My holiday meal plan, but how to pull it off?

dbhost

Well-known member
As mentioned in plenty of places here, I am a recent widower, and I am dreading doing the holidays with, well honestly anybody this year. I want to be alone on the beach where she would have wanted to be. But I also have ZERO interest in putting on even a scaled down holiday meal spread. So here is my thoughts...

My favorite Tamale place does Turkey breast Tamales for Thanksgiving. I know it sounds wierd, but hear me out...

Reheat some turkey tamales, need to rig up some kind of double boiler / steamer. I am thinking aluminum foil balls in a dutch oven, or a medium pot on the camp stove to properly reheat the tamales, refried beans, and Margaritas.

Did I happen to mention we are Texans?

For Christmas I am planning on pre cooking and taking frozen set down to thaw Turkey breast, canned Turkey gravy, and foil packet candied sweet potato, and IF they have them again, our local grocery has a small single serve green bean casserole ready to heat and eat. I think that is about as fancy as I want to go...

Any other ideas for super simple to make / reheat holiday meals for one in camp? I am definately entertaining ideas... Traditional or Tex Mex traditional doesn't matter...
 

NatersXJ6

Explorer
Sorry to hear of your loss. Understanding that you may not be appropriately motivated to spend time in society at the holidays, I can offer a few suggestions from my single days living far from family:

1) Turkey can be cut up frozen with a hacksaw and thawed and roasted in small portions. Basically grilled just like chicken and you’re good to go.

2) If you have a Dutch oven, you can roast / bake anything, including portioned leftovers from a home roasted turkey.

3) Buy just a single turkey breast and smoke or grill it.

It might not seem like the best idea emotionally, but finding a group to join up with can go a long way tolift your spirits.
 

dbhost

Well-known member
Sorry to hear of your loss. Understanding that you may not be appropriately motivated to spend time in society at the holidays, I can offer a few suggestions from my single days living far from family:

1) Turkey can be cut up frozen with a hacksaw and thawed and roasted in small portions. Basically grilled just like chicken and you’re good to go.

2) If you have a Dutch oven, you can roast / bake anything, including portioned leftovers from a home roasted turkey.

3) Buy just a single turkey breast and smoke or grill it.

It might not seem like the best idea emotionally, but finding a group to join up with can go a long way tolift your spirits.

You betcha I have a dutch oven. 2 of them actually. A rebranded Lodge (Outdoor Gourmet but it has Lodge stampings) 8 quart, and an Ozark Trail 5 quart. The Outdoor Gourmet is in a carry bag and houses most of my kitchen little stuff like can opener, measuring cups and spoons, whisk, potato masher which I have no idea why I have one etc...

For me the holidays are, well extra sucky without her. We had no children due to repeated miscarriages, my side of the family is in Oklahoma (with serious marital problems of their own I don't want to be in the middle of) or in the Pacific Northwest. I am starting a new job in a week and will not have built up any leave time yet. So long distance travel is really out of the question for me. Overlanding activities for me will be beach oriented here in TX where I can get 4g / 5g and WiFi so I can remote work and still get back in for my hybrid days...

Once deer season is over, I will head over into the national forest to the hunters camps. Probably bring one of those hitch relocators to raise up my hitch haul, so I can carry hunters trash out of the woods.

There are 2 4wd clubs near me, both of which do day runs at most. I am not really interested in pushing my rig to the limit. I am interested in going off the paved road to see things that most will not see. Don't get me wrong, wheeling a Jeep is a ton of fun, been there, done that, but I am seeking quiet beautiful spaces.

There USED to be a singles / widows / widowers camping group I was involved with when I was single. I lost touch with all but one of them, most have married off, or a few unfortunates are no longer with us. I would love to camp with them, but most of them are stuck to state parks and paved roads.

Not even sure how to find a group that does "chill off road camping".

I am wide open for suggestions. However, for these particular holidays, I do fully plan on being antisocial because I fully expect them to be ugly for me...

Oh I have come up with a better idea for Christmas dinner, more expensive, but easier to deal with given my gear.

Rosemary seared lamb shank (pre seasoned, pre cooked, frozen, just thaw, dump into the DO and set coals for 300 deg for about an hour to get it heated back up.

Bottled / canned brown gravy, with dried rosemary. Take 1 jar of gravy, put in small saucepan, 1 Tbsp dried rosemary garlic seasoning. I think it is Tonnes. Mix well and heat slowly until thoroughly heated.

Cup o dehydrated mashed potatoes, rehydrated of course... Easy as pie.

Foil packet candied sweet potato.

Soft dinner rolls.

Some sort of pie. I would like a slice of pumpkin pie, but I am not hauling a pumkin pie down to PINS. If anyone Houston Metro knows where I can buy a, well Hostess pie size slice of pumpkin pie to go, please let me know. Our Kellys Country Cookin burned down this past spring so that idea is gone... (They would pack up a nice slice of pumpkin pie for you to go...)

The other option is a small ham. Nothing like cooking up pork to celebrate the birth of a Jewish baby. Always struck me as an odd twist of tradition.
 

dbhost

Well-known member
So I was grocery shopping at Aldi yesterday, I came across the score of a lifetime. a 2.5 or 3 lb Turkey breast in the freezer section. Not huge by any stretch of the imagination, it is small enough I can roast it pretty quickly even in the tiny Coleman oven or a dutch oven. Foil packet candied yams, Dehydrated mashed potatoes and canned gravy, Stove Top stuffing, and I still need to figure out pumkin pie for one. Our local grocery sells half pies during the holidays. I think that might be as good as I will get...

Now the big problem. Friends being persistent wanting me to go to their family thanksgiving. Not sure how to tell them I actually want and kind of need these particular days alone. Kind of my way to honor her by doing what she would have wanted to do. Admittedly she still would have knocked her brains out for home made stuffing ahead of time ready to bake but I am fine with Stove Top...
 

Peneumbra2

Badger Wrangler
If you don't want to use a hacksaw to cut up a turkey, I suggest trying a chainsaw. Much quicker (but you might have to wipe the bar oil off the turkey).
My traditional Thanksgiving meal is Prairie-Dog-On-A-Stick. Easy to make, and not much clean-up...
 

NatersXJ6

Explorer
If you don't want to use a hacksaw to cut up a turkey, I suggest trying a chainsaw. Much quicker (but you might have to wipe the bar oil off the turkey).
My traditional Thanksgiving meal is Prairie-Dog-On-A-Stick. Easy to make, and not much clean-up...

Lol. That brings back some memories of butchering a deer one winter in my dads unheated wood shop. Everything was fine until the spring when we realized the hard way that nobody cleaned the band saw!
 

NatersXJ6

Explorer
Now … Friends being persistent wanting me to go to their family thanksgiving. Not sure how to tell them I actually want and kind of need these particular days alone. Kind of my way to honor her

Count yourself lucky to have such friends. They are probably genuinely interested in your well-being. As such, they should completely respect your wishes when you tell them that you need and want the time to yourself.

As a side note… dried mashed potatoes? Please don’t! Boiling a couple of potatoes and mushing them with a little milk and butter is something like 3% more work than boiling and stirring flakes. You’re not backpacking! Go all in!

And, use great caution not to dry-out your turkey breast. I highly recommend brining in a cider-based brine prior to roasting. The Rachael Ray recipe is really good and can be found on Google. Small adjustments to fit what you have on hand spice-wise are fine, and then put it all in a zip-loc for a few days before you go. Trust me, it is worth your time.
 

dbhost

Well-known member
Is on the mashed potatoes thing. My concern there was simply fuel usage however I do plan on having a campfire and I can bring my campfire great I hate the ones in me one's in the parks I will fold them out of the way and actually use my own. If I can get the water to a rolling boil and keep it there absolutely not a problem But I am going with £1 propane bottles bottles and I was kind of worried with the amount of time potatoes take yet might be a bit hard on fuel uses all.

And actually I do count myself very lucky to have the friends that I do. Yes there is distance from the years every everyone kind of wandered away and and kind of back-and-forth after everyone started getting married but I know the core group of friends that I have and to say that they've got my back and I've got theirs is an understatement. I think it was Tracy Lawrence maybe maybe that had a song called find out who your friends are who your friends are and literally my friend and I are very much like that.

I've literally gotten up at 2:00 in the morning because my buddy finally was able to get a cell signal, and had his wrangler axle deep in mud 2.5 hours away...
 

Errant

Explorer
How about baking the potatoes ahead of time? Then reheat and mash and add whatever you like to them in camp? I've done stacked Dutch ovens when doing camping holiday meals and it worked out great.

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