RCH's thanksgiving spread for two

[East Coast Hustle]

OK, so I'm as flat broke as I've ever been and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to pull off a dinner that was up to my standards, but I was wrong.

Turkey - got an 8.5 lb juvenile turkey from safeway. a little over $6 with my safeway club card. Brined it overnight in a mixture of cane vinegar, brown sugar, salt, a few bay leaves, a quartered serrano pepper, and a little chili powder. Stuffed a cut up fuji apple and a cut up celery stalk into the cavity. Roasted it at 450 for a half hour then larded it and turned it down to 325 for the rest of the duration, basting occasionally. Came out very moist and very flavorful. Lucky for me, RCHGF llikes the white meat and I like the dark meat so we don't have to squabble over it.

Mashed potatoes - Pretty basic. boiled some russets until they were cooked through, drained off the water and mashed them with butter, cream, and lots of salt, pepper, and garlic powder.

Pan gravy - I make mine without flour since RCHGF has a gluten allergy, but you'd never know the difference if you tasted it. I also roasted the neck and heart, then diced the meat from them and added it to the gravy. If you don't add the giblets to your gravy, WAYSA?

Brussels Sprouts - I had a couple bags of frozen brussels sprouts in the freezer from when they were on sale at Safeway. Defrosted and drained them. pan-roasted some slivered garlic until it was just browning, added some diced up ham and let that brown a little, then deglazed the pan with some apple ice wine that I had on hand (cider would work just fine, if you intend to try this at home). Added the brussels sprouts to the pan and let them simmer for about 10 minutes, then added most of a pint of heavy cream, some black pepper, and some ground clove and nutmeg. Let that cook on medium high until the liquid in teh pan has reduced to a nice thick cream sauce. This turned out awesome, I would highly recommend this recipe to anyone who likes brussels sprouts.

Cranberry sauce - from a can. not bad for a store brand, though.

Traditional Virgin Islands Sweet Potato dressing - so goddamned good. I (mostly) followed a recipe for this one, so I'll cross-post it here from the facebook page I found it on, http://www.facebook.com/notes/us-virgin-islands/thanksgiving-tip-how-to-make-virgin-islands-sweet-potato-stuffing/178834634906 .

3 pounds sweet potatoes
6 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoon butter
1 medium onion, minced
1/2 stalk celery minced (optional)
1/4 medium sweet pepper minced or 6 Puerto Rico sweet peppers
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 teaspoons parsley
Dash pepper (black)
3-4 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 - 1 cup milk
1/4 cup raisins
2 eggs

METHOD

Peel potatoes; boil in salted water, drain and mash.

Preheat oven to 325°F.

While potatoes are boiling, warm frying pan and add oil and butter. When oil is heated add minced onions, celery and sweet pepper. Cook over a low flame until tender. Add thyme, tomato sauce, parsley, black pepper and sugar. Cook for 3 minutes.

Add mixture to mashed potatoes and mix thoroughly. Add milk, raisins and eggs. The mixture should be a little moister than mashed potatoes. If not moist enough just add a little more milk and butter.

Pour in a greased flat-baking pan; bake in preheated 325°F oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Top should be golden brown when done. Good for stuffing turkey or chicken.

I made a few modifications: left out the sweet pepper and tomato sauce, used a 1/2 cup of ketchup instead to account for the sweetness of the peppers. also, I didn't have any raisins so I used Craisins instead. This turned out to be the best part of the meal in both my and RCHGF's opinions.

Apple Pie - RCHGF is making this as we speak. She makes awesome pies, so I'm sure it will be awesome.

Overall, it turned out to be a perfect amount of food for 2 people to gorge themselves on and still have leftovers for a couple of days. We also gave our pet rat, Ratimus, some turkey and gravy and he basically shat himself with glee.

Happy Thanksgiving, PD-tards!

[Kai]

Yay!

Just curious, what did the grand total cost come to?

[East Coast Hustle]

don't know exactly, but not including stuff like salt and spices I already had on hand, I'd say it cost somewhere around $30.

[Kai]

don't know exactly, but not including stuff like salt and spices I already had on hand, I'd say it cost somewhere around $30.

Thats about what it was for mine.

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I'm a huge fan of brussel sprouts.

I'm going to try your recipe for my girlfriends family's dinner.

Any tips on deglazing the pan? I heard there's a few different approaches.

[East Coast Hustle]

yeah, I cheated and used a non-stick which pretty much deglazes itself when you add the liquid. Not a big deal for this recipe, though, as you're only barely browning the garlic and just giving the ham a quick heating and browning so there really shouldn't be much stuff stuck to the pan no matter what kind of pan you use. Just remember if you use a non-stick to use a wooden implement instead of a wire whisk.

also, assuming you're going to use fresh brussels sprouts instead of frozen, I'd cut them in half to ensure they're cooked through by the time the cream has reduced.