Thanksgiving Dinner (take two)
Saturday we headed off to Oakville after a day of frantic cleaning and organizing. Dinner was great! Dad made turkey, stuffing, squash, mashed potatoes, vegetables, rolls and gravy. I brought the cranberry sauce, tomato chutney, dill pickles (sliced) and beets, as well as a brie to bake with pear mincemeat on baguette. Everything was divine, the table was set beautifully and I felt full. Then dessert came out! Meaghan had made mini pumpkin cheesecakes in muffin liners, pumpkin pie, and apple dumplings (recipe to be posted this week, stay tuned). Our favourite part was that Elodie weighed the same as the turkey – 18lb. Too funny!!
Yesterday, we had 15 guests at three tables (including one in the hall) so it was a proper sit down dinner. We served an 18lb turkey, stuffed. For future reference, we started defrosting it Tuesday evening, and woke up bright and early to soak it in cold water for 4 hours. It took 4.5 hours to cook and came out perfectly done, as per the meat thermometer. The bread stuffing will have lots of left overs: it had sautéed onion and celery, plus the oven baked batch had mushroom to help keep it moist. The gravy was made using the turkey stock mixed with drippings and flour. We also roasted two pork tenderloins, just incase but hardly anyone touched them! I made peas and beans, carrots, corn, and mashed potatoes cooked in broth. Louise brought turnip (my favourite). What I would do differently next time: pre-cook the vegetables and just pop them in the microwave and/or oven to heat right before serving.
We also served Picard’s chip nuts, onion and garlic flavour. Gosh they are good, but so unhealthy. 28g is 160 calories (10g of fat). Hello heart attack.
Then for dessert, our guests kindly brought us a plethora of sweet goodness:
- Laurie’s famous pumpkin cheesecake (that we forgot to defrost)
- pumpkin pie (that no one knew we had to bake)
- Sherri and Aunt Jo brought a beautiful platter for me filled with:
- banana bread
- mini apple cakes (bundt style)
- mini pumpkin candy corns
- apple pie a la Splenda
- lemon meringue tartlets
I am about to clean a fresh batch turkey broth with white and black pepper corns, celery, carrot and bay leaves. Smells fantastic! Can’t wait to can it into jars.
Happy Thanksgiving to all 🙂
