Spent with these lovelies!
Still missing Harrison for our times together and Uncle J and myself were on the other side of the table from these three. For being a differently shaped Thanksgiving, it was a great one!
The Lovely Leftovers!
Oh my goodness, people!! It tasted even better today than yesterday!
Sorry this pic has a bite out of the turkey leg, thought about taking a pic about 30 seconds too late.
What a delight, everything worked and we weren't eating at midnight, whew!
I wanted to post the recipes, almost all found in my local paper but they poached them from the Washington Post and the Post won't give me access without a subscription.
One recipe was from the Sunday paper Parade Magazine though, oh wait...two were. That magazine insert has surprisingly been a good source over the years.
My potato dish was a Yukon Gold/Sweet Potato Gratin with gruyere cheese and fresh rosemary. It will always be my potato dish from now on as far as I'm concerned, wow!
Also on the menu:
- Warm black bean dip with lime juice, monterey jack cheese, cilantro and amazingly, a recipe improv by me that worked since I couldn't find a can of chipotle in adobo anywhere, I don't have confidence in going "off book" with recipes. This was for afternoon snacking as I had planned an evening meal, incredible!!
- Green bean casserole with a real roux and a blend of gourmet mushrooms, amazing!
- Stuffing with dried cornbread and brioche (called for challah which my Kroger didn't have and I felt the brioche, though sweeter could work, it did!) combined with a bartlett pear, roasted chestnuts, cranberries and fresh parsley, seasoned with herbes de Provence, dried rubbed sage and sweet paprika. Wowza!!
- Turkey with an herbed mayo rub including sage, rosemary thyme and oregano. Came out juicy and I especially felt grown up, certainly 50 years old, (-: by using my electric carving knife (well...especially after noticing that just using one blade in the electric handle was kind of just shredding the meat and that, low and behold, there was another blade that attached to the first blade that...wow!!...that made slicing meat an exhilarating experience! Hahaha!).
- Aunt Shirley's classic iceberg lettuce salad (with my added romaine blend), where despite my every effort to just add as I went for the dressing as my sister is able to, I googled the ratios and made a pretty good rendition in my dressing shaker bottle that worked super well until Liv tried to pour it with the top on and the entire bottle dumped all over her salad plate, haha! Those moments make great memories...'specially since I already had my dressing, ha!
- Mashed rutabaga which I again almost forgot in the fridge since I made it the night before. Fortunately Lara said, "where's the rutabaga?" Unexpected person for the request, yet awesome!
- Dessert ended up being One Pot Mocha Brownies though not the planned dessert always a crowd favorite and I thought ahead for the "just in case" and had whipped cream and chocolate sauce at the ready for those that wanted to dress it up.
(for the remaining 2 readers hanging in here with me (-:)
Ran out of time and energy for...gravy, kinda bummed, but it wasn't a bust and out of time for my plan to break out the nice dishes. When you work all week running up to the big day, it is what it is and that's ok! All in all, for not having made a full Thanksgiving meal since 1995, my timing worked out pretty well, ate an hour later than planned (7p.m.) but all the dishes were warm and ready around the same time (I have a double oven, thank goodness, free hand-me-down from friend's redoing their kitchen, score!) and had enough nibbles and drinks to tide us throughout the day. Next time, I'd try to make at least another dish or two the day before (none of my recipes said they could be done the day before, though I did do the bread crumbs, prepped other little things like the beans and had ingredients laid out) and maybe not take that Thanksgiving Day, mid-afternoon "break" to go prune some trees! Hahaha!
And then today, since the canned pumpkin didn't get used yesterday, what fun, what fun . . .
I've had these leaf cupcake liners for sooooooo long. I honestly can't even say how long. Been saving them for a class party or something that just never came to fruition. They were perfect, perfect, perfect for today's recipe of two dozen muffins.
Simple Gratitude
A nice, slow day to lounge around the house with no schedule.
An evening chat with a best friend.
The perfect home for my family.
Having Lara home.
Lara's piano playing filling the house.
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