Thanksgiving Day

Hot Apple Pie with Streusel
crumb topping 

Again this Thanksgiving I have taken the reins and am cooking with the help of my mom. Last night my mom and I went grocery shopping and got all the food then we came home and I started to brine the turkey, and make the apple pie with streusel toping which I am going to bake it first thing in the morning.

Reducing down POM
for the vinaigrette 

Today I woke up at 5:30 made a egg, ham "McMuffin" and a cup of Alterra coffee. Then I started my full day of cooking. First I started the oven then popped in the pie. While thats cooking I started to reduce down some pomegranate juice for my pomegranate vinaigrette.  I will use this on an Apple,and Toasted Walnut salad topped with blue cheese.   Next I will make my homemade cranberries that are cooked down in OJ and some sugar. But first I headed out for my ride.  I did my usual route out past Pewaukee and back. It was nice because no one was one the roads and I didn't have to worry about anything around me and I could just ride. After getting home and showering I made up the cranberries and Pear Pecan stuffing.  For the stuffing, I first toasted the bread in the oven, then pulled it out and combined it with the sautéed pears, onions, butter and chicken broth. I sprinkled on S+P and some nutmeg.  I realized that this batch wasn't going to be enough so I asked my dad to run to the store to pick up some stuff for the cranberry and sausage stuffing. Again I toasted the bread combined with butter and chicken broth, but add thyme, rosemary, and sage. Now with both stuffings done, cranberries done, pie done, salad dressing done only thing left was the green beans in beur blanc sauce and the turkey.

Turkey Pre Cooking

Making fresh bread cubes
 for the pear pecan stuffing

Now around 10, I pulled the turkey out of the brine and let rest for 30 minutes. I then seasoned it with salt, pepper, garlic, thyme and rubbed it all down with butter.  I set it in the roasting pan stuffed it with carrots, celery, onion and surrounded it with more vegetables.  I poured chicken broth in the bottom of the pan and a glug of white wine then tented it with foil and placed it in the oven at 350 for about 4ish hours.  After being in the oven 2 hours this where going good the thermometer was reading about 80 degrees and was climbing.  My other family members showed up and started snacking on my mini caprese salad skewers.  Then about 1 hour later I came back and with the temp around 130, it started to go down. For some reason when we lock our oven it stopped cooking. We unlocked it and the oven turned back on. This set things back about 45 minutes but no big deal.  Then around 2:30 I made the mashed potatoes and saw that the turkey had reached 160. I pulled it out and let it rest while I made up the green beans.  Once it rested 15ish minutes the thermometer read 165 so I figured we were ready to go.  I dressed the salad and topped it with the apples and blue cheese. While my mom served it I cut into the turkey and it looked good until I hit the deepest part of the breast and it was still pink.  My worst night mare just became a reality. I thought everything was going to go smooth but now that I needed to cook the turkey longer and dinner already started things got hectic. My dad was rushing me to get everything served, instead of letting me do my thing, I rushed and had no choice to quickly cook the turkey pieces in the micro and serve it. The one and only thing I hate to do and try to never do, cook food in the micro, was my only choice for quick service to make the food safe for my guests. With every side dish on the table and being passed around I brought out the now fully cooked turkey and served it.  While everyone was enjoying dinner and sipping on their red or white wine, I was still cleaning the bird and making sure it was cooked.  Then after most everyone was done with their first plate I finally came out and enjoyed the dinner I just spent a full day stressing over.  I couldn't focus on how well the meal went with the turkey on my mind. So i didn't really enjoying the dinner like I should have.

Fresh Wisconsin Cranberries 

 Once we finished our plates full of food I brought out the cherry nut cake and apple pie. Each had 5 candles in it for my dads birthday.  Each person had 1 or 2 pieces of dessert topped with freshly whipped cream.  This was also served with a dessert wine that  tasted like pure honey.  With everyone satisfied with the meal the day was finally over and I could just relax.  Looking back on it, the meal went pretty well, but I wish it could have been a little bit better.  If you head over to this page you can find some of the recipes I used. If you would like any recipes not posted just ask and ill send them to you.