November 21, 2021 Brunch - Sausage, Egg, and Chèvre Burrito. Dinner - Roasted Turkey, Mashed regular and sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, Oyster and Pecan dressing, gravy, salad, and cobbler with ice cream

 

Today we made Thanksgiving dinner for seven, Tyler, Willy, Alan, Diane and Jim plus Suzette and me.

Cranberry Sauce 

We started around 8:00.  Suzette fetched 24 oz. of cranberries and added sugar and began cooking them.  I zested two oranges and added the zest and juice of 1/2 of a large orange.

Dressing

We next made the dressing.  I diced two onions, nine oysters, and four or five stalks of celery and a loaf of seeded rye bread.  Suzette then added salt, pepper, toasted pecans, some turkey stock, and 6 eggs.  She then mixed the 

Turkey

Suzette then cleaned the 16 lb. turkey and opened a plastic cooking bag and sprinkled flour into the bag and pre-heated the oven to 325 degrees.  Suzette went to the basement and found short trussing needles and we Filled the stomach and cavities with dressing and trussed them closed.  We then slid the turkey into the bag and put slits in the top of the bag and then put the turkey into the roasting pan and then put the roasting pan into the oven at 10:00 a.m.

After the turkey went into the oven we made brunch. We sautéed sausage and onion slices and added whipped eggs and the last half bottle of chèvre we bought in La Veta, Colorado a couple of months ago. The mixture turned rather creamy and then stiffened.  We toasted flour tortillas on the open flame on the stove and then filled the tortilla with the sausage filling and garnished the burrito with guacamole Crema and Cholula hot sauce.  I drank a cup of camomile tea with lime juice and honey.

We then went outside to clean up the gazebo dining area and then fetched plates, glasses, napkins, and silverware and I rolled a napkin around a knife, fork and spoon and lay them on the dining room table.

At 12:30 I lay down for a nap until 1:30. 

Mashed potatoes

Suzette baked sweet potatoes into the oven around the roasting pan.  She peeled and boiled Yukon Gold potatoes in water.  When they were cooked she creamed each separately in the Kitchen Aid while I was napping.

When I returned to the kitchen the turkey was roasted to perfection.

Gravy

We removed the turkey from the oven and opened one end and Suzette used a tube with a rubber bulb on the end to suck the broth out of the bottom of the bag. Suzette then added flour and salt to the broth and cooked it until it thickened a bit into a light gravy.

While Suzette made the gravy, I carved the turkey, separating the white and dark meat into two separate baking dishes.

Diane and Jim arrived at 2:00 with a large bowl of salad and dressing and a bottle of 2020 French Grenache Blanc from the Pay d’ Oc (Southwestern France) and a bottle of Sauvignon blanc.

We immediately opened the Grenache blanc and we all agreed that ii was a very interesting bottle of wine.  It had more character and assertiveness than many white wines.

We put all the food on the table and soon Willy and Tyler arrived and we served dinner buffet style from the dining room table and carried our plates  and glasses out to the gazebo.

Soon after we had assembled around the table under the gazebo Alan arrived and we began asking him questions about Antarctica were he has worked for the last two years.

It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and it was pleasant eating outdoors

Cobbler

After Suzette made the gravy she turned her attention the the blueberry cobbler.  Suzette could not find her jiffy cobbler recipe so she faked it but did not use enough flour and the cobbler did not achieve a cake like consistency.

We had opened the bottle of Praeger Tawny port that has been sitting in the basement for over 15 years and decanted it into a wine carafe, so when The cobbler was served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, I poured glasses of tawny port. Finally around 4:30 it started getting cooler and we moved back inside.  We talked a while longer and everyone left by 5:30.

Suzette started cleaning up and loading the dish washer.

We made cups of camomile tea and watched two episodes of La Brea a new big budget sci fi thriller and the The season finale of Grandchester, after which I watched Baptiste and blogged.

I work hard to make sure everyone is served their food and wine properly during the meal, so I can not relax until well after the meal.

It was a successful meal and everyone seemed to enjoy the food and company.  As usual Suzette did a super job.

Bon Appetit

G

.

After we finished our main meal we cleared the plates and Suzette served the cobbler with vanilla ice cream and I poured glasses of tawny port.