Everything was delicious and I’m full. Happy thanksgiving everybody!

although a guest brought salad, I just eschewed it. Plenty to eat so zero desire to waste space. We have way too many leftovers and we fly home on Saturday so I’m not sure what will happen to the leftovers and I’m also okay to let them go. In theory a local family or friend will just take them.

I like it too, but once a year is enough. Today we made it with French's french fried jalapenos. It was OK, but I like the original better.

Please share the recipes for the gravy and the mashed potato casserole.

Indeed. We had a couple from Chicago and she generally eats healthy food. So, I thought she'd appreciate something green. She said, "I get enough of that at home." She kept piling on the corn and mashed potatoes. So, I learned my lesson! I should have just made the green bean casserole or maybe a pistachio fluff salad (or whatever you choose to call it) to have something green! :D

This is the mashed potato casserole. If you con't have access to it, PM me and I'll cut and paste for you. BTW, unless you want to feed an army (as my mother would say), cut the recipe in half.

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/...ion=all&rank=2

For the gravy, not sure where it's from - but I used turkey stock instead of the bouillon and water but it works great for any kind of gravy. You can make it a day or two ahead and then, on the big day, heat and just add the pan drippings for more flavor and thicken with flour, if necessary.

INGREDIENTS
¼ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup flour
1 teaspoon onion powder
2 cups water
4 teaspoons beef (or chicken) bouillon granules

INSTRUCTIONS
Combine water and bouillon in a heat proof container (I use my glass measuring cup). Heat the broth in microwave 1 minute at a time, until it is steaming hot.
Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat, add flour and onion powder and whisk together. Allow to cook for 1 minute, whisking occasionally (this helps cook out the ‘floury’ taste).
Add broth to flour mixture and whisk.
Bring to boil, reduce to simmer for 1 minute.

Thanksgiving Dinner
 

We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant with my wife's sister and brother w/his wife. The rest of the family is in Tampa working (nurses in various hospitals and Dialysis Centers). They ordered a Whole Fish, Tofu/Broccoli, Fried Seafood Pan Noodles, Sauteed Mustard Greens w/Garlic, and White Rice. I added an order of Fried Salt & Pepper Pork Chop with toasted Garlic.

It was just my wife and I for dinner tonight, small turkey breast with a side of corn and mashed potatoes:

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I didn’t snap any photos today either. However I was generally pleased with the execution of the meal by my son and wife. The turkey was a little dry…but I can’t blame them. It’s always hit and miss with them. Price doesn’t matter in this equation. I’ve had very expensive turkeys turn out dry…and store brand birds that are juicy.
The rest of the meal was really delicious. Sweet potato casserole, stuffing, creamed pearl onions, green beans, cranberry sauce, rolls.
I’m stuffed with no room for sweet potato pie. There’s always tomorrow.

Stuffing
sweet potato casserole with broiled vegan marshmallows
Brussels sprouts
spicy rice
white rice
Matbucha (mizrahi grill)
eggplant salad (mizrahi grill)
cranberry
turkey

I had zero bread products - sad!

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I agree. But they tasted better than they looked. I ran out of room on the stovetop and steamed them in the microwave with (I guess) insufficient water. Here’s how they looked before I cooked them.


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I can understand why you had no bread. Much of it looked pretty burned. Sad Thanksgiving!

People cook turkey to an internal temperature of 165 degrees. When you do that, it will turn out dry as it is still cooking after you pull it out of the oven. There were many "experts" presenting cooking ideas that said cook to 155 -160 degrees if you like moist white meat as it will continue cooking after you remove it from the heat. I have cooked it that way many times in the past, and the family that loved the white meat was surprised they didn't need gravy.

How do they cook the turkey?
I'm stuck on the vegan marshmallows.
I cook mine to an internal temperature of 165 degrees but the white meat is still moist. I have to cook it to that because of my mother's immunocompromised condition. She also gets separate, outside of the bird stuffing.

Mine was 162 when I removed it from the oven. I injected an entire jar of Cajun garlic butter marinade. No part of it was dry when served.

While I suspect we all try to eat healthy most days, there are special occasions when, in my view, we should just eat whatever we like the most, and invariably that means feasting on foods that are rich in both fat & carbs--just seems like those foods rich in both tend to taste the best. Lettuce...LOL

165 should be fine, but you have to make sure the insides have sufficient liquid. I rarely cook turkey (not enough people to consume it in enough time before it goes bad), but with a chicken, I usually stab it a number of times and then use a syringe to inject some "liquid" (in my case butter as well but any marinade will do). If you're using an oven, one trick a lot of people use is to raise the turkey using vegetables (it roasts them at the same time) and pour some liquid into the roasting pan. There are a lot of other tips/tricks you can use to keep the meat moist.

Gravy should never be used to add moisture back into the food. It should be used to layer or enhance flavour.

Brined the night before. Butter between the skin and meat. A butter bath before going into the oven.Cooked to 165 degrees.
A good friend suggested bacon strips on top. I’ve tried that as well.

Simple dinner
Chicken ( Ayam goreng berempah ) in lieu of turkey & nasi kuning ( yellow rice ) from Dancing Fish and kai lan from 190 , Four Seasons .
Ayam ( chicken ) brand sardines ;)



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From Dancing Fish & Four Seasons
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Added canned sardines

I only took two photos yesterday: Turkey and a guest plate.


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It was the best Mac and Cheese I have made and the major factor was using a corkscrew pasta then I used Velveeta cheese sauce added to the evaporated milk and eggs for the custard.

Could have used a little more sunscreen. What did you use?

Very nice overall crispy skin. Looks delicious.

I bought a Pit Barrel Cooker in early October and the 14# bird was my second cook.
The temp was in the range and I took it off to after three hours. The coal cage had an adult male fist sized hickory block in it, thus the very dark color. That hickory block was the smallest I had and didn't want to use a bag of chips or a bag of pellets of another wood type

Carbone’s 4 pack pasta sauce
 

For those who want to try some pasta sauce other than Rao’s, Carbone’s has some decent sauce. I think they won an award this year.

They have a $8 off their 4 bottle assortments on Amazon right now. I ordered some direct from them last week.

In a perfect world.

Greenwood, highland park il

grain salad with salmon topper (I should replicate using cost frozen wild salmon)

Dairy Queen, highland park il


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Been making lot of blackened (à la Paul Prud'homme) food lately. Well, salmon and pork chops (just haven't been into burgers and chicken this year). Invited some neighbours over and one brought a side of vegetables cooked with condensed soup. We got talking about this (home bake) and this neighbour (early tranche of Baby Boom generation - wife and I are tail end of very early Gen X) tell us that back in the day, housewives would make it upscale by using Campbell Soups rather than lesser brands (Aylmer up where I am). I've only really heard of home bakes either through a NPR feature or perhaps the very occasional episode of A Prairie Home Companion (supposedly very mid-west U.S., Minnesotan in particular). Just happen to have a lot of Campbell Condensed Soups in the basement (emergency rations) so made one with broccoli. Upscale as the brand as Campbells and the soup was Cream of Shiitake and Cremini mushrooms (browner than normal Cream of Mushroom). We dropped the ball though as we used aged real cheddar cheese and Parmesan instead of Velveeta and Kraft grated "parmesan" out of a green cardboard tube shaker though.

Steak tagliata at the Florence Central Market together with this gem of a wine, our second Rosso di Montalcino this evening.

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And there's a lot to be said for resting meat after its been exposed to heat.

Not only that but I find brining to be good. Not only that but start the bird upside down and turn it around midway. I cook my turkeys unstuffed and at a high heat (425-450F). Cooked a 16 lb bird in less 1 1/2 hrs the first time I tried it.

Stuffed bird roasted breast side up for 3 hrs @ 350F is a guarantee for dryness.

Thanksgiving #2 for extended family
 

All homemade: a pork roulade stuffed with cornbread-sausage-sage dressing, an extra pan of dressing, cheese potato casserole, sous vide (then seared) chicken, applesauce, assorted finger fruits/veggies, cornbread muffins, focaccia, green beans, white and dark chocolate chip cookies.
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I am salivating.

My dinner will be home made turkey soup with egg noodles. And maybe a salad.

Leftover turkey, ham, stuffing, and creamed & cheese spinach. Ah, speaking of gravy, since the turkey is probably dry, I'm gonna drown in it.

You do like your cornbread! :)

From that pic, what's not to like?! Ah, am I the only one who would use butter on cornbread?

No, but ideally it’s used to sop up the red-eye gravy or pot likker from your greens.

No! A hot just out of the oven cornbread muffin with butter melted (and sometimes honey) is divine.

Yeah! That's the best, and I always have trouble stopping from eating too much. With all due respect to the French (arguably the world's preeminent cuisine), I think they're missing out on the butter on bread combination.

No. When possible, I use butter on cornbread.

technically zero Saturday supper - my flight meal was served about 4p central time after having flown for an hour.

Omg we had cornbread and I also didn’t eat any. Homemade cornbread muffins.

definitely butter on cornbread.
I alwags thought that I had butter with bread all over Europe - if given olive oil, I still would add butter.

Honey butter for sure. I never eat naked cornbread.

I suspect the French--at least in Paris--have begun to introduce bread plates and butter, probably from fielding countless requests for both from American tourists.

why else is there so much Buerre de Baratte - for a long time I bought the Breton butter at cheese & butcher stores. Now I’ve switched to Costco butter. So surely the french eat Buerre on something bread-like!