You Say Potato, I Say...Potato

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After a mui busy week thus far, Shaun and I finally finished up the last of our Thanksgiving leftovers last night. I have to say, we were both pretty sad to see them go but it made me happy to know that none of the food we made went to waste! (I have serious issues with keeping leftovers and then said food going bad before being eaten. I hate being wasteful!) So are you sick of Thanksgiving food yet? I hope not. Because today I’m dishing up two more delightful sides. And what is Thanksgiving without carb-o loading on potatoes? For our pre-Thanksgiving dinner with our friends Lindsey and Eric, we made two potato versions. The first were creamy, velvety, mashed Yukon gold potatoes.

The second were mapley sweet 'n savory mashed sweet potatoes. Can you tell that I have a love for all things mashed?

While the mashed potatoes were dense and decadent, the sweet potatoes were light and airy. Though I could have used a crunchy brown sugar topping on the sweet potatoes, I decided to let my sweet tooth subside for the rest of the guests and left these with just a hint of sweetness from the maple syrup and bit of brown sugar. Meanwhile, the mashed potatoes were filled with buttery goodness and made creamy with the addition of heavy cream - an ingredient that I've come to find makes everything just a little bit better. Oh and if the mashed potatoes look familiar, it's because they were also featured over at Haute Apple Pie's Virtual Thanksgiving Potluck earlier this week! Be sure to head on over to check out the whole rundown and the fun dinner that the ladies put together with some other great guest bloggers!

Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes (serves 4-6)
*Adapted from the Sandy Cannon recipe collection
2-3 tbsp salt (or more if needed)
2-3 lbs potatoes, peeled & cubed
1/2 C heavy cream (or more if needed)
4 tbsp butter
pinch black pepper
chives, dried or fresh

Peel the potatoes and cut into cubes. In a large pot, add the potatoes and cover with cold water. Add salt and bring to a boil. Once boiling, lower heat slightly to a light boil and cook for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Remove from the water and place in large mixing bowl. Add butter and heavy cream. With the back of a wooden spoon or a fork, smush (yep, it’s a technical term) the potatoes and lightly mix together. This will prevent splatter all over your beautiful kitchen once you break out the mixer. Add black pepper. With a hand mixer, or in a stand mixer, beat until smooth and creamy. Add more salt or more heavy cream if needed. Garnish with chives.

Luckily for me, Lindsey is not only a potato peeler extraordinaire, but she is also a whiz with the hand mixer! Not only were these potato perfection, but they were easy to boot. A little too easy if you ask me. In fact, Shaun came home from work the next day with another bag of potatoes. Should I take the hint?

And as much as I love the rich, heavy cream laden mashed potatoes, I need a little sweetness in my life. Though I love all sweet potato varieties equally, I just love the hint of sweet that these brought to the table.

Sweet Potato Casserole
*Adapted from Food Network
3 lbs sweet potatoes, washed
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3 tbsp unsalted butter, melted plus more for the preparing the pan
2 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 C chopped pecans

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Prick washed potatoes all over with a fork. Lay on a foil-lined baking sheet (which will make your clean up easy peasy!) and bake for about an hour until the potatoes are very soft. Let them cool and turn the oven down to 350 degrees.
Scoop the sweet potato out of their skins and into a mixing bowl. Mash the potatoes until smooth (Lindsey, the whip-master, used a hand mixer to get ‘er done). Add the eggs, butter, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and syrup. Mix until smooth. Add mixture to a buttered baking dish, top with pecans and bake for 30-40 minutes.

I feel confident that if you like 'em sweet, these would be absolute perfection with a brown sugar crust made from brown sugar, flour, butter and pecans. Or perhaps with a few marshmallows on top? Some coconut perhaps? Just sayin'.

So there you have it. A sweet & savory roundup of the potato dishes from our pre-Thanksgiving celebration! So what do you think? Are you a fan of the mashed potato? Do you prefer a sweet or savory sweet potato dish? And bonus question: Which do you prefer? White potatoes or sweet potatoes?

In case you missed it, check out how we brined a turkey at 3AM and made the perfect turkey sausage stuffing! And for even more Thanksgiving food ideas, check out our Recipes page, under Thanksgiving!

Stuffed

I don’t know about you, but my alarm went off way too soon this morning after a work dinner at Arturo’s last night (side note: it was deeeelicious!).

While mashed potatoes really have my heart for Thanksgiving, I do have a special love for stuffing - and all side dishes for that matter. And for my pre-Thanksgiving Dinner last weekend, it was my favorite dish on the table. Well, that and the gravy (oooooh the gravy). Part of my love for stuffing is that this is really the only time of the year when it’s eaten. It would never occur to me to eat stuffing in the spring or summer. No, only the Thanksgiving season will suffice. Not to mention that everything about stuffing just screams Thanksgiving. The moist yet toasted bread, the bits of celery (and in this case, apples), and the poultry seasoning all come together to make one delightful combination of stuffing yumminess. And don’t even get me started on the fragrance that permeates the kitchen while it’s cooking. Is your mouth watering yet? Mine is.

I changed it up a bit this year. While last year I made a giant batch of Paula Deen’s Country Stuffing, to try out something new and give all of you another stuffing option, I turned to my lady Ina Garten. Since everything she makes is done oh-so-deliciously, I felt confident that with a couple of my own alterations this stuffing would be tops. And it was.

With a base of soft white bread, onions and celery, this recipe also included chopped apples. Though I’m typically always a fan of apples - and any sweet & savory combination for that matter - I was a bit skeptical about this addition since at heart I’m a traditionalist (shocked?). I didn’t ever recal having apples in stuffing, but oh how happy I am that I gave it a try. I also traded traditional sausage for turkey breakfast sausage. The breakfast-style sausage is key here since it gave just the right amount of flavor without being overpoweringly sausagey. Follow me?

 Sausage & Herb Stuffing
*Adapted from Ina Garten
1 ½ loaves white bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 stick unsalted butter
2 onions, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
2 Granny Smith apples, unpeeled, cored and diced
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 lb breakfast sausage, casings removed (I used turkey sausage)
1 ½ C chicken stock

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Meanwhile, cut up the bread into cubes and place on a sheet pan. Cook in oven for 7 minutes until bread just starts to harden. Place in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

Meanwhile, in a skillet over medium heat, melt the butter. Add onions, celery, apple, poultry seasoning, salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes until the veggies are soft and your entire kitchen is flooded with the delightful aroma of Thanksgiving yumminess. Don't be afraid to get right in there and waft that aroma into your face...Shaun and I may have done this multiple times during the process...

Pour over the bread cubes and mix. In the same pan, cook the sausage. Remove the sausage from their casings and saute until browned, breaking up the pieces as it cooks. Add to the bread mixture.

Next, add some chicken broth. While the original recipe only called for a cup, I used about a cup and a half since it seemed to be a bit dry (not to mention that you bake it off in the oven, so I was very weary of not letting it dry out while also not becoming too soggy - use your judgement here!). Place in a baking dish and cook for about 30 minutes. Serve with gravy and be prepared to be smitten with this unbelievably savory and easy stuffing!

Doesn't it look like the ultimate stuffing? Fluffy bread, poultry seasoning, tart apples...mmmm I'm dreaming about this as we speak and hoping that there's still some left for a little dinner appetizer tonight! So what do you think? Are you a stuffing fan? And bonus question: What's your favorite side dish on the big day?

Psst...for more Thanksgiving ideas, check out our Recipes page under the Thanksgiving header!

Talkin' Turkey

What does 3AM, one turkey breast, my cute husband and a cooler filled with beer have in common?

It’s the makings of my early Thanksgiving! I did something bold this past weekend my friends. My bestie Lindsey (of Two Girls, Two Guys, Four Pies) and I made an entire Thanksgiving dinner. And then we ate it with Shaun and her bf Eric. I’m not going to lie to you...it was fantastic. Moist, flavorful turkey breast with mouthwatering pan gravy made this a turkey I'll make again and again. While my favorite part of Thanksgiving is seeing our families, it was nice to enjoy the goods while relaxing at home and savoring every last bite of traditional grub. Oh and having lots of leftovers didn’t hurt either. So this week I’ll be wrapping up our Thanksgiving for four, starting with, what else - the turkey!

So aren’t you wondering where the 3AM and cooler filled with beer come in? After a night o’fun on Friday with Shaun’s brother, his future wife and our friends Nikki and Brandon, I realized that I had yet to brine my turkey for Saturday’s dinner. And as any Alton Brown fan knows, turkey sans brining a delicious Thanksgiving does not make. So towards the end of the party (after lots of pizza dip and Prosecco), Shaun, his brother Steve and I decided it was time to brine my little turkey breast. Using Alton’s famous brining recipe, I halved it since my bird was just over 7 lbs, while the recipe was for a 14-16 lb bird. After I made the brine around midnight, we placed it in the cooler out on the terrace to properly chill before adding the bird.

 

Of course this meant that the guys had to make some additional room in the cooler by polishing off a few Miller Lites in the process. Once cooled - and 3AM rolled around - it took all 3 of us to get the bird and brine set up in garbage bag that we made 3 layers deep. You know, to prevent leakage overnight. In fact, we placed the turkey and brine in a double bagged layer, ensuring that the entire bird was submerged in the brine, then secured the top with duct tape. We then put that into a third bag, once again securing with duct tape. Then, we lowered the wrapped bird into an ice bath in the cooler where it would sit for the next 12 hours.

After its long, juicy bath, the turkey was ready for cooking. We placed the brine bag in a giant mixing bowl and brought it straight to the sink where Shaun cut it all open. I rinsed it with cold water, patted it dry with paper towels and set it up on my roasting pan (a sweet pick up from Bed Bath & Beyond last Thanksgiving for a mere $10!). I then stuffed the turkey breast with apple slices, onions, rosemary, thyme and sage (see below for details).

 

Next, I rubbed some olive oil, thyme, sage, and kosher salt on top of and underneath the skin, which I pulled apart very gently with a paring knife and my own two hands.

 

After letting the oven preheat, my turkey breast was ready for roasting!

 

Here's the full rundown:

Roasted Turkey Breast with Pan Gravy
*Adapted from Alton Brown
1 fresh or frozen young turkey breast (I used a Shady Brook Farms 7 lb bone-in turkey breast)
for the brine:
½ C kosher salt
¼ C brown sugar
½ gallon vegetable stock
½ tbsp black peppercorns
¾ tsp allspice berries
¾ tsp chopped candied ginger
½ gallon iced water
for roasting the turkey:
1 red apple, sliced
1/2 onion, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 cup water
4 sprigs rosemary
8 leaves sage, divided
6 sprigs thyme, divided
2+ cans low sodium chicken broth
Canola oil
for the gravy:
1 can low sodium chicken broth
1 C white wine
3+ tbsp Wondra flour (you can use all-purpose but this made lump-free gravy a snap!)

Make sure your turkey is defrosted. In a large stock pot over medium heat, bring the vegetable stock, salt, sugar, water, peppercorns, berries and ginger to a boil, stirring occasionally. Cool to room temperature, refrigerate until cold, and submerge the turkey in the brine, breast side down. Place brined turkey in your refrigerator or in a cooler filled with ice and cold water (as I did). Let sit for at least 8 hours - mine sat for about 12.

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees. Remove from the brine, rinse with cold water, pat dry and place on your roasting rack. In a bowl, combine the apple slices, onion, cinnamon stick, and water. Microwave for 5 minutes. Stuff the turkey’s cavity with the mixture, along with the rosemary, 6 sage leaves and 4 sprigs of thyme. Coat the outside and inside of the turkey skin with an oil, salt, thyme, sage mixture. Pour the liquid and 1 can of chicken broth into the bottom of the roasting pan. Roast for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 325 degrees and continue roasting until a probe thermometer reads 165 degrees. I never trust the little button the comes on the turkey, which is supposed to pop when it’s done since it usually doesn’t work! Pick up a thermometer for a few dollars and get ‘er done right! I took a silicon brush to add some of the pan liquid to the top of the turkey about every 20 minutes or so. If the liquid on the bottom dries up, add another can of broth and continue to brush or baste your turkey so it doesn’t dry out. My little guy was done in about 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Next, carve that bad boy! Shaun was in charge of this, while I made the gravy.

To make your delicious gravy that's full of flavor, take the roasting pan and put over two burners and turn them on low. As it heats, add half a can of chicken broth and white wine (I gave you my measurements, but you may need more or less depending on how much of the drippings are left in the pan), bring to a boil and scrape up the bits of deliciousness from the pan. Whisk in the flour. If it's too thick, add more broth. If it's too thin, add more flour. Do a taste test with some of the turkey that your husband is working very hard to carve next to you...Is it gravy perfection yet?

 

Serve the turkey on a big platter and pour gravy into that infamous gravy boat that you never use. Easy peasy!

 

So there you have it. A tale our of golden brown, moist and delicious turkey. The skin was perfectly crisped and flavorful while the meat was tender and tasty. While it seems like a difficult task, it was actually very easy! The extra steps were worth every moment to make this bird one for the record books. So what I want to know is: How do you like your turkey? Drowned in gravy? Dark meat only? You know nothing makes me happier than hearing from you so dish up some Thanksgiving tidbits in the comments!