My Thanksgiving Menu

As requested by popular demand from my three loyal Instagram followers, here is my full thanksgiving menu! I started using the Bon Appetit holiday issue as my guide to create this menu over 6 years ago and have built upon it from there.

Thanksgiving and more specifically Friendsgiving is my favorite day of the year, pour my glass of morning wine and stick me in the kitchen and I am in heaven! I tend to keep the menu almost exactly the same every year with minor changes. And this year, given the whole having a baby thing and juggling just the usual work / life balance, I took a few shortcuts.

So here it is:

  1. Turkey (DUH!): I suggest this recipe for prepping and cooking your turkey. But my biggest suggestion is to keep the temperature a bit lower than suggest, BASTE OFTEN and cook longer.

  2. Mashed Potatoes: I feel like everyone has a family recipe for this one. Heavy cream and butter it up on our end! This year I cheated these with store bought.

  3. Stuffing: Now this is my FAVORITE and I have been using the exact same recipe for years

    • 2 bags of this bread

    • 2 cups cooked white rice

    • 1 sleeve crushed saltine crackers

    • 10 small breakfast sausages (pork)

    • 2 cups chopped celery

    • 1 large chopped onion

    • 2 cups of chopped carrot

    • 11 cups divided (or turkey stock) chicken stock

    • 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning

    • 1 teaspoon dried sage leaves

    • 4 beaten eggs

    • 1 teaspoon rosemary

    • 4 tablespoons of butter

    • DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 350 °F. Crumble dried bread into a large bowl. Add cooked white rice and crushed saltines. Sauté pork sausage. Add celery, onion and carrot and sauté for 5 to 10 minutes. Pour over bread and rice mixture. Beat 4 eggs into turkey stock and mix with salt, pepper, rosemary and poultry seasoning. Add 4 tablespoons butter across the top (small slices works well). Pour into greased pan and bake for 45 minutes (or until you can tell it is done).

  4. Brussel Sprouts: Mine are simple pan fried until dark and crispy with bacon bits and shallots. My trick is to boil them first so they are soft, then fry with butter (have I mentioned I like to use a lot of butter)

  5. Green Beans: This year I kept these simple with just a bit of garlic, salt and sprinkled with Trader Joe's fried onions. Similar here.... But trust me, get the TJ's!

  6. Gravy: I also cheated one these this year, but I recommend this recipe from scratch. But again, TJ's came in in the clutch with their boxed Turkey Gravy that was delicious!!

Ok now I want to do it all over again!! Hoping that this provides deliciousness and inspiration for your Thanksgiving table!

Cheers!

E



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