Thanksgiving dinner was a great success last night. Here's a breakdown of the day and some photos of our food & home.
I awoke at 8am and went straight to the kitchen to start boiling potatoes for my tart. I got myself ready why the potatoes boiled and then realized that I was still missing a couple ingredients so the Hubs and I quickly made a trip to the grocery store. We came home (along with a few too many flowers that were on sale and I just had to pick up) and I put together a couple bouquets before my BIL (brother in law) and "SIL" (his girlfriend) came over.
They showed up with the 18lb turkey and right away she got started prepping the turkey as I continued on my potatoes. We realized that we had no fresh herbs for the turkey and the Hubs and BIL wanted to get pumpkins to carve (mostly the Hubs) so we all packed up and ran across the street for another trip to the store! Quickly grabbed our extra ingredients and then scooted back home to continue cooking.
We got the turkey in the oven by 2pm and then continued on the rest of the food. I finshed the last of preparing the potatoes (which then sat in the fridge until 30 minutes before we served) We made Creamy Caramel Apple Tarts, two different Puff Pastry Rolls (only one of which turned out), by this time my "SIL's" sister and her boyfriend showed up and not long after our other friend showed up. I got my friend to make the Apple Salad while I finished the beets and "SIL" whipped up the gravy. I got the Carrot Ginger soup (from the day before) on the stove and seasoned it up just before serving.
At this time we were ready to serve dinner. We served the soup at the table followed by the salad, and then we did buffet style for the rest of the meal. See below!
Dinner is served!
Carrot Ginger Soup with Salted Sour Cream and Pea Shoots. For the soup I used garden fresh organic carrots and onions from Smokin' Iron Farms and organic celery. I just boiled these in water and then pureed when the carrots were soft. I added a small amount of dark brown sugar and an even smaller amount of red Thai Curry paste. On the day of Thanksgiving I added fresh squeezed lemon juice and zest, a bit of garlic and some siracha chili paste. The salt I used to season the sour cream was "Oh Zone" seasoning from Elements Of Spice. It contains sea salt, fennel seeds and fronds, chinese ginger, lemon peel, coriander, celery, mint, and cardamom.
The salad that we made was my Mortar and Pestle Salad only we substituted Havarti for Mild Gouda (sooo good-ah!, I know I'm lame).
The turkey that my "SIL" made was SO good! We picked it up from Smokin' Iron Farms (again free range/organic so no chemicals, hormones or torture). It turned out perfectly and was juicy and tender. Even the white meat was tender and glistening with juices! Mmmmmm!
The dressing that we made was also very tasty! We didn't made stuffing because a) they think it's gross and b) I saw on the Foodnetwork that in order to thoroughly cook a stuffing inside a turkey you have to overcook the turkey itself! There will be NO overcooked meat in my house if I can help it! But this dressing was a step above! We used brown bread, sage, organic eggs, milk, celery, and onion and the topper was the Sweet Italian Sausage that we browned and mixed in. Yummy yum!
For the Potato Tart I used the Jamie Oliver recipe (which I've done countless times before and loved every time). Not only is it a tasty mish-mash of fatty goodness, it also makes a nice presentation.
These Pastry Rolls were where I was able to use the Wild Rice, Wild Mushroom and Pancetta mix I had. I added some chopped spinach, rolled it up and we baked it at the end (I also made another one with Cranberry Sauce and Goat Cheese but unfortunately it didn't turn out).
I also made some beets which I guess I forgot to get a picture of. They were simple, all we did was peel, chop into discs, blanche, and fry in a pan with butter, garlic, shallots and at the end I added some of the greens from the tops of the beets (next time I'll chop the greens finer because they are a bit bitter and being that I left them larger they didn't flavor the dish as well as they were supposed to).
After the big meal we were able to dig into the desserts! The "SIL" made Pumpkin Cheesecakes which were KILLER! I like pumpkin pie once a year but I'm not a huge fan. These cheesecakes, however.... took the cake! We also ate the Creamy Caramel Apple Tarts that the "SIL" whipped up at my house. I topped them with the nuts though so it was still a joint effort ;)
Throughout the day I had a Candy Bar set up on the coffee table in the living room. This was perfect for keeping the guys at bay (from trying to sneak bits of food off our cutting boards) and they were able to enjoy a full day of video games and candy (and yes by "guys" I mean our husbands and boyfriends...)
**************************************************************************
This Thanksgiving we had that much more to celebrate because this past weekend my BIL became engaged to my "SIL", so now when I write about her I no longer need the quotation marks!! She really is my Sister In Law! Yipee!! Congradulations, guys! Guys! (inside joke with the SIL)
No comments:
Post a Comment