Thanksgiving Dinner

Appetizers:

• Endive with Cranberry Cinnamon Goat Cheese
• Shrimp with Seafood Sauce
• Baked Brie with Onion Marmalade

Starter:

• Butternut Squash Soup

Dinner:

• Roasted Turkey
• Stuffing
• Glazed Carrots and Parsnips
• Buttery Green Beans
• Gratin of Potatoes, Shallots and Sage

Dessert:

• Apple Crumble Pie from Andrew Scenic Acres Farm

I had a couple of disasters this thanksgiving that made me laugh but also reminded me that I am an amateur foodie. On the other hand, if you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?

So my lovely boyfriend picked up a turkey for me. I fully appreciate his effort, however he picked up a pre-stuffed Butterball turkey. “Cook from Frozen”. OK, I’ll roll with it. It just meant that I didn’t have to make stuffing, but I had to watch to make sure that the stuffing (which I never put in turkey), didn’t dry out the turkey. A frozen turkey also means I can’t add much flavor to it. On Sunday morning, I read the package carefully to make sure I cooked it within the time. The package said it would take 6 hours. It only took 4 1/2. All my best laid plans out the window! My turkey got to rest for 1 hour.

Luckily it was still warm when we carved it and it turned out really moist. Phew! 

Then, my Gratin of Potatoes didn’t thicken. They were runny as hell. They tasted ok, but I still can’t figure out what I did wrong. I think I used the wrong potatoes. And if that wasn’t enough, while I was sautéing the carrots and parsnips, my 30 year old electric stovetop burner caught on fire. 

I blew the fire out, opened the windows and laughed. I served said glazed carrots and parsnips, however I didn’t cook them enough (probably because I was smoked out of my kitchen), so they were crunchier than they should have been. Thankfully the wine was perfect!

Well I can’t say that dinner was a complete success, but it was still fun to put it together.  I have lots of leftovers and am completely fooded out now.  

Individual recipe posts to follow!