gobble, gobble

this year for thanksgiving, i really, really wanted to cook my own turkey. i had never done it before, so i convinced manzo to play along with me. we decided to have turkey day at the 402, just the two of us. then, i found out that our friends katie m., and eric were going to be in the area, and we had them join us. above you can see the table right before we got ready to dig in. i didn't have time for any cute table decor, but i also don't think there would have been any room! jammed-packed i tell ya! i think if you click on the pick, you'll be able to actually read the captions. i labelled what everyone contributed. katie m brought a yummy broccoli salad (which she didn't eat, sad) and mac 'n' cheese; eric brought green bean casserole and some seasonal brews (not pictured...); manzo made some mean mashed taters and a very buttery corn pudding. and below, i highlighted what i contributed... :)

spicy deviled eggs! no real recipe, lost of dijon mustard and some tobasco though (and minced celery and onions!)

here's the gravy. can't really claim it. the bird came with a packet of stuff to make it with. i did cook it and mix in some cream...

i love cranberries. and the sauce was super easy. boil water, sugar, orange zest, and a splash of rum until the cranberries start poppin'. cool and serve :)

brown sugar carrots. just steam them for a bit and then saute them in butter and brown sugar. my mom used to do this all the time when i was a kid. probably needed to let them caramelize a bit more though...

and THE BIRD.

i was so impressed with my turkey skillz (that i didn't even know i had). i followed alton brown's instructions. and while i even went out and bought a probe meat thermometer, it didn't really matter. the thing never went off. it was only a 5-7lb turkey breast, and i roasted it for a total of 3-3.5 hours. somehow, it came out juicy and was totally infused with the herby flavors of the aromatics we stuffed inside of it. and the turkey sandwiches the next couple of days were amazing. (note, i didn't have a good carving knife and no one at dinner ever carved a turkey before... so we winged it. haha, get it?)

oh, we can' forget about dessert! i made two cheesecakes. cranberry on top and pumpkin below.

for the cheesecakes, i used martha's basic cheesecake recipe and then tinkered with it. first, i bought two pre-made crusts (sacrilege, i know, but did you see how many things i made???), one honey graham and one shortbread. i then split the filling of the basic recipe and added a 1/2 a can of pumpkin puree to it and a healthy dose of pumpkin pie spice. then i poured it on top of the graham crust. for the cranberry, i poured the remainder of the filling in and dropped spoonfuls of cranberry sauce on the top. i then swirled the sauce and filling to make a festive pattern. delicious.