A favorite holiday movie in our home is A Christmas Story. When Ralphie says descriptively, "Now it is well known in the midwest that the Old Man is a turkey junky--a bonafide golly turkaconis freak", Ralphie could easily be describing me! Autumn is my favorite season, and I have to slyly admit that's it's mostly because it is the official season of the turkey. That's how bad I am.
Growing up, turkey was served on two holidays--Thanksgiving and Christmas. The rest of the year we didn't have turkey much. Consequently, when it was served the turkey leftovers were used up completely over the week following the turkey dinner. My favorite use was when the turkey was sliced and put into grilled turkey sandwiches made just like a grilled cheese sandwich except with turkey instead of cheese. I have a purist's palate so the only thing on my sandwich was the turkey (white meat only please) and a dash of salt. That's it. I was in heaven.
Now thanks to the amazing deli turkey selection at the store, I can have turkey any time of year. Grilled turkey sandwiches taste best with carved turkey from a home-roasted bird, but I will happily settle for one stacked with fresh deli turkey.
Interestingly, it wasn't until only a few years ago that I discovered one of the reasons that I probably love the sandwiches so much. It turns out that turkey is a great food to boost neurotransmitters in a brain like mine that is short on serotonin. And if made with whole grain bread (I like Milton's whole wheat bread), there's an additional boost from the whole wheat! That's probably why, as a kid, I loved the sandwiches so much that I would crave them. My body and brain were loving all the fantastic turkey goodness!
Okay... now I want a grilled turkey sandwich... That or turkey and rice soup... Honey, we need to roast a turkey!
