This year, we decided to make Roast turkey (p.442). I apparently forgot to take pictures of the naked bird but, essentially, I rinsed it, brushed it with butter, and then mom seasoned it to her liking. We stuffed it and cooked it for five hours or so.
Beautiful! This was a really gorgeous bird and was tender and juicy. It was a BIG turkey too, so flipping it would have been impossible. We didn't brine it but I think it was just as juicy as the year before.
I decided that this year I would make Basic corn bread stuffing (p. 534) and truly make STUFFING (inside a bird). Mom had proactively made corn bread or me, so all I had to do was toast it.
I cooked onions, celery, and garlic in some butter, and then stirred in some parsley, sage, salt, and pepper. I tossed it with the bread crumbs.
Mom had kept her parsley plant alive for the Thanksgiving meal.
I moistened it with chicken broth...
And I stuffed it into the turkey!
What goes in, then has to come out! Rachel extracted the stuffing.
I had extra cornbread left over and thought--what the heck! I'll make both stuffing and dressing (outside the bird). I thought Corn bread stuffing with sausage and bell peppers (p. 535) would be perfect. It was particularly perfect because I HATE bell peppers and love stuffing, so making it as the only stuffing choice would be really sad for me. That being said, everyone else at Thanksgiving loved both sausage and peppers, so I had the perfect audience!
It was essentially the same recipe, except green pepper and cooked sausage were added to the rest with the seasoning and it was popped in the oven:
Mom insisted that it was delicious! I thought it was really pretty with the green pepper and would have been even prettier if we had had red pepper too. I really liked having two choices of stuffing since it's almost everyone's favorite part of the meal.
The table with the stuffing, mashed potatoes, and green bean casserole. Yum!
It was a terrific Tday. I love Thanksgiving. It's one of my two favorite holidays (Halloween is the other one). A day about family and food is about as great as you can get, in my opinion :) I really loved our mixed group of friends and family this year. And after we eat, we nap, and it's on to my favorite part of the holiday--going Black Friday shopping, starting at midnight! Most of the time we don't even buy anything but I think it's fun. What is your favorite holiday?
Wow, full on classic thanksgiving. What a beautiful bird too! I've never gotten mine that nicely browned. Think I may need to dose in butter next time.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's funny about the parsley. Mine had not made it, and my Mother kindly carried a bunch freshly cut off hers the 12 hours to Dallas at my request, lol.