Thanksgiving 2017!

I have held back on blogging about Thanksgiving because I don’t have much to say that isn’t purely gushing with excitement….but sorry, going to go ahead and tell you ALL about it.

So! I am incorporating a few new things this year, and sticking with the old staples that make the day Thanksgiving. Menu this year includes –

Roasted turkey, which I have ordered from Porter Road Butcher and is probably frolicking around in a field right now which makes me happy. I wish these turkeys came with names. This year, I’m going to do a wet brine again (a cider and citrus brine which sounds AMAZING), and I also purchased an injector this year! Going to inject a butter and cider/citrus marinade that I will probably make up next Wednesday. I’m excited about how this will add to the flavor of the turkey – have never done this before!

I’m also going to do a roasted acorn squash for Katie because Stephen has an amazing recipe and I feel bad that Katie never gets a “main dish.”

Stephen will be making the stuffing this year. I made it last year since he was out of town…but I can’t remember what recipe he uses so can’t say anything about it…..

I’ll be doing Aunt Carol’s Sweet Potato Casserole, OF COURSE, and I’m also making mashed potatoes (of course). This year I’m going to try Julia Child’s recipe for garlic mashed potatoes, which basically consists of blanching a fuck ton of garlic (30 cloves, to be more precise) and then combining them with a bechamel….and then adding that to the mashed potatoes. It sounds amazing.

I’ll make the cranberry sauce that I made last year, except I’ll probably use bourbon instead of brandy. And Faith is bringing a cranberry salad, so we’re covered on the cranberry front!

I made some honey butter rolls last year which were delicious, so I’m going to use that recipe again this year. Nothing new or exciting – except that rolls are always exciting, so I should really just say nothing new.

Katie is bringing some kind of green dish (like made with green vegetables). Not sure what yet, or how many.

And probably last on the menu is another Thanksgiving staple – Grandma’s Magic Chocolate Pie. And Faith will make a custard pie.

So that’s the menu.

Have about a million things to buy this weekend for all that. Also I bought a carving board for the turkey this year; it’s basically a cutting board with a grid of small pyramids in the middle to hold your [piece of meat] in place while you carve. I had been pining over silver platters recently, as the turkey platter I’ve used the last several years was purchased at a thrift store and basically feels like plastic. And the more I use it, the more the silver finish washes off. So – new serving board this year!

I realize that it’s on Tuesday…but I really can’t wait for the weekend. Going to spend it cleaning out the refrigerator, grocery shopping, making pie crusts, and cleaning up the kitchen (etc).