Turkey week post #2 SIDES

Side Dishes
*All dishes are for a dinner for 12 (I cut a lot of these recipes in half or more).
Roasted Brussels Sprouts with apple (R)
Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes (R)
Candied Carrots (R)
Apple Sausage, Cranberry, and Pecan Stuffing (R)
Pomegranate & Apple Salad with homemade dressing
Cranberry Horseradish Sauce (WS)

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Apple (Click here for Relish website, original recipe)
Day before: Trim and cut in half, store in a Ziploc bag
4 slices of bacon cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 lbs Brussels sprouts, ends trimmed and halved
1/2 white onion, chopped
2 apples, cored and cut into 1/4 inch slices, each slice halved crosswise

Preheat oven to 425 degrees
1. Arrange bacon in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake bacon until browned, 10 minutes. Drain off all but two tablespoons bacon grease. Add Brussels sprouts and onions in a single layer tossing with the bacon; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast until they begin to brown, about 15 minutes.
2. Remove from oven, and toss in apple. Return to oven; roast until Brussels sprouts are browned and tender and apple has softened, 10 to 15 minutes. (** The apple is key in this recipe, I thought it was delicious!)

Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes (Click here for Relish website, original recipe)
In the morning peel and cut potatoes and keep in their pot, in water on the stove until you are ready to cook them about 30 min. prior to eating.
4 1/2 lbs new potatoes peeled and cut into 1 in chunks
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 cup buttermilk
6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
Snipped Chives for garnish, optional

1. Place potatoes in a large pan; add enough cold water to cover by 2 inches. Bring to a boil; add 1 tbsp salt, and cook until potatoes are very tender when pierced with the tip of a paring knife, 20 to 25 minutes.
2. Drain; place back into the pot mash with a potato masher, then add buttermilk and butter. Season with salt and pepper. Mash until smooth and combined. As you are getting everything on the table transfer to serving bowl, and tent with tin foil to keep the heat. If desired, garnish with snipped chives.

Candied Carrots
Possible prep before peel and cut and store in a Ziploc.
5-6 carrots, peeled and cut at a diagonal 1/2 inch sections
salt and pepper
1 tbsp apricot preserves
1 tsp butter

1. Put carrots with salt and pepper into an oven roasting pan, top with tin foil and bake for 30 min.
2. Right before serving put in preserves and butter, toss until fully covered and serve (keeping it in a nice oven roasted pan will also retain heat!)

Apple Sausage, Cranberry and Pecan Stuffing (adapted from an original Relish Recipe)
1 day ahead make stuff and put into an over proof pan, and store with Saran wrap on the top in the fridge till the next day.
1 storemade stuffing mix bag
2 cups chopped pecans
1 1/2 cups of "Craisins"
1 cup cranberry juice
2 leeks, chopped and cleaned
3 celery ribs, chopped
6 tbsp butter
3 links chicken apple sausage
1/2 cup Italian parsley leaves, chopped
3 1/2 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
1. In a small bowl combine craisins and cranberry juice, let sit for 15 min to plump up and then drain the juice.
2. Halve leeks, chop and then rinse in a colander under water. Chop celery, and in a large skillet cook leeks and celery in butter until tender, salt and pepper to taste.
3. Remove casing from sausage and break/cut sausage add to leaks and celery till it is cooked through.
4. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry stuffing mix (I used the store brand "bag" stuffing mix, I used 3/4 of the bag and half of the seasoning packet that came with it). Add pecans, sausage and leek mixture, drained craisins, parsley, and broth. Mix well, and put in your oven ready pan with Saran wrap. Store in the fridge for the next day. But bring to room temperature before cooking.
TO BAKE
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, cover with foil and bake it for 35-40 minutes. If you like it crispy on top, uncover halfway through baking.

Pomegranate & Apple Salad
1 bag of salad mix (Mediterranean Mix)
1/2 pomegranate seeds
1/2 apple
homemade dressing (to desired "wetness")
1. Toss all ingredients in a bowl and serve.
Homemade dressing:
1/4 veggie oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
pinch of garlic powder
1/4 sugar
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1. put all ingredients into a recycled glass bottle, tighten lid and shake vigorously to mix all.

Cranberry Horseradish Sauce
Make 1 day in advance and put in serving dish with Saran wrap in the fridge until serving.
2 cups fresh cranberries
1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup prepared horseradish
1. In a food processor chop finely, put them in a small saucepan with the sugar. Heat over medium heat, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is fully blended. About 5 minutes. Set aside to cool, stir in horseradish.
2. Put in serving dish and set in fridge till dinner is ready. *The natural pectin will come out in the fruit and make it the perfect jelly-like consistancy.

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.