So what's on everyone's menu for Thursday? We're doing the Alton brown turkey but with a more savory brine, stuffing, red skin mash, green beans, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Making everything but the pie from scratch.
I'll just cut and paste my post from the Bumper Boards:
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This is what we have planned:
Maple-roasted turkey with sage, bacon, and cornbread stuffing
Mixed-mushroom and tarragon gravy (part of the beauty of this, aside from the fact that we love mushrooms, is that it can be made the day before)
Smashed sweet potatoes with five-spice marshmallows (the smell of the five-spice powder when we took this out of the oven last time we hosted almost made my father and brother slobber all over themselves drooling)
Scalloped corn dressing (recipe from December 2012 issue of Cuisine at Home magazine; if you'd like the recipe, let me know and I'll transcribe it)—this is the first year we are doing this one. Saw the recipe and it sounded good, so we tried it out two weeks ago with a roast chicken and it was really good. Depending on how everyone likes it next Thursday, I might just consider skipping stuffing in the future. We liked it that much two weeks ago. In the past I've often found that dressing can be dry compared to stuffing, but for some reason this wasn't. (It also fits quite nicely in our toaster oven even though it makes a huge amount of dressing.)
Cranberry sauce: Take a saucepan and combine a 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries, 3/4 cup of orange juice, 2/3 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup white sugar, and 2 ounces of rum. Cook on medium-high for 15–20 minutes or until most of the liquid has reduced, stirring occasionally. You should hear the cranberries popping while it's on the stove. This can be made a few days ahead and reheated. My mom always thought it was hard to make cranberry sauce, but when she tried this and I showed her the recipe she said she'd never get that disgusting floppy tube of stuff in the can ever again.
My mom is going to make some green beans and carrots. I asked her for the recipe but she said there is none—my father's mother showed her how to make it and apparently you just adjust it until it tastes right.
Wine: Fox Meadow Syrah (from Linden, Virginia)
Dessert: Pecan pie using the recipe pasted below that one of our nephews sent us. We were at his house for Christmas dinner last year and this was the dessert. It's really outstanding, but take note of the high sugar content if that is an issue. Last time we hosted Thanksgiving I made a cheesecake and it was simply too heavy on top of everything else.
The pie will be served with bourbon–brown sugar ice cream. Seriously, I saw this recipe in Bon Appétit's October 2012 issue and I immediately liked the sound of it. Tried it last month with Virginia Gentleman and it was outstanding, really rich ice cream (it damn well better be with six egg yolks in it). This time I may use a better bourbon simply because I feel like I have to have something better on hand to serve prior to dinner. I'd love to make a double batch of the ice cream, but I won't because I simply can't justify using up twelve egg yolks like that.
Told my father to bring the after-dinner drinks to cut through the very rich dessert.
Pecan pie recipe follows. He copied-and-pasted this from an Internet forum (and I'm copying-and-pasting from the saved copy of what he sent) and some of the goofy comments and questionable grammar are from the original post.
Top of the Hill ‘Pecan Pie Perfection’
1/2 c. butter
1 c. sugar
1 c. white corn syrup (Karo)
4 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. pecans, chopped
1 egg white, beaten (for brushing pie crust)
Pecan halves for decoration, optional
1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust
Preheat oven to 325°F.
Brush pie crust with beaten egg white and bake 5 minutes to seal crust and remove from oven and set aside.
Measure 1 cup pecans, then chop them. Set aside.
In a saucepan, combine butter, sugar, and corn syrup. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. This is how my grandmother had it written, but she never stirred it. And if she ever stuck a stirring utensil in that pot, it was only a wooden spoon. Now cool your pie. Don’t put it in the fridge. Cool at room temperature. It doesn’t need to cool too quickly!
Add eggs, vanilla extract, and salt; blend well. (For those moving into the modern age, grand-mother add that you could the do this with a mixer or a whisk, but don’t you dare, she never did.) After the eggs are added, mix vigorously with a wooden spoon only. It is the holidays, everyone needs the exercise anyway, right? LOL !!
Add chopped pecans and pour filling mixture into pie crust.
If you are using pecan halves for decoration, now is the time to lay the pecan halves in circles on top of filling.
***You may opt to omit the chopped pecans and only use a layer of pecans on top. All personal taste here. But I use both.
Bake for 50 to 55 minutes. Do not overbake!
I made the cornbread and the French bread for the stuffing and dressing yesterday. We'll make the ice cream tonight. I'd make the cranberry sauce and mash the sweet potatoes too but first I want to see how much space the turkey takes up in the refrigerator and I'm picking that up tomorrow from the butcher. So I guess I'll make those things tomorrow. Ms1995hoo will make the pie tomorrow night.