Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving is like THE food holiday, and since we didn’t drive back home, we had our own Thanksgiving dinner here. It was my first time cooking a turkey, as well as the whole dinner. Everything was really good, except my Caramel Apple pie was invisibly ruined. First, the turkey:
That thing turned out beautifully, didn’t it? It wasn’t hard either. I followed some directions from Alton Brown, and here’s what I did:
- Let the turkey thaw in the fridge for 3-4 days
- Open and wash the turkey. Take the stuff out of the inside. Pat dry with paper towels
- Rub with canola oil, sprinkle with seasonings (thyme, basil, etc). We also put some onion, celery, and apple chunks inside for aromatic flavoring
- Bake at 400 for 45 minutes. Then turn down to 350 and bake until done — 165F by thermometer, or 60-75 minutes more
- Let it rest for 20-30 minutes before carving
This was the whole dinner:
We had the following:
- Turkey
- Mashed potatoes and gravy
- Yams
- Stuffing (Stovetop brand!)
- Green beans amandine (toasted almonds)
- Corn on the cob
- Fruit salad
- Home-made cranberry sauce with fresh cranberries
The yams were the biggest surprise. So, I found this turkey-cooking calculator that said it would take about 3 hours to cook our bird. I checked it periodically, and it was done after one and a half hours–and none of the sides were ready! So we had to bust those out real quick. I chopped the yams, put them into a dish with a couple tablespoons of melted butter and coated them well. Then sprinkled some sugar and cinnamon over the top, and added a little water to the bottom to help steam. Then, into the microwave on the “baked potato” setting. They were done in about 10 minutes, and the sauce even thickened into this sweet syrup.
The cranberries were on sale for $.33/lb at the fruit market. You just boil 3/4 cup orange juice, 3/4 cup sugar, and the cranberries for about 10 minutes. Thats it.
Finally, the pie (photo above is before the top crust went on). I followed the recipe from Food Network for caramel apple pie. Fresh apples, crust from scratch, home-made caramel sauce — the works! It baked up beautifully too. But, when we cut into it, it was watery. I took out the first piece, and the water just filled back in where the piece had come out. There was so much water in it! It didn’t cook through, so we had to throw the whole thing out.
That was pretty much our Thanksgiving 2009.
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