It’s been a crazy Thanksgiving weekend (along with a very busy week before that due to the shOws (article going live Wednesday)), so I thought I’d share some pictures from and thoughts about our Thanksgiving meal! This year, rather than just my parents, my husband and myself, my in-laws also joined us from Ottawa. So yes, it was a dinner for six. I had ordered a smallish turkey from Whole Foods the week before, only to get a call from them, telling me that the tiniest size ranged between 13 and 16 lb. That was a bit too big for six people, so before I cancelled, I rushed out to a local supermarket and found something closer to the 10-11 lb mark. There’d still be leftovers, but not something that will last an entire week.
The turkey and the mash
Turkey: Rubbed it with a mixture of chicken stock, parsley, sage, thyme, basil, oregano, garlic and black pepper and stuffed with quinoa and sun dried tomatoes, which I made the previous night (it was a bit less work than the quinoa stuffing from two years ago). Everyone seemed to like it as there wasn’t much left by the end of the meal!
Quinoa stuffing, some gravy, and the carrots and mushroom with curry sauce (also seen: beet salad with goat cheese and greens)
Sides: We made lots! Instead of traditional mashed potatoes, my husband made Harvest Vegetable Mash (FULL DISCLOSURE: my husband works there and this is NOT a sponsored post), a mix of sweet potatoes, regular potatoes and butternut squash. It was his first time making it, and though he did a good job and it was delicious, I think it could have been a little fluffier side. Other sides included a beet and goat cheese salad with arugula (beet salad can be messy to make. I made it last year, swore that I’d buy pre-cut beets from the prepared foods section of the supermarket, but ended up buying fresh again) and roasted asparagus, onions and cherry tomatoes with mozzarella. I also made a carrot and mushroom dish with curry sauce (using some of the turkey gravy).
The asparagus, tomatoes and mushrooms with a bit of mozzarella
Gravy and cranberry sauce: I have to admit that I kind of messed up the gravy. I did not have any flour or cornstarch in the kitchen, so it was a little bit on the watery side. Made with Campbell’s cream stock, I also added mushrooms, curry powder, tumeric and cumin. The cranberry sauce also had a bit of a twist as I replaced regular sugar with maple sugar (and halved the amount of sugar the recipe called for). I probably made a little too much (used the entire package), though.
A serving of the baked apples with all three ice cream flavours
Dessert: Baked apples with ice cream (from Belly Ice Cream, a brand and ice cream shop from the Muskoka area. More on them another time.)! I bought three different flavours, including standard vanilla, basil gelato with a hint of lemon (an interesting, tangy, yet sweet taste. Definitely worth a try) and Saigon cinnamon with spiced maple walnuts.
Bread: Last Thanksgiving, the spelt buns I made were a sticky disaster, so I decided to buy bread instead. Rather than the typical plain baguette (which we typically serve when we have company for dinner), I decided to buy something a bit different. My husband and I picked up a loaf of poppy seed baguette after our brunch, but since the other selection wasn’t really what we wanted, I ended up going to three other stores before settling on cheese bread. There was no pumpkin bread (what I had wanted originally) left at any store. Both breads seemed to be popular, especially with the roasted red pepper hummus (we also had extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar dip).
So would I create a whole meal like this again? I don’t know. Every Thanksgiving, I say that I will order some of the dishes, but I usually make everything except for bread and maybe dessert. However, I will always make the turkey and quinoa stuffing. I don’t like traditional bread stuffing! I didn’t even have it until I was in my teens as my family always stuffed the turkey with Chinese style sticky rice!
