Grace has been enjoying her subscription to the Food Network Magazine this year, and the November issue was loaded with good looking recipes. We like to try different things as much as possible for most of the side dishes, so we ended up selecting about half the dinner out of that one magazine.
The Meal:
- Turkey - A 22 pound Butterball fresh turkey simply roasted with salt, pepper, butter and oil in a Reynolds oven baking bag. Honestly, I hate cooking turkeys and want as little to do with them as possible. The bag cooking is a no-brainer and leaves the turkey almost infallibly moist and juicy.
- Gravy - Simple pan dripping gravy (with Heinz jar backup)
- Cranberry sauce - Cranberry Relish, Jasper White's Cooking From New England (HarperPerennial, 1989), page 341. I have been making this every time we have made Thanksgiving dinner for as long as I can remember. Sugar (caramelised), cranberries, orange, lemon and ginger. Best made the day before.
- Stuffing - Bobby Flay's Wild Mushroom Bacon Sourdough Dressing. November 2013 Food Network Magazine, page 165. We try a new stuffing recipe most years, and this was perhaps my favorite in recent years.
- Sweet potatoes - Whipped Sweet Potatoes and Bananas with Honey. November 2013 Food Network Magazine, page 157.
- Roasted Potatoes with Sage. Recipe #47 in the "50 Side Dishes" insert booklet of the November 2013 Food Network Magazine. This is a four sentence recipe that couldn't possibly be easier.
- Peas and Corn.
Everything came out well, with surprisingly little last-minute-scramble. It was nice to have everyone together for the holiday. The only down side was that Mom ended the evening not feeling very well and that cut the day short. She's doing fine now, which is terrific, but it did call a fairly abrupt end to the evening (for my side of the family). As the crowd was getting ready to leave, Amparo's sister and her family arrived for round two, and to stay for the weekend. It's very nice to have a bunch of family in the house.
