Thanksgiving

This year we ended up hosting Thanksgiving dinner in our tiny little apartment. We celebrated our first two Thanksgivings in New York by going to the Macy's Parade and then coming home and eating some food that we bough from Boston Market. 2010 2011 The third year, we skipped the parade, and made a small meal for ourselves that consisted of just a couple of turkey legs, mashed potatoes, and a vegetable side. Last year we skipped the parade and I cooked up some sliced turkey breast with some sides. This year, we figured we were probably going to be too lazy to get up early to make it to the parade, so we just planned to host a real live Thanksgiving dinner. We originally planned to make dinner for five people (three guests plus the two of us), and wanted to make enough that everyone could take some leftovers home with them (what is Thanksgiving without leftovers!). With this in mind, I started shopping early and got a 17lb turkey (I found a great deal; it cost the same as the other brands' 13 pound turkeys so I said why not) which I stored away in our tiny freezer. It was a good thing that our freezer was emptier than usual.

Can I just take a moment to say a BIG thank you to my mom. Thanksgiving dinner takes so much work, what with all the planning, shopping, and cooking. She did it year after year for our family without complaint and made it look so easy. This was my first official make-everything-Thanksgiving-dinner and now I finally know just how much time and effort goes into it.

After a couple weeks of planning the menu, tweaking the menu, writing out shopping lists, checking the lists two, three, and four times, and planning out a cooking schedule, I was as ready as I could be. At this point, our guest list had shrunk from three to one due to changing travel plans. We asked around to find others to invite over, including missionaries, but it was late enough in the game that everyone already had a dinner to go to. At this point, there wasn't much we could do about it so we pressed ahead.

 I made an apple pie and a pumpkin pie two days before Thanksgiving Day. I've made pies many times before, but for some reason the crust this year didn't turn out very good. In fact it was the worst crust I have ever made. :( I basically had to assemble it like a jigsaw puzzle, and the pieces wouldn't stick together. Finally, I fit it the dough into roughly round crusts, and got the pies in the oven. In the end, the pie tasted fine, although it looked like it was made by Doctor Frankenstein.

The next day, (the day before Thanksgiving and my birthday) with the help of my trusty assistant Brian, I whipped up a pan of sweet potatoes with a brown sugar coconut crumble topping (it was amazing by the way) and a batch of cream corn (Brian's favorite Thanksgiving side dish). I stowed these away in the fridge with the pies. 

The next day dawned chilly, overcast, and rainy. We lazily watched the parade online while weary cozy pajamas and snuggling in our warm, comfy bed. When it started snowing during the parade, we felt extra glad we had decided to stay home. 

After the parade, we donned our aprons and went to work making the stuffing, prepping the bird, and getting it in the oven. It fit just fine in our small little oven, I just had to remove one rack and lower the remaining one a rung or two.

Four and a half hours later, out came this gloriously succulent, golden brown, heavenly smelling turkey. We were so happy, and Brian was grinning like it was Christmas Morning. We felt quite proud of ourselves that it turned out so perfectly.

Once the turkey was done, our kitchen burst into a hive of activity -- if you can call two people a hive. We collected the drippings for gravy, peeled and sliced potatoes for mashed potatoes, popped the stuffing that didn't fit inside the bird in the oven, and started heating up the creamed corn and sweet potatoes. There was a lot of shuffling and juggling, a few acrobatics and even a bit of dancing. 

After we let the turkey rest for a bit, and while the sides were baking and boiling, Brian did the honors of carving our bird. Sorry for the blurry picture, but after taking three to try and get a good one, he was done and just wanted to start cutting (and nibbling). I had to watch him to make sure the turkey when onto the platter and not into his mouth.

Our good friend Matt joined us about this time, bringing with him some delicious homemade rolls and a pumpkin pie topped with candied pecans. We placed all the food on the desk in our living room (which we cleared off earlier that day) to make a buffet. After a blessing on the food, we all dug in and enjoyed the spoils of our labors. It was divine. Everything turned out wonderful and tasted just like our Mommas' cooking. We had a wonderful evening, talking and laughing, and feasting.

Afterwards, we sent Matt home with plenty of leftovers, far more than he was expecting. We had so much leftover that we had Thanksgiving dinner for the next two days! After that, I started getting creative with the turkey, using a good chunk of the remaining leftovers in a "chicken" salad. Even though I had way over planned and we had tons of food left, it was nice not to have to cook for a few days.

Even though this is the fifth year in a row that we haven't been able to spend Thanksgiving with our family, this is the first of our NY Thanksgivings that tasted felt like being home. Brian and I have so much to be thankful for -- our loving family and friends, our ward, each other, our Savior Jesus Christ and His gospel, our health, our tiny little NYC apartment that's safe and clean and warm, the opportunities that we have been given, and chances that we have to serve. I could go on, but I'll stop there. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and that you got to spend it with those that you love. 

Now, bring on the Christmas music!

Sweet Potato Casserole

4 cups mashed sweet potato (two 29 oz cans cut yams)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 cube butter, melted

1/2 can sweetened condensed milk

1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients together and place in a 2 quart casserole dish.

Topping:

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup coconut

1/2 stick softened butter

Mix thoroughly and sprinkle evenly over top of potato mixture.  

Bake at 350 degrees F for 45 minutes.