Thanksgiving

I'm happy that I went through preparing (w/ Dora's help) and cooking for Thanksgiving with tolerable pain. Thanks to my doctor for increasing my meds at the right time!! Just made Thanksgiving more enjoyable. I was able to prepare everything the way I usually made them the last few years, it felt great. Normally, I could have done more but after SM, I have to be satisfied with much simpler preparations.

The menu:
Roasted Herbed Turkey: chopped sage and diced butter were inserted inside the skin of the turkey for good flavor. Give the turkey a lot of love, salt and pepper including cavities. Inside the cavity,I put one cut small orange, cut lemon and some herbs, like a few spigs of rosemary, thyme, sage or whatever you have.

For basting I use melted butter, dry white wine, salt and pepper, chopped
sage. I baste it every thirty minutes.
This time, cooked a 22lb turkey for 4hours at 375 for the first 30-45
min. Lower temp to 350 for the rest of the time. Mine turned
out so moist. Perfect!
For the gravy, I separated the fat from the drippings. Take turkey neck and
giblets out of the stock pot and saute' in butter. Add flour to the
butter in the hot pan to make a roux. Add chicken stock. (chicken stock
consists of carrots, celery, onions, neck and giblets w/ 3 c water and 3c
canned stock prepared ahead)

Mashed Fingerling Potatoes: warm milk and half a stick of butter were added while
mashing and a bit of salt and pepper.

Mashed sweet potatoes: whipping cream,molasses and a bit of salt were added after the
sweet potatoes were placed in a sieve and then transferred to an electric
mixer. Beat until fluffy.

Cranberries: Place caranberries into a baking dish, add 1 1/2 cups sugar per bag
bake at 350 degrees for about an hour or until popped. Add 1/4 ccup of orange
liquieur and mix well.

Green Beans: Sauté minced shallots in a little butter and olive oil, add sliced mushrooms and sauté, add green beans, add a pinch of salt and black pepper, add chicken stock. Cook until tender.

Pumpkin Pie: Prepared the dough for the crust a day ahead using Pate' Brisee'. I
used sweet baby pumpkins. Baked and scraped them. Placed them into a sieve.
Add salt, ginger, pumpkin pie spice and condensed milk. Mix until just
blended. Pour into cooled crust and bake for abt an hour or until toothpick
comes out clean. I cut out leaves to decorate.


Sweet Potato Cake: