I had planned on doing a big huge Thanksgiving post, but the time has passed, I think, and I wasn’t very diligent in taking photos during the event (i.e., I took none). But I’ll try to recap! The photo above is of some leftovers the day after. The plate includes turkey (this is from the turkey my mom made), mashed potatoes and gravy, bread stuffing, and roasted root vegetables. And in the bowl is a mixture of cranberry relish and the good old canned cranberry stuff (which I love - fear not, they were served separately originally).

Joe and I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time and it seemed to go well. My family normally splits up the cooking duties, so we didn’t have to make everything. We did the turkey, mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, the cranberry relish, apple pie (which I made a post about last month), corn, and provided the shrimp and cocktail sauce and anchovies for appetizers (my uncle and cousins are the only ones who really eat those, but it’s tradition!).

My mom and two aunts brought the rest which included a second turkey, oyster dressing, hamburger dressing, sweet potatoes, bread dressing, squash and apples, sausage and pepperoni breads, cheese and crackers, salad, pumpkin, pecan, chocolate, and cream pies. I assure you that no one was hungry at the end.

A few notes:

• I brined my turkey and then rubbed it with butter under and over the skin. It tasted good and my grandpa enjoyed it in particular. I have to say though that I don’t know that I will brine again though. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but when I ate the leftovers from my mom’s turkey (which was roasted normally), they just tasted more like TURKEY to me. I’m glad I tried it out to experiment, but sometimes things are just good the way they are. I will definitely do the butter-rubbing again though!
• I used Yukon Gold for the mashed potatoes. Joe peeled them and my sister put them through the ricer and then added butter and heavy cream. They were Good.
• I managed to lose the neck and giblets from the turkey, but all was ok. I think I accidentally threw them out after putting the slimy ziploc bag they were in into a Wegmans plastic bag. I re-use Wegbags for the trash and probably confused them.
• Also, the gravy turned out very well even though I drained the potato water. I learned the trick of using the water the potatoes were cooked in to add starch to the gravy. My aunt Kathy, uncle Peter, and cousin John handled that. John also masterfully carved the turkey.
• We usually have more than one stove and oven at hand, but we made it work. The turkey came out and rested and other things went in to warm up. The only problem encountered was that our gas range doesn’t have a broiler large enough to brown the tops of the marshmallows on the sweet potatoes. We stuck them in the oven to just warm for a bit and then I tried to wave flame over them with a lighter, but it didn’t really work. They were melted enough, just not toasty.
• My aunt Kristie made salad. My sister insists (and it does kind of seem that way) that salad always tastes better when Kristie makes it.
• There were a whole lot of people packed into our kitchen, but it worked.
• Having a fireplace around Thanksgiving and Christmas is good!