Thanksgiving 2011

Another Thanksgiving, come and gone. This one was perfect for us homebodies. (And by "us" I mean Norman and me -- I don't think Lucy could ever be misconstrued for a homebody.)  It was just the three of us, but enough food to feed... 8?  10?  A lot.

[The spread]

I made the soft pretzels (!!!) on Wednesday.  I hadn't made these in a while, and my bread kneading skills are much better than they used to be.  They turned out perfect.  Really.  There wasn't a single thing about them that could have been better.

Then Thursday started early with 5 bags of frozen green beans.  Now, calm down.  I had signed up to take a vegetable to the local Veteran's Hall.  We only kept about one bag's worth for ourselves.


These turned out really well.  I cooked up some bacon, then dumped it (and the grease!) into a pot with the frozen green beans.  Then I added salt, pepper, garlic powder, and dried minced onion.  Simple and tasty!

Then the turkey, which, sadly, I overcooked.  Especially sad because it was free range.  But the gravy I made from the pan drippings?  Ohhhh man.  So flavorful, but not fake flavorful.  Conventional turkeys are usually injected with a brothy liquid -- the ones at my local grocery store said they had up to 16% broth solution. That's a prime place for MSG to hide as "turkey broth", "natural flavorings", and "spice".  This is why we were so happy to be able to spend more on a free range turkey. 

Also, a standard post-Thanksgiving job for me, making turkey broth!  Turkeys are so big that I'll make two batches of crockpot broth from our 10 pound turkey.  And, once again, no MSG!

We also had sweet potatoes (actually yams -- I went to two stores and couldn't find any sweet potatoes!), but I cooked them two different ways.  Norman wanted them just mashed with butter and salt, so he could put gravy on them.  And I, of course, wanted them drenched in sugar!  I ended up mashing mine with butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Then I topped them with this homemade marshmallow fluff and baked them!  Soooo good.  They taste just like some sort of Yankee candle smells.  (That's a good thing.)

We had wine, and sparkling pomegranate juice.  And for dessert I made pumpkin donuts.  Oh my.  This recipe makes about 50 donut holes.  And each one of them is fried in coconut oil (if you're at my house, anyway).  And coconut oil is seriously filling.  I have a feeling a bunch of these are going to mysteriously show up on the coffee table at church on Sunday, especially since we also still have a bunch of pretzels!

[Pumpkin donut holes]

 

[Om nom]