beef,

did all 20 sliders really make it into the bird

in my house the over under would be 16

HI,

Thanksgiving was marked by the incredibly shrinking guest list. My cousins were ill, so they showed up to drop off their contribution and went home. My sailors never materialized. I showed up at Great Lakes to collect them, but they ran out of sailors disappointing about 20 hosts who waited in line. I knew from prior experience it is not a good idea to arrive late, so I have nobody to blame but myself having been the very last person in line.

Instead of a small group of 10, we have had far more in the past, it was my core family of six. Rather than entertaining guests, we entertained ourselves. We rehashed family stories that didn't need any background explanation, which would be necessary for guests.

Skipped the silver for everyday silverware, which made cleaning up a lot less intense. Can't toss any garbage until all the silver is cleaned and counted; a ritual gladly avoided this year.

Dinner was what the family expected for Thanksgiving:

Turkey with sausage and chestnut stuffing
Gravy made from roasted vegetables and pan juices
Mash rutabaga seasoned with stock, salt and pepper
Riced potatoes whipped with butter and cream
Creamed spinach
Cranberry sauce with brown sugar and orange marmalade
Raspberry and strawberry jello mold
Croissants

Dutch apple pie
Pecan pie
Pumpkin pie

Strawberry punch

***
Later in the evening, I went to a friend's house bearing gifts of cranberry sauce, Alton Brown's fresh onion dip and a pumpkin pie. I told my family I would either be back soon or very late.

Enjoyed bits and pieces of this family's dinner. Returned home at 2 am much to my surprise.

Thanksgiving was a good day with a good balance of family and friends.

Regards,

After a lot of trial an error on what to make to bring to two celebrations, I settled on smoked turkey rillettes with pickled cranberries, pimento cheese, and maple/bacon fat pecans.

Given that the crowd was fairly traditional in tastes, these dishes were called "turkey on toast", "cheese spread", and "Glazed Pecans". With the naming simplification, all was well with the world.

Thanksgiving was a big hit and all the food came turned out great.
I brined a whole turkey and an additional breast. I smoked the whole turkey on the WSM with water pan for 4 hours, then removed the water pan added some more lump coals and cooked the breast on the WSM with no water pan. They both turned out fantastic.

I forgot to grab a photo of the whole bird, but here is the breast with some wings.

Dinner last night was a good.  Mac & Cheese was a miss. Too much parmesan cheese and the panchetta was overpowered. Should have practiced it once prior to Thanksgiving.

19 lb HoKa turkey that was brined for 24 hours ahead of time


Gravy made from pan drippings, giblets and turkey stock


Sausage Stuffing w/Apples and Cranberries


5 Cheese Mac & Cheese w/Panchetta


Mashed Potatoes


Green Bean Casserole w/crispy shallots


Dinner Rolls


Apple Pie


Apple & Pear Tart w/Apricot Glaze

Just wanted to say I tried thin sliced fat back all over my turkey this year (while cooking) it was the best turkey I've done yet!

I cooked the turkey in a smoker using a rotisserie. Cooked it at about 300 degrees using applewood, and "stuffed" it with some lardons, shallots, leeks, and celery (just kind of chucked those in there, it wasn't really stuffed). I rubbed butter, thyme, sage, and S+P under the skin the night before.



Cooked it for about 4 hours, and then crisped up the skin with some judicious use of the weed burner.



For the first time in years I didn't brine the turkey, but I didn't really notice any difference. It was still really juicy and tasted great!

Now I REALLY want a weedburner...

A recipe that didn't work: Cook's Illustrated had a recipe for dressing (aka stuffing) where you put roasted chicken wings on top when you bake it. The idea is to create the same flavor you would get by cooking the stuff in the turkey without having to put it in the turkey. In my view, this did not provide any noticeable different in taste, and on the downside, the turkey wings prevented the top of the stuffing from crisping up. I think the crunchy bits of stuffing at the edge are the tastiest, and this recipe nearly eliminated them. Mark this down as an idea that sounded much better than its reality.

Jonah

Sorry I'm late, but we had Thanksgiving dinner on Friday (and then I proceeded to be sick for two days -- not from the dinner). My menu:

Turkey -- a Trader Joe's brined "natural" turkey, and it was one of the best we've ever had. I browned it at 425 for 45 minutes, turned the oven down to 350 and tented it in foil.

Cornbread dressing -- with sausage, leeks, apples and dried cranberries. I stopped making regular sage and bread stuffing when I got this recipe from a friend, who originally got it from epicurious.com and raved about it. Now I rave about it.

Mashed potatoes -- with butter and cream

Gravy -- made from turkey pan drippings and a stock I made from turkey necks, wings and liver.

Maple-glazed sweet potatoes -- parboiled sweet potatoes drenched in maple syrup, orange juice and cinnamon and baked

Cranberry sauce -- adapted from an old Martha Stewart recipe, with brandy, orange juice, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, black pepper and red pepper flakes. Sweet, tart, and with some heat at the end. Family favorite.

Steamed green beans -- nothing special, but DH said we needed at least one green veg.

Pumpkin pie -- essentially the recipe off the Libby's Pumpkin can, but double all the spices and sprinkle chopped, candied ginger over the top before baking. Serve with maple whipped cream. Well, I mean to make maple whipped cream, but totally forgot about adding the maple syrup when I whipped the cream.

Blueberry Cobbler -- for the people who don't like pumpkin pie (yes, they exist).

Served with Beaujolais Nouveau, Georges du Boeuf.

ETA: apples in the dressing

I hosted a Thanksgiving feast on Saturday. It's one meal I absolutely love to cook -- the house smells great, the meal itself isn't difficult to get right, and when you do it at your house, you get the leftovers!

We started with snacks of charcuterie and cheeses and then sat down to a starter of carpaccio with truffles, pecorino cheese, and a tangy citrus dressed arugula salad on top.

Carpaccio:


Then to the main event: turkey roasted "Martha Stewart style" with a wine and butter soaked cheesecloth over the breast, basted every 30 mins. This method is a little tedious, but it does result in a very very pretty bird with moist white and dark meat.

Bird:



Sides included stuffing, mashed potatoes (with more truffles), roasted brussels sprouts, peas with bacon and frizzled shallots. I made a cranberry sauce but we forgot it, and ended up snacking on it later with the hard Basque cheese we had started with.

Peas:


We had such a great time, and the gravy (my personal bell-weather dish) was out of this world good ... deep rich turkey essence. I was so pleased with everything and with how the boys couldn't stay out of the kitchen and stop picking off the turkey for the rest of the evening.

Leftovers for me are simple. A sandwich here, a little bowl of stuffing with gravy there. I love Thanksgiving!
Sandwich:

porklet wrote:I hosted a Thanksgiving feast on Saturday....

Heckuva feast it was, thanks for hostessing. And for making me wear a flower apron. After several years of having smoked and fried birds on the mainstage, it was nice to get a renewed appreciation for a well-executed simple roaster. New to me was the frizzled and frazzled peas dish, if you could post the receta that would be great. It was a knockout.

Well Shirley! (Don't call me Shirley) Here's the paraphrased recipe:

Creamed peas with bacon and frizzled leeks:
3 large leeks, white and tender green parts only, sliced crosswise and separated into rings
veg oil, for frying
salt and pepper
6 slices thick-cut bacon
4 thyme sprigs
1 cup of turkey stock or low sodium chicken broth
3/4 cup of heavy cream
3x10 ounce boxes of frozen baby peas, thawed
1 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbs water

Wash leeks and thoroughly dry. Heat 1/2 inch of oil and add all but 1/2 cup leeks. cook until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain, season with salt and pepper.

In a large deep skillet, cook bacon until done. Drain and crumble.

Add the remaining leeks and the thyme to the skillet and cook until leeks are softened, about 8 minutes. Add 1/2 cup stock or broth and cook until it is reduced by half. Add the cream and reduce by half. Stir in the peas and bacon and remaining 1/2 cup of stock. Bring to a boil. Adjust seasoning. Add cornstarch slurry and cook until sauce is slightly thickened, 3 or 4 minutes more. Transfer to a bowl and sprinkle the top with crispy frizzled frazzled leeks. Eat it up!

Jonah wrote:A recipe that didn't work: Cook's Illustrated had a recipe for dressing (aka stuffing) where you put roasted chicken wings on top when you bake it.

Yeah, that recipe didn't impress me either. Hard to see how laying a few wings on top does much for the flavor of the stuffing, and seems to me like a waste of the wings. Better to roast them and make stock from them and use the stock to moisten the bread and to make gravy.