Thanksgiving 2011
We hosted our first ever Thanksgiving dinner at our house on Thursday and even though the turn out was smaller than expected I am happy to say that all the food tasted great and everyone was stuffed. Our guests were supposed to be my parents and an aunt and her husband, but the aunt decided to stay home at the last minute so it was just us and the folks. I literally spent all day cooking, even the store bought pre-cooked turkey required 1 1/2 hour to heat up in the oven. I made pumpkin pies, roasted brussel sprouts with balsamic vinegar (I couldn't stop eating these, they were so good!), green bean casserole with fresh beans and brown mushrooms, mashed potatoes and turnips and of course gravy, with my secret ingredient, nutritional yeast.
We bought the smallest bird available and still have a tone of left over turkey meat. I took all the meat off the carcass and used the bones to make congee today. Congee is basically a soup of stew made with white rice usually with a little bits of meat or seafood throw in at the last minute to add flavor. My folks lend me their pressure cooker to make the soup. It turned out really good, a ton of flavor, a perfect winter food, totally warms the soul.
We are taking advantage of this long weekend to get started on the fence project. More on the soon!
I was a vegetarian for a long time and never learned to cook meat. I was not going to try my luck at cooking a turkey for the first time on Thanksgiving.
I put the extra pie filling in cupcake paper and baked it along with the pies. To make life easier, I used canned pumpkin and store bought pie crusts, but made the whip cream by hand (Justin did the whipping).
Brussel sprouts has got to be one of my favorite vegetables. This time of the year I can get them still attached to the stalks they grow on for around $2.50 each and it yields about 2-3 lbs, so cheap and healthy! I usually like them steamed, but it's nice to change it up once in a while. It's so easy, just coat the the 'brouts in olive oil, ground black pepper, and coarse sea salt then roasting them for 30-40 minutes in the oven on 400 degree F, viola!
We bought the smallest bird available and still have a tone of left over turkey meat. I took all the meat off the carcass and used the bones to make congee today. Congee is basically a soup of stew made with white rice usually with a little bits of meat or seafood throw in at the last minute to add flavor. My folks lend me their pressure cooker to make the soup. It turned out really good, a ton of flavor, a perfect winter food, totally warms the soul.
We are taking advantage of this long weekend to get started on the fence project. More on the soon!
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