BLOG POST: Pictures and Recipes from Thanksgiving 2009

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my grandmother, my parents and a family friend who was by herself for the holiday. We spent 2 days at my parents' home and I spent most of that cooking the wonderful Southern recipes from Country Living's Thanksgiving issue this year. On the menu:

 

Appetizer:

Three balls of fresh, handmade buttermilk cheese, each with a separate topping: chopped pistachios, pickled fennel and brandied figs. AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING. If you compare my picture and the one from the magazine, I'm proud to say they came out very similar! The cheese was incredibly easy to make.
  • Whole wheat crackers, for spreading the cheese on :)
  • Sparkling white wine (I would have loved to have tried the brandied plums sparkling white wine recipe from Country Living, but we just didn't have the time. Maybe next year!)

    Salad:

    Cold brussel sprouts slaw with vinaigrette and sesame seeds - delicious! Brussel Sprouts totally get an undeserved bad rap. We had optional spicy Italian herbs available for those of us who wanted a little kick to the salad. It was a bit cabbage-y, but we all like cabbage, so we liked this.
    Side dishes:
    Steamed green beans in white wine and butter sauce topped with fried leek rings. This was a much lighter and much tastier alternative to the goopy soup-recipe green  bean casserole and got many raves. The fried leek rings were a really nice touch. We opted for this over the au gratin potatoes that the magazine article recommended.
  • Cornbread, Italian and sage stuffing. INCREDIBLE recipe. The only substitution I made was that I used a bag of dried tropical fruit instead of fresh pears. No one in my family likes pears. :) But we do like dried papaya and things like that! It came out SO GOOD, I should've made twice as much.
  • Lemon-glazed baked sweet potatoes. I bought limes by accident and the glaze was way too sour for me :/  I had to drizzle on brown sugar to make it palatable. It was a really good recipe, and we love sweet potatoes so I may make it again, but next time I think I'll use a lot less lemon/lime.

    Main course:

    Smoked Paprika roasted turkey. The magazine had instructions about making Madeira gravy, but it was a lot of work and I'm the only one who likes gravy, so I didn't bother. The turkey, I have to say, came out INCREDIBLE. It was a joy to eat leftovers for 2 days. LOL.  I used a turkey baster - my family usually doesn't - and it made a huge difference. It was so tender and juicy and the paprika gave it great flavor - and as the pictures show, it was awfully pretty.

    Dessert:

    Sweet potato pie from scratch, using their recipe, made the night before. They recommended homemade buttermilk ice cream, but since all of the above already took 2 days to make and I don't have an ice cream maker, I bought Publix brand Dulce  De Leche ice cream. It was perfect with the pie! Which, unfortunately, didn't last long enough to get a picture! LOL
    It was a very peaceful and joyous Thanksgiving filled with lots of together-time - possibly one of the best we've ever had! Pictures below. The one of all of us at the table was taken by Shorty himself. :)

    (download)

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