This blog has been massively neglected lately and I actually started this post shortly after Thanksgiving…but it required more attention so I just let it go. Terrible I know!! We were building out part of our farm and everything else just fell through the cracks…but we’re still here and looking forward to overloading ourselves with gardening stuff very soon lol.

This year, we hosted our first successful Thanksgiving feast at our home. We’ve lived in Germany for 6 years now and never organized our own Thanksgiving dinner with friends or family, for various reasons. The first few years we really couldn’t have managed it in our apartment where we didn’t even have a dining table…and we lucked into having friends that invited us to their dinners the last few years. But this year we didn’t just want to let the holiday pass, especially since we have an awesome party kitchen/dining room. So I stepped up to the plate and tried to pull of a Turkey Day dinner that would make my Mom proud. And according to my husband, she would have been. 🙂

Something that should never be overlooked when planning a Thanksgiving feast (or any other large sit-down dinner) is the preparation. I scoured the internet for recipes and begged my mom to send me some of her own specialties. There’s a few basics which we always have and I could make blindfolded (like sweet carrots or corn with Philly cream cheese)…but I’ve never made a turkey or gravy before so I was pretty concerned. Thankfully I had a few helpers in my kitchen too, especially before the meal hit the table, which is always important.

We ordered a fresh turkey from a local butcher and went to pick it up Friday morning. It weighed just over 7 kilos (15.4 pounds) – talk about a huge bird! I was actually a bit scared my roasting pan might not work but thankfully the bird fit in there like the pan was made for it. After we’d bought most of the fresh stuff at the local farmer’s market, we headed to Metro (like Sam’s Club) and bought a whole bunch of other stuff. When we finally got home, I brined the turkey in our cooler – a completely new experience for me.

I can’t remember my mom ever doing this when I was growing up but the turkey turned out incredible. The meat literally just fell off the bone. We brined the bird for about 24 hours but some suggest up to 48 hours. The recipe we used was from AllRecipes.com, called Out of this World Turkey Brine. I’m going to post it here at the risk of getting in trouble…but I just don’t want to risk it disappearing before next Thanksgiving! I’ve also modified it a bit to our specifications.

INGREDIENTS

• 2 gallons water
• 1 1/2 cups canning salt
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1/3 cup brown sugar

DIRECTIONS

1. In a cooler, mix together the water, salt, garlic, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. Ice it down (or plug in the cooler if you’re using an electric one like we did) and soak turkey for 2 days before smoking or roasting.

After the turkey was tucked away in the brine, I got busy with the pumpkin pies and cheesecakes. I had 3 cans of Libby’s canned pumpkin so that was the magic number of pumpkin pies I made…but I figured some people may not be into it so I decided to make two cheesecakes as well – one New York style (which turned out awesome) and the other was supposed to be with raspberry topping but we left it off in the end.

Did I mention we were feeding 8 adults and two kids? 🙂 Buy hey, I’m from the South where the Thanksgiving table must be overflowing with food…and it was!

In addition to the desserts and turkey, we also had:

• Bread dressing/stuffing (My mom always makes it outside the turkey in a casserole dish. It gets nice and crunchy on top which I love. The recipe is as follows: Cut up several loaves of white Italian bread into cubes. You can also use cornbread or a bit of both if you like.

  Brown one chopped onion, one bell pepper and 2 stalks celery in 4 Tbls butter. Add 1-1/2 to 2 cups broth from giblets and/or pan drippings or 14 oz can of broth. Add bay leaf, 1/4 tsp sage, 1/4 tsp thyme or whatever you like. Add one chopped apple.

  Add one pan of broken up cornbread or 2 loaves white bread cubes. Blend until liquid is absorbed. Add more bread if it seems a little mushy or more broth if it seems a little too dry. Place in buttered casserole dish. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes until crusty.)

• Current relish (made as you would cranberry relish but with red currents from our garden)
• Sweet carrots (Just slice carrots and boil until tender. Drain then toss in butter and add a bit of sugar. Yummy for big & little kids lol)
• Corn with Philly (You need a 2 pound sack of frozen corn, a few tablespoons of butter and a package of Philadelphia cream cheese. Melt everything in a pot until everything is hot and dig in. You have no idea how quickly this huge bowl emptied out!)
• Sweet potatoes (I prepare these in the microwave, a trick I learned from my mom. Wash them, wrap individually in plastic foil, poke a few holes through the plastic and potato and microwave. One large sweet potato takes 5-10 minutes. Use a towel or pot warmer to squeeze each potato and if they’re soft, they’re done. The same method works on regular potatoes too and can speed up the process before grilling, etc)
• Gravy – Put 1 cup of drippings from turkey into a Dutch oven. Add two cups of broth from turkey giblets. Bring to a boil. In a separate glass, put about 1 cup room temperature water and add 2 Tbls flour. Blend with a fork. Slowly add ½ half mixture to Dutch oven mixture, stirring with a whisk constantly until thickened. Add more of flour mixture if it does not thicken. Season to taste (salt, pepper, etc.) You can add the pieces of turkey neck cut into small pieces or diced boiled eggs.
• Fresh sweet rolls

Thankfully not everything was eaten and we had enough leftovers to last us several meals. I really look forward to those warmed up portions of Thanksgiving dinner and usually wish I could have them last longer. We did send a lot of pie and cheesecake home with everyone but kept plenty for ourselves.

And once we’d eaten through all the sides and we were starting to get a bit burnt out on turkey, we made turkey noodle soup. Yum! We froze several portions of it as well and will be eating it well into 2008. Here’s the recipe from my mom:

DON’T THROW OUT ANYTHING FROM THE ROASTING PROCESS!! Use the onions, etc. from body cavity, to season turkey noodle soup. Put the whole leftover carcass (bones) into a large pot. Add the drippings and leftover giblet broth. Boil all the turkey from the bones. Cool and pick out the bones.

Add cut up carrots, celery, peas, potatoes, etc. Cook until tender. Season to taste. Add noodles and you have a totally different meal from your leftovers!!