Thanksgiving feast
Last Thursday was my third Thanksgiving away from home, and each year I’ve become progressively more willing to tackle a proper turkey dinner.
My first Thanksgiving on my own was a complete disaster. I cooked a turkey breast — well, actually I didn’t cook it enough — and it tasted horrible to boot, so anything remotely edible has been an improvement.
Here’s my spread from this year’s feast, most of which was cooked the day of (though some dishes can be prepared in advance):
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Pictured (clockwise left to right): Garlic and herb mashed potatoes, Harris Teeter sweet potato pie, sage encrusted roasted turkey, orange bourbon cranberry sauce, herb bundt pan stuffing, Southern style green beans with bacon and macaroni and cheese.
So, yes, it was a massive undertaking that spanned the greater portion of two days (if you include prep time) but there were three highlights for me.
First, the cranberry sauce was phenomenal. Very few people enjoy cranberry sauce, and I think it’s mostly because the slurping, disgusting noise it makes when you coax it out of the can is pretty darn unappealing, but this was otherworldly.
I adapted it from this recipe but tweaked it a bit because I was serving fewer people and also had no bourbon on hand. Jack Daniels, it is!
ORANGE BOURBON CRANBERRY SAUCE
1 12 oz. pkg cranberries
1/3 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar (I used light; you can probably use dark too)
1 orange for zest and juice
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup + 2 tbls water
Splash of Jack Daniels (roughly 2 tblsps)
INSTRUCTIONS
This is easy: throw everything into a saucepan (starting with your cranberries and ending with your sugars) and cook it on high for about 15-20 minutes until it starts to boil, stirring occasionally. You’ll notice that your cranberries are popping — this is good.
Once the liquid has reduced, remove the saucepan and let the sauce rest for about 15 more minutes to cool.
Zest the sauce with an orange and serve. It’s great both cold and hot.
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The sauce was the perfect complement to my very flavorful roasted turkey which I attended to so lovingly throughout the day that I almost didn’t want to eat it.
I’ll be impressed if you actually have all of these ingredients in your stockpile for this turkey — I had to make several trips — but man, was it worth it.
I borrowed the base of my creation from Leah Chase’s roasted turkey recipe.
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SAGE ENCRUSTED ROASTED TURKEY
1 turkey (obviously)
1 small pool ball-sized yellow onion roughly chopped
3 to 4 stalks of celery roughly chopped
5 medium-sized fresh sage leaves
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp rubbed sage
3 dried bay leaves, crumbled
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
Rinse your turkey in cold water and pat it dry. Make sure you remove all of the giblets and the neck (which is usually shoved inside the cavity). Once you do that, fill the turkey’s cavity with your onion, celery and fresh sage leaves.
The key to keeping the meat really moist is wrapping the turkey in a tent of sorts — I tried the Reynolds Wrap plastic turkey bag which caught on the oven and melted. Having experienced that, I recommend lining a roasting pan with aluminum foil, placing the turkey on top of it and then putting another sheet on top to make a turkey tent and sealing all sides.
Roast according to the weight of your turkey. My eight-pound bird took about three hours (mostly because I kept opening the oven and admiring my handiwork).
With about 30 minutes remaining, melt butter in a saucepan and throw in the rubbed sage, dried thyme and the crumbled bay leaves. Turn burner to low and use the herb butter mixture to baste your turkey roughly every eight minutes for the duration of the cooking time.
NOTE: If you want really crispy skin, Leah Chase recommends bumping up the temperature of your oven to 500 degrees. I didn’t, and it still turned out fine.
Your bird is done when its internal temperature reads 165 degrees on a meat thermometer. If you’re not sure how to check that, here’s a how to.
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The third discovery shouldn’t surprise anyone who knows that I am all about mashed potatoes. But after a day full of cooking and dishes and chopping and more dishes, I really didn’t want to spend a bunch of time on mashed potatoes.
Enter crockpot mashed potatoes. I’m going to be making these all the time.
CROCKPOT GARLIC AND HERB MASHED POTATOES
2 lbs mini red potatoes, washed and quartered
1/2 cup sour cream
4 tblspns butter
1 tblspn minced garlic (I used roasted minced garlic)
1 tblspn dried (or fresh, if it’s available) parsley flakes
1/4 cup milk
INSTRUCTIONS
Turn on your crockpot and grease that puppy up. Throw in the potatoes. Let them cook for 2-3 hours on high, until the skins start peeling off and the potatoes get soft.
When your potatoes are tender, throw in the butter, sour cream and milk. Blend with a hand mixer until combined and add garlic and parsley flakes. Blend again until combined and serve.
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