Happy Thanksgiving

Well Thanksgiving is over. Black Friday too. I don't know about you, but I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. There was a lot of wonderful food all around. I was very fortunate to be able to spend this day and enjoy good food with family. This is the stuff that some of the best memories are made from.

Even though I had work all week, except Thanksgiving Day, including Black Friday and the following weekend, I started my cooking contributions Monday night. I actually didn't even get my turkey until then. I know, I know, that's bad planning on my part. So I got that thawing in ice water. The size turkey I had took about 12 hours to thaw. After I got that going, I made some pies. All the great pies everyone brings, are one of the best parts of Thanksgiving for me. This year I made up my own pie to make. I'm not yet happy with the results but when I get that recipe where I want it, I'll share it with you. After the turkey had thawed out, it was time for the brine. So on Tuesday I got the brine made and the turkey in it. Wednesday was mostly uneventful for me. About all I did that day was get the stuff ready for putting the turkey together to cook. Some sweet potatoes, carrots and onion to cook with and some apples, onion, fresh rosemary and garlic to stuff the bird with for flavor. I was scheduled for work until late so my wife got it out of the brine, put together and started cooking. If you're paying attention you may notice that we started cooking the turkey on Wednesday. No, we didn't eat it on Wednesday  we had the turkey Thursday evening. We planned on cooking in a pit and planned on cooking for the better part of a full day. Thursday was the busy day for me. I started cooking about 6:30 in the morning. I got a batch of rolls rising. Then went and did some sale shopping. After I returned home I made cupcakes and cookies. Kneaded the roll dough and form rolls for them to rise again. Also my wife and I made mashed potatoes. At 1:00 in the afternoon it was time for lunch with my family. Later it was time to help get the turkeys out of the pit, bake the rolls, and make some more mashed potatoes. 

We had many of the traditional Thanksgiving Day foods. Including but not limited to turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, garden salad, green bean casserole, and rolls. Like many of you, I'm sure, my family spent some time with both sides of our family. On my side we went to my grandmother's house. We had roast turkey and all the fixing there. My mother cooked the turkey and it was a good one. I like her stuffing. She makes it with french bread, celery and onion and bakes it in the oven. My family has never really been one for stuffing the actual bird. Mostly  I think, because everyone wants some and the bird wont hold enough. So why bother stuffing the bird and baking more when it is easier to just bake all of it. We had peach cobbler, pecan pie, lemon meringue pie, chocolate meringue pie, my butter finger pie, apple pie and some little pumpkin custard pies. Yes, we like pies.

Later we had dinner with my wife's family. We had more people there so we had two turkeys. These were cooked in the pit. I brined one and my sister-in-law brined the other. My wife and sister-in-law were the ones that actually got them into the pit though. I personally like the pit cooked turkey better. It was more moist, tender and flavorful. Other members brought in some great food as well. We had sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, carrots, onion, and rolls. Pecan and pumpkin pie were brought. We also had cookies and cupcakes. 

It was great getting to spend the day with our families and share all the wonderful food. There were many great dishes. I am grateful for times like these, when we can not only enjoy such great food but share it with those we love. I hope your Thanksgiving celebration was a great one as well.

Image courtesy of Tom Curtis / FreeDigitalPhotos.net