Thanksgiving Dinner

Hi all:

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. I made a small dinner yesterday, for just the three of us since the rest of the extended family was getting over colds. We didn't want to risk picking up the bug, so we had a small, quiet dinner just for us.

I bought all the fixin's on Saturday and quite frankly, decided to do everything the fastest and simplest way possible. If I am having a bigger crowd (there are usually 9-12 of us) I make everything from scratch, including my own gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing etc. This year though because there was only three of us, I opted not to go for the standard turkey and all that cooking one entails.  I decided on fast and easy options. Here they are and I have to admit, surprisingly, the meal turned out really good and best of all, there are still leftovers for today. Yeah! I don't have to cook again today.

I bought a frozen Butterball boneless turkey breast. It cooks from frozen at a low temperature (325 degrees) for 4 hours, but mine took about 3 1/2 hours. I added 1/2 a chopped red onion and a little water to the pan as well as chopped garlic to the top of the turkey breast. It smelled great while it cooked and was quite moist when it was carved.

I also bought a package of frozen Butterball dressing. I have never tried this before and was pleasantly surprised. I usually make my own from scratch using day old bread cubes, onion, celery, seasonings etc. but  I let his thaw out a little and then put it into a covered casserole dish to bake. It was quite tasty and didn't need any more seasoning. The potatoes were easy enough. I just bought a bag of Yukon Gold (best potatoes) and peeled, boiled and mashed them with some butter and milk. How hard is it to make mashed potatoes? I also made simple steamed Brussels sprouts. I love them - no one else does but I make them anyways. They are so healthy and the family ate them anyways.  Now the cranberry sauce, I felt a little guilty about. I like to make my own from fresh cranberries with a little orange zest and/or orange juice and usually only buy a can for my sister when her family comes over, but I didn't even feel like making my own, so I opted for canned Ocean Spray instead. No one else eats cranberry sauce in my house, so I opened the can just for me but it goes so fabulously, with a leftover turkey sandwich. Yum.

Finally, I also felt quite guilty about the packaged gravy. I never use packaged gravy mixes; I always make my own with pan drippings but since this type of turkey breast doesn't yield a lot of drippings (that's why I added a bit of water) I added what there was to a package of Knorr turkey gravy and whisked them together. It turned out really good. Usually, I find gravy packages are too salty and don't taste realistic, but this Knorr gravy was very good. I will definitely buy it again to use "in a pinch".

Overall, our dinner turned out really well, considering how little effort it required. I highly recommend these products next time you are pressed for time. And because these dishes were so fast and easy, I think I just might be making turkey dinners more often throughout the year. Sometimes I get quite a craving for turkey dinner and all the fixin's and now I know I can occasionally whip up a dinner without a lot of fuss.

While cooking, I enjoyed a glass of this pink champagne to which I added a splash of St. Germaine liquor. The St. Germaine gives it a sweet, slightly floral flavour and is a very good compliment to the champagne.

Okay, I might have had a little more than a splash and I maybe had 2 glasses of champagne, but really the St. Germaine does add a nice extra layer of flavour.

Even though there were only 3 of us, I insisted on using the old silverware I bought on Ebay. It makes every meal feel special.

This is the tablecloth I used. (No, I don't iron. Who does these days?)  Isn't it pretty? I didn't take a picture of the table all set, but I might recreate it for another post. I used my everyday dishes but they are still quite pretty.

Happy turkey day everyone.

Rosie