Thanksgiving 2011

Yes. I know. Christmas is one week away. Why am I posting about Thanksgiving when I should be thinking about our Christmas meal? The past few weeks have been a whirlwind and I'm in denial that Christmas is only seven days away or that 2012 will be here in two weeks. So I'll continue to be in denial for the rest of this post, the night and probably for the next few days. I'm telling myself that Thanksgiving was just last week and I have plenty of time to start/finish all of my holiday shopping and errands.


Thanksgiving this year had its successes and fails. I did not try anything too complicated but tried to look at more 'traditional' Thanksgiving dishes - cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, soup, etc. 

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
This was a great success. It was silky and rich.  The extra dollop of sour cream on top help tremendously. The only fault of this recipe? It makes a TON of soup so be prepared to have leftover soup for several days. Recipe here from Ina Garten.  My variations: I did not add any curry powder, I added the sour cream on top and instead of using a food processor, I used my sister's handy immersion blender!  I want one now!

Brined Turkey
Here is the big sha-bang, the TURKEY!  It turned out pretty tasty except the wings were a little crisp. I used the same recipe as last year, found here. No variation this year.

Chopped Salad
Have I told you that I love pinterest? I found this recipe for a great salad several weeks ago and love it. It's delicious. I think the charm is the combination for the dressing - 3/4 poppyseed dressing and 1/4 balsamic dressing, which I simply use balsamic vinegar than the pre-mixed dressing type.  You can really add anything to this salad but I think the musts are the toasted walnuts and the pear or apple slices. I also used the crispy bacon from the turkey above and crumbled a few slices for the salad - double yum!  You can find the recipe here from Espresso and Cream.

Roasted Cauliflower - Not a fail but prefer the simpler method
You know from previous posts that I love simple roasted cauliflower - but I can't just have simple roasted cauliflower for Thanksgiving so to kick it up a bit, I followed this recipe. My variations: No anchovy paste or raisins. Honestly, I think the extra work was nice but I'll stick to simple roasted cauliflower with just garlic, olive oil and S&P - taste just as good.

Boursin Mashed Potatoes 
No feast is complete without mashed potatoes. Not just any mashed potatoes but Boursin mashed potatoes. I buy the garlic and herbs variation of Boursin cheese but I'm sure any of the flavors would work. My variation: I added heavy cream instead of the milk and cut it in half, 1/2 stick of butter (yes, I know. Over indulgent but it's okay.), and freshly chopped thyme and rosemary. Next time, I'd push to roast a whole garlic clove in the oven (or even take from the turkey) and add to the potatoes.

Cream Corn
Ross' mom has shared a few recipes with me - Rum cake, pecan pie and cream corn. I've made this every Thanksgiving since she bestowed these amazing recipes to me and I'm surprised I have yet to share it with you!  This is not for the health conscious, those that are scared to use cream, or those who don't want to taste awesomeness. A future post to come soon.

Cheese Ball - Fail
I was first introduced to a cheese ball by Laurie during a holiday party and simply remember myself stationed next to this cheese ball for a good portion of the night.  I've looked through pinterest and came upon this recipe. For me, this was a fail - I'm not sure if it's the way I prepared it, the amount of time I let it rest in the fridge or that I'm simply comparing it to Laurie's amazing cheese ball. I'll attempt this again and may work on some slight variations but if anyone has a solid recipe to share for a cheese ball, please let me know!

Carrot Cake
In addition to the aforementioned Rum Cake, I also made a carrot cake for dessert. It's dense, has pineapples and is not sharp with hits of spices. Having had this since I was little, I actually thought this was the norm - until I had the carrot cakes that are covered in creamy frosting, light/flaky at times and with a heavy cinnamon flavor. After asking my mom if this was her recipe, I found out that she pulled this recipe from a Chinese newspaper back in the day!  No online recipe as it's on a handwritten and I'll work on putting up a separate post soon.

Cranberry Sauce
The last item we made was cranberry sauce. If you can believe it, we've never had cranberry sauce during Thanksgiving. I gave it a shot and most of us agreed that we weren't a fan. Unfortunately, this particular side probably won't make an appearance at future dinners. I realize that I didn't even take a picture of this final dish... 

What do you think of our Thanksgiving 2011?  My mom also made her Asian noodle dish (recipe here) and oily rice (similar concept to this). I didn't have time to take pictures while she was making the latter dish, but will do so next time as it's quite good and easy to make. 

Stayed tuned for some Christmas holiday cooking and some recent cookie recipes!

Thanksgiving 2010 Part 3: Orange Green Beans

Green beans are a staple at every holiday meal. We've gone through our fair share of variations: canned green beans with cream of mushroom soup, with and without those delicious crispy fried onions, fresh green beans with simple garlic, oil and S&P, to roasted green beans. One year, I made green beans with orange rinds and while it was good, it didn't absorb the orange flavoring as much as I would have like. This year, I tried to cut the rinds smaller and crushed them a little more to really get that orange flavor and I think it worked. 

While I'm a fan of canned food and veggies (my pantry is consistently stocked with canned corn and numerous canned tomatoes), I think this dish is best made with fresh green beans and during the holidays, these are bountiful and reasonably priced.  - 1.29 a lb, yes please!

Orange Green Beans

1-2 lbs of fresh green beans, clipped and washed

2 tbsp butter

1 small handful of chopped bacon

3 cloves of garlic, sliced thin

Rind from one small to medium orange, sliced into strips

Juice and orange segments from that same orange

1/3 cup of broth and white wine (whatever portion you would like)

S&P

1. Make sure your green beans are cleaned and washed.  

2. Get all the bacon, garlic (in the pic below, only the rinds and everything on the right is for this dish.  Trust me, not using all that bacon!) and orange rind ready before you turn on the heat.

3. Add butter to a pan big enough to eventually hold the green beans and liquid. Add in the bacon and let it cook to ooze out that bacon goodness. Then add in the garlic, orange rinds and let those flavors mix togehter.  Yum! 

4. Add in the green beans, orange segments and juice. Give it a good mix. Add in a dash of S&P (a little less on the salt since you do have bacon).

5. Turn the heat down to medium low and pour in the 1/3 cup of liquid. Cover and let this steam/cook for about 3 minutes. Then take the cover off and let it cook for another 3 minutes. Do a quick taste test and add more S&P as necessary.  If you had garlic powder, I'm sure a dash of that would be delicious too!

6.  It's nice if you let it sit a little bit so the flavors are really absorbed into the green beans.  I made this an hour before dinner started, took about 10 minutes start to finish and let it sit the remaining time. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving 2010 Part 2: Brussel Sprouts w/Bacon

I love brussel sprouts and during my weekly grocery visits, I tend to gravitate towards those mini cabbages.  These have consistently been on our holiday menu for the past few years, and each year, we make slight adjustments.  We've roasted, we've boiled, we've steamed, we've added pinenuts, we've added pancetta, we've added proscuitto, we've added orange...  So many variations, but I think this year's recipe could be it.  So good!

Brussel Sprouts w/Bacon

2 lbs brussel sprouts (We had two large quart containers from the store so I'm estimating two lbs)

3 strips of bacon cut into small cubes (if you used the thanksgiving turkey recipe, save three strips for this dish as well)

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

1/4 of an onion, sliced into thin strips

S&P

1. Clean and cut the hard end off of each brussel sprout. Boil a large pot of salted water. Once boiling, add the brussel sprouts and cook for 2 minutes - no more!  Take out and put into a large bowl of iced water - to spot the cooking process immediately.  Once they are cooled enough for you to handle, but each into quarters (you can leave whole, cut into halves, whatever you prefer).

2. I like to cut up my bacon, onion and garlic before cooking (picture below is the bacon, garlic for both my brussel sprouts and green bean dish). 

3. Add the bacon to a pan and heat up.  Let it crisp up (roughly 4 minutes) before adding the garlic and onions.  Let this cook for another 5-7 minutes until the onions and garlic are soft.  Continually mix this so nothing overcooks or burns. Add just a tad of salt (bacon should have added some saltiness) and freshly ground pepper.

4. Add in the brussel sprouts and mix well.  Let the flavors coat the brussel sprouts and have a quick taste.  Add some more S&P if you need.

Optional:  You can add in roasted pinenuts.  You can also then put these on a pan and put them under the broiler to let the brussel sprouts crispen up a bit.  Lastly, you can also add a small drizzel of balsamic vinegar (not to be mistaken w/balsamic dressing...) and lightly toss.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving 2010 Part 1: Turkey Brine Success!

Look at that Turkey.  Thanksgiving dinner was a success!  With only five people this year for Thanksgiving, we made sure to portion control what we cooked to avoid a week's worth of leftovers. This year's Thanksgiving was spent in Dallas with my sister, brother in law and my new niece so cooking in a different kitchen in an apartment also played a factor.  No brand new recipes (except the turkey brine) and enhanced current recipes. 

Thanksgiving 2010 Dinner consisted of:

-Brined turkey

-Green beans

-Brussel sprouts

-Mashed potatoes

-Stuffing

-Apple crisp

I'll post those recipes in the coming week but first, the most important Thanksgiving defining dish: the TURKEY.

I've never brined a turkey but have heard several friends highlight their success with it.  Our maple glazed bacon turkey was a success two years ago, but I do have to admit, the white meat is always a little dry.  I received a note from a colleague for a brining recipe found on her aunt's food blog here.  I followed most of the brine recipe (few changes) but did not follow the cooking directions - I went back to the maple and bacon recipe we used in the past, which was from my friend, Linds.  You may remember her from guest blog post of delicious chocolate chip cookies.  

The result?  Ooo-eee.  The meat was deliciously tender and moist.  I don't normally like white meat but I didn't mind eating that this year because it tasted so good.  I think brining will be a must at every Thanksgiving moving forward.  Please share your brining recipes if you have done it before.

Brined Turkey Cooked with Bacon and Maple

For the brine (which you must do two days before Thanksgiving: 1 day to brine and 1 day to rest):

Recipe adapted from Carol Blonder

12-14 lb fresh turkey

8 thick slices of fresh ginger

4 bay leaves

1 Tbsp allspice

6 whole cloves

3 cups apple cider

3 cups water

2/3 cup salt

2/3 brown sugar

1 orange, washed and quarter (keep the skin)

For the turkey:

Recipe adapted from my friend, Linds

8-10 slices bacon (whatever flavor you want)

2 bunches of fresh sage

3/4 stick of butter (soften to room temp)

Zest of one orange

1/3 cup maple syrup

1 cup chicken broth

1 cup white wine

1 head of garlic (sliced in half)

S&P

Brining Process (two days before Thanksgiving):

1. Put the cider, water, salt, ginger, bay leaves, spices, clove into a pot and bring to a boil.  Take off stove and let it sit until it comes to room temperature. 

2. Wash and pat dry your turkey.  Remove the gibblets and such.  Trim off any excess fat. Put it in a large zip lock bag (or a large stock pot to fit the turkey and have liquid enough to cover).  Take the orange quarters and put into the cavity.  

3. Pour the cool/room temp. brine into the bag and let the turkey sit in the fridge for 24 hours.  I flipped the bag halfway through this to ensure the brine is absorbed on each side.

4. After 24 hours, discard the brine, wash and pat dry the turkey. I covered the turkey with wrap and put it back into the fridge for another 12-24 hours. 

Turkey Day (Sorry for the lack of pictures on this part but my hands were too greasy to stop and take pictures at every stop):

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees.

2. Take turkey out about 1 hour prior to cooking.  Place turkey into a roasting rack - if you don't have one (like me), I used an turkey aluminum pan and used slices of potatoes and oranges underneath the turkey so it was slightly raised from the bottom of the pan since you'll be pour liquid into the bottom (pic below). Tuck the wings underneath so they do not burn.  Cut the entire head of garlic in half horizontally (don't worry about the skin) and put inside the cavity with the orange quarters you already had from the brine.

3. In a bowl, mix up the soften/room temperature butter, chopped/minced sage, orange zest, S&P.  With your fingers, gently separate the skin from the turkey around the breast area.  Taking a big spoonful of the mixed butter, put under the skin and then using your fingers (on the outside) "massage" the butter so it spreads.  Put butter into every nick and cranny you can. 

4.  Wrap the top of the chicken and legs with the bacon.  Lightly pepper.  Pour the chicken broth and the white wine into the bottom of the pan.

5. Bake in the oven at 475 degrees for 30 minutes.  Then turn down the heat to 350 degrees.  Take the chicken out real quick and baste with the maple syrup (i only baste the bacon).  Put back in oven with a sheet of aluminum foil loosely on top (so the bacon doesn't burn to a crisp) and cook for approximately 3.5 hours (for a 14 lb turkey).  Take out throughout to baste with the maple syrup - I did this three times.

6. Once done, take out the turkey and leave the aluminum foil on top to slightly cover.  Let this sit for about 15 minutes so the juices are encased within the meat.  Cut too early and the juices will flow out.  I know the turkey will look at you and egg you on to cut it and sneak a small piece but you. must. resist.  It will be worth it.

7. Slice, serve, making sure to get pieces of the bacon.  Make sure to spoon some of the juices out to make gravy!