Thanksgiving...

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at the VA hospital. My Uncle Dave had a heart attack the Saturday before and was still in the hospital so we had to change plans a bit ... but we were still able to have full T-day dinner with all the trimings.

The turkey was a beautiful 19 pounder from Goose the Market - I used some cooks illustrated tricks including brining the turkey, drying it in the fridge (for a crispier skin) and a BUNCH of butter & herbs rubbed under the skin. Unfortunatly I didn't have a v-rack and during step 1 of  cooking the turkey breast side down the skin stuck to the bottom of the roasting pan and was pulled off when we flipped it -- but no worries I simply re coated the top with more herbs and prayed it wouldn't dry out.

Herbed Roast Turkey http://tiny.cc/ccturkey

The stuffing was Rachel Ray's Mushroom Stuffing. I started this the Wednesday night with the cubing and drying of the bread. To add some texture I used one white bread loaf and one higher end whole wheat loaf. This process takes some time - especially if you just pile all the bread in your large roasting pan. You will need to 'turn' the cubes every 30 mins or so until all pieces are dry like croutons. http://tiny.cc/raystuff

.


And, no Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without Cranberry Sauce - and not that canned goo - but a sweet orange concoction using fresh cranberries & one orange. Again, a Rachel Ray recipe - http://tiny.cc/raycran