Happy Turkey Day!

Happy post-turkey day readers! So Chris and I (and our "child" Nick) had our first Thanksgiving in me and Chris's new apartment! Oh, and I cooked! Now I was hoping that my pre-thanksgiving night would consist of a glass of wine and getting to bed early so I'd be ready to cook my butt off the next day.... lets just say that my night was the antithesis of that. I'm going to keep the details of the night under wraps, but I will say that it ended with street art and sleepwalking.... that being said, I was exhausted when it was time to start cooking, but I rallied and decide to forge ahead with my intended menu... even though my guest list went from five to three (some people from our group had too much fun the night before).

The menu:
Turkey (duh) & Gravy
Maple Flavored Sausage Stuffing
Maple Syrup & Almond Green beans
Cheddar & Sour Cream Garlic Mashed Potatoes

My cooking stance.

Because I had planned on there being five people I purchased an 11.4 pound turkey, which required about two and a half hours to cook (Chris will be eating turkey for the next few weeks!).  With dinner planned for around 3:30 / 4 pm I made sure to put the bird in around 12:45 pm so it would have time to cook and rest, and I actually took it out of the fridge around 11 am so it would have time to warm up to room temperature. It's important to let meat sit out prior to cooking because meat will cook more evenly if it's at room temperature instead of straight out of the fridge.

For the bird,
1. Remove from fridge about an hour and a half prior to cooking
2. Wash the turkey and remove the giblets from inside
3. Tie the legs together
4. Season the outside well with salt and pepper
5. Let the bird reach about 147 degrees (I consulted a James Beard approved cook book) - cooking in a 350 degree oven for two and a half hours
6. Eat!

For my turkey preparation I seasoned it aggressively with salt and pepper. I figured for my first Turkey day I wouldn't get too crazy with my seasoning... and I think it turned out well. One thing I also decided to do was I put the giblets in the bottom of the pan so that I could use their flavor for the gravy later on.... I was really happy with that decision as well.

For the gravy,
When I removed the bird from the oven I placed it on a serving plate and covered it with tin foil to rest. I then took the pan it baked in and removed the giblets and then began to scrap the drippings off the bottom while it heated on the stove. Next I added about two cups of chicken broth and some flour to thicken it, and just allowed it to heat and reduce slightly. As it heated I also added some additional salt and pepper to taste. I know you're supposed to strain the gravy, etc, but I just served it in this raw form and it added great flavor to the bird.

My version of gravy

So, after I put the turkey in my next task was the stuffing... aka my favorite part of thanksgiving! This needs about 45 minutes in the oven... and requires an additional 30-40 minutes of prep work... depending on how fast of a chopper you are, etc.

For the stuffing,
1 pound of breakfast sausage (maple flavored if available), castings removed
1 1/2 cups of dried cranberries
1 1/2 onions, chopped
5 celery stalks, chopped
3/4 stick of butter
1 - 1 1/2 boxes of stuffing
3 green apples, peeled, cored, and diced
1 tbsp poultry seasoning
2 tsp chopped rosemary leaves
2 tsp chopped sage leaves
2 tsp chopped parsley leaves
1 - 2 cups of vegetable stock
salt and pepper

To start, I heated a pan on medium heat and allowed the butter to melt a bit.... all of this can be done in the same pan, but I didn't have one large enough so I also heated butter in a separate pan to cook the sausage.

Breakfast sausage, maple syrup & butter

I cooked the sausage in the butter, added some maple syrup for flavor, and as it cooked I chopped it up. In the second pan I added the onions, apples,  and celery and allowed them to cook.

Celery and onion cooking

I allowed both skillets to cook for ten minutes, combined them, and then added the poultry seasoning, herbs, cranberries, stuffing, and then vegetable stock to soften. I mixed it all together, seasoned with salt and pepper, transferred it to a baking dish, and baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.

The finished product :)

Nick drinking some wine & peeling potatoes.

The mashed potatoes were up next,
6 Yukon gold potatoes
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup cheddar cheese
1/4 cup cream (or less)
2 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper
4 tbsp of butter



I started by peeling and cubing the potatoes, and then boiling them in well salted water until they are soft (20+ minutes).

After the potatoes were finished I drained them and then returned them to the pot. From there I added the softened butter, sour cream and garlic and began to mash them. I added the cheese, a little cream, salt and pepper, and finished the mashing process. Simple, tasty, and kind of fatty which is why Thanksgiving is only once a year :).

Mashin' like a champion

Final product

Last but not least....

The green beans!
3 cups of green beans
1 tbsp EVOO
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 cup of slivered almonds
salt and pepper

To start, boil a pot of water and cook the green beans until they are just tender and still bright green. After the beans are cooked, strain them and add them to a skillet that you have heated with some EVOO. Add the maple syrup, salt, pepper, and almonds, and cook until the almonds are slightly browned.

Make sure not to cook them too long though! You want the beans to still be firm and bright green!

After several hours of cooking it was finally time to eat!

My turkey! Gobble Gobble

Everything!

My favorite Pinot Noir - highly recommend it!

 After we finished stuffing our faces... which only took about 30 minutes.... and that's being generous... we all curled up on the couches and watched the movie Super 8. It was a great Thanksgiving. Although I really missed my family and was bummed out that this was the first Thanksgiving without them, it was a nice accomplishment to cook my very own Thanksgiving Dinner.