whisked.: No Butter Left Behind

This post was bound to happen, so much food, so much good company, so. much. butter.

I present to you: Thanksgiving 2011.

On this day of the year we ask ourselves, why is this night different from all other nights?

And we are told to tell our children (me being the child in this situation) that on this night our food contains so much butter that if every night was like this we just might not be living. Such is life.

For some reason, I made it my personal mission this year to literally leave no stick of butter behind.

The potatoes alone could kill. And I'm actually pretty proud of that, and fairly disgusted.

Butter, butter, butter, buttttter....buttttttttter! Some people got to have it.

Ok so here's how it went down.

The night before I covered the turkey in a flavored salt rub. I used about a half cup of salt, some orange zest, fresh thyme & rosemary.

I covered it up and kept it in the fridge overnight. Was this a worthwhile step? I don't know but it was easy so I'm not really worried about it.

I also toasted up some bread for the stuffing. I used french bread & cornbread.

What else was in the oven? Some squash

I chopped it up for the stuffing

I actually didn't have enough for the stuffing, so you couldn't really tell it was there, but I snacked on some before I mixed it in and it was definitely tasty.

Everything else was pretty much made day of, starting with the cranberry sauce.

So easy. I'm shocked that we didn't make our own cranberry sauce in years past.

We used 2 bags of cranberries, the zest of two oranges, 1 cup of orange juice, 1.5 cups of sugar & 1 cup of fresh squeezed orange juice.

Bring to a boil, turn down to a simmer for 30 mintues. Wham, Bam. Done. Woah

For the mashed potatoes I used yukon gold potatoes, unreal amounts of butter, some warm cream, and so much garlic.

We gave my brother the job of peeling the potatoes. Apparently this was the first potato he had ever pealed. No worries, my mum was a superb teacher. He picked it up quickly! He's the gifted child.

Secrets of outrageous mashed potatoes? Don't melt the butter, use a lot of salt & mix it all while the potatoes are still warm.

Everyone in this household also likes them jammed with garlic, I cook it down in (you guessed it) butter before adding it in with the potatoes.

So much garlic, so much butter. I told you, these potatoes could kill.

So back to the stuffing...

The stuffing I make is pretty much this. Pioneer Woman knows what's up!

I melted a disgusting amount of butter, chopped up a bunch of celery, onion, shallot & leeks and cooked them down without getting any color.

I mixed that in with the bread, a bunch of chopped herbs, and added some chicken stock. Threw it all in a baking dish and into the oven it went. Done and done.

My mum made my grandma's cornflake stuffing and this year I greatly preferred it to this stuffing. It's unlike other stuffing but I'm not quite sure how to explain it. Just know it's delicious.

We ate turkey. I heard some people have ham. To me, that seems quite strange.

And somehow this is the only picture I have of the beast once it was all cooked up.

I also made gravy, no picture. I made a roux with with butter and flour and added it to the pan drippings.

Oh yeah, mom & I made rolls too. She wasn't into the dough making but she was a trooper and they were a great addition to the meal.

The perfect canvas for a leftover thanksgiving sandwich!

My mom also made her amazing sweet potatoes. I don't know how she does it. They are out of this world good. It's one of those things that I refuse to make on my own, they are her deal and they are just perfect the way they are.

Another not pictured dish were the brussel sprouts. I'll have to make them again, it was possibly my favorite dish.

To end this thanksgiving feast we made Salted Caramel Cheesecake. I saw it on Joy the Baker last week and I knew it just had to happen. This was probably the best decision that was made all day.