We hosted another successful Thanksgiving soiree. This year we had my mother, sister, brother-in-law and their two children, Nathan and Sarah Paige. As the years go by our number at the Thanksgiving table dwindles, but so is the case with many families. The tradition goes on and we enjoy the time we have with family and friends. I have a few pictures I will share with you today. Admittedly I did not get as many pictures as I would have liked, but the ones I got were good.
We will start with the turkey. Perfectly done. Perfectly browned. And it reached a healthy and well done temperature of 190 degrees. I was very pleased with how this turned out. I was up early and had the bird in the oven around 5:30 AM.
I use the Reynolds Oven Bags to cook the turkey. If you have not used these let me tell you, they work perfectly. I have used them for many years at Thanksgiving and I am never disappointed. The bird rather steams inside the bag which makes it very moist. No dry turkey. Nobody likes dry turkey. At the same time, it turns golden brown, as you can see above. These bags are truly miraculous in what they can accomplish. There is no basting or tenting or turning or any of that. You just put some flour in the bag, put the turkey in, set the oven heat and a timer and you are good to go.
In addition to turkey, we also served prime rib. I will admit to knowing very little about cooking prime rib. I leave all that to Steven. I know that it cooks at a very high temperature for a short amount of time. And I know you must have a squeaky clean oven when cooking prime rib. Otherwise you have a very smoke-filled house. And I will leave it at that. It was delicious and cooked to perfection.
So those were our main course selections. But, before we sat down to enjoy the main course, we had a few pre-dinner treats.
The night before, I filled these small ramekins with cream cheeses in a variety of flavors - blueberry, plain and honey-nut. We offered a basket of freshly baked bagels for breakfast and there were a few takers. I think I even had one. I wrapped these with Saran and left them out overnight so they would be room temperature for the morning meal.
I made a cinnamon-streusel coffee cake in this bundt pan. First thing to do was to butter the pan thoroughly.
Then we placed a little under half of the batter into the greased pan.
Then I sprinkled on the delicious cinnamon and sugar mixture.
Then the rest of the batter on top of the cinnamon and sugar.
Into the oven and this is what came out. Perfectly done and quite delicious. I will make it again and post the recipe on the recipe page. You will definitely want to add this to your favorites.
Then there was this delicious pumpkin swirl cheesecake. Again, another recipe you will want and I will share with you on the recipe page.
This was removed from the oven and allowed to cool to room temperature. Extraordinary.
And it would not be Thanksgiving at our house without artichoke dip. My recipe is done in the oven. There are recipes for artichoke dip done in the crock pot. I have made it in the crock pot and it is very good. But we prefer this recipe done in the oven. I will add this to the recipe page also.
I thought it interesting that our artichoke dip ended up being carved into a heart shape as everyone enjoyed.
Finally, these little butter trees I made from sliced pats of real butter which were set on the table for lunch. You can use any small flat container and then line these up to form a little tree. Do it while the butter is still cold and let them come to room temperature for the meal.
And that's it. We had a really lovely day and it was nice to spend time with family that I do not see nearly often enough.
We will start with the turkey. Perfectly done. Perfectly browned. And it reached a healthy and well done temperature of 190 degrees. I was very pleased with how this turned out. I was up early and had the bird in the oven around 5:30 AM.
I use the Reynolds Oven Bags to cook the turkey. If you have not used these let me tell you, they work perfectly. I have used them for many years at Thanksgiving and I am never disappointed. The bird rather steams inside the bag which makes it very moist. No dry turkey. Nobody likes dry turkey. At the same time, it turns golden brown, as you can see above. These bags are truly miraculous in what they can accomplish. There is no basting or tenting or turning or any of that. You just put some flour in the bag, put the turkey in, set the oven heat and a timer and you are good to go.
In addition to turkey, we also served prime rib. I will admit to knowing very little about cooking prime rib. I leave all that to Steven. I know that it cooks at a very high temperature for a short amount of time. And I know you must have a squeaky clean oven when cooking prime rib. Otherwise you have a very smoke-filled house. And I will leave it at that. It was delicious and cooked to perfection.
So those were our main course selections. But, before we sat down to enjoy the main course, we had a few pre-dinner treats.
The night before, I filled these small ramekins with cream cheeses in a variety of flavors - blueberry, plain and honey-nut. We offered a basket of freshly baked bagels for breakfast and there were a few takers. I think I even had one. I wrapped these with Saran and left them out overnight so they would be room temperature for the morning meal.
I made a cinnamon-streusel coffee cake in this bundt pan. First thing to do was to butter the pan thoroughly.
Then we placed a little under half of the batter into the greased pan.
Then I sprinkled on the delicious cinnamon and sugar mixture.
Then the rest of the batter on top of the cinnamon and sugar.
Into the oven and this is what came out. Perfectly done and quite delicious. I will make it again and post the recipe on the recipe page. You will definitely want to add this to your favorites.
Then there was this delicious pumpkin swirl cheesecake. Again, another recipe you will want and I will share with you on the recipe page.
This was removed from the oven and allowed to cool to room temperature. Extraordinary.
And it would not be Thanksgiving at our house without artichoke dip. My recipe is done in the oven. There are recipes for artichoke dip done in the crock pot. I have made it in the crock pot and it is very good. But we prefer this recipe done in the oven. I will add this to the recipe page also.
I thought it interesting that our artichoke dip ended up being carved into a heart shape as everyone enjoyed.
Finally, these little butter trees I made from sliced pats of real butter which were set on the table for lunch. You can use any small flat container and then line these up to form a little tree. Do it while the butter is still cold and let them come to room temperature for the meal.
And that's it. We had a really lovely day and it was nice to spend time with family that I do not see nearly often enough.
