Thanksgiving Feast!

Cooking Club: November 2009

Thanksgiving Sides and Desserts

Pictured: Pumpkin Bombe

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Teresa (Host): Turkey and gravy

Linda: Green Bean Casserole

Ashlin: Turkey Meatloaf Burgers

Jodi: Sweet Potatoes

Lori: Chopped Apple Salad and Maple Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie

Shauna: Cauliflower Gratin with Endive

Susan: Broccoli Casserole

Summer: Pumpkin Pie Martinis

Laura: Pumpkin Ice Cream Bombe

Sarah: Cranberry Relish, Apple Pie

Dana: Pumpkin Cheesecake

Side Note: For some reason my camera captured a dreary orange glow in all the photos.

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Dish: Cauliflower Gratin with Endive

This was pretty good. It was very expensive to make and hard to find all the ingredients. This recipe comes from Martha Stewart and sometimes it hit or miss with her stuff.

Recipe: Click Here

Dish: Not your Mama's Green Bean Casserole

Fresh, gourmet take on the traditional green bean casserole. Fresh green beans are mixed with a homemade mushroom sauce and topped with a buttery bread crumb and onion mixture.

Recipe: Click here

Dish: Maple Bourbon Sweet Potato Pie

This was a delicious pie and had a yummy combination of flavors. It wasn't as sweet as the other pies, which wasn't a bad thing. But, we thought it could use another 1/4 cup of brown sugar. It was topped with a tasty dollop of bourbon whipped cream.

Recipe: Click Here

Turkey Meatloaf Burgers with Cranberry Sauce and White Cheddar

This is a great use for all that left over turkey. Everyone gobbled these up! Served hot with a side of mashed potatoes and gravy and you have a great post Thanksgiving meal.

Recipe: Click Here

Dish: Apple Pie

It's not Thanksgiving without it. This one was tart and went well with the sweet pumpkin desserts.

Dish: Special Cranberry Relish

"You love it or you hate it". This is a savory take on cranberry sauce. It's a highly requested recipe of Susan Stamberg's from NPR. It combines cranberries, onions, sour cream and horseradish. Judging from the ingredients, you would think it was awful, but a majority of the cooking club really enjoyed this paired with the turkey. If you're adventurous and want to try something unique, this is the recipe.

Recipe: Click Here

Broccoli Casserole

This recipe combines Gorgonzola, heavy cream and bread crumbs. Don't be scared off by the Gorgonzola, it makes the casserole rich and creamy and it isn't pungent tasting like you would think.

Recipe

Pumpkin Pie Martinis

Before my changes these could have been called booze martinis, because that was about all you could taste. The vodka was a bit strong, so I cut the amount in half and added a drop more heavy cream. And the secret ingredient that balanced out the flavors and made it taste more like pumpkin pie? A small scoop of pumpkin ice cream.

Recipe: Click Here

Turkey and Gravy

This turkey was moist and delicious. All it needed was a good rubbing of butter and herbs and some basting along the way.

Chopped Apple Salad with Toasted Walnuts,

Blue Cheese and Pomegranate Vinaigrette

Long name, awesome salad. I had thirds. I don't usually think of salad at Thanksgiving, but this one is tasty enough to add to anyone's Turkey day menu! Delish.

Recipe: Click Here

Dish: Sweet Potato Casserole

These sweet potatoes aren't the typical pureed, bland sweet potatoes that show up on Thanksgiving. Chunks of sweet potato are mixed with butter, marshmallows and brown sugar and baked to bubbly perfection. "These are dangerous and bad, but Thanksgiving only comes once a year."

Recipe

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Pumpkin Cheesecake

Super creamy and perfectly sweet and spicy, just like pumpkin dessert should be!
A ginger snap crust would be delicious with this too.

Picture and Recipe

Pumpkin Bombe

This pumpkin ice cream cake was sooo good! A mix of vanilla ice cream, pumpkin puree and lots of yummy spices are housed in a graham cracker crust, topped with walnuts for decoration and chilled to perfection.

The Pre-Thanksgiving Results

The apple sausage stuffing was phenomenal! Everyone that tried it had thirds and fourths. It was excellent and will be making an appearance on our thanksgiving table, along with the traditional turkey stuffing. The cranberries were also fantastic. The spices and orange zest made them irresistible. If you like cranberries, these are the ones make for turkey day. The turkey was the least exciting. I think Thanksgiving is about all the yummy sides anyways. But, back to the turkey. It was fairly flavorful and moist , but nothing special.

I went to a friends house the other day and she told me how her Greek dad makes his turkey, so I will be making mine this way for Thanksgiving.

Turkey the Greek Way -

Truss and clean the turkey, pat dry. Melt one stick of butter and pour over the turkey, making sure to coat the entire bird. Sprinkle the turkey all over with salt, oregano, sage and pepper (my friend said Greeks flavor everything with oregano). Loosely stuff the bird with one chopped onion and one cup of celery. Inside a turkey oven bag, place 2 cups of chopped celery and a few cups of water (the celery and water help keep the turkey super moist in the bag). Place the turkey in the bag on top of the celery, tie shut and make a few slits in the top of the bag. Place turkey in a roasting pan and bake at 350 for recommended time, based on weight.

*I'll also be adding some butter under the skin and maybe a few more seasonings on top, like thyme and dried minced onion.

Turkey Day Tryouts

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I'm going to do a turkey test run tomorrow evening. Like I said in the past post, I've never cooked a turkey before and I don't want it to turn out like the dry bird on Christmas Vacation. So, I have a 12 lb turkey that has been thawing in the refrigerator for two days and should be ready by tomorrow. Along with the turkey, I'll be preparing cranberry sauce, dressing and gravy. Here are the recipes I'll be using:

Spiced Cranberry Sauce

Adapted from allrecipes.com

• 4 cups fresh cranberries
• 1 1/2 cups orange juice
• 5 whole cloves
• 5 whole allspice berries
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• Zest of one orange

Directions

1. Place fresh cranberries and orange juice in a medium saucepan over medium heat.
2. Wrap cloves, allspice berries and cinnamon sticks in a spice bag. Place in the orange juice with cranberries.
3. Cook until cranberries begin to burst, 15-20 minutes.
4. Stir in sugar and reduce heat to low. Continue cooking 5 minutes, or until sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Discard spice bag. Chill in the refrigerator 8 hours, or overnight, before serving.

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Awesome Sausage, Apple and Cranberry Stuffing

Servings: 10

1 1/2 cups cubed whole wheat bread

3 3/4 cups cubed white bread

1 pound ground sage pork sausage

1 cup chopped onion

3/4 cup chopped celery

2 1/2 teaspoons dried sage

1 1/2 teaspoons dried rosemary

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1 Golden Delicious apple, cored and chopped

3/4 cup dried cranberries

1/3 cup minced fresh parsley

1 cooked turkey liver, finely chopped

3/4 cup turkey stock

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degree F (175 degree C). Spread the white and whole wheat bread cubes in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Bake for 5 to 7 minutes in the preheated oven, or until evenly toasted. Transfer toasted bread cubes to a large bowl.

In a large skillet, cook the sausage and onions over medium heat, stirring and breaking up the lumps until evenly browned. Add the celery, sage, rosemary, and thyme; cook, stirring, for 2 minutes to blend flavors.

Pour sausage mixture over bread in bowl. Mix in chopped apples, dried cranberries, parsley, and liver. Drizzle with turkey stock and melted butter, and mix lightly. Spoon into turkey to loosely fill.

* I'm not actually going to be making dressing for Thanksgiving, but this recipe got great reviews and 25,000 people saved this in their recipe boxes, so I thought I might as well see what all the fuss is about.

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Turkey

• 1 (12 pound) whole turkey
• 6 tablespoons butter, divided (all the reviews said to use one full stick)
• 4 cups warm water
• 3 tablespoons chicken bouillon
• 2 tablespoons dried parsley
• 2 tablespoons dried minced onion
• 2 tablespoons seasoning salt (I'll be adding cracked pepper and garlic too)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Rinse and wash turkey. Discard the giblets, or add to pan if they are anyone's favorites.
2. Place turkey in a Dutch oven or roasting pan. Separate the skin over the breast to make little pockets. Put 3 tablespoons of the butter on both sides between the skin and breast meat. This makes for very juicy breast meat.
3. In a medium bowl, combine the water with the bouillon. Sprinkle in the parsley and minced onion. Pour over the top of the turkey. Sprinkle seasoning salt over the turkey.
4. Cover with foil, and bake in the preheated oven 3 1/2 to 4 hours, until the internal temperature of the turkey reaches 180 degrees F (80 degrees C). For the last 45 minutes or so, remove the foil so the turkey will brown nicely.

I'll post the pictures and reviews tomorrow.

The Cost of Tom Turkey

And so it begins......

My husband and I volunteered to host Thanksgiving at our house this year. We have never cooked a turkey or hosted Thanksgiving, but we're excited and I've been doing plenty of research. We're having 25 lovely guests over (22 Adults - 2 kids - 1 baby) and we're in charge of making a delectable bird. And as far as turkey goes, it's 1 - 1.5 lbs of turkey per person. So we'll need a whopping 33 lbs of turkey (factoring in just the adults)! We'll be deep frying one 10-12 lb bird and baking one 22-24 lb bird.

I've been pricing turkeys at grocery stores by my house and here's what our feathered friend costs.

Whole Foods (for natural, fresh turkeys)

10 - 12 lb = $23.88

22 - 24 lb = $47.76

Total: $71.64

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Dan's Market

Frozen: .99cents per lb

Fresh

Basted: $1.29 per lb

Natural: $1.79 per lb

Organic: $ 1.79 per lb

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Albertsons

Frozen

Butterball: $1.15

Norbest: $1.19

Fresh

Natural: $1.69

Special: Buy $25 worth of groceries and get any frozen turkey for .38 cents per lb

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Costco

Fresh .88 cents per lb

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Liberty Heights Fresh

Fresh Plain: $2.59 per lb

Fresh Brined: $5.99 per lb