My hands were full of raw meat so I really didn't get many pictures, however, I do have several websites that we got our ideas from.
FIRST! The potatoes!!
Brent found a recipe from his girlfriend, Giada De Laurentiis for baked mashed potatoes. These things. were. amazing.
Here's what you'll need:
1 tablespoon butter
4 lbs russet potatoes, scrubbed, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
1 cup of whole milk (we used 1%)
1/2 cup (one stick) of butter, melted
1-1/2 cup mozzarella, grated
1 cup grated parmesan
2 tablespoons plain dry bread crumbs
salt and pepper, to taste
First up, preheat your oven to 400˚F and coat a 9x13x2 pan with the 1 tablespoon of butter and set aside. Then, dice up your potatoes and bring them to a boil in salted water. You want them all to be similar sized to allow for even cooking. Cook for about 15 minutes until very tender.
After your potatoes are soft, drain them and return to the pot (if you're like me, you DO NOT use your pots and pans to mix in, so I used a separate bowl) and mash up the potatoes.
Mix in the milk and melted butter. Mix in the mozzarella and 3/4 cup of the parmesan cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Spread your mashed potatoes evenly into the prepared baking dish and try not to sit and eat them all. Stir the remaining 1/4 cup of parmesan and the 2 tablespoons of bread crumbs into a small dish and then evenly sprinkle over the potatoes. Bake uncovered until the topping is golden brown, or about 20 minutes-ish.
You can actually prepare this up to 6 hours ahead of time and just store it in the fridge (or on the deck if it's cold out 😉).
No end result picture. I'd like to blame Brent since he was in charge of taking pictures. 😉
NEXT! Mom's stuffing!!
Ugh, seriously you guys. Best. Stuffing. Ever.
I bought a plain bag of dried, cubed bread from the bakery section in the grocery store. That's how I roll. If you're my amazing mother, though, you'll cut up your own bread and let it dry out for a couple days ahead of time.
You'll sprinkle your bread crumbs with sage dust (ground sage) or poultry seasoning. Then you'll melt a stick of butter, and finely mince some onion and celery. Mom always used the inside part of the celery hearts, with the leaves and stuff.
Saute that up until everything is soft, adding a little water if it's getting a little too dry. Then mix your butteronioncelerymix with your stuffing, mixing in a little bit of chicken broth to add more moisture if necessary. You can either stuff your turkey with it or you can cook it in a tinfoil packet. Don't put hot/warm stuffing in a cold bird. Just a heads up, but that should be a given.
This was a spot where I didn't get an end picture of the goods ☹️, but they tasted great!
SIDES!
I don't know about you guys, but I loves me some cranberry sauce. I'll eat the stuff from a can, no problem, but I do love to make my own.
I got the recipe online, as I do most of my recipes and this stuff turned out perfectly.
You'll need:
1/4 cup freshly squeeze orange juice
the zest of one orange
1/2 cup of sugar, or more to taste
1-12 oz bag of fresh cranberries
3/4 cup water
In a medium sauce pan heat your water, orange juice, orange zest and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Stir in your cranberries and bring to a boil. Then reduce your heat and allow to simmer until it thickens.
NEXT STOP! TURKEY TOWN!
Preheat the oven to 350˚F and get ready...
We spatchcocked that turkey! Basically, you cut the spine out of the bird, lay it flat, perform chest compressions, cracking the breast bone and then you bake it. It will bake in HALF the time than the "normal" way of cooking it. Spatchcocking the turkey allows it to cook more quickly and evenly and it also allows for juicier meat and crispier skin. Let's be honest... Pretty much everything you want in a turkey.
Here's a really great video to help you through the process of man handling your turkey. The video suggests using poultry sheers, I just used some heavy duty kitchen shears that my lovely mama bought me. I don't have that exact brand, however I do have some knives that are J.A. Henkels and they're the bomb.com.
We hacked our turkey in half and arranged him in a roasting pan and we made this really great herb rub for under the skin. Here's what you'll need for the rub:
1 golfball sized chunk of onion
1 lemon, scrubbed clean
12 FRESH sage leaves
Large hand full of FRESH flat leaf parsley (about 1/2 cup)
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon of salt
6 FRESH bay leaves
4 tablespoons of butter
Put the onion into the bowl of a mini food processor. Zest your lemon, being careful not to cut into the bitter white pith and add the zest to the food processor and reserve the whole lemon for another use. Chop the onion and lemon zest until fine. Add the sage, parsley, olive oil, and 1 teaspoon salt and pulse until it forms a coarse paste.
Put 2 of the bay leaves and the butter into a small pan and heat over medium-low heat until the butter is bubbling. Remove from the heat and set aside.
Being careful not to poke holes in the skin rub your hands under the skin of the turkey and make pockets and then rub the fresh herb paste under the skin. Brush the bay leaf butter onto the skin of the turkey and occasionally brush the skin throughout baking.
As it turns out, I had a picture of my hands all up in that bird, Brent took the picture... On his phone... And deleted it. Go figure. So you'll just have to take my word for it. It was pretty epic.
Cooking the bird...
Finished product!
The first time I ever made a turkey and I didn't get nearly enough pictures, more did I get a picture of my plate(s) of food! Fail blog.
That turkey was so moist and the skin was so amazing. The rub was seriously incredible. It would be perfect for a summer feast, too. Fresh and zesty and incredible. Just awesome.
You're going to have some leftover turkey - go ahead and use this recipe for some turkey salad (yeah I made that... and, yeah it's super good) and use some of that leftover cranberry sauce as a spread on the bread along with a little mayo and enjoy those Thanksgiving leftovers for a couple more days!
