Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving Day Replay

How did your Thanksgiving turn out?!

Mine was amazing—the best holiday in a long time for no specific reason, I just really needed some family time! And I put together the whole turkey day meal which was a first. It was a lot of work, but obviously I loved it, or I wouldn’t have volunteered :-) I really feel like the route I want to go career wise is to be a personal chef. I can’t see myself working in a giant restaurant establishment, but I can see myself cooking away 24/7 in someone’s kitchen for their family.  Anyone have any information on becoming/training for a personal chef?

We held Thanksgiving out at my grandparents house with our family. I am so thankful that I have a family even though it’s small. Do you have a big family that get together for holidays?

Like I promised, here’s the pictures and recipes from my Thanksgiving day. I have plenty of leftovers—so stay tuned for a leftover recipe makeover tomorrow!

Wednesday was the day of prep!

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Like I said before, I decided on this turkey recipe to make. The cranberry relish had to be made and slathered on the turkey a night in advance to marinate. This turkey turned out divine—moist, tender, slightly sweet with a hearty aftertaste. I would make it again in a heartbeat. I also added a lot of rosemary to pump it up as well.

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(Grandpa carving the turkey) 

My mom made her stuffing in advance as well. This is her “famous” recipe, so I had to pry a bit to get her to share—thanks mom! Please try it, you’ll love it =)

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Mom’s Stunning Sausage Stuffing

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb wild rice
  • 1 lb maple flavored sausage
  • 5 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 1 large granny smith, chopped
  • 1 c apple juice
  • 1/2 c orange juice
  • 1 8 oz can mushrooms
  • 8 oz applesauce
  • 14.5 oz can of chicken broth
  • 2 tsp garlic

Directions:

  • Preheat oven to 325 F.
  • Cook wild rice according to package instructions.
  • Meanwhile in another deep skillet add sausage to a pan—crumble and cook until browned. Add all chopped ingredients, garlic, juices, and applesauce to the pan and simmer for 10 minutes.
  • Get a large roasting pan and pour both pans into one, stirring until thoroughly combined.
  • Put in preheated oven for 1 hour covered with foil.

Come Thanksgiving morning, I whipped together these Cheesy Good Cornbread Muffins—wowza were they great! Very moist, flavorful, and overall a definite keeper. Making them in muffin cups was a lot easier for cleanup as well.

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Of course some kind of squash needs to appear at any shindig I am hosting. I chose to make this I Can’t Believe It’s Not Sweet Potato Pie, which I ended up added an extra cup of sweet potato puree instead of just the butternut squash. I also added a dusting of brown sugar to the top to give it a finishing crust.

Amazing & barely any leftovers in sight!

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My grandpa also made a bread-based stuffing which was amazing, and we had mashed potatoes, garlic bread and tossed salads as well. This was only my first plate ha ha:

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And where’s the pie you ask? Member I told you I decided to make this stunning cake instead—well it stole the show and the pie was not missed!

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I hope you all enjoyed your day and  had fun looking at mine. From my family to yours—happy holidays!

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10 comments:

Sook said...

Looks like you all had a great Thanksgiving! Everything looks so yummy!

Kerstin said...

What an awesome spread, you did an incredible job! Happy Thanksgiving!

Kelly said...

If you think that's something you might be interested in, I would see if there is a cooking school near you that would be willing to let you speak with an alum who has gone down that career path. At one point I thought I wanted to go into the food industry so I made a point of visiting my local cooking school, sitting in, and asking a lot of questions of the alumni. In the end I decided it wasn't for me, but it was great to do the exploration and figure it out for sure. I would definitely love to pursue something related to food in the future so I'm always on a constant path to figure out what that is.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Happy belated Thanksgiving!! :)

Krista said...

Sounds like a good time was had by all! Your Mom's recipe sounds pretty tasty. I'll have to remember that for Christmas dinner....

Erica said...

SO fun! I can totally see you doing the personal chef thing. Especially helping like celebs/sports stars eat well but HEALTHY! The Thanksgiving looks so fabulous. Especially the cake (YUM!). I'm glad you've been enjoying the family time. Going MIA is necessary sometimes. I haven't posted since Tuesday but I needed the time away. I'm still reading :) And I'm going to meet Heather Eats Almond Butter in 20 minutes. I'm so excited!!

Stacey said...

Looks like you had an awesome Thanksgiving!

Jenny said...

you have such a special talent in the kitchen, darling! You can definitely be my own personal chef any day :) I think that would be an amazing career for you! imagine? getting paid to just cook all day! oh, every bloggers dream! I know you can get there :)

Gorgeous food fare, lovie!

The Purple Carrot said...

So glad you had such a great holiday!! And all the food looks amazing! :) Can I PLEASE have some of that cake?? It is making my mouth water like crazy! haha

Meghan said...

Looks like you had a great Thanksgiving!!! I am so impressed that you did the whole dinner - that would make me so nervous! Congrats on starting to narrow down your career path. I'm sure being a personal chef is very rewarding and gives you creative freedom!