Simple Seasonings make for a Beautiful Turkey

Story by: Chef Julie Culpepper

I wonder sometimes why turkey is only celebrated during the holidays. I guess anything besides the sliced deli style turkey is considered too much trouble. One of my favorite memories of Thanksgiving past is my mom cooking Thanksgiving dinner. She always saved the little bag of giblets and simmered its contents with fresh celery and onion. I was the youngest of eight siblings while growing up. It was first come-first serve at my house-meaning that if you really liked something, you'd better eat it before someone else found it. It would spark trouble sometimes but most of the time we managed to share the spread pretty well. But for some reason, no one seemed to lay claim on those giblets.

It was a free ticket for me as far as I can remember. It was so nice to east as much of them as I wanted without having to compete for it! I even loved the veggies and broth that resulted from the long simmer. Now I've learned the health benefits of occasionally indulging in organ meats and the fresh homemade broth. There's lots of things we ate as kids growing up in the country that I believe kept us strong and healthy and out the doctor's office to my mom's relief.

I loved to pick honeysuckle and many times tried to get enough of those little drops of honey out of it to drink a big sip from a thimble. There's no telling what kind of antioxidants and nutrients are in honeysuckle droplets. We also knelt down often at a fresh water spring coming up out of the woods near the creek we playing in for a deep drink. It grew lots of fresh water cress. I always tried to chew on some peppery sprouts with my cool refreshing drink of that water in the hot summertime.

Those are great summertime memories for me. We were rich and didn't know it. But my favorite cool weather memory is the giblets from a fresh whole turkey. I still don't share with anyone except my dog, Ellie Mae nowadays! Since I've started using the wonderful Ultra-premium olive oils , I've created a simple, healthy rub for my turkey that is one of the best ever. I don't want it on my giblets, but I've created a new favorite holiday memory when it comes to roasted holiday turkey! I hope you enjoy it as you try some new holiday recipes.

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