Thanksgiving Yumminess!

This Thanksgiving was awesome! It was my two brothers, my SIL, and my dad. Me and L, my SIL, made most of the meal and it was seriously one of the best, if not THE BEST, Thanksgiving meal I have ever had! Onto the best part- what we ate!

We started out with a shrimp cocktail that I completely forgot to take a picture of!

Here is the turkey that I made! I prepped it by rubbing coarse sea salt all over it and then washed it off. After that, I stuffed it with half an onion, some garlic cloves, and half a lemon. I also put in some sprigs of rosemary and some salt and pepper. This year I decided to use a cheese cloth that I had soaked in a dry white wine and 1 cup of butter. The turkey roasted for about 4.5 hours and the cheesecloth was on it up until the last hour. Every 30 minutes I basted it with the left over butter and wine sauce and the juices from the bottom of the roasting pan. It was seriously the most tender and juicy turkey I have ever made- I have made three previous to this. I am not sure what I can attribute that to, but my guess is either the cheesecloth or the fact that I got a natural kosher turkey this year.

I also made homemade gravy. The recipe can be found here. As you can tell, I got the turkey and salad recipe from this newsletter as well!

Next up we had a delicious mixed greens salad with goat cheese, dried cranberries, walnuts, and a homemade dressing! I used arugula, radicchio, and endive. It was amazing! I didn't even know I liked endive! The dressing is muy bueno and super easy to make. You take 3 garlic cloves, 2.5 teaspoons of dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, and 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar and whisk them in a bowl. While whisking you slowly add in 1 cup of EVOO and then season with sea salt and pepper to taste!

One of the sides I made was a brussel sprout and dried fig dish. My friend D sent me a link from the New York Times with a list of Thanksgiving sides and this one looked delicious! It is also soooo easy to make! You put 2 tablespoons of EVOO in a pan and then throw in some chopped bacon and fry it until it is cooked the way you like it. I did mine for about 7-8 minutes. After that, throw in some chopped brussel sprouts and a handful of dried figs, mix it all together a couple of times then add in 1/3-1/4cup of water. Then just let it sit there and occasionally stir it. You will know when it is done when the figs and sprouts are tender. This was seriously so delicious! My SIL even said later that she didn't even know she liked brussel sprouts and wanted the recipe!

To me, it is not Thanksgiving unless you have green bean casserole! Such a classic! You can find the recipe here!

Sorry that the pic is a bit out of focus! These are the delicious Yukon Gold mashed potatoes that my SIL made. They were seriously so creamy and fluffy!

She also made a delicious stuffing! I cannot remember all that was in it, but I think there were onions and celery. So good!

To top it off, my SIL made a delicious pecan pie. I have never in my life tried pecan pie, but this was TO DIE FOR! Seriously, I think pecan might beat out pumpkin pie as my favorite! She also made a pumpkin roll. None of us have tried it yet because we were stuffed like a turkey, but I assure you it looks like it is going to taste great! We also had some bubbly- Moet Chandon!

And lastly, a pic of the entire spread!