Turkey Day

Well, the Turkey Day feast has come and gone. Since I spent all that time cooking and then taking pictures, it seems only appropriate that I post them.

As expected, we made a batch of spring rolls for the freezer. Eighty-five of em. J is happy. We also have stuff for dumplings though I didn't subject J to dumpling wrapping also.

Note: I have very specific use of the terms stuffing and dressing. Stuffing goes in the bird. Dressing doesn't have to go in the bird. And also, dressing is usually cornbread dressing.

The day starts off with the stuffing. On the heels of my post about Turkey Day expectations, we did peel the chestnuts the night before. It really sped things up. After washing the rice and putting it into the rice cooker, add the raw peeled chestnuts, salt, and a little oil and start the rice cooker. When ready, stuff the bird! I bet this would really rock if we used half sticky rice.

I set the turkey in a cooler of brine the night before, but still the turkey wasn't that great even though it looks very pretty. As you know, you have to decide which part of the bird to measure when cooking. Some folks, like my sister, will focus on the breast since they are white meat lovers. Me, I typically focus on the leg/thigh because I'm a dark meat eater. However, when you consider the dedication it takes to peel a pound of chestnuts, you'll know that I measure my stuffing. And getting the stuffing up to 160 pretty much guarantees that everything else is dry dry dry. And it was. Seriously, I'm thinking about making a chicken next year instead.

My green bean casserole recipe is from Campbell's so it called for the French's fried onions and can of cream of mushroom soup. I replaced the canned green beans with fresh, but I still found the recipe to be a little ... disjointed. The cream of mushroom was far too thick and the onion-like stuff was too large and crispy. I have improvements for next year's attempt but I'm not sure if this dish is a keeper.

Sweet potatoes are sweet potatoes. Mine are peeled, cut, boiled, mashed, and whipped, just like yours. However, pressed for time when everything was coming together at once, I dropped the sweeties in with their butter and brown sugar into the Kitchenaid mixer for its inaugural run and set it whipping.



The mashed potatoes got the same treatment in the mixer and then they browned in the oven. J loves the crispity crunchity. I told him I did it for him. And sure, I did. But I also did it because they were the first to go in the mixer and I didn't want them to get cold. Heh. I did know that he would love the brown tops though.

This was my first attempt at making dressing from scratch. I started off by making Jiffy cornbread in the morning. Admittedly, it was not bad. Then I prepared the dressing, complete with chicken stock, onions, celery, etc. It didn't turn out too badly, but I have a list of changes for next year for this recipe also. One of them is to make the dressing a day in advance so that the flavors can meld.

Like any good Turkey Day feast, we had Ocean Spray's jellied cranberry complete with ridges. Yum.





This is the first year that my gravy turned out well. I made my base with the neck, giblets, and a sauteed onion which made a very nice base indeed. Then I made the gravy as usual, starting with a nice roux and adding the stock. I also added all the juices from the turkey when I took it out of the oven. It was damn good. And there was a ton of it.

Here's what it all looked like served up. J's random plates for this year were creamed corn (likely his new standard) and waldorf salad. The creamed corn was very good though very heavy. It even heated up well the day after. He made two different waldork salads -- the traditional one (yum) and one with pineapples (ew).