Thanksgiving Recap 2011!

Hi Everybody!

Hello? Hello??? Is anybody even here? Or is everybody doing the following?

a) at the mall, Black Friday shopping
b) sleeping after waiting in lines overnight for stores to open
c) too busy washing the dishes from last night's family extravaganza

Anyhow, my Thanksgiving was great! It was just my family. Small and simple. I cooked it all! We had turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce. Whoops! And pumpkin pie. How could I forget?

That's the turkey breast. 5 pounds. Perfect for three people - just the right amount for dinner and leftover turkey sandwiches. And it was soooo flavorful. I brined it in this thyme-sage-brown sugar-peppercorn-garlic-rosemary brine. It was amazing. I just grabbed handfuls of fresh thyme, and poured in 1/3 of a Costco-sized container of peppercorns into the brine. (Okay. I'm trying to sound like I poured in that many peppercorns in like I meant to. Actually, I poured in too much by accident. I wasn't looking. But hey - it worked in my favor!) I brined my turkey for 3 1/2 hours. So moist and so flavorful. Then, before roasting it, I smothered it in a butter-thyme-sage-garlic-salt-and-pepper mixture. Oh my goodness, I was tempted to just dip my bread in the butter instead of basting the turkey with it. But I did the right thing. I used the butter on my turkey.

Next up is the...

The stuffing! It was made with french bread, corn bread, celery, carrots, onions, and herbs. Lets just say it was amazing as well.

Moving on to the...

Mashed potatoes! I poured in some olive oil and added some salt, pepper, and oregano. The oregano did the trick. The potatoes went from meh to wow! I mashed them by hand too. (Good thing my mom didn't throw out/donate the potato masher! She has a tendency of throwing out things and then I have the tendency to need that recently-thrown-out-object the next day. That's basically the story of my life.)

And that is the cranberry sauce. Homemade. Need I say more?

And how could we not finish our round-up with the quintessential pumpkin pie? The crust was flaky. I used Kerrygold butter (from Ireland). It made the difference. Actually, I was shocked to open it. Like, the butter was actually yellow. Not pale-yellow, but real buttery-yellow. I think I'm too accustomed to American things (i.e. bread that doesn't go stale for a week). I think I'm a convert now. Actually, I AM a convert, not think I'm a convert. Kerrygold buter is totally worth splurging on!

And since I had some leftover crust and filling, I made some mini pumpkin pies as well! As you can see, I already ate one of them before taking this picture. I was just making sure that the pie was up to my standards. You know... 

And just to keep it real... That's the mess! Actually, I my mom already cleaned it up a bit. So imagine the mess five times worse than that.

So that was my Thanksgiving! All cooked by me! How was yours? Filled with food? Are you still regretting that extra slice (or those extra slices) of pie you ate? Well, I hope you fulfilled your calorie binge! It's a once a year event, so you better have!

xoxo
Amanda

P.S. Please excuse the terrible quality of the pictures. If you were in my place, you would just snap the pictures and eat. You wouldn't bother to retake them, especially if all these delicious smells were wafting up your nose!