The aftermath

When I woke up the day after Thanksgiving, I came to a realization.

It felt strangely like the day after our wedding.  All the planning and effort that had gone into one big event had paid off, the guests had departed and left behind were two exhausted people since the adrenaline had stopped.  After our wedding, we waited until a week later to depart for our honeymoon and enjoyed having time to reflect on the big day and all the wonderful memories.  Now, over a week after Thanksgiving, we are still enjoying rehashing the memories of what was a great day.

We were joined by my family, my husband's mother and my dear friend, Crissie and her husband and two children.  Crissie and I went to college together and then were roommates in DC after college.  During our time as roomies, our families often came out to visit over Thanksgiving and we (well, our parents really) would cook a huge Thanksgiving dinner.  Those were the days when we didn't even have a proper utensil to use to serve pumpkin pie.  And, definitely the days before children.  Almost 10 years later, we sat together with our children playing happily and a meal that we had cooked by ourselves.

Crissie reading with our boys on Thanksgiving.
Photo courtesy of Crissie Traugott Photography.

Like the recapping of our wedding on our honeymoon (reviewing the food, who kissed whom, who drank too much and who was a maniac on the dance floor), one week after Thanksgiving, I am ready to recap the food!

Here you go:

The First Course: Salad
I highly recommend the salad as well with a lemon shallot vinaigrette, pomegranate seeds, apples and mandarin oranges with candies pecans.  Divine.  And, a perfect way to start a meal when you know the main course and dessert are going to be absurdly heavy.

As I was putting fork to mouth on my second round of dessert, I decided the salad was the best idea versus a soup or other heavy first course.

See my last post on Thanksgiving for the salad recipe.


The Main Event: The Turkey
The turkey was amazing.

Our guests words, not mine.

And thank goodness  because I did not want to be "the one" who everyone talks about every year on Thanksgiving as the person who served the disgusting turkey.  I was breathing a major sigh of relief after dinner.

This was the first turkey I had ever cooked and after successfully finding the neck in the turkey while rinsing it off and then having to go through the turkey's other end to get out the little bag of fun (giblets/gizzard I think), I thought I might never eat turkey again.

If you can't tell, I was the kid who didn't do well dissecting even a worm in high school.  I roasted the 17 pound turkey on 325 degrees for approximately 4 1/2 hours.  I ran out of time to brine the turkey but took a stick of butter still in the wrapper and rubbed it over the turkey before putting it in the oven.  I also sprinkled it with garlic powder.  Finally, I put some chicken stock in the bottom of the roasting pan to create a good base for the gravy.

I continued to rub the stick of butter on the turkey about every 45 minutes until it started to turn golden brown.  I also basted the turkey up until the last hour of cooking with the juices that accumulated in the bottom of the roasting pan.

The result?  Golden brown goodness.

Me with the first turkey cooked on my own.
Photo courtesy of Crissie Traugott Photography

This was so easy, I might just do it again!

Mashed Potato Thoughts
Go with heavy whipping cream versus skim or whole milk for the mashed potatoes.

Woweeeee!

Holidays are not the time to hold back on calories and fat.  Go big or go home!

Overwhelming Goodness: Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce
I was nervous to make the pumpkin bread pudding with caramel sauce as it was not a 'traditional' pie dessert for Thanksgiving.

Sweet baby Jesus.  It was unreal.

If you make one dessert before now and the spring when it is no longer acceptable to cook with pumpkin (like wearing white after labor day, some of us still do it), MAKE THIS DESSERT.  The recipe is available in my last post on Thanksgiving.

Do Not Pass Up Chocolate on Thanksgiving
Crissie's mocha pie was out of this world and frankly, it was nice to have a dessert that didn't revolve around nuts or feature the traditional Thanksgiving dessert spices like nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon.  I adore chocolate 365 days a year and why pass it up on Thanksgiving?  I am going to try to get the recipe from Crissie to post.

I must admit that reading about all this food is now making me hungry again and I just ate dinner.  I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed the holiday on this end.

A stretchy pants worthy Thanksgiving feast

Since moving into our new home in Washington, DC last week, my family of three has been settling in, unpacking boxes and hanging pictures in preparation for celebrating the holidays in our new digs. As if becoming first-time homeowners isn’t exciting enough, we are hosting our first Thanksgiving dinner which has left me in a state of unadulterated, total foodie happiness. I’ve been planning the details for weeks and plotting my cooking schedule vigilantly. The grocery shopping started last week. I took Davis with me to buy our first round of Thankgiving ingredients and most importantly, our first turkey. We walked away with a monster turkey and my little boy grinning ear-to-ear as he looked at the frozen bird in our cart.

In fact, why am I blogging right now and not cooking?

Thanksgiving was always my dad’s favorite holiday probably because it was a day devoted to eating.

And eating.

And then eating some more.

In fact, he even had special pants he wore on Thanksgiving. He would pull out his favorite “stretchy” pants (worn with a sweater and collared shirt of course), buried in his closet from the last Thanksgiving and sigh with happiness knowing that a food fiesta awaited. He could rest assured that his favorite “stretchy” pants would not fail him as the waist band could expand as he ate with abandon and pure joy.

You can imagine that I am wishing my dad was here to celebrate the first Thanksgiving in our new house and the first Thanksgiving dinner I am cooking. I know he would have been in the kitchen “sampling” along with Dan and Davis as the cooking went on Wednesday into Thursday. He would have supervised the roasting of the enormous turkey from the living room while watching football and cursing the Cowboys.

So I am setting out to make my dad proud and cooking a “stretchy” pants worthy Thanksgiving dinner.  I won't lie either; I am considering resurrecting my old maternity pants with the elastic waist-band from the attic.

I’ll be sure to post pictures of the food right after Thanksgiving but for now, here is my menu for the big day. I’ve made most of these recipes before with the exception of the salad. A lot of them are adapted or taken straigh from my favorite food magazines.  I like to experiment but I feel like Thanksgiving is not a time to mess around and potentially have a kitchen debacle. 

Back to cooking!  I may even try to brine my turkey if the big bird unthaws in time. Oh, so much to look forward to in the next 48 hours! Am I a nerd that I am excited to brine a turkey? Of course I am.  Oh well, so be it.

The kitchen can't handle me right now!

Colleen’s Thanksgiving Day Menu
(Any dish with an asterisk has a recipe included below)

First Course
Butter lettuce, Apple, Mandarin Orange, Pomegranate and Candied Walnut Salad **

Main Course
Hello?! Of course, it’s TURKEY!

Side Dishes
Homemade Simple Stuffing **
Sweet Potatoes with Butter and Brown Sugar
Mashed Potatoes (use a potato ricer ... you will have the smoothest potatoes EVER!)
Cranberry Sauce **
Parker House rolls
A fabulous vegetable dish courtesy of my dear friend C.

Desserts
Confession: with so much cooking to do, a toddler to chase after and guests to entertain, I am buying pre-made crusts ... yes, you read that correctly)

Perfect Pumpkin Pie **
Pecan Pie **
Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce **
A non-traditional Thanksgiving dessert, Mocha Cake, courtesy of my dear friend C. because hey, everyone needs chocolate, even on Thanksgiving!

Wine
Beaujolais Nouveau ( a nice young red that goes beautifully with the whole meal ... though I am not a sommelier but in my humble opinion it is pretty darn good)
Diet coke (yes, I don't give it up for Thanksgiving)

RECIPES

Butter lettuce, Apple, Mandarin Orange, Pomegranate and Candied Walnut Salad
(serves 6)

Ingredients
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 shallot, minced
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 8-ounce Fuji apple, halfed, cored, cut into matchstick-size strips
6 cups butter lettuce
6 mandarin orange slices, peeled
Pomegranate seeds
Candied walnuts

Details
Whisk first four ingredients in a small bowl. Season dressing with salt and pepper. Place apple in medium bowl and mix in 3 tablespoons of dressing.

Place butter lettuce in large bowl.  Add apples.  Toss, adding more dressing to taste.  Divide salad among 6 plates.  Garnish each with 1 mandarin orange slice and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and candied walnuts.

Recipe adapted from Bon Appetit, September 2004

Homemade Simple Stuffing
(serves 8-10)

Ingredients
1 stick butter
1 large onion, diced
1.5 cups celery, diced
12 cups bread cubes, cut in 1/2 inch cubes and toasted
1.5 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon dried sage
1 tablespoon thyme
1 cup chicken stock

Details
Toast bread cubes in oven until light brown.

Melt butter in a medium saute pan.  Add onion and celery and cook until tender. 

In a large bowl, place the toasted bread cubes and mix in the onion and celery.  Add salt, pepper, sage and thyme and toss until mixed.  Add chicken stock and toss until blended.

Place stuffing in lightly greased casserole dish and bake at 325 degrees until heated through about 30 minutes.

Cranberry Sauce


Ingredients
12 oz bag fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon orange zest

Details
Place water and sugar in a sauce pan and boil until sugar dissolves.  Add cranberries and cook over medium heat until cranberries pop.  Stir in orange zest and cool.

The sauce can be made up to 2-3 days ahead of tie.

Perfect Pumpkin Pie
(serves 8 to 10)
**Please note I am using a pre-made crust this year

Ingredients
9-inch pie crust
1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin (I like the Libby's brand)
3/4 cup (packe) golden brown sugar)
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Pinch of ground cloves
3 large eggs
1.25 cups heavy whipping cream

Details
Cook pie crust according to directions.

Puree pumpkin in food processor.  Mix in next 6 ingredients.  Add eggs 1 at a time, pulsing after each addition.  Gradually add cream, processing just until blended.  Process 5 seconds longer.

Pour filling into warm crust.  Bake at 350 degrees until center is set, about 1 hour.  Cool completely on rack.  This pie can be made 1 day ahead.  Cover and chill.

Recipe courtesy of Bon Appetit, November 2006

Pecan Pie
(serves 8)
**In the past, I have doubled the filling for this so that the pie is heaping with pecans.  The recipe below is for a single round of filling but feel free to double.  I think it makes the pie much better.

Ingredients
9-inch pie crust
3/4 stick unsalted butter
1.25 cups packed light brown sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
2 cups pecan halves (1/2 pound)

Details
Cook pie crust according to directions.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add brown sugar, whisking until smooth.  Remove from heat and whisk in corn syrup, vanilla, zest and salt.  Lightly beat eggs in a medium bowl, then whisk in corn syrup mixture.

Put pecans in pie shell and pour corn syrup mixture evenly over them.  Bake on hot baking sheet until filling is set, 50 minutes to 1 hour.  Cool completely.

Pie can be baked 1 day ahead and chilled.  Bring to room temperature before serving.
 
Recipe courtesy of Gourmet, November 2009

Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce
(serves 6)

Ingredients
Bread Pudding
2 cups half and half
1 15-ounce can pumpkin
1 cup (packed), plus 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 large eggs
1.5 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
10 cups 1/2 inch cubes egg bread (about 10 oz)

Caramel sauce
1.25 cups (packed) dark brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup whipping cream

Powdered sugar

Details
For Pumpkin Bread Pudding:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Whisk half and half, pumpkin, dark brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and vanilla extract in large bowl to blend.  Fold in bread cubes.  Transfer to 11x7 inch glass baking dish.  Let stand 15 minutes.  Bake pumpkin bread pudding until tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 40 minutes.

For caramel sauce:
Whisk brown sugar and butter in saucepan over medium heat until butter melts.  Whisk in cream and stir until sugar dissolves and sauce is smooth, about 3 minutes.

Sift powdered sugar over bread pudding.  Serve warm with caramel sauce.

Recipe courtesy of Bon Appetit, November 2000