Turkey Talk: Friendsgiving 2011

A couple of weeks ago I realized my friends and I have been getting together for our own pre-Thanksgiving dinner for 10 YEARS!!  This was our 10th annual Friendsgiving…or as we like to call it “House Thanksgiving”…previously known as “Apartment Thanksgiving”, but then I bought a house :)

I’m thrilled that we’ve kept this tradition going since junior year of college!!  (also makes me feel kinda old)
Most of my classic recipes are on the blog already, so I’ll just give you the run-down and let you know what I changed up for 2011 and what I’m already thinking for 2012!

The standards:
Turkey…but of course.  I don’t really know why but I always feel the need to get a 20+ lb turkey, regardless of my guest list.  I mean I love leftovers, but it’s just getting a little ridiculous. 

I was planning for 14 people (only 12 made it), and I bought a 21.6lb free range bird :)  Next year I am going to save some $$ and some cooking time and keep it more on the 16lb range I’m thinking.


Stuffing: Don’t expect me to ever try out a new recipe.  I love my grandmother’s recipe more than anything and my friends seem to feel the same….why mess with perfection right?  Plus I always make a HUGE batch and we barely have any leftovers.  

Mashed Potatoes:  Nothing too ground breaking here…potatoes, milk, butter, salt, pepper, and a little fresh chopped rosemary.

Green Beans: I still prefer the pancetta/sage recipe to the standard green bean casserole.  I do like the casserole but just don’t feel the need for another heavy creamy dish.

Carrots: What can I say?  I need the cooking water from these to add to the gravy :) 
Squash:  I think I’m going to take a break from the soufflé next year.  I don’t know why, but mine just never turn out as good as I’d hope.  I even took it up a notch this year and took and idea from my aunt to cook the soufflé in baked sugar pumpkins!!  Fabulous idea, lovely presentation, but my soufflé was just NOT setting up…almost 2 hours in the oven and still not ready?!  Who knows. 

(cut the tops of 3 sugar pumpkins and scraped out the inside real good)

(rubbed inside and outside with olive oil and sprinkled inside with salt, pepper, and brown sugar)

(baked at 350 for 30min…prepped and baked these the day before)
I think next year I’m going to switch it up.  I love squash, and wouldn’t mind a less-heavy recipe next year.  
Gravy:  Classic.  Drippings from the turkey, some chicken bullion, and the carrot cooking water.  Bring to boil, add flour/water mixture and simmer until thickened. 
Cranberry sauce: I always have homemade and the jelly-kind in the can.  People always have their favorite…I grew up only liking the canned kind, but now I love both!


Dessert!  This is where I have my fun each year.
I made 3 desserts:

• The Milky Way Tart
• Ina’s French Apple Tart
• Butterscotch pudding cups

I mentioned I was thinking about making the Milky Way Tart because it was a hit at the last party I brought it too, and it still was a crowd favorite!
Apparently I was on a tart kick!  No pies were made this year (by me anyways), but I think I like this apple tart even better than apple pie!  It’s simple, delicious, and has an impressive presentation.
Also could be made ahead of time :)

This tart dough was very different than the dough for the Milky Way Tart, but equally delectable…actually I might like this dough better.

Rolled and trimmed to a 10”x14” rectangle

Arrange the apples, sprinkle with sugar (and a little cinnamon), then dot with butter.

Once finished, you brush with an apricot jam glaze.

So pretty!

The crust is still crisp and flaky today too.
The Butterscotch Pudding cups comes from my favorite butterscotch pie that my grandmother makes!  Just instead of a pie, I put the filling into little mason jars.
Then right before dessert, I whipped up the meringue and torched it with my kitchen torch (always looking for a reason to use my torch)

These were super cute, I want to make more things in mini-mason jars!
  (just realized I don’t have the exact recipe on the blog so I’ll fix that)
Other desserts (by others)

Pumpkin pie!

Mini pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
Both were amazing.
Other notable deliciousness…CHEESE!
Don’t you love when you ask someone to bring something and you just KNOW it’s going to be good…even a cheese platter!?  I do!!  I take my cheese seriously ;)
Even I didn’t expect these masterpieces…

Seriously??  2 HUGE platters of amazing cheese, meats, grapes, dried figs, pate, flowers(!), rosemary Marcona almonds…EVERYTHING!

Oh lets not forget the baked brie, chocolate covered strawberries, and little fall shaped pieces of marzipan.

I’m also very thankful we have the leftovers of the cheese in the fridge :)
The final thing I LOVE about House-Thanksgiving is my tablescape!  Ok so it wasn’t my best work this year but I got distracted when I had some early arriving guests…
Will just call it simple.

Little pears are an easy, colorful, and edible decoration!   Also a roll of $9 burlap from Lowes makes a nice rustic table runner.

And mason jars + coffee beans+candles

(broke out the "fancy" apron)

  Phew!  That was quite the post! 
Have you hosted a Thanksgiving dinner??  Any particular recipe that you can’t live without on Thanksgiving??
Also looking for good appetizer ideas to bring to my aunts on Thursday??

Back to Work and Thanksgiving Part 4

Yay for a 3 day work week!! I just love the holidays! I really could of used some extra sleep this morning, and my back is killing me from being on my feet so much this weekend...but so worth it!

Let's start where I left off...the Cranberry Orange Cheesecakes! These were a hit! As I said before I used a Giada recipe combined with a different one I found on epicurious. I found the epicurious one first, but then loved the Giada recipe because I wanted to make mini cheesecakes...and I just love Giada's recipes in general. So I used Giada's for the crust, cheesecake, baking...basically everything but the topping. That's when I used the epicurious recipe...to make the cranberry topping.

As you can see the edges aren't nice and smooth but it took a little work getting them out of the pan in one piece. My mom stopped by and I sent her home a few for her and my grandparents...they all LOVED them! Yay! I think I'm going to have to make these again..soon!

I had the very last one tonight...I think it was even better today :)

Unfortunately I think I "expanded" my stomach...I hate that term, but it seems to be true. I think I was more hungry today than normal...boo!

I did have an incredible bowl of oats this morning though...mmmm...can't wait for a repeat tomorrow!

My Morning Mixture:
1/3 cup oats, 1/3 cup water, 1/3 cup milk
salt
vanilla
1/2 banana

Then added:
1/2 of a package of Kashi Pumpkin Spice Flax Crunchy Granola Bars...crushed
a little spread of Pumpkin Butter
1 Spoonful of White Chocolate PB
YUM!!! This was my first time adding the pumpkin butter...great idea!

I couldn't wait for lunch...I was salivating just thinking about it. Turkey Sandwich!

1 Arnold Sandwich Thin...these are perfect for this sandwich because I love stuffing on my sandwich so the thinner the bread holding it together the better!

My Stuffing
Turkey
Homemade Cranberry Sauce

Sugar snap peas and sliced carrot (one of the GINORMOUS ones)
Heaven!

Obviously I couldn't NOT have dessert...a thin slice of pumpkin pie and small piece of my chocolate pecan pie...which we will dive into further in another post:)
A random coffee note... Usually I add skim milk and a tiny bit of cream to my coffee in the morning. However, this time of year I love to add...Eggnog!!! So good...yet so bad! Hahah, it's like liquid ice cream :) However it's fabulous in coffee!!

Hmmm I'm hesitant to post my dinner plate...only because I haven't gotten to many of the items shown...don't worry it was a very small plate, not a dinner plate.There were ZERO left over mashed potatoes! I guess it's better that way...as long as there's stuffing I'm a happy camper.

My roommate and I LOVE to buy the Starbucks Advent calendars each year, but last year we saved them and she is re-filling 1 for her parents and we are re-filling the other for this year! Yay saving money! She came home with a plethora of Trader Joe's goodies, to fill the drawers.

The one on the left is filled with the drawers showing the numbers for each day...the one on the right is what it looks like after the 24 drawers have been taken out, flipped over, and put back in. Yay Christmas!

Now on to Thanksgiving Part 4: Cranberry Sauce and Stuffing

Growing up I always loved the cranberry sauce from a can! My grandmother would make homemade but there was always the jellied cylinder wobbling in a bowl in it's exact can shape, just waiting to be dug into. It was only a few years ago I tried the homemade stuff and fell in love. Now I did not up and abandon my jellied sauce from a can, but I love to now enjoy both! Plus making cranberry sauce is EASY! Just follow the recipe on the bag:

1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 bag cranberries!

My grandmother used OJ instead of water and its divine! I didn't have OJ, but I squeezed the juice from 1 orange and used water for the rest.
I also try to cut out a little sugar...but obviously not much.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, simmer...about 8 min or so later...Sauce! Once it's cooled in the fridge it gets nice and thick and jelly-like.

Onward...

THE STUFFING!

Nothing fancy here, just a classic bread stuffing, but for some reason this stuff is like crack...it's SO SO SO SO delicious. In the years past I always seasoned to taste, but I actually kept track this year!

You'll Need:

1 Stick Butter
5 Stalks Celery
1 large Onion
white bread (I used a large Family Size Loaf of white, and a regular loaf of White Whole Wheat)
4 white potatoes, boiled and mashed
1 T salt (yeah it seems like a lot but it makes A LOT of stuffing)
14 grinds of the pepper mill (this was the only way I could measure it haha)
1T (heaping) plus 1.5t Poultry Seasoning
1.5 t Summer Savory (may take a few stores to find this one)

*The reason the amounts of, say, the Poultry seasoning is so odd is because I added the first tablespoon, tasted, added more, tasted...etc.
**I was originally worried about the salt because at first when tasting, it was on the salty side...but after it cooks it's perfect...well to me it was. I'd say you could reduce the salt a little it you wanted, maybe just 2 tsp.

First you can boil and mash the potatoes...these just add texture.

Chop the onion and celery into small pieces...Rip all the bread up into a LARGE bowl...this is about half of the bread, maybe less...In a large saute pan, melt the butter then add the celery and onion...WARNING: Your kitchen will begin to smell AMAZING at this stage :)

Cook on med/low heat...you do NOT want to brown the veggies. When the onions are translucent and soft, pour the whole mixture on top of the bread.Then add the mashed potato mixture, as well as your seasonings. This is wear I wash the hands up so that I can dive in. There's just no good way around it...it needs to mixed with the hands. Be careful because the butter/veggie mixture is hot, but mix it, massage it, make sure all that seasoning is incorporated. No need to be gentle here...you want it nice and combined!

As you can see the whole mixture has reduced in size, so if you think there's WAY too much bread, it's probably just right.

I use some for stuffing the bird, then the rest goes into a baker dish and into the oven at 350 for 20-30, no real time, you just want it hot and maybe a little crisp on top. I usually put it in after the turkey is done.

Well it's bed time again...where does the time go!