When I'm making dinner for lots of guests, some of the best fun I have is cooking it together in the kitchen! I love to make it easy, prepare as much as I can in advance, and never commit to a time we're actually eating at....I simply give a window of time and say when the bird is ready for us!
THE BIRDY
Turkey Brine:
- 32 cups warm water (2 gallons)
- 1 cup kosher salt (must use kosher salt ONLY)
- 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar (well-packed)
- 2 tablespoons black peppercorns (can use 1 tablespoon coarse ground black peppers)
- 3 -4 tablespoons fresh coarsely chopped garlic (or slice the cloves into thirds)
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce (optional)
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 1 whole turkey (up to 20 pounds)
3-4 days before roasting: Begin thawing the turkey in the refrigerator or in a cooler kept at 38 degrees F.
Early on the day or the night before you'd like to eat:
Combine the brine. Place the thawed turkey (with innards removed) breast side down in brine. If necessary, weigh down the bird to ensure it is fully immersed, cover, and refrigerate or set in cool area for 8 to 16 hours, turning the bird once half way through brining. I normally put it in a bucket that would generally serve sodas or something of the sort.
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Remove the bird from brine and rinse inside and out with cold water. Discard the brine.
Place the bird on roasting rack inside a half sheet pan and pat dry with paper towels.
I generally put an onion, thyme, sage, carrot and celery in the turkey's cavity. Tuck the wings underneath the bird and coat the skin liberally with canola oil, and softened butter.
Roast the turkey on lowest level of the oven at 500 degrees F for 30 minutes. Insert a probe thermometer into thickest part of the breast and reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. Set the thermometer alarm (if available) to 161 degrees F. A 14 to 16 pound bird should require a total of 2 to 2 1/2 hours of roasting. Let the turkey rest, loosely covered with foil or a large mixing bowl for 15 minutes before carving. I generally let the birdy rest, while I mash the tatters, make the crescent rolls, and get everything thing else hot and ready to devour. Then I call in the hubby to do the carving! Make sure to cut the entire breast off and slice pieces horizontally. THEN YUMMY YUM YUM!!!
MASHERS
Red potatoes cubed
(you don't need to peel reds or Yukons .... If you use a russet make sure and peel)
3-5 cloves of garlic
Put all of the potato cubes and garlic into cold water on the stove top. Turn on and cook until a fork can easily pierce the potatoes. Drain and put into your serving dish. If you have to wait a bit to serve them, cover them tightly to keep heat in. Then right before serving, mash with a hand masher add, milk, salt, pepper, butter, cream cheese, and even a little Parmesan to taste, soooooo good so easy! The garlic squishes in and is delicioso yum yum yum!
Dressing
This year I'm trying a mix of recipes so I'll let you know how it goes....
I'm going to do a half homemade cornbread and half regular bread cubes, with a saute of onions and celery in bacon fat. I'm going add butter, sage, thyme, and poultry seasoning. Add chicken broth till it's the right consistency and bake that goodness!
Spinach Feta Pie (My Mother In Law's recipe)
Pioneer Woman's Pie Cruse (The best!!)
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2007/12/p-p-p-pie_crust_and_its_p-p-p-perfect/
4 eggs
10 oz. chopped frozen spinach
2 tbs butter
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup fresh parsley flakes
1/4 tsp basil
8 oz cream cheese cubed
1/2 cup feta, crumbled
Bake Crust at 450 for 5 minutes and set aside. Sautee onions in butter till translucent and set aside. Beat eggs and add rest of the ingredients and stir; pour into the pie shell and bake for 50 minutes at 350.
Roasted Green Beans and Mushrooms with olive oil and garlic
This year I'm going to try Pioneer Woman's gravy recipe
Pilsbury Cresent Rolls ....cause let's be honest they're amaz!
Strawberry Freezer Jam
http://www.food.com/recipe/strawberry-freezer-jam-238839
Apple Cobbler ( My Mom's)
For a pie dish:
6-8 apples peeled and sliced
Mix apples with:
1 Cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbs Flour
Topping:
1 Cup flour
½ Cup sugar
½ cup butter (1 cube)
Mix the 3 topping ingredients together with your hands until it all
Sticks together and crumble over top of apple mixture
400 degrees for 45-50 minutes.
For a 9 X 13 pan I usually use about 10 apples and a little more than the 1 cup sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.
Then I double the topping mixture. Serve with ice cream and let me tell you what....I don't even like apple crisp but this one is soooo all topping and soooo all good!
2 comments:
Yum, looking forward to your amazing cooking!
um yum. next year im totally brining the turkey like you! i hosted tgiving last year, so i'm OFF this year! hooray, although I do like cooking;)
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