CanYouFind.Us

Due to a really tight work schedule this year, we were unable to make the trip home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Somehow, we managed to put together a Thanksgiving dinner for 5. Our 15″ X 15″ oven wasn’t the most helpful, but with a bit of magic-I made it all work out.

There is something about a nice warm drink that can help to cheer up even the dreariest of cold winter days. Being in Seattle in November, there was no shortage of those days. To help put everyone in a festive spirit, I was looking for a good drink to get the day kick started. Having made a mulled wine for holidays past, I was excited to give this mulled drink a try. The Apple and Pomegranate Cider hit the spot for all of us, and was even better as the day progressed.

I was looking for an easy and impressive appetizer to serve to my Thanksgiving guests. In a holiday copy of Gourmet, I found the Hickory-bacon and roasted-corn gougeres. This wasn’t quite as simple as I was expecting, but it was more time consuming then it was complicated. For me the biggest setback was the lack of a pastry bag. I did try this by using the ‘ziploc with a corner cut off’ trick, but that backfired real fast. The baggie was unable to release the mixture, and I ended up with a long stream of batter. After that I resorted to using a pair of teaspoons, both frequently oiled. With this method I was able to produce a great end result, just not as quickly as I had planned. The end result is combination of strong flavors (the smoked bacon compliments the roasted corn beautifully) all within a crispy puff. We enjoyed these fresh, and then again after we had frozen them for 4 days. You will not want to try to freeze these for more than a week.

For the main course, I was torn. The classic traditional turkey, or something new? Unable to decide, I went with both. We enjoyed a Honey and Thyme-Brined Turkey Breast, and (keeping with the theme) a Thyme and Spice-Rubbed Roast Beef Tenderloin. Between the two we were able to keep everyone happy, and have plenty of leftovers for the next few days! The Roast Beef was flavorful enough, that we didn’t even use the au jus from the recipe. Hopefully if you try to make the turkey, you will take the time to read the recipe a little more carefully than I did. 10PM the night before, I was running out to the store to go get a giant ziploc for the brine. Lucky for me-both dishes were quite simple to prepare, and things worked out beautifully in the end.

When it came time for the sides, I went for a starch overload. Keeping Karen away from her family on the holiday, meant I had some really big shoes to fill. Thanksgiving is a show stopping two day event that her sister Rhonda coordinates to perfection. The event starts on Thanksgiving Eve, where the children all gather around the table to break the bread for her famous Sage Stuffing. I would not have survived Thanksgiving if I didn’t get this stuffing on the table. With our tight cooking schedule, I followed Karen’s suggestions to cook this in muffin tins. This was an amazing time saver-and the individual serving sizes worked perfectly.