We had wonderful Thanksgiving dinners at my sis's home and at DH's sis's home. Great food and company and a lot of fun!! DS really enjoyed himself as well.
I would like to mention a few of my favorite foods from this year's feasts. If any of you would like recipes, just let me know.
1) Charcoal Turkey - Actually, I would have called it "Blackened" Turkey but there were no cajun spices. My sister has used the same recipe to cook her bird every year for many years now. It is a recipe that she got from her MIL and I think I have even made the Turkey by this recipe once or twice. NOW DON'T BE ALARMED, NOBODY HAS GOTTEN FOOD POISONING FROM THIS RECIPE...You do have to have the proper roasting pan though.
She uses her Magnalite HEAVY Stainless Steel roasting pan. The turkey is stuffed with onions, celery and apple. I can't remember the other ingredients such as liquids, seasonings and so on. Anywhooo, right before you go to bed, crank your oven up as high as it will go. (BTW, The roasting pan you use HAS to have a tight fitting lid.) After you put the turkey in the oven, I think you let it cook at the high temp for 30 min. to 1 hr. or something and then simply cut your oven off. The turkey will be done and very moist & juicy when you wake up the next morning. It will still be at a hot enough temp so that there is no danger of food poisoning.
ANYWHOO, something went wrong big time this year because dear sis woke up to a big ol' Black bird!!! The pan was sitting on her patio table outside when we got there!! LOL!!!! Her DH had to go to Kroger and purchased a ready cooked turkey. Thank goodness they did still have one (THis is happening on Thanksgiving Day mind you)!! This must be a common thing for Kroger to just "happen" to have a precooked bird ready & waiting!!!! LOL!!!!
2) Gobblet or Gobbler Gravy - We have a new name for Giblet gravy. It will from hence forth be known as either Gobblet or Gobbler Gravy. My nephew is married to a really pretty gal but she will never be accused of having too many smarts. She also doesn't cook much (if at all) and actually I don't think she does much at all; I think she believes that her sole purpose for being is to sit there and look pretty...which she does.
Anywhoo, we all sit down to eat and....You know, it is funny how folks who don't every lift a hand or fingernail to prepair anything can be so picky about food that is just being served to them. Well, she was picking a little spoon of this & that and asking what was in this dish and turning up her nose and so on and then she stopped still at the giblet gravy. She said, "Oh is this that Gobblet or Gobbler Gravy?"........Well, after everyone composed themselves, my nephew explained to her that it was Giblet Gravy called thus because it was made from the Giblets of the turkey and on and on...Why is it that for some folks, an explaination only leads to more confusion? LOL!!!
She wasn't too happy about everyone getting tickled at what she had called the gravy BUT she sure did look pretty.
3) Sweet potato casserole with Crunchy Charred Marshmallow Topping - One of the items I fixed to carry to SIL's home today was a sweet potato casserole. I got the recipe a few years ago off the show "Calling ALL Cooks" on FoodTV. I really love it and so does everyone else. (DS ate 2 big servings of it!!)
The recipe doesn't have a "topping" for the casserole though. Some years I fix some type of nut topping but this year I decided to do a marshmallow topping since DS loves them. OHHHHH, I had the marshmallows arranged sooooo pretty, turned on the broiler and set my yummy casserole under the elements to brown the top. Well DS decided that he wanted some marshmallows of his own. I keep a box of little sandwich bags in a lower counter for him to use whenever I cut up fruit or give him other snacks. He wanted me to put a few of the marshmallows in a bag for him.
You know how one thing leads to another. Needless to say, when the smoke alarm went off I remembered my pretty casserole....Come to think of it, I should have fixed it to carry to my sister's home Thanksgiving Day since it would have gone perfectly with the Blackened Turkey!!!
I was able to salvage my tater casserole though. I took a spoon & fork and popped the black tops off the marshmallows. Thank goodness I used the big ones. I put the casserole back under to broiler and didn't move from the oven this time. The topless marshmallows stilled browned very nicely and nobody knew any different.......
4)
Not So Easy For Some Premade Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie - I have a niece-in-law on DH's side who is also...ummmmm....shall we say....very pretty. She also never cooks. She purchased a pumpkin cheesecake pie and almost freaked out when she was about to bring it over and finally saw on the box that it had to be put in the oven & baked!! She had to call her sister for help on putting a ready made pie in the oven...............But she still looked pretty.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!
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