Thanksgiving 2011

It was our year to spend with my in-laws for Thanksgiving so we had Chris's parents and sister over to celebrate.  It was nice having a much more intimate gathering as opposed to our usual 40 plus people on my side of the family.


Menu
Appetizers
étoile Rosé
Assorted Cheeses and Crackers

Hot Pepper Jelly over Cream Cheese



Brie, Midnight Moon, Assorted Olives

Main Course
Shallot-Gin Cranberry Sauce
Green Bean Casserole with Madiera Mushrooms
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Sweet Potatoes
Fresh Turkey
Pork Sausage Stuffing
Dinner Rolls
2009 Newton Chardonnay
2009 Matthew Fritz Pinot Noir Carneros


Dessert
Pumpkin Bread
Homemade Apple Pie
Vanilla and Pumpkin Ice Cream


My plan on Wednesday night was to make as much as I could ahead of time so that S and I could watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade together on Thursday morning.  For those of you who know me well, you know my obsession with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  I watch it every year.  While I wasn't able to watch the entire parade we saw a good amount together and S seemed to enjoy it; she pointed at the balloons, she saw Abby Cadabby on the Sesame Street float and really enjoyed the singing and dancing. Unfortunately she missed Santa at the end because of nap time but don't despair, I taped the rest of the parade for her. I don't think Chris has noticed it yet on the DVR otherwise I am sure it would have been "accidentally" deleted as he hates watching the parade.

So Wednesday night I was able to make the mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, chop the vegetables for the stuffing, prepare the shallots for the cranberry sauce, make the cranberry puree and set the table. I decided I was going to buy flowers and attempt my own centerpiece. I was actually quite pleased with how the flowers turned out, typically I'm not so good with floral design.

This left making the stuffing, preparing and stuffing the turkey, making pumpkin bread, making the apple pie and making the green bean casserole for Thursday. I was actually quite impressed with myself I got everything done and did 3 loads of laundry all before 2:30 p.m. when our company arrived.


Shallot-Gin Cranberry Sauce

I had never actually made cranberry sauce before but found it to be quite easy.  I found this recipe on Gilt Taste, it is from Anthony Myint and Karen Leibowtiz, Mission Street Food.

Ingredients
1 quart cranberry juice
1 cup sugar
12 ounces fresh cranberries (or frozen)
3 shallots, finely diced
Zest of 2 oranges
Salt
Splash of gin, to taste (optional, but if you're concerned about alcohol, simmer it for a few minutes before adding )
Fresh tarragon, chopped, to taste (optional, but very nice)

1. The day before, generously salt the shallots and reserve them in the fridge.
2. Reduce the cranberry juice by half, then add the sugar and fresh cranberries. Cook on low until the cranberries are very tender. Drain the cranberries and reserve the liquid. In a blender, puree about half the cranberries with a few tablespoons of the reduced juice to get a smooth puree, and reserve the puree, along with the soft cranberries, in the fridge.
3. The following day, drain the shallots and combine them with the cranberry puree, the soft whole cranberries, orange zest, and gin and tarragon, if using.

Green Bean Casserole with Madiera Mushrooms

While I know my husband loves the regular old green bean casserole with canned green beans and cream of mushroom soup I was looking for something a little more exciting this year, something with fresh vegetables. I thought this was a good compromise.  This recipe was from the November 2011 issue of Cooking Light magazine.

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds green beans, trimmed and halved crosswise

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups chopped sweet onion

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

8 ounces shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced

1 (8-ounce) package pre-sliced button mushrooms

1/3 cup Madeira wine or dry sherry

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 cup fat-free, lower-sodium chicken broth

1 cup (about 2 ounces) canned fried onions (such as French's)

1/2 cup (2 ounces) grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°.

2. Place beans into a large saucepan of boiling water; cook 4 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water; drain well. Place beans in a large bowl; set aside.

3. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add onion and thyme to pan; sauté 4 minutes or until onion is tender, stirring occasionally. Add mushrooms; sauté 10 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates, stirring frequently. Stir in wine, salt, and pepper; cook 2 minutes or until liquid almost evaporates. Stir in flour; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually stir in chicken broth; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute or until thick, stirring constantly. Add mushroom mixture to green beans; toss well. Place green bean mixture in a 2-quart glass or ceramic baking dish. Combine fried onions and grated cheese in a small bowl. Top green bean mixture evenly with fried onion mixture. Bake at 425° for 17 minutes or until top is lightly browned. 

Mashed Potatoes

I made my usual mashed potato recipe.  I used a combination of red potatoes and yukon gold potatoes; I had just under 5 lbs of potatoes (4lbs, 11 oz to be exact).  Wash and peel the potatoes, cut them into quarters.  Boil potatoes in water that is slightly salted.  When the potatoes are done (you can pierce them with a fork) drain the water and put them back into the pan.  Using a hand masher begin to mash the potatoes, add 2 tablespoons of butter, 3 tablespoons of sour cream, 2 palms of Montreal Steak Seasoning, a little salt and 1/4 cup of milk.  Continue to mash until you get the consistency that you are looking for.  I sprayed a corningware dish with some cooking spray and then added the potatoes, I let them cool before I put them in the fridge.  On Thursday I added about a tablespoon of butter (more to come on the butter) and then heated them for about an hour on 350 degrees.

Sweet Potatoes

Since we had such a small crowd I only made 4 sweet potatoes. Clean them and then bake them on 350 degrees for about an hour.  Let them cool and then you should be able to just peel the skin right off.  Cut them into smaller chunks. In a bowl two separate bowls melt butter in one and place brown sugar in the other. Roll the potatoes in melted butter and then roll in the brown sugar.  Place the potatoes in a baking dish and cover in the fridge. On Thursday I heated them for about an hour on 350 degrees.

Pork Sausage Stuffing
2 bags of Brownberry or Pepperidge Farm Sage and Onion Stuffing Mix
2 - 1 lb packages of Jimmy Dean Regular Pork Sausage
2 cups of chopped celery
2 cups of chopped onion
3 cups of chicken broth
2 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, melted plus 1 tablespoon

Saute the vegetables in 1 tablespoon of butter, season with salt and pepper.  Let the vegetables cool a bit and then in a large bowl combine the stuffing, vegetables and slowly add the melted butter, chicken broth and the pork sausage.  Make sure everything is combined well and the pork sausage is broken into small pieces.
When you are ready to stuff the turkey put as much of the dressing as you can in the turkey and the remainder in a corningware dish sprayed with cooking spray. Cook on 350 degrees for an hour, make sure the pork sausage is cooked all the way through.

Turkey
We ordered a fresh Amish raised turkey from Standard Market, it was an 18 lbs turkey.  We cooked ours in a Nesco roaster so we had the oven space for all the side items.  I stuffed the turkey and then liberally coated the skin with olive oil and melted butter.  Seasoned with salt and pepper (lots of pepper).  I added a tiny bit of chicken stock to the bottom of the roasting pan.  We cooked the turkey on 325 degrees and turned it up at the end to 400 to get the skin a little more brown.  We basted the turkey throughout the cooking after the first hour. 

As far as the gravy goes I used a Turkey base that I got from Williams-Sonoma and then added some of the drippings/juices from cooking the turkey to it.



Dinner is Served... Happy Thanksgiving!


Homemade Apple Pie
To make the apple pie I used the filling I made a couple months ago when we received so many apples in our fruit deliveries.  I defrosted the filling over night.  On Thursday I used the Pillsbury Unroll and Fill Pie crusts, I placed the first crust covering my pie pan. Filled it will the apple pie filling and then added the second crust on top.  I put a couple of slits in the top and then cooked it for 40-45 minutes on 425 degrees.  I forgot to take a picture before we started serving it so here is one with a few missing slices.  It was quite delightful!  We served it with Oberweis Vanilla and Oberweis Pumpkin ice cream.

Pumpkin Bread
I cheated on this one and bought a package of pumpkin bread mix from Trader Joes. You just add water, oil and egg.  Pretty simple.  I made two small loaves.  I did make my own glaze for the top.  I used 1/2 cup of powdered sugar and then added a tiny bit of milk (maybe 1 1/2 teaspoons) and just drizzled it over the top.  The sad part is we were all so full no one actually had any on Thanksgiving, but S and I tried it out on Friday and it was delicious.  S LOVES it!

We had a great day, I think everyone enjoyed their dinner.  So I mentioned I would get back to the additional butter I added to the potatoes before heating them on Thursday.  As I was preparing everything Thursday Chris told me to be sure to use lots of butter. I proceeded to tell him how much butter was in everything and he felt the potatoes may need more.  So I figured, its Thanksgiving why not.  Well, the additional butter ended up cooking over right at the end of the cooking time and started to smoke in the oven. There was so much smoke that our smoke alarm went off.  I had just put S down for her afternoon nap and thought to myself what perfect timing, she is sleeping and dinner is ready.  Well, her nap did not last long at all, you see when one smoke alarm goes off in our house all of them do.  This includes the one in S's room and the one in the hall directly outside of S's room. The poor little girl was petrified when the it started sounding.  We ended up with windows open and someone fanning the smoke detector for a good 20 minutes.  Nothing says Thanksgiving like a smoke detector! 

Overall, we had a great day and we have so much to be thankful for. I hope everyone had a very Happy Thanksgiving!



S waiting for the company to arrive