A Possible Thanksgiving Fiasco

Since this year I will not be returning to my family’s traditional farm Thanksgiving in Kansas, I decided to have a mini pre-Thanksgiving feast with my friends. The females usually prepare the giant feast while the men are out hunting. Unfortunately I am normally left out of the process because there are just too many cooks in the kitchen, which means recreating my favorite dishes was going to be a challenge.

The first step was to secure all my family’s recipes. Thankfully my mom was kind enough to track down and mail me all the recipes, which got my planning off to a good start. Next step was attempting to find all the ingredients. I wanted around a eight pound turkey since the dinner was only going to be for a few friends, unfortunately I had to settle on a twelve pounder! Needless to say we will be having turkey leftovers for a while.

I decided to get a head start the night before by making the desserts. A classic pumpkin pie was an obvious choice, but to spice things up I made an apple pie with a caramel pecan topping. This was my first time making either of these pies, and I decided to be extra ambitious and make my dough from scratch as well. Here I encountered my first problem, I only have one pie pan so I had to use one of those cheap foil ones for my pumpkin pie. Well they are definitely cheap for a reason. As I started to pour the batter into the tin, I noticed there was probably going to be more filling than room. Instead of doing the intelligent thing and simply not pouring the extra filling I decided to test the limits of my little tin pan. The pan won… The filling started to overflow over the edges of the pan as I frantically attempted to create a “dam” of dough around the edge of the pie. It wasn’t very pretty when it came out of the oven, but thankfully tasted amazing! 

 (This does not giving the apple pie justice)

Finally the day was upon us, and the rest of the cooking commenced. The first task of the day was preparing the turkey for roasting. This step was definitely easier said then done. I planned to rub the turkey with a sage, thyme and rosemary butter under the skin then stuff it with the same herbs and some lemons. Watching hours of Food Network convinced me it would be easy to slip my butter creation under the skin of the turkey, I was in for a rude awakening. First I had to take out all the gross innards of the turkey before I could even consider adding my butter rub. I attempted to wedge my hand under the skin of the turkey with little avail, but finally I was able to stuff enough butter under the skin to make it nice and crispy. With my mom’s instruction I placed my turkey in a special bag, which would guarantee it to be “moist and delicious” upon removal from the oven. Don’t worry this ends up backfiring.

Next came the sides, which were surprisingly simple. Side dishes have always stolen my heart from the main dish, so I was very excited to make my favorites. First I started some creamed corn in the crock-pot because it takes four hours to stew. Next I sautéed chopped onions and celery in a little butter for the base of my dressing. Then I mixed in some (stuffing cubes)- yes I cheated- with chicken broth. Once the bread soaked up all the liquid, I popped it into the oven in a casserole dish. Finally my absolute favorite, I mixed up a sweet potato casserole. This was relatively simple since I cheated a little and used canned sweet potatoes. I combined a little cinnamon with the sweet potatoes and stirred in chopped pecans. Then I topped the whole casserole with mini marshmallows and popped it in the oven.

The dinner was a success, and I was very thankful I did not poison any of my friends or catch my apartment on fire! I am now definitely more confident in the kitchen and feel I can conquer bigger challenges such as soufflés and risotto.