My First Turkey

Hello readers. Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Did you stuff yourself silly with poultry products? I’m going to assume that you did.

This year was a first for me: I made my first Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, you heard me right. I’d never cooked a full Thanksgiving dinner before in my life. I'd never even cooked a whole turkey, just turkey parts. We rarely if ever spend the holiday at home. Our relatives have always done a bang-up job hosting Thanksgiving, and if I can possibly avoid throwing a party, you better believe I’ll make every excuse in the book. I love to cook, but doing so for any more than 6 to 8 people does not compute. Add perky conversation to the list of hostessy requirements and I’m guaranteed to be catatonic for a week afterwards.

But this year we got two Thanksgivings: one with Husband’s extended family and my dad out by Worcester on the actual day, and one at our place on Saturday for my mom and her fellow. I really enjoyed making all the different pieces of the dinner. I mean not as much as I enjoy arriving to a meal already prepared, but I still had fun. Our 14-pound turkey from Chestnut Farms was perfection, and it had little if anything to do with me. Their meats are swoon-worthy and worth every penny. It didn't need a brine or anything. I also made sausage and shiitake stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, kale with butternut squash, mashed potatoes (actually I’m giving Husband the credit for these because of his deliciously heavy hand with the sour cream), and sweet potato flan.

I love Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday. I was so happy to get to celebrate it twice. Now tell me what you ate so I can relive it a third time! And a fourth! And a fifth!!!

Comments

[sarabeth]

Congratulations! That looks like a delicious plate of Thanksgivingness.
One thing we ate (in addition to too many kinds of pie) was... crackers with warm goat cheese and savory apple-cranberry chutney (couldn't find any rhubarb around here). Saw your post the day my m-i-l assigned us to bring an appetizer! Great idea and everyone liked it.
Thanks as always.

[Tammy]

Sarabeth: Love your spin on the chutney!! So glad it went over well and I hope you had a great holiday!

[Mom]

Here's what I ate for Thanksgiving dinner: the most tender and juicy turkey EVER, along with home-made, garnet-red whole berry cranberry sauce, gluten-free sausage and shiitake stuffing, kale jazzed up with butternut squash cubes, and mashed Yukon Gold potatoes NOT TO MENTION multiple pieces of smooth and silky sweet potato flan with butterscotch sauce! Heavenly! Our taste buds say "thank you, thank you, thank you"! Our waistlines say "back to the gym"!