Memories are precious aren’t they? Hppy thxgvng!
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I’m going traditional but simple this year.
Appetizers;
Charcuterie and olive plate
Artichokes (instant pot)
Main course;
Turkey (12lb)
Acorn squash
Shaved brussel sprout salad
Potatoes, roasted or mashed I’m not sure yet
Cranberry sauce
Desert;
Pumpkin pie
I’m only feeding 4 people so my goal is to have enough leftovers to not have to cook for the next three days.
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looking at your menu i think your plan will succeed.
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Yeah, I cook too much. I even had to stop myself from making a loaf of rosemary bread…but that reminds me - I’ll have to make popovers instead!
We do a “friendsgiving” on Sunday where everyone brings leftovers, and I’ll be making my turkey pot pie as usual for that. That’s really my favorite meal of the holiday season.
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I love the plates!
(The food looks good as well, but food comes and goes… good plates last decades.)
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Happy Thanksgiving to all!
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That’s very close to mine, but with cornbread added and we had a turkey breast instead of tenderloins.
We only had my mom over, so it was just the four of us here, so nice and low key.
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T-Day +1 Report:
Overcooked the turkey
Undercooked the artichokes
Squash was mushy
Popovers too browned
Forgot the cranberry jelly in the fridge
At least the brussel sprout salad was good!
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Report on my turkey.
So this year I did a high heat turkey - 500 degrees for about an hour and a half.
I accidentally overcooked it though when I carved it I’d say actually it was just about right.
It was beautiful.
The recipe said to not add anything to it - no oil, nothing stuffed inside. I guess to prevent those things from charring or smoking. I’d say that next time I’ll throw some lemons inside, some thyme, and stuff some garlic under the skin. I know some people have said they oiled it, and no one reported smoking, which I think would make a beautiful skin and presentation.
I would say this was a success but not sure it will be my go to. It was great for the fact that I had so little time to prep ahead, and my husband wasn’t home to cook it outdoors as he has the past few years. I liked the short cook time. My daughter liked how it heated the house up.
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How big was the turkey?
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12 pounds. It gave me enough for a small plate of leftovers after serving 6 people. I was trying to have not too many leftovers as everything was totally off my diet. It’s fine for a day or so to eat whatever I like but I didn’t need to be grazing the fridge for a week on it all.
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Not sure where to put this but this is the mall where I worked in my teens. Oh Alabama, how I miss you not.
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Mine was 12 lbs too. I followed a recipe that told me to cook it for 2.5 hours at 350, but it cooked too quickly and didn’t brown to my satisfaction. Maybe it cooked faster because I brined?
Maybe I’ll pick up another turkey this week and give it another shot with your high-heat method.
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I just made some sweets this year, which is my favorite thing to cook anyway. This was a really good (though rich!) vegan gluten-free snickerdoodle recipe, and the pumpkin pies were, well, pretty typical pumpkin pies.
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after-action report:
everything turned out great but because of the high volume of dishes requiring an oven, some of the food was not at peak temperature when it was served but everything was great.
here’s a photo of the center piece of the table–
and here’s a shot of the buffet area where everyone served their plates–
everyone was stuffed by the end of it. we had bought some aluminum pans to send food home with the different parties that came so we would have an almost manageable excess of food left when we put it all up. my younger son and i have been cleaning up for the past two days and we’re almost done with it now.
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Our turkey and root veg both turned out great. The salad would have been a bit better with feta (like my wife’s recipe originally calls for), but we both wanted to try goat cheese. Lesson learned.
The pumpkin chocolate bars were fantastic too.
Overall we managed to make the right amount to serve us both for one oversized meal and one decent meal of leftovers, which was the goal.
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