Last week Mike and I hosted our first Thanksgiving. I wrote about it HERE but I didn't talk too much about the menu because I'm not an expert home chef/photographer and there are restaurants and authentic food blogs for that kind of thing.
But.
I can be sappy and I'd like to chronicle what we had that night. It was a special evening with special people. The food was not burned and no one {that we know of} got sick so let's remember the menu.
Appetizers?
- We went classy: softened cream cheese covered in red pepper jelly with Ritz {Trader Joe's brand, actually} crackers to eat it with. SO good.
- There was also some swiss/gouda/white cheddar mix from our CSA that was eaten mid-day whilst we were cooking and watching football.
- A friend brought over home-made eggrolls that so did not survive even ten minutes on our coffee table.
Side note: Mike's family eats Thanksgiving dinner earlier in the day. My family always makes it more of a European dinner sometimes daring to dip down into 8 PM eating times. We compromised {kind of out of necessity because running a turkey trot and then setting in for some cooking does not make for an early meal time} which was great because I DO NOT appreciate an overly indulgent meal right before bed time {for many reasons} and we ended up sitting down at around 7; enough time for seconds of dessert right before bed {despite what I said above about not enjoying late meals...}.
Turkey
Our CSA had access to turkeys so we got one from there. It came from
Joel Salatin's
farm, if you know who he is. If not, don't worry about it. Just know that it was good. I brined it overnight and then loosely followed a Martha Stewart roasting recipe, though I did not stuff the bird or make her gravy.
I will say that though the brining was challenging because we don't own any large buckets {I placed the bird and its brine double-bagging-style into two oven baking bags [available in the aluminum foil area of the grocery store], tied it up, and placed the package in a large roasting pan in the refrigerator [to catch any leaks]} but it wasn't
that much of a pain and I appreciate the results {fairly juicy and flavorful turkey}.
The roasting recipe includes soaking several pieces of cheesecloth in white wine and melted butter which was decadent but a} it helped keep the top of the bird moist {you drape it over Mr. Turkey for the first part of roasting} and b} you're supposed to go over-the-top on holidays, no?
 |
| I ripped off a piece of skin to taste-test it. |
One other caveat; our bird was
heirloomy in its turkiness {
I actually just looked it up now...} and I think that paired with the brine, they may take a bit longer to cook than conventional fowl AND the extra salt almost cures the meat a bit so it takes on a pinkish hue which can be Very Alarming and Frustrating after four to five hours of cooking but do not make it cook for longer, it's just fine.
Brining recipe
HERE.
Roasting suggestions
HERE.
My Mother-in-law made her delicious gravy but I don't have the recipe right now...though I know where she lives.
The Main Courses
1. Turkey; see above.
2.
Swiss Chard and Sweet Potato Gratin, though I used kale in place of Swiss chard. SO GOOD. Anything with this much Gruyére and Bechamel sauce can't be bad.
3.
Turnip Gratin. SO GOOD. Again, anything with this much Gruyére and butter, even if it involves turnips, can't be bad.
4. My Mother-in-Law's Amish stuffing. SO GOOD. No recipe available though, like the gravy, I know where she lives. It involved bacon and sausage, another infallible combination.
5. Mashed taters. Yum!
6. My Mother-in-Law's Mother's cranberry relish. SO GOOD.
7. My family's
Ambrosia.
Not pictured: MIL's gravy {delish!} and Brother-in-Law's rolls {flaky and buttery!}.
To Imbibe
My in-laws spent several weeks in Italy in September, some of that time being in a villa that has its own wine cellar {poor things, they hated every minute of it} so they kindly sent ahead several bottles of red and white wine to us here in DC to save and enjoy together on Thanksgiving.
Dessert!
There aren't any pictures but here's what we had:
- Mother-in-Law made two pecan pies to appease the troops; it's a favorite in these parts.
- I made pumpkin cheesecake.
- A friend brought over pumpkin bread.
- Homemade whipped cream with a splash of vanilla.
Leftovers
The Depression Era Granny in me sometimes beats out the millennial-me-me-me Me and I ended up with two delicious dishes, though there were plenty of cold-salted turkey sandwiches and pie and cheesecake for breakfast.
1. Amish turkey noodle soup, thanks, again, to my multi-talented MIL. Yum. We ate it the night I made it and then I froze the left-overs in two batches so that's three whole dinners for you there {not counting the original turkey itself}.
2.
Turkey and sweet potato Biryani. This was also quite tasty but not quite as plentiful as the soup and it gave us dinner, lunch, and a small dinner side the next night.
Plating
Also, we used our colorful wedding
Fiesta Ware.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to everyone who showered us with love and bright eating pottery back when we were getting hitched.
I LOVE having generic yet incredibly aesthetically pleasing {to me, at least} plates that I can use for every ocasion. Again, Depression Era Granny in my {here-to-forth known as DEG} tells me that buying holiday-specific-things-that-are-supposed-to-be-useful {plates, for example} is a waste {she obviously hasn't been to Target recently}...was I REALLY born in the 1908s?
Woah. It was a glorious day and I'm so happy we hosted. I'm also so excited for future holidays together!
xoxo, natty ♥
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