Thanksgiving

Yay, Thanksgiving! Although technically it’s only one day, I consider it the entire four day weekend. On Thanksgiving Day I did exactly what I wanted to do, cooked all day long. From the moment I got up until almost the time I went to bed. And we made some amazing food.

Fall food is my absolute favorite. Although summer is full of many wonderful things to eat, there is just something so comforting about fall food. And, Thanksgiving is a celebration of all those comforting foods, with pumpkin as the reigning king!

We started the day early with some Red Flannel Hash for breakfast. I used some of the beets we got in our CSA and some tasty local purple potatoes to make the hash, which I served with a fried egg on top and some of Jeff’s homemade bacon.

Since we decided to have a Thanksgiving for two this year, I wanted to make a meal that captured the tradition without having to make the entire list of sides. I’ve been eyeing a Sweet Potato Lasagna with Béchamel Sauce recipe in the Cooking Light Cooking Through the Seasons cookbook for years, and figured now was the time. The recipe called for store bought lasagna noodles, but I wanted to make my own. I used this pasta recipe for the noodles. The recipe called for sweet potatoes, but I had half of a squash left, so I used it and a sweet potato. Plus, it called for spinach, but we have kale in the garden so I used that instead, and we had some leeks in the CSA that I added as well. Not to pat myself on the back too much, but WOW! Glad I have leftovers.

Jeff spent the day smoking a turkey breast. He spatchcocked the breast first then tied it with butcher’s twine. The nice thing about this method is the breast is very easy to slice once it is cooked, since the bones have already been removed. Since he was smoking the turkey and had the grill going anyway, we had some grilled oysters for lunch.

I tried a new recipe bread recipe this year. I’ve yet to find the one that is my go-to recipe, but this one was pretty good. I made Nana’s Rosemary Biscuits withCranberries from this month's issue of Cooking Light. They were really good, however I altered the recipe some. It called for dried cranberries, which I can understand since they are sweeter and smaller, but I had fresh one in the fridge. It was an experiment and it paid off. Additionally, the recipe doesn’t have any type of wash to glaze the biscuits with before baking. I prefer using a wash, so I beat an egg with one tablespoon of half and half and brushed it on the biscuits prior to baking.

To round out the meal I made some cranberry sauce and brussels sprouts while the lasagna was in the oven. For the cranberry sauce I made this recipe. For the brussels sprouts, I cut up two pieces of Jeff’s bacon, cooked that for a few minutes in a large skillet until it started to crisp up. Added in some sliced onion and cooked those for a few minutes. Then I added a half pound cleaned and halved brussels sprouts and cooked them until they started to brown. I added a couple tablespoons of water, covered the skillet and let the sprouts cook until tender, about 5 minutes. I added some salt and pepper to taste, and then stirred in 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar.

For me, Thanksgiving wouldn’t be complete without pumpkin pie. It truly is the king of fall. I’ve been making a recipe out of the Art of Eating Well cookbook for a long time now. One, the crust is easy, and two, it is fairly low in sugar. And, absolutely, positively one must have homemade whipped cream on top!

It was a lovely day with delicious food.