Gobble Gobble

Turkey day was a huge success! Let's see... I don't even know where to start. Leading up to the turkey day, I went from store to store accumulating various ingredients. Then the night before, I prepared the brine and the stuffing... making the stuffing from scratch was a pain in the ass... and also, I made waaaaaay too much. Ah well, better too much than too little. At first, I was a little nervous about the stuffing but in the end, it tasted good. I used italian sausage which gave the stuffing a nice taste... I did think it was a bummer that I didn't have some of the boar that my buddy hunted... that coulda been good.

Later that night, I put the turkey in the brine and then I woke up in the middle of the night to flip it once. I then woke up early to make sure I didn't soak the turkey for too long (recommended time was 6 hrs - I think I did 7). I was worried since this was my first time that soaking it too long would make the turkey too salty. Anyways, I then stuffed the turkey, put it in the oven, and the waiting begins!

While I waited, I popped open a bottle of wine. I figured that if the food sucks, I'll just get everyone drunk. As my dad and I polished off the first bottle, my guests arrived with green bean casserole and apple pie. Now the waiting game was on. Even though I planned the turkey to be ready by 2:30, I think the actual time we got to eat was 4:30. Before I got too drunk, I made sure to start the mashed potatoes. I mixed it with shallots and that gave the potatoes a good flavor.

Here's the Astin-esque display of food:

Mashed potato


Turkey is ready!


Here's the turkey plate with stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and cranberry sauce (last two, I did not make).



And voila, there you have it - the turkey dinner table:


Astin, thanks for the link to Alton Brown's website. The fact that I made the stuffing from scratch was a big hit (as was using shallots for mashed potatoes - yeah, like I came up with that on my own). Now, I will be eating leftovers for days... I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving.