Each Thanksgiving MessyMom thinks of a flavor to blend through our dinner meal. Usually the girls pick some fresh orangesoff our tree and we incorporate orange zest, orange peel, orange juice, etc… This year our lingering taste was that of sage. Sage is actually a member of the mint family. It is commonly grown as a kitchen and medicinal herb or as an ornamental garden plant.

*NOTE: For these recipes you’ll need 1C chopped onion (combined), so you can chop one tennis-ball sized onion and have enough to split between the 2 dishes.

Herb Roasted Turkey Breast with Pan Gravy

Ingredients

1/2 C onion, coarsely chopped
1 tsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp sage
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 fresh bay leaves
4 tablespoons butter
4-6 lb turkey breast
Salt and pepper
2 TB flour

Turkey

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray a roasting pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Mix chopped onion, lemon juice and sage.
3. Stir in the olive oil and a shake of salt. Set aside.
4. Put the bay leaves and butter into a small saucepan and heat over medium-low heat until the butter is melted. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Rinse turkey and pat dry. Remove anything from cavity, if necessary. Put the turkey breast on a work surface.
6. Carefully run your fingers between the skin and the flesh from 1 end, being careful not to pull it completely off, creating a pocket.
7. Stuff the herb/olive oil mixture under the skin and spread evenly. Season the turkey breast with salt and pepper.
8. Remove the bay leaves from the butter and place in center of roasting pan. Transfer the breast to the roasting pan. (The heat while cooking will release the bay leaf oils and flavor the turkey.)
9. Pour half of the bay butter over the top of the turkey.
10. Place the turkey in the oven and decrease the temperature to 400 degrees F.

(Start stuffing here, see recipe below…)

11. After 40 minutes, pour the remaining butter over the turkey breast. Roast for an additional hour or until cooked through.
12. Remove turkey from oven, transfer to a platter, cover with lid or aluminum foil, and let rest for 15 minutes before carving while you make the gravy.

Gravy

1. Pour juices from the hot roasting pan into a saucepan. Heat over burner on medium heat.
2. Sprinkle 1 TB flour over the pan juices, and cook, stirring constantly, for a minute.
3. Add another TB flour and cook, stirring constantly, for a minute.
4. Bring to a simmer and stir until thickened.

Slice the turkey breast on the diagonal, and serve with warm gravy.

Sage Whole Wheat Stuffing

To make our Thanksgiving stuffing, MessyMom saves the ends of our loaves of bread for a few months. For some reason the kids here don’t like the first or last piece of bread. They call it the “butt”. The bread butts line our freeze door and get used for french toast, bread pudding and stuffing.  The night before Thanksgiving they get defrosted and recycled into a yummy stuffing side dish!

Ingredients

12-16 slices stale whole wheat bread
1C finely chopped onion
1C finely chopped celery
3/4 C chopped pecans
1 tsp sage
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 beaten egg white
8 oz. sage flavored sausage
3 1/2 C chicken broth (ours is organic free range chicken broth)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. Spray a 2-quart casserole dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
3. Take 8 slices of the bread and tear them into small pieces. Place the pieces in a food chopper, and process into coarse crumbs. Measure the crumbs. There should be 4 cups (adjust amount if necessary).
4. Take remaining slices of bread and cut into 1″ cubes. There should be 4 cups (adjust amount if necessary).
5. Place bread crumbs and cubes in a mixing bowl.
6. Add onions, celery, pecans, sage, black pepper and egg white. Mix well.
7. Brown sausage in a small pan and break apart into crumbles with spatula as it cooks.
8. Stir sausage into stuffing mixture.
9. Slowly add the broth as you continue stirring. Loosely spoon stuffing into your prepared dish.
10. Bake uncovered for 45 minutes.

Enjoy your sage infused special meal!