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??

Dear Snow...STOP IT!

Haha...yeah we're supposed to get like 12" by the morning...sweet. How is it that I was so happy about the weather Friday and three days later its back to a winter MESS!! So in a few, Brian and I are going back up to his apt for the night so we will have the short commute tomorrow morning. I haven't been at the computer much this weekend so I want to:

Extend the Giveaway Deadline Two Days!

I know the suspense must be killing you, BUT, I do have THREE prizes to give so I'll give it a little longer :)

Well, that cold/sore throat that I thought I squashed earlier in the week came back. I woke up yesterday all stuffy :( Grrrrr!!! Like every person around me has been sick but I was REALLY hoping to avoid this. Luckily it hasn't been too bad, and I was NOT going to let it impact the Yoga Challenge!

I was really excited to read about Tina's Yoga Challenge for the month of March! I have been loving the Hot Yoga lately so I figured this would be a great addition. I downloaded a handful of yogadownloads, and got to it this morning.

I did the 30 minute Gentle Hatha Yoga #1. Because of my cold, I didn't want anything too strenuous, but more of a relaxing stretch for the morning. This was great!! I really liked it. I followed along with the pose guide on my screen and never felt like I had to stop and check my pose on the screen.

I am hoping to go to Hot Yoga Class tomorrow, but we'll see with this damn snow!!!

Wedding Things!
Saturday, Mom and I went to meet with our caterer at the rentals place to pick out all the fun stuff...linens, place settings, flatware, stemware...etc. They have everything in their studio, and tables you can"dress up"!My Mock Table!!

• Chocolate Brown Satin Table Cloth
• Tan/Camel colored striped napkin
• Ivory dinnerware with gold rim
• Silver Plate flatware
• Wine and Water glass
  

With chair - Natural Wood Garden Chair.
P.S. NOT my flowers...those were just there. My Flowers will be Bright and Dark pinks!!
Close up...the pink "napkin" tucked into my napkin was just to show where the menu card will go (and the menu card will be pink), so it will be tucked into the napkin. It's behind the plate because I am going to have the salads already plated when people sit down (saves some time).

Fun!! Not pictured, but Brian and I are going to have a sweetheart table and its going to be a higher cocktail table so we can look out at the crowd...with high bar stool-like Chivairi chairs!

Something to remind me of warm weather...Watermelon!! Picked this up at the grocery store...precut, it was delish! Mmmm summer.

We had a quick breakfast this morning of scrambled eggs and TJ's Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin British Muffins. I had 1 half with smart balance, the other with PB and banana.Brian and I spent alllllll day driving around different towns that we may want to live. We know the geographical area that we want to look for houses in, but we don't "know" those towns well...so we drove them! It was a really good thing to do...can't wait to really start looking at houses!!!

Then we had a Sunday Dinner at Moms.

Roast Chicken:
Roasted Veggies: Sweet Potato, Cauliflower, Broccoli, Carrots, Onions, and Garlic!
(there was also a little mashed potato, gravy, and cranberry sauce!)

Then I noticed these babies on the tableThose would be Rolly-Pollies!! And Rolly-Pollies only come when there was PIE CRUST made...I knew it had to be somewhere...
My FAV...Butterscotch Pie!! (she'd HATE this picture because she gets SO mad when the meringue separates from the crust, but its still SO good...any professionals out there with a solution to the separation issue???)

I cleaned my pie plate :)Hope you all had great weekends!!

Final Thanksgiving Recap

Man, I really just need to crank out the rest of the info from Sunday's Apt. Thanksgiving. So here goes...

The rest of the prep work on Saturday consisted of washing and trimming the ends of the green beans, making the topping for the cheesecakes, and making a Chocolate Pecan Pie! I used this recipe that I saw in Gourmet last year. I made it last year as mini pies made in a regular muffin tin (soooo good!), so this year I wanted to switch it up by using my tart pan for a new shape!

Of course I started this around 9:30pm and had a mishap toasting the Pecans!!I had them on the stove, got distracted, and then I smelt them...burning!! Of course I didn't have enough to start over, so roomie and I had to make a late night trip to the 24hour Shaws :)

Crisis averted! I rolled out the last of the pie crust and this time place it into my tart pan.
NOTE: I got a little over zealous and proceeded to poke fork holes in this one...IDIOT! You only do that when your baking the crust without filling...needless to say the crust got a nice little outer layer of the carmaley filling, and was a little resistant to come out of the pan :)

My mom makes an AMAZING pecan pie (can't wait til tomorrow!), but I just like to do this one because it incorporates...Melty dark chocolate!!

You spread the chocolate along the bottom of the crustThen place the pecans on top
I like a pecan-y pie so I added more than called for, then you pour the filling mixture on top.And bake!
I love how gooey and chewy it gets...mmm. I'd have to say this years tasted more chocolatey, which obviously isn't a bad thing, but I think I like it more pecan pie flavor, then chocolate... However, still awesome!

Then it was off to bed. The 22lb Turkey didn't need to go in until 9/9:30am, but I got up earlier to get my butterscotch pie filling made.

I don't have the exact recipe on me right now, but I'll follow up later with that. Basically it's: milk, eggs, butter, flour, brown sugar, vanilla...the end.I know you should first separate 3 eggs...make sure to save the egg whites for later to make the meringue topping!

Get the milk on the stove until it's scalded (bubble forming around the edge and starting to form steam), then pour it into the bowl where you've added your flour, brown sugar, and saltPour this back into the pan and turn the heat back on, I can't remember if you bring this back to a boil...but I know it's hot and time to add the egg YOLKS. First you lightly beat the egg yolks in a separate bowl, and then add like a table spoon or so of the hot milk/sugar mixture into the eggs while beating quickly. Then add a little more...basically what you are doing is adding heat to the eggs so that when you add them back into the pan they don't scramble! So once the eggs are warm, slowly pour them into the pan while whisking quickly, bring to a boil while still mixing continuously until the mixture has thickened.
Once thick, turn off the heat and add the butter (like 3T) and vanilla, stir til butter is melted and combined. Finally pour your filling into the bake pie crust (baked the day before).
I put plastic wrap on this and set it in the porch (the second fridge in the winter!). Later on, after we ate I quickly grabbed the egg whites I saved, tossed them into my Kitchen Aid mixer and made the meringue. Seriously these mixers make Amazing meringue! Beat the egg whites on med/high, when they start getting frothy I added 1/4t of cream of tarter (helps stabilize egg whites), and about 1/3 cup sugar! Beat until just stiff peaks, and spread over pie...I like to form little peaks on my meringue...I LOVE MERINGUE!! Throw in a 400 degree oven for about 10 min, just til meringue starts to get golden brown.This is a family favorite...definitely my favorite pie, was my dads too! It's just amazing, I think the name "butterscotch" is kind of a misnomer, because it doesn't really taste like a butterscotch...I'd say more of a creamy caramel taste, nothing strong just sweet, creamy and delicious.

Turkey time!! So when the Apt Thanksgiving started back in college...I was too grossed out to remove the "things" inside the turkey...I made one of my "helpers" (roommates) do it hehe. I'm over it now and just go in, then give it a shower in the sink, dry it off and plop it into the pan. You add a nice ball o' stuffing in the cavity, and a little stuffing on the other end too. Fold the wings in and down, legs back into the little holder, and rub it with softened butter, salt and pepper!!I don't baste, you just make a loose foil tent which keeps the moisture in, then remove it for the last 45min-hour to brown the skin...moist and delicious!Our guests had a nice cheese platter to hold them over until turkey time...
My roommate and I had a wonderful time at this Cheese Shop in Wellesley...its like heaven. They have every cheese imaginable and they give you big tastes of anything you want. So as we were deciding we got to try two amazing aged Goudas and 2 of the decadent double and triple creams. I haven't the slightest idea what the exact names of the ones we got but they were incredible!


Now for some sides!
One of my FAVS!! The green beans! In the past we've always done the traditional green bean casserole...which is delish, BUT last year my aunt made these Green Beans with Pancetta and Sage, and it was love at first bite!
The crispy salty pancetta and the wonder flavor of sage make these SO insanely good!

The Carrots! Remember the HUGE yellow and orange carrots, well these were simply sliced, boiled, then tossed with some butter and maple syrup. However, its important to drain the carrots and SAVE THE CARROT WATER!! It's used to make the gravy.Another side dish that was switched up this year...the squash!

Usually I just bake, mash, and mix in some butter and brown sugar...but I knew I just had to make my aunts Squash Souffle! (btw I have many aunts, so if I reference "aunt" its not always the same one haha).

This stuff is frikin incredible and probably could be a dessert, but for now its just a creamy rich side dish. Again, don't have the exact recipe at the moment...but I think it was...

2 sticks of butter...yeah...I cut it down to about 1.6 sticks, but I think 1 stick would of been fine (this is a doubled recipe btw).

2 boxes frozen winter squash
1/2 cup (?) sugar
1/2 cup (?) flour
6 eggs
4 cups milk

Since its a souffle you have to mix, pour into pan, and bake right away so I waited until the turkey was out, then quickly mixed and into the oven!

Melt butter, add to squash in mixer, blend, add flour, sugar, then 1 EGG AT A TIME, while beating on medium. I'd beat this for a min or so...you want to get some air incorporated in there...then slowly add the milk. This is a lot for the mixer so don't turn it up or it will splatter everywhere.

Pour into pan...bake at 350 for 1 hour.Then there were the Mashed potatoes...and I can't believe I have NO PICTURE!! Again, I changed it up a little...normally it's just the peel, boil, mash, butter, milk, S&P...not this year...I cranked it up a notch with Caramelized Shallot and Rosemary Mashed Potatoes! The recipe is for sage, which I'm sure would be awesome, but since we had sage with the beans, I went with Rosemary. The flavors are very subtle but so so good. My base potato recipe was not the one listed in the recipe, but I used a Cooks Illustrated version. Basically peel, and STEAM the potatoes in a big pot with the strainer insert that you would use for pasta! I've learned that this method, or boiling the potatoes WITH the skin, then peeling is better as to not get too much water into your potatoes.

Lets see what else... Gravy,

Take the Turkey pan with its drippings, put it over 2 burners on medium, add the carrot juice, and 3 bullion cubes, get it simmering, dissolving the bullion. While whisking briskly, as a flour/water mixture slowly until slightly thickened, let it come to a boil stiring here and there until its thicker.

Ok I think Thats it!! Man that was long. I love doing this every year, and yeah it's a FULL weekend of work but so worth it :)

I leave you with thisThe roomies pumpkin pie is in the upper left :)

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!