Happy Thanksgiving!

First, I wanted to say thank you to everyone who has been reading and sharing the blog. I really appreciate your support and all of your kind words! I apologize for letting those Thanksgiving followers down at “T minus 3” but as we got closer, I had to pick either sleeping or blogging, and sleeping won out!

Just to summarize, here is what the two days before Thanksgiving looked like:

T minus 2…Tuesday was an early day! I got up at 5am to shred my Mississippi Roast that cooked overnight. The house smelled wonderful when I woke up and yes, I had a taste before showering and heading to Maryann’s for a hair cut and color at 7:30am. Headed to work after that for a full day of meetings. After work, I picked up my turkey and the last few grocery items that I had missed from my previous trips. We heated up the leftover Chicken Parm from the weekend, I wrote out my to do list for Wednesday, washed all of my crystal and barware, then headed to bed!

T minus 1…Wednesday was my big prep day! I was up by 6:30am and started by washing every fruit and vegetable that I bought over my 4 trips to different grocery stores! Next on the docket was Apple Bourbon cake. I’m not a baker, so following the recipe exactly was a bit of a challenge for me. It wasn’t hard, but there were a lot of steps. The outcome was delicious and it made my house smell great all day. This cake was time consuming, but totally worth it! Next was the pie dough. I have to say that traditionally, I make the best apple pie. This year, things didn’t quite work for me. I made 3 pie doughs and they all failed. After the third fail at 7pm, I abandoned the apple pie idea and made an apple crisp instead.

The herb butter for the turkey came next. I love this herb butter but it is definitely a commitment! I then prepped and baked 12 potatoes for my Auntie Pat potato recipe and headed out to pick up the Thanksgiving flowers and get a manicure. My hands deserved a manicure after the last 4 days of washing dishes, glasses, and fruits and vegetables! Once I got home, I started baking my sweet potatoes for my Sweet Potatoes with Hot Honey recipe (had to sub Serrano peppers for Fresno since I couldn’t find them), put my ice cream base in the ice cream maker, made Mississippi Roast sandwiches with shredded Provolone cheese for dinner, swept and washed the floor, setup my tables and chairs, put out fresh candles, filled my vases with candle oil, and then finally headed to bed!

Thanksgiving Day!!!

After a week of prep, it finally arrived! I was up by 7am, made coffee, and got started on setting the tables. I prepared my antipasto, defrosted the meatballs and gravy, put my turkey stock on the stove to warm, washed my mushrooms, chopped some pancetta for the gravy, prepped my turkey breasts, and got all of the white wine, Pelligrino, and soda chilling. My husband, and faithful assistant, vacuumed the house, got the Green Egg going, and roasted some red peppers for me! We topped things off with a Champagne toast with the boys, then all went to shower and get ready for our family.

The day went awesome! Had one blip with the turkey (cooked too fast and was way ahead of schedule for serving), but otherwise, things came together nicely. I got my turkey gravy done and delegated my cousin Bill to make the mushrooms (they were awesome by the way!). I thought the food was delicious and my family seemed to agree. The gravy made up for the slightly dry turkey. Wine was flowing all night with a couple of spills and a broken glass or two, but everyone had fun.

We ended the night with a full sweet table - apple crisp, apple bourbon cake, chocolate ganache cake, swiss roll with carmel, apple, and cream cheese filling, cannolis, lemon knots, and snickerdoodles. Thanks to my sister Lia, my mom Geri, Auntie Pat, and my cousins Bill and Ann for bringing all for the delicious desserts!

I was so happy to have all of my family together for Thanksgiving! The night ended up a few too many drinks, my bad DJ skills, and some dancing. I don’t think I ever laughed so hard! It will be hard to erase the memory of my brother-in-law Miguel doing the “wash yourself” dance or the Soul Train line that we formed. Thanks to my wonderful family for making this Thanksgiving memorable. I am grateful for all of you…Tony, Anthony, Michael, Mom, Lia, Miguel, Diego, Lili, Auntie Pat, Bill, Ann, Lindsay, and Kelly. I am looking forward to many more Thanksgiving celebrations with all of you!

Thanks for indulging me on my Thanksgiving recap! Recipes that I didn’t include links to in this post will follow, so keep scrolling! Happy Thanksgiving every one!

Lemon Herb Turkey with Lemon Garlic Gravy

So let’s start with the main meal, shall we?

Full disclosure. This is NOT the turkey breast I made for Thanksgiving, but it is very close! I forgot to take a picture of the finished turkey breast, so I’m using a picture of my “practice” turkey breast.

I originally found this recipe back in 2007 from Bon Appetit magazine. It is SO good that I make this turkey every year. I have talked about doing something different a few times, but my son Anthony has been adamant about not changing things up. There are several steps, but the outcome is worth it. I’ve incorporated my modifications into the recipe below.

Lemon Herb Butter

• 2 lemons
• 2 heads of garlic
• 4 sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature (leave out overnight)
• 1 bunch of chopped Italian parsley
• 3-4 tablespoons of fresh fennel fronds
• 2 small shallots
• 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh sage
• 2 tablespoons of fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary
• 1-2 large pinches of saffron threads
• 2 pinches of kosher salt
• 10-12 cranks of fresh ground pepper

Make 4 long ½ inch deep cuts in the lemons and place in a bowl in the microwave. Microwave for 2 minutes. Squeeze the juice from the lemons into the bowl and reserve all of the juice for the gravy. This next part is kind of a PIA. Scrape all of the fruit and rind (white parts of the peel) from the peel. I’ve tried using a grapefruit spoon to scrape the fruit and pith, but found it easier to just take a sharp knife and run it along the peel. Get as close to the peel as you can. Set the peels aside.

Next, put two heads of garlic in a bowl and cover them with water. Microwave for about 3 minutes or until the garlic is soft. Remove the garlic from the water, let the garlic cool, then peel the garlic.

Place the garlic and lemon peel into a food processor. Pulse a few times to chop the peel and the garlic. Add the butter and the rest of the ingredients. Process until combined. Place the butter into a Tupperware container and place in the refrigerator. You can make the butter 2-3 days ahead, but you need to bring it back to room temperature before using it on the turkey.

My version of this recipe is actually double what the recipe calls for. I use a lot of butter on my turkey. I also reserve about 4 tablespoons to make the gravy. Keep this in a separate container so that you don’t forget it!

Turkey Breasts

Wash and dry two 6-8 pound turkey breasts, then let the breasts sit out until they come to room temperature. Place the skin side down on a sheet pan. Drizzle the bottom of the turkey with olive oil, kosher salt, and some fresh ground pepper. Flip the turkey over, loosen the skin from the breast, then insert the butter between the skin and the breast. Use a lot of butter. Push the butter down into the breast as much as possible. Drizzle the top of the breast with more olive oil, kosher salt, and fresh ground pepper. Place any leftover butter in the microwave and melt it (not fully, just so that it is a smooth paste). You can use this to baste the turkey breast.

We cooked the turkey breasts on the Green Egg, with the place setter, at a temperature of 325 degrees. Place the turkey breasts directly on the grate, facing in opposite directions. The breasts will cook for about 15-20 minutes per pound until they reach an internal temperature of 160 degrees. The cooking time for two breasts is the same as it is for a single breast. I know that is hard to believe, but it is true. This is the mistake that I made. If you are cooking 2 eight pound breasts, the cooking time will be about 2 hours. Make sure to rotate the breasts half way through the cooking time. When you rotate the turkeys, baste the breasts with the leftover butter.

Let the breasts cool for about 15 minutes before cutting. Unfortunately, the time mistake I made meant that we started cooking the breasts too early and they were ready well in advance of dinner. As a result, the breasts were a little dry, but luckily, the kickass gravy recipe below saved the meal!

Lemon Garlic Gravy

• 9 cups of turkey stock (see my previous post on how to make this recipe, or use 3 boxes of chicken stock)
• ¼ pound of diced pancetta
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 shallots, minced
• ¼ cup all purpose flour
• Reserved lemon juice
• Lemon herb butter

Heat the turkey stock in a pot until it comes to a simmer. In a separate pot on medium heat, cook the pancetta with the lemon herb butter and a little olive oil, until the pancetta starts to crisp. Add the shallots and cook two minutes longer. Add the flour and cook until the flour mixture is a nice golden color. Add the garlic and the turkey stock, one ladle full a time, while continuously whisking the gravy. It will be thick at first, but don’t worry. Keep adding the stock and whisking until all you have used all of the stock. Add the reserved lemon juice and let the gravy simmer on a low heat. Taste the gravy and add more salt and pepper to taste. You can also add some additional fresh thyme if you like.

When you are ready to serve the gravy, strain it through a fine mesh sieve, then serve!

Enjoy!