BLT Turkey Salad — The Quiet Week After Thanksgiving, Stretched Into Something Good

Last week of November. The ash trees are bare. The sky is the Nebraska winter gray — not dark, not light, just a flat gray that settles in and does not apologize. I drove two runs this week and one of them Tuesday had a real wind advisory for crosswinds on I-80, and I held the wheel in both hands for three hours between Grand Island and North Platte and was reminded that the truck is heavier than anything a wind can do but the wind does not know that. Crosswinds are the quiet enemy of winter trucking. I wrote a whole paragraph in the cookbook about crosswinds.

I sent Sarah the second revision Monday at 9 a.m. She emailed back Tuesday: "I'm going to need a minute with this. It's really close." Really close. I know what that means. It means the book is almost done. It means Sarah thinks the book is almost done. It means that at some point this week or next, I will get an email that says "I think we're ready," and then the book goes to the copy editor and then it gets designed and then it gets printed. A book is a thing that is made by many hands. The writer's hands are the first ones. There are many others.

Amber started working on her UNK enrollment paperwork this week — housing forms, roommate preferences, course registration, financial aid. She sat at the kitchen table with a laptop and a stack of forms and a concentration that I would describe as military. She chose a dorm that is "quiet" (Amber's word; also Amber's preference) and a roommate-assignment questionnaire that will absolutely be ignored by the university but that she filled out with the care of a woman designing a cabinet. She has decided on a focus within social work: she wants to work with children in foster care and adoption transitions. She did not tell me directly. I read a draft of an essay she wrote for a scholarship application and I saw the sentence. I put the essay down. I went outside. I stood on the back porch in 38-degree air for five minutes. I came back in. I said, "Amber, this essay is wonderful." She said, "Thanks, Mom." She did not look up. She did not need me to say more. She did not need me to say less. She knew what she had written and she knew I had read it and the moment was between us and it did not need words.

Christmas is four weeks away. I pulled the Christmas box down from the attic Saturday. Dave watched me balance on the ladder and said, "I should be doing that." I said, "Your back." He said, "I should be doing that anyway." I said, "I know." He held the box when I brought it down. Marriage. Forty-one years from now we will do exactly this. I am already there.

The week after Thanksgiving always lands on me the same way — the house is a little quieter, the refrigerator is full of things that need to become something, and I don’t have much left in me for complicated. With Amber bent over her college forms at the kitchen table and Dave hovering near ladders he’s not supposed to climb, what I needed was a meal that did not ask anything of me except to put it together. This BLT Turkey Salad is exactly that: leftover turkey, a handful of real ingredients, nothing that requires more from you than you have. Some weeks, that’s the whole point.

BLT Turkey Salad

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 0 min | Total Time: 15 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 3 cups cooked turkey, chopped or shredded
• 6 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 large head romaine lettuce, chopped
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
• Croutons for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Make the dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, garlic powder, salt, and pepper until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed.
2. Prep the ingredients. Chop the romaine into bite-sized pieces and place in a large salad bowl. Halve the cherry tomatoes and add them to the bowl along with the chopped turkey.
3. Add the bacon. Crumble the cooked bacon over the salad. If you are cooking bacon fresh, let it drain on paper towels and cool slightly before crumbling.
4. Dress and toss. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss gently until everything is evenly coated. Add shredded cheddar if using.
5. Serve. Divide into bowls and top with croutons if desired. Serve immediately while the lettuce is crisp.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 380 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 22g | Carbs: 8g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 620mg