Thanksgiving Dinner…

By jen

Ok, I took some pics and they will follow.  Shitty phone quality but still you can see the outcome.  Everyone had a great time and everything was DELICIOUS.  I will include a few recipes because they are meant to be shared with the mankind after how amazing they were last night.

First:  The Turkey That Made Angels Weep at its Glory…

This is what happens when you brine a turkey for over 12 hours then roast it…

I have never brined a turkey but I swore yesterday I will never make a turkey any other way.

Brine:  1.5 gallons water, 1 cup kosher salt, 1 quart apple juice, 3 oranges and four lemons cut and squeezed into the liquid, one cup brown sugar, black pepper corns, four sprigs rosemary, four sprigs thyme.  Put it all in a garbage bag and the bag in the roasting pan then plopped in my 20 pound bird breast down and tied it up.  Left it in the fridge overnight.

Baking:  Pulled it out of the brine in the morning and it was plumped up.  Dried off and stuffed the cavity with an onion, an orange, and two lemons then trussed the bird up tight so it was a nice consistent shape for even baking.  Shoved it in a baking bag on top of four stalks celery, four carrots, a quartered onion,  two sprigs of rosemary and thyme.  I didn’t chop or skin anything other than the onion.  I just wanted the veggies for the gravy which I will talk about later.

Baked the bird for exactly three hours and it was 180 degrees everywhere it was suppose to be.  Removed it from the bag, wrapped it in foil and put it aside for later.

The gravy was excellent and I admit I got the idea from Tyler Florence on Food TV.  I dumped the contents of the bag into the roasting pan and tossed in a couple of smoked turkey wings I bought at HEB and let it roast like that in another 30 minutes.  I put the pan on the top of the stove over high heat, took out the turkey wings and added a slurry of flour to the veggies and drippings.  Cooked it until thick and added some stock to make it go further.  Strained it and had a glorious gravy that literally I could drink out of a mug.

We also had Cornbread stuffing.  I have never made cornbread stuffing so this was a first and it was delish.

Sausage, grannie smith apples, and leeks were the magic in this recipe.  Mmmm good.

Now the much anticipated and lauded star of the meal was Jennifer’s Death by Mac & Cheese…

That is what we start with. The recipe is as follows:

• 2 pound bags of large elbow mac prepared and set aside to cool.  I douse em with cold water then toss a little olive oil to make sure they do not stick while I do the rest.


• Shred one pound blocks of the following cheeses:  Sharp cheddar, Monterrey Jack, Guyere, Jarlsberg, Swiss, Mild Cheddar.


• One 8oz bag of Asiago shredded


• 1/2 large block of velveeta shredded or chopped small.


• 1 cup heavy cream


• 1 cup half-and-half


• 2 cups milk


• 1 stick butter (for roux)


• 1/3 cup flour (for roux)


• 3 eggs

Directions:

Beat eggs and toss into elbow mac in a LARGE bowl.

Spray two large casserole dishes or disposable metal ones.

Melt butter in heavy pot, I use my all-clad dutch oven because I hate splash.

Add flour and whisk until bubbling and barely starts changing color.  Just long enough to cook the flour.

Slowly add milk and cream and half and half whisking to dissolve into roux.

Start adding shredded cheese and stir stir stir….

If it starts getting too thick add a bit more milk and keep stirring.  I usually end up with about another 1/2 cup or so of milk going into the mix.

Add 3/4’s of the cheese to the sauce and make sure the asiago gets into the sauce, the other cheese are more melty.  The sauce should be thick but still liquid.  Add some milk if you are worried it is too thick.  Once you have all this added to the sauce toss the rest of the cold cheese in with the bowl of mac and mix it up.

Pour the hot cheese sauce over the mac fold it until everything is coated… should look like this:

My recipe will give you two like this…

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 uncovered.

If you want you can bake it longer and get a little brown on the top… we prefer it without the brown, though it is good that way.

I will write another entry after I run to Target for Christmas Tree Lights… The Cranberry Sauce was TO DIE FOR as well… soon!