For Thanksgiving, our family is very dedicated to traditional Thanksgiving foods: roast turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, canned cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, and something green–like a fresh green salad (maybe with cranberries thrown in for good measure). When mom tries to change things up, like she did this year by adding brussels sprouts, it usually doesn’t go over well. But, despite the brussels sprouts, it was a delicious meal.
The day started with baking: pumpkin bread and pumpkin pie. We made the pumpkin bread so no one would nibble on the pumpkin pie before dinner. And, while I’d like to say I made the pumpkin bread from scratch, I have to admit that I used Trader Joe’s box mix–and it was really good. For the pie, we always use Libby’s canned pumpkin and follow Libby’s recipe.
Once the bread and pie were out of the way, we started on the turkey. We bought a pre-brined, organic turkey that we rinsed, dried, salted and peppered, and put in the oven. In past years, we’ve tucked pieces of butter under the skin to keep the meat moist, but that mainly just seemed to add to the oil in the pan so this year we went with the brined option.
We had a big bird that needed to cook for at least four hours so we knew we had some time before we needed to think about the sides. I took a break to watch World Cup soccer (strange not to be watching American football, but I loved it).
Once we were within 60 minutes of Turkey time, we got to work on the sides. We peeled and chopped Yukon gold potatoes for the mashed potatoes, chopped the celery and onions for the Pepperidge Farm stuffing, and (alas) prepped the brussels sprouts.
Ultimately it was a great, and delicious, thanksgiving… It was so nice to have Max back in the kitchen to help out again!
