Massive long thanksgiving-related ramble.

I imagine this entry is going to be long, and rather boring to pretty much everyone but a very select few. It might even bore me, but I need to do this. I need to have a detailed account of how I did everything for Thanksgiving so we can do it even better next year.

You can just skip to the bottom if you don’t want to read the massive ramble.

Friday – chop and mascerated the apples, left them sitting in the fridge in their own sugary goo. Made the brine.

Saturday – Made sweet potato pies (make just one next year), put the turkey in the brine bucket overnight.

Sunday.

I got up a bit before 9am. I had forgotten to make the apple pie dough the night before, so I whipped that up quickly and then sat down with breakfast while the dough sat in the fridge for an hour so the flour could get good and hydrated.

At 10 I drained the apples (kept the liquid) and Jake helped me roll out one of the dough-discs. The wax paper was evil, and I think we were a touch rough with the rolling pin, because the wax paper ripped a lot. I spent a few minutes searching the 12-inch circle of dough trying to find tiny invisible pieces of wax paper. Once the dough was in, the pie bird (that I had moved from the baking cupboard to the cookie cutter drawer so it took a while to find) sat in the centre and apples got piled around. I forgot to pour in the excess juice/flour concoction that the apples had been sitting in, but I don’t know if it made a difference (it did make the oat/sugar mix a bit gross the next day when I made an apple crumble). We had cooked down the juice that had been oozed out of the apples, made a glaze out of that, and wiped that on the top of the pie once the second disc of dough was added. (the glaze didn’t really work, just kinda burned… next year I’m doing to try a crunchy crumble streusel type topping instead of the dough. Too much dough.) Once done, the apple pie cooled on the dressing table in the bedroom, right by an open window. I put the sweet potato pie from the fridge next to it, so they could both be roughly room temperature when I wanted to heat them up a bit for eating.

While the apple pie was in the oven, we started making the stuffing loaf. (Did the dishes before, we kept up on them all day… until it was turkey time.) Jake chopped the bacon while I tore up the stale slices of bread and dropped them in the food processor (we had left the slices of bread all over the table, standing up, overnight so they got good and stale. Stale = good for breadcrumbs). Next year – use two bowls for the stuffing from the beginning!! So much stuffing. After the bread, I chopped onions in quarters, pulverised them, and added to the stuffing mix. The delicious mix then got compressed into loaf shapes (more like arm shapes… very long and thin), but we should have compressed them a bit more. Must remember next year to spray the al foil the loaves get wrapped in with cooking spray, otherwise when serving time comes around the crust sticks horribly. Loaves went in the fridge.

By this time it was about midday, so I got changed out of my pyjamas and tidied up the apartment a little bit. We also washed every serving dish and plate that we were going to be using that evening. Which next time I will do the day before.

Next was hard boiled eggs. I followed a method I found online that sounded good. Start the eggs in cool water, slowly bring to a boil, and then once boiling take off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes before cooling in ice water. Problem was, the water took FOREVER to boil so the eggs came out… slightly tough. Mostly in the yolk part, which had a rim of greyness that wasn’t super attractive. Tasted good though. I reserved a few eggs and devilled the rest. (reserve more next year – Matt also does not like devilled eggs) Personally I think devilled eggs are a complete waste of perfectly good eggs, but Jake adores them. I added equal parts mayo and mustard (a bit less than there was yolks) and then a small dash of cayenne and a slightly bigger dash of paprika. I mixed it all up in a ziplock bag so when time came to put the goo back in the eggs, I just chopped the corner off and used it like a piping bag. Apparently I make awesome devilled eggs. The eggs were served on a big white tray. One side was eggs, centre was full of celery bits, and the other side was a container of cream cheese, a glob of peanut butter, and 2 knives. Those, along with the chocolate covered pomegranate awesome things we got from Costco, were the only snacks.

At the same time as making the eggs, I also made a cranberry sauce. I slightly followed a recipe but not really. Bag of cranberries, a cinnamon stick, a bay leaf, 1/4 cup OJ, 1/2 cup sugar (well… I used a 1/4 cup, but it definitely needed more!) and a bit of water. Not even enough water to cover the cranberries. Might have been 1/2 cup? I eyeballed it. I just set it on medium heat and let it go. I didn’t even have to ‘mash’ it up, pretty much all the cranberries fell apart in the sauce.

We were having dinner at 5:30 (or I was aiming for that, we ended up eating more at 6) so the turkey went in the oven at 3. Before that, Jake rinsed the brine off the turkey and then rubbed the skin with vegetable oil while I made the aromatics to go in the cavity (because the stuffing was seperate… partially because stuffing loaf is awesome, and partially because stuffing cooked in the bird is gross). I quartered one red onion, and one red apple, threw in the (rinsed off) cinnamon stick from the cranberry sauce, and the tops of the celery from the snacky bits (the leafy parts). I put all that in a bowl with a cup of water and microwaved for a few minutes. The ‘recipe’ called for 5 minutes, I think I did a little over 3 minutes. We got impatient, but it was probably for the best. The apple was complete mush. I used tongs and forced all the aromatics into the cavity (tossed the water, next year I will pour it into the roasting pan under the turkey – Barb told Jake that is a good way to prevent smoking from happening).

Pretty much the entire time the turkey was in the oven… smoke everywhere. I had to sit on the floor to peel the hard boiled eggs (I probably would have anyway, but I did it out of necessity) so I could actually see what I was doing. And you know, breathe. (there is a video on Lisa’s little flip thing of me sitting on the floor peeling the eggs…  I’d love to have it and all the other random videos of the day…) All the windows were open, fans were going, it was freezing cold inside but still smoky. 2 days later and if we use the oven or the stove (both of which I have washed and wiped down as best I can) still smoke and smell odd… it’s very frustrating. The skin on the turkey browned perfectly, the turkey cooked well, but I do think the breasts were a little dry. Next time we are definitely cooking the bird upside down… that way the juices from the dark meat run over the light meat… mmm… juicy.

I think at about 4pm, (maybe later?) Jake chopped up the sweet potatoes and regular red potatoes for mash (something else we should have done the day before.) I was half-asleep on the couch at this point. Exhaustion, lack of oxygen, comfy couch… leads to wanting to sleep. Jake is amazing, prepping stuff happily while I do nothing. And he had been helping me out all day, so I’m sure he was just as tired. (I’m getting tired just remembering all this…) He put the potato cubes on the stove in water to cook straight away, which was smart. (Must remember for next year… butter for the mashing!)

Jake stabbed the turkey at 5, said it was done, so we pulled it and tented it. Of course, our little thermometer thing is kinda crap, and measuring things when they are still in the oven gives false readings. So we checked the turkey again once it was out and tented and I realised we probably should check again. Which then meant we had to throw the turkey back in the oven for a while. The good thing was, by this point Kristen hadn’t yet arrived, so we wouldn’t have been able to eat even if the turkey was done. I had forgotten the stuffing loaf so I threw it in while the turkey finished up. I had also forgotten to make a vegetable side dish but I just couldn’t be bothered by this point so I didn’t make it.

Once the turkey was actually done at about 5:30, Jake made the gravy while I mashed the potatoes. We should have done it the other way around. Jake makes good mash, I do not. Jake made failgravy – just tried to whisk flour into the drippings as they were. So that didn’t work, and it was just weird looking black liquid. (The next day I rescued the gravy – scraped off the settled fat layer on the top, melted that and whisked flour into it, then added water to the solidified black goo that was the ‘gravy’, mixed it up and then strained the liquid into the pan. Tada, magic gravy)

We served everything in the centre of the giant table, but it didn’t quite fit. Maybe next year I’ll put it all on a seperate table. Maybe not. Only good things were said about everything, especially the stuffing loaf. Of course, because it is awesome. Nick especially liked that it had bacon in it.

I give up. That was good enough.

Tonight I actually made the veggie side dish I was going to make on Sunday. It wasn’t that great. So maybe it is good that I didn’t make it then. Ah well. Jake likes it, so that is important.

I felt physically terrible this morning. I think the massive amount of carbs caught up with me. I still don’t feel fantastic but all the sugar I’ve been eating has made me feel better. I had at least 4 slices of awesome stuffing loaf as part of dinner tonight, so I imagine I will feel crappy again tomorrow. Stupid delicious stuffing.

I started prepping for packing for our trip. I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of things, but at the same time, I don’t think I am. It’s just so weird to travel with a giant suitcase that is nowhere near full.

I’m looking forward to actually getting home. To see everyone, of course, but also because I can not stress about the travel itself for many many more weeks. Right now I keep catching myself clenching my teeth. Facial hurt.