Pew Pew Laser Blog

Thanksgiving II.

This year's Turkey day was as much of a success as last year. The in-laws made for delightful and very helpful company this year. It is always good to have a chance to show off in the kitchen.

Here, for posterity, was our menu:

• Alton Brown's (Brined and) Roasted Turkey: This is our go-to recipe every year, and is reliably delicious. Note that you want the full-sodium stock in this recipe; remember that you're brining the turkey.
• Beard / Brown Rolls: I rewrote the recipe for Parker House Rolls from Beard on Bread to be more specific, and to take advantage of modern conveniences such as instant yeast and stand mixers. These should be prepared the night before serving, and baked in the morning.
• Mushroom Gravy: The husband prepared just the "Gravy" part of this recipe. Last year he made it with vegetable stock instead of turkey stock for the vegetarians. We always forget to add the parsley and mint, so they're optional.
• Sourdough Stuffing: This is a great stuffing, and easily adapted to be vegetarian. This year we added some carrots to fill out the flavor a bit.
• Endive Salad: This salad is very pretty, but the flavors only come together when you cut everything up together. You could probably could go with hearts of Romain instead of the endives.
• Mashed potatoes: We used a simple mashed potato recipe from a book, so no recipe here.
• "The Cock and Jack Apple Pie": This is a mash-up of the husband's devising, and is widely hailed as the best apple pie in the world. He uses Caprial's Apple Pie filling from Caprial's Desserts, Alton Brown's recipe for crust, and Alton's pie construction methods: drain the apples and use a pie bird to prevent a collapsing crust.
• Green beans w/ bacon and shallots: I'm a little unsure of the ingredients, and don't have the recipe, because our guests brought this dish.
• Fresh Cranberry Relish: This will make a huge amount of relish, but we quickly use it all up. It works well inside dinner rolls or scones, for instance.

I was very pleased that I managed to make rolls this year. I did forget the salt, but I rewrote the recipe to (hopefully) avoid that next time. Also, the chicken stock that I made a couple of months ago was used as an ingredient in many of our Thanksgiving dishes, so that's another feather in my cap. The husband should be very proud of all he made. In fact, now that I think about it, it's time for some left-over apple pie.

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