Thanksgiving!!

Happy Turkey Day!!

Last weekend, we had a weekend of firsts in the Norton household.

1. We had our first party in our apartment with all of our new wedding-gifted serving stuff.

2. I cooked my first turkey.

3. We started a fire in the oven.

So overall, a very successful Saturday. My dad came over in the morning to help prep the turkey and make the stuffing.

Stuffing:

We used a stuffing mix with already seasoned bread crumbs. But we added sauteed mushrooms, onions and celery, along with lots of butter and some water. The Norton family really likes stuffing, so we made more than what would fit in the bird, so there was extra that we heated up at meal time.

Turkey:

This was a big bird...22 lbs! Once it was cleaned, stuffed, and sealed up it was rubbed with some olive oil and put in the oven. Total cook time was about 6 hours, with basting every 20-25 minutes and a foil shield over it after 2 hours.

So we took it out of the oven, and then began cooking/warming the other dishes for the party. These dishes included mac'n cheese, Tay's twice baked sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and pinneapple casserole, some biscuits, cranberry chutney and some other wonderful creations. We also had some brownies, pumpkin pie, sangria, and hot apple cider.

It was during the baking of biscuits that a party attendee said to me "there's smoke coming out of the oven!" And sure enough, some drippings from the turkey had caught fire and were now smoking up the kitchen/small apartment. I may have freaked out a tiny bit. But it burned itself out before too long, and Tay fanned around the now beeping smoke detector.

Everything turned out ok, we had a laugh, and all the dishes except for that batch of biscuits were delicious.

We had a blast.

But, as with any Thanksgiving, there are leftovers. Today I got home early from work and wanted a leftover something. Unfortunately, I can't claim this as my own idea, but I made a Thanksgiving sandwich. Bountiful Bread was a Panera-like restaurant in Westport Village when it first opened. Sadly, it closed. But my favorite thing there was a panini with turkey breast, stuffing, cranberry mayo and cheese melted on top. So that's what I made, but with chutney instead of mayo. IT WAS SO GOOD! Washed down with some apple cider, it was a perfect turkey day revisited experience.