We started the day with a house full of littles who all got up way too early. But we had good coffee and homemade apple caramel rolls to ease us into the day.
My sister-in-law is an amazing cook and she made some of the food, including the appetizers. We had a cooked shrimp ceviche and a beef and black bean dip. Both were awesome and I somehow did not manage to get pictures. I also made a veggie platter, trying to squeeze something remotely healthy into the butter/carb/sugar overload Thanksgiving tends to be.
The dinner menu consisted of sage sausage stuffing, sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, cheesy hash potatoes, green jello, cranberries, potato rolls and turkey.
It was all so good, but the turkey stole the show. I'm so glad it did, because it wasn't easy. I deboned a 17 pound bird, filled it with a bourbon soaked cranberry and fig dressing, and rolled it into a roulade. There were a lot of firsts, but after watching this Julia Child video 10+ times and taking notes on it, I thought I could handle it. Okay, seriously, I'm a complete amateur! What took them about 4 minutes to do, took me almost an hour. I had turkey juice everywhere and practically needed a shower in bleach afterwards. It was quite a learning experience and I was really, really hoping all of the effort and clean up would be worth it.
The bird did not disappoint.
Those drumsticks you see sticking out were the only bones in the turkey. It was tender, flavorful, and not dried out at all. I will probably be making this turkey every year. It was a lot of prep work, but on Thanksgiving day, all I did was brown it for a few minutes on each side, deglaze with white wine and then throw it in the oven for two hours. It was such a relaxing Thanksgiving since I was able to make almost everything the day before.
For dessert, we had a bourbon pumpkin cheesecake.
All in all, it was a fantastic day. We had such great time hanging out with our family and we all ate like kings. I'm soooooo glad my monthly prenatal weigh in was last week and not this week. Because I ate like a king all weekend, too.
This week, the menu is very veggie heavy. Gotta get a few good days in before we start baking Christmas cookies!
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