Christmas Dinner Success

My dear friend John gave me this recipe about a week before Christmas and I can tell you that it was a HUGE Christmas dinner success. I highly recommend you give it a try because even though I thought there would be leftovers for a couple of days, the serving tray was completely clean by the end of the meal!

And the best thing is that I made it the day before and served it cold but it would be just as lovely served hot.

Because I worked Christmas day, but the Fashion Misters children and grandchild were coming over in the evening for dinner, I was trying to think of easy but tasty things to make for dinner. You may remember the salad I made for our modified Thanksgiving. When I got home from work, I quickly but that salad together but without the turkey breast and served it warm.

But the thing everyone commented on the most and cleared out totally was the one thing I had made the day before so that all I had to do was take it out of the fridge and slice it.

Bacon Wrapped Turkey Roulade

Bacon Wrapped Turkey Roulade:

• Turkey breast (I used several chicken breasts as I couldn’t find a decent turkey breast alone)
• Cranberry Sauce
• Feta Cheese
• Prunes (I’m thinking figs would be nice too)
• Bacon or pancetta

On a sheet of baking paper, layout an overlapping layer of bacon or pancetta.

On a second sheet of baking paper place the turkey breast. Fold over the baking paper and pound the breast flat using a mallet, rolling-pin or heavy pan. Flatten to approximately 1 cm (1/2 inch) thickness.

Remove turkey breast from the baking paper and place on top of the bacon.

Spread a thin layer of cranberry sauce over the turkey. Then crumble a good block of feta over the cranberry sauce. About 1/4 in from the end layer a row of pitted prunes. From the same end begin rolling until you reach the opposite end.

Depending on how you want to finish you can either tie string around the roll and place on a flat tray in the oven or you can lift the whole thing into a loaf baking dish. (I used the loaf dish)

Place into a preheated oven at 180C for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Cooking times will vary depending on your over. You can cook hotter and faster but as I was going to serve it cold the next day I went slow and low to get more of a terrine effect.

If serving hot, remove from oven, let rest for 5-10 minutes then slice and serve.

If serving the next day, let cool on a wire rack. Cover and place in refrigerator until needed. Remove from fridge approximately 1 hour before serving. Remove from pan, slice and serve!

This easy treat was such a Christmas dinner success it will make a return visit next year! And probably a hot version for Christmas in July too.

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• Turkey Breast Stuffed with Curry and Cheese Recipe (dinosdiscoveries.com)
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• You Know The Turkey Is Dry WHEN (olympiccellars.blogspot.com)
• Make the Most of Christmas Leftovers (savings.com)
• Inventory: the perfect wine with Christmas dinner (jaderings8.wordpress.com)