily, the thing arrived as a huge, sausage-shaped loaf. The outer layer of packaging was essentially a shrink-wrapped plastic case through which a second layer of wrapping was visible; when I opened the plastic wrapping up and palpated the next layer of wrapping, I guessed it was some sort of natural, edible casing. I sliced off a bit of turkey from one end to see what would happen if I ate the breast meat plus this second layer of wrapping. It turned out to be edible, fraying apart in my mouth as I chewed, so the next question was whether to try to peel the natural casing off or leave it on. Out of laziness, and a fear that the turkey would look extremely rough if I tried to peel/rip/cut the casing off, I left everything alone and am currently reheating the turkey in my oven—about 300ºF (149ºC) for around 40 minutes, with the turkey wrapped in foil to prevent too much boil-off of moisture.

Off to the office in a few minutes. I just made whipped cream for the Costco pies we're going to have. I didn't see any pumpkin pies at my Costco, so I bought a pecan-topped walnut pie. My boss, meanwhile, found a pumpkin pie at his Costco in Suwon, so we're set for pies. I had the foresight to cart Thanksgiving side dishes to the office earlier this week, so all I'm taking today will be glazed ham, turkey, whipped cream, and butter for the dinner rolls—nothing heavy. Oh, and the all-important Gravy Master gravy, which turned out perfectly. At a guess, the Gravy Master product is essentially a demi-glace or something demi-glace-adjacent. It comes in tiny bottles because it's extremely concentrated.

Expect photos of the meal much later today. Happy Thanksgiving to my Amurrican peeps.