Turkey Week Post #1

Our plans fell through at the last minute to go away with family due to weather and I found myself scrambling to get a dinner planned for my little family. I have never cooked a big holiday meal on my own, we are always with family either my parents or my in-laws so needless to say I was really excited to try my hand at all the traditional fixings. Even though it was just us, I still went all out, and there were quite a few dishes and I felt like instead of doing a HUGE post that I would do lots of posts over this post-Turkey day week to get them all out there. I will also be able to finally add a review to one of my cookbooks that I have had for years and never been able to use. The Williams-Sonoma Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner Cookbook (since I have never been able to do a meal on my own go figure I have never used this book before!) I followed their recipe for the cranberry horseradish sauce and loosely followed their directions for a whole roasted Turkey breast.

So the full spread; Roasted Turkey breast, Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes, Roasted Brussel Sprouts with bacon, onion and apple, Apple Sausage Stuffing with pecans, Candied Carrots, Gravy from pan drippings and wine, Pomegranate and Apple Mixed Green Salad with a homemade vinaigrette, and rolls. (Which we thought were the worst part of the meal because they didn't fully rise like they were supposed to but they were Molly's favorite, otherwise everything was delicious and totally blew my weight watchers points to hell and back!)

I used some recipes from Relish as well and they have a great feature besides giving you the shopping list and all the recipes they also give you a day by day plan to help alleviate your stress. Two days before I went out a bought a turkey breast, just in case and started it to defrosting in the fridge. Now I just have to say for our family a whole turkey breast was perfect because we don't really like the dark meat, it was the perfect size for us to have enough leftovers of the meat that we all like plus it didn't take too long to cook. Should I ever get a chance at cooking a Thanksgiving dinner again I would like to think that I would do a turkey breast, it just makes sense.

The night before I made the stuffing, and cranberry sauce. I also prepped the Brussel sprouts and kept them in plastic bag in the fridge, I didn't prep the carrots but that would have been a good idea in the future. Then I set the table and got out all my serving dishes. Surprisingly, or not since I have a tiny kitchen, I was able to keep up with the clean up the whole way.


In the morning I peeled and cut the potatoes, and kept them in their pot on the stove in water waiting to go. A couple hours later I prepped the Turkey and carrots, I also took the stuffing out of the fridge to get it to room temperature before putting it in the oven. After all it all came out without a hitch. Even with my one small oven everything came out warm and tasty.