✔ 37. Cook Thanksgiving dinner with minimal help from my mother
Yes, I even busted out our wedding china! |
- Roast chicken. I decided this was more practical (and quicker) than a giant turkey. One of my aunts had given us some homemade rosemary-garlic olive oil for Christmas. I opened the present in the morning and decided it would be perfect for coating our chicken! I then added a few extra herbs. It came out so tender and delicious. I mostly just followed the directions on the chicken's packaging and then basted it occasionally. (My digital meat thermometer is awesome, by the way--it beeps when the meat is the correct temperature!) Of course, we're still eating this bird 4 days later since it was still a lot of meat. Less cooking for me, so I don't mind one bit.
- Stuffing (box mix). I only like the stuff that comes out of the bird, so I froze the leftover dressing for later.
- Buttermilk mashed potatoes. Betty Crocker recipe. I wish I had made more; these are always a fave of mine.
- Rolls from a box mix. Hawaiian sweet rolls, to be exact. They didn't rise as much as they should have, but they were really good. I had found this in my mom's pantry on a trip home (she lets me go "shopping" when I'm in town), and now I want to find another box so I can try again.
This was before they went into the oven, obviously. |
- Steamed broccoli. I needed a green vegetable, what with all the starches running around.
- Gravy. This was my nemesis. I almost forgot about it, too. I have never actually made gravy before (to be honest, I don't generally like it) and was trying to follow Betty Crocker's recipe for Pan Gravy. I usually do very well with Betty, and I would probably jump off a cliff if one of her recipes called for it, but this one just didn't make sense to me. I read and re-read the thing at least 3 times. I figured out we were going for a roux, but I was a bit rushed at this point and my roux never bubbled. I added some liquid and tried to bring that to a boil and then everything separated on me. It went to the table anyway because B was finished carving the bird. The good news was that the gravy tasted amazing (and even I liked it!), but it was definitely nowhere close to the correct consistency. I told B that it was "homestyle" gravy because I've decided you can get away with a lot of flubs if you just give it a pretty label.
- Apple pie. This is only the second time I've made it (see this post for the first). I followed the same recipe (thanks again to Betty) and had the exact same problem with not being able to get the crust off my work surface. Sigh. I cursed at it a bit and then re-rolled it. I decided on a lattice top so I wouldn't have to deal with that issue more than once. I am so glad I decided to make my pie the previous day. We just popped it in the oven for a bit (foil on top) on Christmas night and added some ice cream!
That was basically my "Thanksgiving in training," and if I ever do anything bigger, I better have some extra hands to help!
Good job! We went with Honeybaked Ham Co for our Christmas dinner and just got a small section of ham and turkey. You should be so proud of yourself for doing a full dinner like that!
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