Thankful

I hope that everyone who celebrates Thanksgiving had a lovely day! It is my favorite day of the year, and I have much to be thankful for, including having all my kids home for the weekend and lots of extended family on both sides! This year we had 16 adults and 1 toddler at the table(s), plus another 6 adults, 1 toddler, and 1 preschooler for the pre-meal cocktail hour before they headed off elsewhere for their main meal.

I did pretty much the same menu as always, with plenty of extras to send everyone home with leftovers. It's tricky to make sure everything is hot and ready at the same time, but as far as I'm concerned, as long as the gravy is hot, it doesn't matter what's under it! 

We are not so big on appetizers for Thanksgiving, so we just put out some nuts to nibble on and lots of knishes. (I'd been longing for the Myers-style knishes I grew up with and finally found them at Sudbury Farms, for locals who want some!) Then:

2 turkeys (each 15–16 lbs.), one roasted on Wednesday and the other on Thursday. This year I also roasted 2 turkey thighs and set them aside for leftovers because Andy says there's never enough dark meat to make it through the long weekend, but he said the thighs were somehow lacking in flavor (although the texture/doneness was right), which is odd because I treated them the same way as the scrumptious whole turkeys—brined and basted with butter while roasting. 

2 batches of plain boring gravy, mixed with the ultra-rich gravy made from the magical drippings of the first turkey (instructions here). (I still have the ultra-rich gravy from the second turkey and will likely freeze it and completely forget about, as usual.)

6 (!) pans of stuffing. And then Friday I made a 7th pan, which is already gone....

3 batches of roasted root vegetables (22 pounds!), two on Wednesday and one on Thursday. This is the first year I made a third batch, but I had left myself a note last year that we didn't have enough to make it through the weekend.

steamed green beans with butter and slivered almonds

mashed butternut squash with butter and a little brown sugar. (I have very little left over but intend to whiz it with some chicken broth to make soup for tomorrow.)

pumpkin bread (Lauren made this.)

cranberry Jell-o mold (Lauren made this.)

cranberry applesauce (Julie made this.)

For dessert, Andy picked up pies from Petsi's, and of course we had Julie's famous chocolate chip cookies and her homemade vanilla ice cream, plus a giant bowl of cut-up fruit from Jo and Barbara.

Oh wait, I did add a new item this year—a delicious not-too-sweet sangria with gorgeous blood oranges. Julie made this too:

Pomegranate Sangria 1 cup water 2 blood oranges, 1 juiced and 1 sliced ¼ cup orange liqueur (I used triple sec.) 2 tablespoons pomegranate liqueur (I had never heard of such a thing! It's called Pama.) 1–2 tablespoons superfine sugar (I don't buy superfine sugar and didn't feel like "making" it in the mini food processor, so I used a scant 2 tablespoons regular granulated sugar.) ½ cup pomegranate seeds 2 rosemary sprigs 1 (750-mL) bottle dry sparkling red wine, chilled In a large pitcher, stir together the water, blood orange juice, orange and pomegranate liqueurs, and sugar. Add the blood orange slices, pomegranate seeds, and rosemary sprigs and refrigerate overnight. When guests arrive, add ice to the pitcher and stir in the sparkling wine.

 

 

Comments

[Margaret]

Neither one of my girls could be home (New York and Ohio), but I had a nice meal with my parents, and brother and his family. I checked out your stuffing recipe, and it looks like what we eat. As you say, turkey, stuffing and warm gravy over the top are excellent. I had a slice of my favorite pecan pie too! No calories there...

[Beth F]

I never have superfine sugar around either. What a great feast!!! Thanksgiving is always a ton of food and cooking, but -- frankly -- nothing is really all that hard to make. The trick, as you say, is to make sure everything is done at the same time. Some years we're more successful than others. That sangria sounds like a good addition to my New Year's Eve dinner . . .

[Judee]

Thanksgiving is always a favorite holiday when so much of our family is able to be together. Being vegetarian, we don't do turkey or gravy but we do squashes, cranberry sauces, stuffings, soups, etc. - Your pomegrante sangria looks delicious.