Well, all the guests are gone and the meal is done except for the snacks. Sadly, with my camera still borked (my birthday is on Wednesday, if anyone loves me), I have no pictures. However, my kitchen is much cleaner than when I started cooking, thanks to my mom and youngest sister managing to slop turkey drippings all over my stove in their quest to have gravy.
A quick run down of all the dishes prepared:
The brie and apricot appetizer seemed to be a hit. My husband enjoyed it anyways. He's currently snacking on the leftovers. This one will reappear at New Years.
My sister made a fantastic antipasto tray, with three types of salami, cheese, olives and marinated artichoke hearts.
The cornbread dressing needed more salt. Other than that, it was fine. Nothing special, but then I make this all the time.
The green bean casserole had too much bechemel sauce on it. It was glopy, but tasty. Less sauce next time. My sisters nearly mutinied when they saw no cans of French's or Campbell's in my pantry.
The roasted broccoli was a hit. I make it all the time, but I don't think my family has ever tried it. We ended up putting grated cheese on it and my sisters got to use the mini-food processor attachment to my stick blender to do it. I had meant to hand them Parmesan, but I think they ended up with my last couple pieces of kefitiri greek cheese. However, it has a similar flavor profile to parm, so it ended up really well.
The roasted potatoes were also a hit. I had debated all morning about what seasonings to use. I ended up using kosher salt, black pepper and a generous helping of Green Street grill rub. It was a mix of yams, white potatoes and a couple carrots. I also used a few chunks of red onion leftover from the salad.
Speaking of salad, this was also a hit. I didn't use true spinach. I used komatsuna, which is an Asian green. So it's like Asian spinach. It tastes much like spinach, just a little tougher. The spinach was topped with hard boiled eggs, red onion, bacon bits, white mushroom slices and carrot shreds. This is a classic that I make frequently.
The biscuits proved to be logistically difficult to make (read: I ran out of cookie sheets), so I made a loaf of beer bread instead. I think it'll be excellent tomorrow toasted up for an open face turkey sandwich.
As for the turkey, it came out beautifully. It was slightly drier than I like. However, the flavor was good and it made more than enough for everyone. I stuffed the cavity with chopped apples, oranges and onions. A liberal application of vegetable oil to the skin before roasting made sure that it came out crispy and with a rich, caramel color. No one else noticed the dryness. As one of my sisters pointed out, home cooked turkeys for us trend towards underdone, not over, so this was considered perfectly done by many.
For desserts, my youngest sister made a pumpkin cheesecake and a Tollhouse pie. Tollhouse pie is basically just melted chocolate chips in a pie shell and it is awesome. They took the cheesecake home with them, but left me the pie. Hooray!
I have a ton of cranberry sauce left. I hate cranberries. I don't think my husband can eat it all himself.
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