Thankful Reflections of My Parent's Thanksgiving

Sliced thyme and rosemary stuffed turkey rotisserie roasted on the BBQ.

I spent the weekend at my parents house and I am finally getting a chance to sit down and post about our Thanksgiving feast. This year fell on my Mother's birthday, so we had a lot to celebrate and be thankful for. I keep talking about how my parents always do it up big. Here are some pictures to put my money where my mouth is.


Plate setting on my Great Grandmother's satin tablecloth.

I am always in charge of setting the table.



This year, I used some small pumpkins from my parents garden as well small glasses of dried weeds and grass from the poolside flower beds to decorate the table.



For starters, a relish plate of my parents home made pickles. Organic cucumbers, Jerusalem artichokes, carrots and cauliflower from my parents garden.



Everyone loves olives!


My family members pictured from left, Grandma, Aunt Anne (in purple), Aunt Shirley, Aunt Lynda, my Dad and my Uncle John who seems to be in mid-pontification.

We serve ourselves buffet style. Food pictured (counter-clockwise from bottom right) Relish platters, radish rosettes, orange infused cranberry compote, creamy mashed potatoes, sliced oven roasted turkey, sliced rotisserie turkey, cheesy onion casserole, roasted sweet potatoes in a maple syrup sauce, roasted squash (in turkey tureen), green bean casserole (brought by my Aunt Margie), corn pudding, and apple walnut stuffing. You can see the pies on the upper right. The gravy bowls were on the tables.



My parents brined and roasted two turkeys, one on the BBQ (first picture) and another in the oven, stuffed with apple walnut stuffing, pictured above.



With so much food, its always hard to find a big enough plate!



My brother was a member of the clean plate club. Good job Alger!



We had to remember to save room for dessert. Pie options included peach raspberry, a ginormous apple pie, and good old pumpkin with fresh vanilla whipped cream. I ate so much, I think I'm good to until until next year.

Click here for more Thanksgiving photos.

The Best Turkey Is A Brined Turkey

Soaking your turkey overnight in a salt brine solution is the best way to insure a moist juicy turkey on Thanksgiving. It requires no special ingredients or tools except a pot or bucket big enough to hold the turkey and small enough to fit in your refrigerator. You can also use a large cooler filled with ice if your Turkey is too large.

The turkey should be completely submerged in your brine solution and should be soaked anywhere from 12-24 hours depending on its size. For a large turkey above 15 lbs, I suggest 24 hours.

A basic brine solution is made up of water, salt and sugar. In addition to this, you can add any number ingredients such as fruit, herbs, spices, vinagers, juices, stock etc. The brine recipe I've used with success is:

For 1 Gallon of Brine:

• 3/4 c. coarse Kosher salt
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. white sugar
• 1/2 c. cider vinegar
• 2 lemons quartered
• 2 oranges quartered
• Sprigs of thyme
• sprigs of rosemary
• handful of peppercorns

For each additional gallon necessary to submerge your bird, add 1/2 cup of salt, 1/2 c. sugar, and one more piece of citrus fruit.

Here is more information on brining poultry.

A Super Quick Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is:
Turkey Pilgrims Pumpkin Pie
We will eat until we die.
Fin.

Did you like my poem? OK, lets make a quick pumpkin pie you can easily squeeze into your busy holiday schedule!



Grandma's Pumpkin Pie

2/3 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. pumpkin**
2 egggs
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp cinamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1 2/3 c. milk

Mix everything together in a blender. Slowly add milk. The consistency of the filling once you add the milk will be very liquidy.



Pour in a pie crust. Here are the directions to my Grandmother's Quick Pie Crust recipe.



Brush the edges of the crust with milk.



Bake for 15 minutes at 450 and then lower for 30-40 minutes at 350.


If your tester looks like this, you're pie is not done.

Check pie with a toothpick or knife to test if done. When tester comes out clean with no pie liquid, your pie is done!



**You can use fresh pumpkin or canned. In my experience the canned pumpkin tastes just as good, and there are not additives in it. Around this time, stores often have the Libby pumpkin on sale pretty cheap. If you want to use fresh pumpkin, you need to cook it first. I suggest roasting in a similar fashion to the butternut squash we roasted for the butternut squash soup recipe.