Friday, November 19

Menu Shift

  • Smoked Turkey
  • [New] Spiced Cranberries (ala Russ Parsons)
  • Mom's Potato Salad
  • Green Bean Casserole (loosely based on Cook's Illustrated's lighter recipe and a nod to the American Classics recipe)
  • Stuffed Squash (ala Dorie Greenspan's Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good or here on Evan Kleiman's Sidedish podcast. This is similar to Ruth Reichl's stuffed pumpkin in Gourmet Today, which I made (and ate completely) last fall.) This will shift to Friday with leftovers, I think.
  • [New] Smitten Kitchen's Roasted Sweet Potatoes Topped with Thanksgiving Flavors
  • Homemade Crescent Rolls 
  • Pumkin Pie
  • Cranberry Upside Down Cake (Smitten Kitchen)
  • John Sedlar's Pumpkin Infused Mezcal

Thursday, November 18

The Turkey Has Landed

I'd like to say that the turkey flew in from Tyler, Texas but actually it arrived by UPS Ground. The box smelled good and it didn't take much encouragement from the folks at MTO for me to open it up.
Inside was a lightly insulated brown paper bag, inside that was a heavy plastic bag, inside that was a dark (almost black) turkey.  Nine pounds cooked weight. (I weighed it when I got home).  Greenbergs says it will serve 18 to 27.  I'm thinking that is the snack-size portion. But still it should feed our Thanksgiving Party of five with some leftovers and a smoky carcass.  Come back later for photos.

I was able to fit the bird sans box in my refrigerator.  Now every time I open the door a waft of smoky goodness hits me in the face.

Monday, November 15

A New Kind of Thanksgiving

A couple of weeks before the Thanksgiving, a story in the NY Times Dining section sparked an idea and a few days later, I ordered a nine pound smoked turkey from Greenberg Smoked Turkeys of Tyler, Texas. (Go on and click that link - if only for the sound effects.)
Because this is such an unusual Thanksgiving idea for our family, I decided to blog the experience.

Here is the menu I came up with (it's something like a Thanksgiving Picnic with sidedishes that can be made or prepped in advance):