thanksgiving with the bees

if you are a loyal reader of my blog (bless my friends), you probably read saw my post about the turkey that we make. oh man, this year was full of surprises but in the end it did not disappoint! the turkey was juicy and so flavorful...no need to drench in gravy like you have to with some. my dad was constantly flipping the turkey in the oven to make sure it was getting evenly cooked but i don't think he cooked it long enough...or hot enough...and didn't use a meat thermometer (cause we don't own one and he's hardcore like that) so you've probably figured out what happened. we're all sitting around the table, he starts cutting into it and it's still PINK in some places hahahaha. after butchering it to pieces very quickly, he shoved it back into the oven and then after maybe 20-30 more mins more turkey was ready so we busied ourselves with the sides for the time being.





this year i made a cranberry apple sausage stuffing which was a first. i was a little nervous about it but it was damn good and may have to make an appearance every year. even my mom was impressed so that says a lot! i got the recipe here (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Awesome-Sausage-Apple-and-Cranberry-Stuffing/Detail.aspx). i followed it pretty much to the t but then added more stock to the stuffing that did not make it into the turkey so it wouldn't be too dry. the apple is a very nice touch--thanks for the tip steph :)





then i rocked some mashed potatoes and jazzed things up this year by roasting garlic beforehand. i had to cheat a little because we didn't have actual heads of garlic so i threw a bunch of cloves in a pyrex dish, added olive oil and threw it in the oven for about 50 mins covered with foil while the turkey was going. it worked out quite nicely! the only mistake i made was letting papa bee make the potatoes because i was busy with the gravy. i specifically gave instructions to NOT make the potatoes into mush (but adding too much milk) and low and behold...we had MUSH. booooooo. at least it still tasted good!





then came the gravy! i had never made it before from scratch so i was pretty excited. i got inspiration from the pioneer woman's recipe and i stared at her pictures several times before i got the courage to attempt. i don't know why i was so scared because it was so easy and so good! we took the turkey drippings and strained it because the marinade included green onions, etc. and then i took some of the green onions and put it into a pan and heated it up with some flour to attempt a roux of some sort. shortly after i added in low sodium chicken broth and then after a bit i added in the drippings. i had to add a little more flour and then a little corn starch to help thicken things up but it worked fabulously! we barely had enough for leftovers the next morning :(

drippings! (gravy pic is above with the mashed pots)


then i attempted to throw together an apple pie...haha. let's just say good thing my family is a savory and not a sweet family. we just aren't into pumpkin pie. none of us. i think we always had it cause it was the thing to have...but none of us enjoy it. so we weren't going to make any dessert (don't act all shocked) but then my mom said she wanted an apple pie so i decided to macgyver something up. i would say it was a solid effort...but improvements could def be made. i think it started to go downhill when i told my dad to go buy crust (yes, i was feeling lazy) and he brought back a graham cracker one...haha. then i started slicing up the apples thinly...and realized i forgot to peel them...more vitamins, right? the recipe i was following (paula deen's crunch apple pie) called for apple sauce which my father ALSO forgot to pick up so i decided to throw in two greek yogurts instead. the greek yogurt worked, but i think it was just a little too thick so maybe a mixture of yogurt plus some apple sauce next time would be good...and perhaps a real pie crust. the vanilla ice cream definitely helped. not my finest cooking moment haha.



we didn't make a green bean casserole this year because i was going to make a corn casserole then i got kind of lazy and was worried we had too much food. we also don't do cranberry sauce. my mom made a salad and decided that spring rolls were a necessity so she busted out some quickly. we had to have an asian touch to thanksgiving after all! :)