Thanksgiving 2008

The wedding was purposely set for the weekend before Thanksgivings week, so that my family and friends can stay for Thanksgivings if they are available. All my out of town siblings were there, and so were Jenn and Fran. So we had a full house and decided to “eat” at Brenda’s place. Moving my cooking supplies and setup to Brenda’s place is really not something I want to do, so all the preparation and cooking were to be done at my place instead.

I am easily bored with the same recipes, so this year, I happened to come across the Sunset magazines just after the wedding. So the menu is mainly inspired by the articles in there. Trust me; I didn’t have any time to even consider the Thanksgivings week prior to the wedding.

The menu is:

• Roasted brined turkey – I purchased a jar of turkey brine solution couple months ago, so it is perfect for this 20lb bird. We soaked the turkey in the brine solution over night. The brine solution has sea salt, cranberry, apples, onion, all kind of herbs, etc. Of course, with the leftover whiskey from the wedding, we added quite a bit of it into the brine and later into the gravy.


• Artichoke parmesan sourdough stuffing


• Gorgonzola Broccoli Casserole


• Spinach and Persimmon Salad


• Cranberry, Pomegranate, and Meyer Lemon Relish


• Fresh Green Bean-Mushroom Casserole


• Sweet Potato Casserole


• Pumpkin Cream Brulee Pie


• Banana Cream Pie

Really, Fran did most of the cooking this year, thank goodness, as I was still trying to recover from the wedding preparation and aftermath, in preparation of the eat & dash to the honeymoon right after Thanksgivings day!

And Jenn’s contribution is the Garlic Mashed Potato “soup”, of course, we all teased her. The Mashed Potato accidentally turned into a soup when she put in more milk and whipped cream than the batch of boiled potatoes before puree it all together!!!

My head was not totally all together, that is, I somehow totally forgot to take pictures of all the food. But I can assure you, they were all well received. The bird was very moist and tasty. The gorgonzola did not overtake the broccoli casserole, as we were afraid. It was a perfect balance. The spinach salad was very refreshing among all the heavier food. The artichoke parmesan sourdough stuffing definitely qualifies as “best requested recipe” by Sunset. And that sweet potato casserole tastes like a dessert. I certainly had more than one serving…

Everything went really well together. And that is my first Thanksgivings as a wife!!! Wow!!!