Thanksgiving

This year Blake and I hosted our first Thanksgiving. We started the Monday before and cooked everything ourselves. It turned out to be a success. We were proud of ourselves and happy so I think we agreed to do it again next year.

The turkey recipe came from Ina but I made it with a 22 pound turkey.  I used a stick of butter and about a tablespoon of white truffle oil to make the truffle butter. It cooked for 4 hours on 350. I turned it and tented it at 2 hours. When we took it out the internal temperature was about 170-175. It rested over an hour and was juicy and still hot when we carved it. I could taste the truffle in the dark meat but it was not very detectable in the white meat.

Baked brie

My enormous plate, which I emptied :(

My fall salad

Stuffing with apples and apricots

I also made a massive challah, no drippings gravy, brussel sprouts with balsamic dressing and pomegranates, stovetop stuffing with apples and apricots and a salad with figs, pear, blue cheese and pecans.  Blake made his own cranberry sauce (we also had the canned kind), Martha Stewart macaroni and cheese and potato apple gratin. He doubled both those recipes but not the liquid parts.  We also made a green bean casserole from scratch based on this Alton Brown recipe.  We sautéed the onion though instead of frying rings and added French's on top before baking.  We could have doubled the amount of green beans for the amount of cream in this recipe.

Gooey Butter Cake

Madeleines and chocolate chip cookies

Massive challah

Sliced challah with cranberry sauce

Blake's grandmother made a roast.  My mom brought the sweet potatoes with marshmallows and my sister brought a baked brie.  Blake made madeleines and his adaptation of Alton Brown's chocolate chip cookies.  Blake uses brown butter and a smaller scoop.  I made gooey butter cake.  We also had a variety of pies.

The crowd serving themselves

Our table setup