Turkey

Don't be a turkey. If a big bird is too much trouble or too much food for your needs, that's no reason to forgo a favorite Thanksgiving treat, not with all the turkey products on the market. For the "new" turkey is the ultimate convenience food -- nutritious, tasty, versatile, economical and quick-cooking.Today there are more than 30 types of turkey products available. Boneless and bone-in turkey breasts, cutlets, steaks, tenderloins, wings and wing drumettes are popular white-meat items.

It's national hamburger month. Just trust me. I guess I better have a hamburger every day and blog about it. Ya with me? Let's get started. Have a look at this photo gallery from a few months back. Not all of them are hamburgers. Some of them are other kinds of burgers, made out of things like turkey, kangaroo and even vegetables. But a few of them are legitimately hamburgers.    

Gothenburg, Sweden -- That's a crazy dateline for a Maryland outdoors column, but what the heck, that's where we are. This town on Sweden's west coast is deep in fish. There's a huge statue in the middle of town of the Greek god Poseidon squeezing the daylights out of a fish locals swear is a cod but I think looks like a shark. There's a fishing museum, but it's closed until spring, which I believe begins July 18 this year. And then there's lutefisk. Don't touch it, let alone taste it. The air-dried fish doctored with lye would take the bugs off headlights.

Comfort food makes us all feel good, but it's usually not so good for our health. But there are ways to tinker with classic recipes to make them a little healthier. This week's recipe, from Bethenny Frankel of the Skinny Girl franchise , does just that. It's her more nutritious version of turkey meatloaf. She describes it as: The comfort of meatloaf without the calories. Hope you like it. If you have a healthy recipe you'd like to share send to andrea.walker@baltsun.com and I'll post it on this blog.

The coverage of the unfortunate incident in the seas near Gaza has focused thus far on whether Israel acted appropriately, with much international condemnation predictably alleging she did not. What is ignored in the typical focus on Israel as the aggressor in any conflict in that part of the world is whether Turkey was justified in what may turn our to be an at least unofficially sanctioned act of provocation. I have read several reports that speculate that Israel's action in enforcing its blockade of Gaza has endangered its relationship with its "closest" friend in the region.

To steal a theme from Ronald Reagan, "It is Thanksgiving again in America," and we are in for a miserable holiday. You know the kind of holiday I'm talking about. Where manners and tradition require you to break bread with people who irritate the living daylights out of you, including the two or three who can be counted on to do something so unpleasant as to make the day dreadfully memorable. The kind of holiday where divorces and remarriages and loans that never got paid back and thank-you notes that were never sent create a seething undercurrent that is as ready to bubble to the surface as the fat under the turkey's skin.

Here are some post-Thanksgiving Day leftovers of local lingo, Baltimore bits, Maryland memos and financial items from beyond the Beltway:LOCAL LINGO: "Devastation of small-capitalization stocks has been the broadest in recent history; from its high point the NASDAQ index is down more than 30 percent vs. S&P 500-index off 18 percent since midyear." (Smith Barney via Rick Faby) . . . "The most sobering current condition is that of the federal government. Historically, federal coffers were full when a slowdown arrived, cushioning bumps when entitlement payouts rose and tax revenues fell.

Leading up to the big Diner reunion on Dec. 10, The Charles is showing a retrospective of Barry Levinson's "Baltimore films. " The screenings begin on Wednesday, Thanksgiving Eve, with "Avalon "(1990).  Ask 10 people what their favorite moment from the movie is, and all 10 will say it's Lou Jacobi's Thanksgiving Day tantrum. Late again for dinner, Jacobi's Uncle Gabe is stunned to discoverer that his family, this time, didn't wait for him. Roger Ebert called "You cut the turkey without me?

Use of Turkish air bases allows U.S. bombers instant access to targets in northern Iraq from safe air space, without having to cross all of defended Iraq first. The Turkish parliament's granting of this right on the second day of the war helped the U.S. aerial campaign, and showed that Turkey has identified the winner and wishes to be found on the safe side.This action, pressed by President Turgut Ozal and opposed by the opposition on grounds of endangering the country, follows Turkey's closure of oil pipelines to Iraq in August.

Few political leaders have had such a clear vision of their nation's place in a changing world as President Turgut Ozal of Turkey. It was no accident that his death of a heart attack Saturday, at age 66, came just after an arduous 12-day tour of five republics in Central Asia with Islamic populations and Soviet pasts. His death leaves a void for Turkey and the free world.Mr. Ozal came to the fore as a politician of the 1980s, the first elected prime minister after a military regime. He championed democracy, secularism and the free market.

The Village Square Cafe is a modest, bright and spotlessly clean place in Roland Park with few pretensions. It understands that delivering the right experience must begin with the owners and run down the line to servers, cooks and bus boys. It seems a simple enough credo for success, and here, they do it well. The lunch menu is understandably heavy on sandwiches, but there are also pizza, wraps and omelets. The great list of sandwiches ranges from $7.95 for the BLT to $9.95 for the half-pound burger and fries, with the other sandwiches, including a stellar Reuben, priced at $8.95.

There is peace on Lake Kittamaqundi. The teenage brothers who write the entertaining 2 Dudes Who Love Food blog posted all the way back in early February about their visit to Rudy's Mediterranean Grill & Diner. The newish big-menu serves breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week but things really get interesting after 4 p.m., when Rudy's rolls out its Turkish menu. The 2 Dudes had traveled to Turkey last year, and they were pretty pleased with what they found at Rudy's.

As an American of Turkic descent, I am outraged Gov. Rick Perry's response to Brett Baier's Turcophobic and twisted question about Turkey ("Turkey rejects Perry comments," Jan. 18). Gov. Perry made a disastrous mistake by saying that Turkey is governed by terrorists, that it shouldn't receive U.S. foreign aid and that its membership in NATO should be questioned. Turkey is the only country in the Middle East whose government is democratically elected by full participation of all of its citizens.

Ravens cornerback Chris Carr is everywhere, all at once. He had played in 97 straight games before being injured in this year's season opener, where he was part of a defense that forced a franchise-record seven turnovers in a 35-7 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. On the field, Carr is praised for his initiative, versatility and camaraderie with his teammates. Off the field, he's spent time interning at a law firm, a profession he plans to pursue after football. Last winter, the engaging political science major from Boise State was presented with the media's Good Guy Award for his accessibility and candor.

FRIDAY'S TELEVISION HIGHLIGHTS M. bask. Florida@Syracuse ESPN7 Cincinnati@Georgia ESPNU7 Vanderbilt@Louisville ESPN9 Auburn@Seton Hall ESPNU9 Washington@Nevada ESPNU11 Bask. NBA D-League: L.A.@Sioux Falls NBA8 Boxing Anthony Dirrell vs. Renan St-Juste SHOW11 C. foot. Clemson@Virginia Tech (T) ESPNU10 a.m. Ohio State@Michigan (T)

In a letter to the editor, the Laurel Boys and Girls Club thanks the National Basketball Players Association and Wizard Andray Blatche for partnering with the club in giving away more than 1,100 turkeys to families in the greater Laurel area. The Laurel Boys and Girls Club would like to thank the National Basketball Players Association and Wizard's own Andray Blatche for partnering with the club in giving away more than 1,100 turkeys to families in the greater Laurel area. Many of the families really appreciated the gratitude of the turkey giveaway.

Turkey can kill the terrorist Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) with firmness toward it and kindness toward Kurds. This it seemed to be doing when the late Turgut Ozal was president and increased Kurdish cultural rights in 1991, and when the PKK called a cease-fire last March. Several things happened. The popularity of PKK went down; Mr. Ozal died; Turkish security forces brutally attacked PKK suspects in southeastern Turkey. The PKK eruption in June is the delayed result.What motivates Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK leader operating from exile in Syria-controlled Lebanon, is unclear.

SOME EXPRESSIONS of Islamic faith that would barely raise an eyebrow in the United States -- wearing a veil in a public building, for instance -- are illegal in Turkey. Adamantly secular since 1923, Turkey has fiercely clung to the image of itself as the modern exception in the Muslim world. Yet modernism has a way of growing old. Long after its big neighbor to the north abandoned the cult of Lenin, Turkey still adorns every office and every piece of money and every school building with the image of Mustafa Kemal, or Ataturk, the founding father who wore wing collars, outlawed the fez, drank raki with gusto -- and scorned what he saw as the irrationality of organized religion.

While some Calvert Hall fans had butterflies in their stomachs before Cardinals kicker Austen Strachan's first point-after try against archrival Loyola in the 92nd Turkey Bowl, coach Donald Davis was the picture of confidence. He had faith in the junior from Lutherville, who missed an extra-point attempt in a 34-32 double-overtime loss to Gilman in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship game last Friday that denied the Cardinals a chance to win in regulation.

Just six days after suffering one of the most emotional defeats of his high school career, Calvert Hall quarterback Thomas Stuart on Thursday returned to the place it all went down -- with one more chance to make it right. Playing on the same Towson University field where his No. 2 Cardinals last week fell to Gilman in double overtime of the inaugural Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference title game, Stuart threw for 252 yards and a pair of touchdowns, helping No. 2 Calvert Hall score the game's final 13 points in a 34-17 win over Loyola in the 92nd Turkey Bowl before an announced 10,080.