Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. Every year I think, this is no big deal. Then I end up spending all day in the kitchen and ... doing dishes upon dishes. Maybe I will take next year off. At the same time, I love having turkey leftovers and stock and friends to celebrate with!
This year I tried brining the turkey and it was really quite tasty. I used about 2 cups of salt and a cup of sugar to lots of water along with some bay leaves, sage leaves, peppercorns, onion slices, allspice seeds, and maybe some other things that I have already forgotten. Then I planned to roast the bird breast side down, but after I flipped it, I realized it had been breast side up the whole time. Still tasty and quite juicy. I made a pumpkin pie (from a can of pumpkin from Trader Joe's, but I think the classic can makes a better pie), mashed potatoes, green beans with onion and bacon, steamed broccoli, stuffing and gravy.
This year I tried brining the turkey and it was really quite tasty. I used about 2 cups of salt and a cup of sugar to lots of water along with some bay leaves, sage leaves, peppercorns, onion slices, allspice seeds, and maybe some other things that I have already forgotten. Then I planned to roast the bird breast side down, but after I flipped it, I realized it had been breast side up the whole time. Still tasty and quite juicy. I made a pumpkin pie (from a can of pumpkin from Trader Joe's, but I think the classic can makes a better pie), mashed potatoes, green beans with onion and bacon, steamed broccoli, stuffing and gravy.
The stuffing came out just right, even with my improvising. I used about 3/4 of a loaf of pre-sliced sourdough, dried out overnight and slightly toasted in the oven. Then I cooked up about 1/2 of a link of polish sausage, crumbled, some celery and onions, browned a little butter with sage and combined all of that with the bread cubes, 2 eggs, salt and pepper and the broth in which about 1/2 cup of golden raisins had been plumping. (For the broth I cooked the giblets with about 2 cups of water, then discarded the giblets.) I think I cooked it about 30 minutes covered and 10 extra minutes.
The kids liked the edible fruit arrangement our friends brought the best. :) (Or maybe the apple pie they brought.)
And then the kids were crazy and wild and the chickens got a little nervous at bed time and decided to roost on the gate arbor. That is a first! The next day we headed out to the Christmas tree farm.
Every year I suggest we go early, and somehow we always end up there right around 4 pm when the light makes taking pictures almost impossible.
The tree selection was a bit sparse this year (for the cut-your-own), so it was good we came early.
Back home again, time to decorate!
Do you spy a TIE-fighter?
The little elf discovered that the 'tiny' trains from the basement all have a hook on them (perhaps meant for display purposes?), so we have lots of trains on the tree this year!
Lots to be thankful for!
2 comments:
sounds like a busy, but fun holiday weekend. and the food looks great! what is JT reading so intently at the tree farm?
Yummy dishes! Can't believe those sweet kiddos were so wild that the chickens flew the coop! And the tree looks like it has luscious needles--will you be able to find all the ornaments? ..momsie
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