Thanksgiving day

I have been assigned duties yet again to provide a thanksgiving day feast to my roommates.  I am kind of the aspiring chef of the bunch so I can't complain much.  The most stressful part for me was shopping at the grocery yesterday. Last year I think I went the day before Thanksgiving and that was a disaster so I thought going two days before kind of early in the day wouldn't be so bad.  I was wrong.  

It was crazy in the store.  Everyone running around like crazy, wives yelling at husbands for picking the largest turkey possible, kids screaming I WANT THIS I WANT THIS.  Here I am, pushing around a cart, with my shopping list typed into my sidekick.  There was a point where I considered leaving my grocery cart full of groceries and putting a note on top saying "This is everything you need" and leaving it.  I hate check out lines, I hate everything about grocery stores.  I was  reminded of a Dane Cook joke where his shopping cart was once stolen and how it would be to come across a cart full of every grocery you needed and think "JACKPOT!!".  Honestly, the only reason I didn't do this was because I felt bad for the store clerk who would have to go put everything back or even worse, how long it would sit before anyone noticed and if all the food would goto waste or spoil.

Everyone seemed to enjoy my menu last year so I am pretty much copying what I did last year.  None of this by any means is healthy at all, but it is thanksgiving, so it is okay.  

I picked out about a 15 lb fresh turkey and it will brine overnight in a salt/sugar water mixture to make sure the thing stays juicy throughout the cooking process.  I keep it fairly simple for the initial process.  Salt/Pepper and then some onion/carrot/celery and rosemary in the inside cavity of the bird for flavor while it's cooking.  I will baste it occasionally in its own juices and then during the last 30 minutes I am going to do what I like to call the icing on the cake.  I will cook down bourbon whiskey, peach preserves and bitters into a liquid and coat the turkey with it so it crisps up during the end. Delicious.

I am also making a ham.  This might be my favorite.  I am making a brown sugar/butter/pineapple juice sauce to coat the ham.  I will be taking maraschino cherries and sticking them in the ham all over with toothpicks and then over the cherries, hang pineapple rings to nearly cover the outside of the ham.  

then for the side dishes.

The yam/sweet potato dish with melted marshmallows on top.  I don't care much for this but everyone else wanted it.

A ton of mashed potatoes whipped with garlic/olive oil/goat cheese/some butter/and milk(okay, half and half).

Broccoli Cheese Casserole with a white mornay cheddar/velveeta cheese sauce and then topped with smashed ritz crackers and baked.

Corn Souffle.  I don't really know what this is, or how to describe it, but my grandmother always made it, and it is delicious, so I make it too.  

Your basic standard stuffing.  Bread crumbs/croutons with sage and other various herbs and spices.  

Then gravy and cranberry sauce.

As for dessert.  I'm not much of a dessert person, but last year at my job, (I work at a restaurant/bakery) the owner gave me an Apple Cranberry Crumb Pie so I am banking on that I will get another one tonight when I'm leaving.

Everything is pretty much ready to go for tomorrow.

Hope I made you drool!! Have a happy Thanksgiving!!