Turkey Day

So this year was the first time we had Thanksgiving at our house.  I was so thrilled and nervous at the same time!  Menu?  Well it consisted of:

• Roasted turkey (uh-duh)
• My Mum's incredibly yummy and easy stuffing - SO good
• Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows and roasted pecans
• Grilled asparagus
• Cranberry chutney
• Arugula salad with pomegranate and pecans
• Roasted vegetables
• Gravy from scratch

Thanksgiving is definitely one of my favorite meals - it's just so yummy and so much of the comfort food I crave (apart from my Mum's cooking of course).  We were blessed to have Rich's Mum and her husband in from Chicago for a couple days.  To make things even more special my friend Steve came round with his boyfriend.  Steve and I go way back when we met in '03 (I think?) and he is one of my most awesome best friends.  :) 

So just a little bit on the actual prep - thankfully I took Tuesday and Wednesday off to prepare the feast.  I found that preparation, organization and pre-preparing is the key to a successful thanksgiving!  I spent most of Tuesday writing up the grocery list (the list was divided up by category of food of course - dork, I know) and then I spent hours purchasing the ingredients at four local grocery stores; the Asian market LeeLee's; Whole Foods; Sprouts; and a final pit stop at Frys.  Asian markets usually have great deals on veggies! 

I really wanted to brine the turkey myself so on Wednesday, I cooked the brine up so that the turkey could absorb all that loving overnight.  On Wednesday I also made the cranberry chutney and cooked up the sweet potatoes with the spices and sugar.  The chutney was out of this world - had ginger and orange rind in it, fresh and dried cranberries.  On Wednesday I also pre-prepared some of the ingredients for the next day.  I organized various ingredients in various drawers/shelves in the fridge for certain recipes so that everything was ready to go come Thursday afternoon.  And...there may be a rather unique tradition started this Thanksgiving by yours truly.  I was determined to make things easy for Thursday so the day prior, I used sticky notes to label certain things in the fridge.  So the baggie with the candied pecans that needed to be tossed with an egg white on Thursday got labeled on Wednesday - "mix with one egg white before topping the sweet potatoes".  The plastic container holding the brine that sported a loose lid got labeled with "beware, do not hold by lid!".  I was determined to not screw anything up!  I even labeled the serving dishes in the cupboards with which dishes they were to hold - that way Rich and his Mum who were helping me would know what would go where.

And the payoff?  A very stress free and AWESOME thanksgiving!  I couldn't have done it without Rich and his Mum - they were both so helpful. 

I arranged these myself.  :)

The mammoth sized grocery list!  I highly recommend taking the extra effort to divide a long grocery list up by category.  It made shopping a heck of a lot easier.  I did feel like a giant dork though. 
What's new?

 While everybody slept Wednesday night, the turkey brined in Alton Brown's fabulous brine recipe made from vegetable stock, peppercorns, candied ginger, all spice berries, salt and brown sugar.

The next day, in excitement of getting the turkey in the pan, I decided to try hug the turkey and kiss it.  

Don't ask.

I don't know.

Rich took a much more calm approach while stuffing the turkey with what Alton calls "the aromatics".

And right after he got done with that, he jumped on to his phone and got on you tube.  What for, you ask?

To figure out how to carve a turkey.

Doesn't get more adorable than that!

  Taking pictures in between cooking!




And the end product??

And this is what the table looked like just before Rich carved the turkey, we said a quick blessing and ate like PIGS.

ps - I lucked out on dinner plate chargers at Big Lots - four for $6.  I've always wanted these!  They were a great finishing touch to the table. 

The turkey was very tender and juicy - amen for that!  The arugula salad is right behind it.  I actually didn't get to eat any of the salad as I was busy stuffing my face with everything else.

Grilled asparagus, cranberry chutney and the gravy (in the back)

This is HEAVEN.  Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows and pecans.  Next year I'm going to forget the pecans.  All we wanted were the marshmallows anyway.

 This is some of the best stuffing around.  It's made with bacon, pine nuts, pistachios, raisins, a serrano chilli and a bit of spice.  However it's not spicey at all.  I could eat this every week!  Thanks Mum for coming up with this recipe.

 Rich's Mum and her husband

The king of the table.

Steve!











Altogether, it was such a great thanksgiving day!  We ended the day by watching a family movie - Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  Definitely a teenager movie but gave us some chuckles, none the less. 

So from my family to yours, here is us hoping that you had a beautiful thanksgiving and that you have a peaceful holiday season, whatever you choose to celebrate! 
For us....here comes Chrismukkah!