What's for Thanksgiving EDF? (planning & trip reports)

[Mermade]

I did a similar turkey last year. I posted it in the Iron Chef OOT Thanksgiving thread. I'll copy it here for you all. I'm cooking and only for the three of us, which will allow me to be creative. No plans so far.

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Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I started out my cooking the day before like P Chippa making an Alton Brown inspired brine for the turkey. I started though by making my own vegetable stock.



Then I added salt, brown sugar, and some other things. It was just three of us this year so rather than plunging the turkey in a bucket and ensuring proper refrigeration with ice I just plopped the bird into the stock pot and threw on the lid. I took out a shelf in the refrigerator and refrigerated it overnight. It worked out very well for a small 10lb turkey.

That night I also made a couple of pumpkin pies. My son is stirring in the sugar/spice mixture here.



The next day I filled the cavity of the turkey with apples, a cinnamon stick, and fresh herbs (rosemary and thyme) from the garden.

Here's the business end of the bird.



Another shot from the side.



This was the first time I didn't stuff the bird and instead baked the stuffing separately. I was happy with how quickly the turkey roasted. I make a wild rice stuffing varying only slightly from a family recipe. Here is a shot after combining ingredients and before putting the stuffing in the dish to go in the oven.



I then made mashed sweet potatoes with chopped pecans, bacon, and a little bit (not too much) brown sugar and maple syrup. I agree that candied sweet potatoes are too sweet, but a little bit of sugar I think compliments the natural sweetness and makes a nice contrast to the saltiness of the bacon. The pecans make for a nice texture contrast. I also made asparagus, and garlic mashed red potatoes.

It's hard to make Thanksgiving dinner for 3. We had enough food for at least 12.

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[raptor517]

im going to the country club to play golf and then eat with my dad for thanksgiving! it will be lots of fun, but i dont have cool pics and recipes.

[edfurlong]

I'm off the hook this year because my cousin in law is doing the heavy lifting. I just need to bake some bread and make mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes with no dairy or soy. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

WTF do I do? How bad is rice milk? I've never touched the stuff. I guess I could use margarine but I'm not sure I could bring myself to do that. I'm planning on cooking the potatoes off in stock to add a little flavor, but I'm pretty much at a loss here.

[PokrLikeItsProse]

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I'm off the hook this year because my cousin in law is doing the heavy lifting. I just need to bake some bread and make mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes with no dairy or soy. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

WTF do I do? How bad is rice milk? I've never touched the stuff. I guess I could use margarine but I'm not sure I could bring myself to do that. I'm planning on cooking the potatoes off in stock to add a little flavor, but I'm pretty much at a loss here.

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I said above that I was thinking of making mashed sweet potatoes using coconut milk. The idea was inspired by actual recipes for regular mashed potatoes using coconut milk. SamIAm linked to one example. If the idea of coconut bothers you, keep in mind that coconut milk is used as a base for Thai curries. I'd probably experiment first on a small scale, though.

I wonder if someone attending has a not-so-unusual soy allergy.

[ElSapo]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm off the hook this year because my cousin in law is doing the heavy lifting. I just need to bake some bread and make mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes with no dairy or soy. [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

WTF do I do? How bad is rice milk? I've never touched the stuff. I guess I could use margarine but I'm not sure I could bring myself to do that. I'm planning on cooking the potatoes off in stock to add a little flavor, but I'm pretty much at a loss here.

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I think you can use stock + a little olive oil and seasonings and get them pretty fluffy. I think the NYT -may- have mentioned this in their mashed potato article currently onl their food page.

I'm not 100% sure the olive oil thing is in there, but I definitely read somewhere today about maked mashed potatoes without dairy.

[edfurlong]

I'll check that out. I was thinking about using an aioli. Maybe I'll just cheat and do that with an herby warm smashed potato salad.

[Mermade]

I've done olive-oil herbed mashed potatoes a few times (when my mom showed up on weight watchers an insisted all of her food accomodate her diet and then again on several occassions when I realized I had no butter or no milk after already boiling up potatoes). It's fine. I prefer the richer version but it's good. I have no recipe for you. Just mash and add olive oil and herbs salt and pepper. Do it to taste. Add the olive oil slowly and keep tasting until you get the consistency right, you don't want to use too much.

[Boris]

made turkey dinner with the gf. I started the night before by making the cranberry sauce.


I added orange juice and crystallized ginger for a little zest.

On the morning of Turkey Day we started things off with Mimosas.


I then started making my famous apple pie.





Since it was just the two of us we decided to make a pretend turkey instead of the whole damn thing. We started off with a flattened and deboned turkey breast.


and then made a stuffing and rolled up the turkey breast and stuffing like a cinnamon roll.



In addition to the apple pie we also made a pumpkin flan for dessert.

All in all a very delicious meal. I was particularly fond of the turkey roulade.