To new beginnings

Hello my friends and a very merry new year to you all. It has been quite the holiday to say the least!

So the last time I wrote on here was about Halloween. I've completely abandoned blogging since then and I am very bad indeed.

Most of November was boring until John came for Thanksgiving. Prior to his arrival, we had been Skyping about our menu and how we are going to go about it. Last year, John and I made Thanksgiving for the family (in NY, that is) and this year we were going to do it again, but with the addition of my awesome roomie AND we were going to be large and in charge this time.

So I am a list person, so I wrote a recipe list for our Thanksgiving starting with appetizers then going into the entrees and then finally the dessert. Luckily for me, Aliza, my roomie, controlled the appetizer and dessert category to help us out. I instructed Mandie, Graham and Gillian to bring booze-but unfortunately for us...they aren't big winos and they weren't in the boozing mood. As for the meal itself, it was the bomb dot com.

May I entertain you with the menu. Please be advised to have a tissue at hand for there will be the caution of drooling involved.

Ahem. Let's begin with the turkey.

• 1/2 cup butter, cubed
• 2 apples, cored and halved
• 2/3 (750 milliliter) bottle champagne
• Tangerines
  

So we got a 12 pound turkey and we removed the gizzards. We didn't brine it, however we will brine the turkey next year to compare the difference. I then gently separated the breast from the skin slightly to slide a stick and a half of 1cm sliced butter generously between the meat and skin. Then we stuffed sliced green apples inside to boost its flavor and some tangerines to give it a sweet and sour kick. Then with a bottle of Veuve, we poured the whole bottle over the turkey (naturally while it was in the bag) and basted it good and through. We placed in it the oven for about 3.5 hours at 350°F. Hands down this was the best turkey I've had. Bless my mother and grandmother, but I remember our turkey being delicious, but a wee bit dry in the white meat area. This turkey was moist. Really moist and really tasty. However, I needed a nap afterwards because I ate too much that high levels of tryptophan was dominating in my veins. I do believe next year we'll brine it to see if it's even possible that the bird could get even more moist.

Set that puppy aside and work on the stuffing.

• 1 cup butter
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
• 8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
• 12 to 13 cups slightly dry bread cubes
• 1 1/2 teaspoons poultry seasoning
• 1 teaspoon dried leaf sage
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon ground marjoram
• 2 to 2 1/2 cups chicken broth

So we used white bread because John said it'd taste better than the wheat-to be honest I personally am a wheat girl, but mother always told me to pick your battles. We purchased this bread the day before and left it out to get a little dry. Then after we popped the turkey in, we started chopping away. John is really an amazing sous chef to give credit where the credit is due, but we know who wears the pants in the kitchen and it ain't by Lee's. We chopped up the celery, bread, parsley and onions and placed them in a bowl. We purchased a 4.5 qt crockpot for this baby-so we knew our stuffing would be the bomb. We then added a cup of butter, poultry seasoning, sage, thyme and 2.5 cups of broth. We didn't know what marjoram was-so we didn't add it, but I'm sure we should have. We mixed the components with our mitts and plopped it in our crockpot for about 2 hours. I'll be legit, I am not much of a stuffing girl. I also really don't like when stuffing is so moist it's mushy. The stuffing was not too moist that it was mushy, however at first it had a taste to be that was slightly off setting to me. I can't put my finger on it. It wasn't bad. Everyone else loved it, I guess I'm just not a stuffing girl. However, after several bites, I think my palate got used to it because it didn't taste off to be any longer. Overall, it was a hit so I'll most likely keep the recipe, unless something else comes along my way that sounds more appealing.

The night before I made the cranberry sauce because the longer it's refrigerated the better it is in forming it's nice gelatinous like state.

2 (12-ounce) bags of fresh cranberries, washed and sorted
1 cup crushed pineapple
1 cup orange juice
1 cup pomegranate juice
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon ground cloves

Exhibit A: I placed 2 bags of fresh cranberries in a pot and began to heat on med high. I placed 1 cup of pineapple juice-Dole to be exact in amongst the berries. I added a cup of pomegranate juice from POM, a little bit of fresh ginger that I grated in the juice, ground cloves and hippie co-op organic syrup. Let that cook and seep a bit while stirring. Then let cool to room temperature and then pop that baby in the fridge to get a little solid. The cranberries were delicious, but in my opinion I felt that they were still just too tart. I need to figure a way to tone down the tartness, but the other ingredients were awesome. I'll definitely keep this recipe.

However, back to the day of. John and I decided to get a little crazy and a little gluttonous and we also purchased a 10lb smoked ham. I wanted to glaze the ham in a delicious apricot honey glaze so I got fresh apricot ginger jam from my job, mixed in a little bit of syrup a little but of cloves, a little bit of nutmeg, a dash of orange juice, a dash of soy sauce and stir it all together. Baste that baby and pop it in the oven as well. Man...it was SO delicious I can't even help but drool at this moment. Literally, everyone devoured the ham and for good reason too.

John and I are wizards at mash potatoes. We have it so down that we could do it in our sleep and Graham loves it that we purposely make extra for him.

Mashed Potatoes:

• 5 pounds Russet Or Yukon Gold Potatoes
• ¾ cups Butter
• 1 package (8 Oz.) Cream Cheese, Softened
• ½ cups (to 3/4 Cups) Half-and-Half
• ½ teaspoons (to 1 Teaspoon) Lawry's Seasoned Salt
• ½ teaspoons (to 1 Teaspoon) Black Pepper
• Garlic, Parmesan Cheese, Chives

Boil the potatoes, drain, mash, add butter, add cream cheese, add half and half, add the Lawry's salt, cracked pepper, garlic, parmesan cheese and top it off with chives. Dudes....literally a mouth blowing experience.

We also made these scallop potato salad, but John has the recipe. It's similar to the mash potatoes without the mashing. That's also amazing and once I get the recipe I'll post it. Truly a fattening ordeal, but it's SO SO worth the extra weight.

Near the end when the bird and ham were ready, I began to sautee asparagus in salt, cracked pepper and garlic in EVOO (extra virgin olive oil).

We steamed fresh broccoli and cauliflower and melted some Velveeta cheese for my beloved sister. (Advisory: I nor John support nor condone the use of Velveeta-but personally I wouldn't.)

For our apps Aliza got prosciutto and wrapped it around fresh melon with a variety of cheese and crackers with fig jam and blackberry jam. Delicious sounding? That's because it was.

Aliza also made dessert from scratch. She made an amazing pumpkin pie. I have no idea what her genius was, but I'll tell you-it was fabulous.

There you have it folks. An amazingly delicious and relatively easy Thanksgiving filled with love in our hearts and food and wine in our bellies.

I wish I could say that I have pictures, but I don't. On Halloween weekend my camera was stolen :*( and I'm surrounded by people who don't take pictures....so use your imagination on this one peeps.