If you've visited my blog before, it's no secret that I LOVE cooking Thanksgiving dinner because I've mentioned it like a gazillion times (and yes, the valley girl speak was totally intentional...ha ha).
For me, it's basically the Super Bowl of all culinary adventures, and I spend weeks pouring over recipes before officially settling on the menu.
While Thanksgiving usually isn't the day for springing something new on dinner guests, I love integrating a few new dishes with the old favorites, which I must confess is all kinds of fun.
And now that Thanksgiving is officially a wrap, I'm nursing a serious turkey coma. It's a good thing I didn't have any aspirations of waking up super early for Black Friday shopping because I'm not sure I could've done it. Even a triple grande caramal macchiato from Starbucks hasn't pepped me up in the slightest.
All things considered, the turkey coma has been worth it, though. Since we got Will his favorite Greenberg smoked turkey (a total Texas thing that'll transform your ordinary fridge into a smokehouse just from the sheer potency of the aroma), I opted for roasting a turkey breast instead.
While I came across a few different options that almost changed my mind, I ultimately went with an old standby for the turkey—Sunny Anderson's turkey breast with peach rosemary glaze. I can't even begin to tell you how delicious this recipe is. And because I used a fresh turkey rather than frozen, I'm convinced it was even more delicious.
Will liked it so much, he suggested I make it for Christmas, too, so we'll see what happens. :)
For the sides, which let's face it, are the best part of the meal, I made the foccacia stuffing from Williams-Sonoma with my own little touches like spicy sausage, celery, granny smith apple and caramelized onions, green bean casserole with fresh portabello mushrooms and cream, cranberry orange compote, mashed potatoes with sour cream and a Paula Deen-approved amount of butter and the piéce de résistance, Martha Stewart's pumpkin pie with a shortbread crust instead of graham crackers or the traditional flaky crust.
Yeah, can you tell I was counting calories for this meal? Ha ha.
I was pretty pleased with how everything turned out. The stuffing was a little on the dry side, so I added more chicken stock and baked it a little longer. The pie was definitely a nice twist on the traditional pumpkin pie. Not only was the custard so flavorful, but I could've just peeled off the filling and ate that crust by itself. It was like the best, butteriest shortbread people generally have with tea or coffee. In a word: Yum.
Hope your Thanksgiving was happy, too. And if you're a Cowboys or Jets fan, I'm sorry. What rotten, rotten games—well unless you're Robert Griffin III or Tom Brady, I guess. :)
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