The Turkey Song

Thanksgiving is a holiday that I love but have never been brave enough to create on my own. We either go away to family/friends or we stay home and just hang out with nothing too special.

This year I decided to take the plunge and really and truly cook up a feast!

Now, to give you some background about my cooking skills, before I got married I was known as the grilled cheese queen. And that was about where my skills ended.

And that didn't change too quickly.

For the first year and a half or so, Shuky was working from home so he was able to use his amazing cooking techniques to the betterness of my mandatory-after-marriage-weight-gain.

After Benny was born, Shuky started working elsewhere and I was home so I slowly learned to cook. Some things came out better than others. But I was definitely getting better!

Lately, I can confidently say I have mastered the art and, save for a couple snafus, I'm pretty impressed with my own culinary skills.

But Thanksgiving is truly a whole different song!

I set the bar a little lower than average.

Instead of making a whole turkey, I bought two huge breast pieces with ribs. I made each differently.

An Italian styled spice rub

A deliciously garlicy sauce, based on a recipe given to me by my awesomely talented friend Stefanie

I made stuffing on it's own, not inside the turkey.

Thanks again for another successful recipe, Stef! Excuse the missing taste-tested chunk!

I made garlic-and-basil roasted potatoes, a blend of sweet and yellow potatoes.

These ended up being crispy and melt-in-your-mouth-amazing at the same time.

 I made an awesome salad - avocado, corn, hearts of palm, sun-dried tomatoes, and artichoke hearts. The salad earned it's own small plate on the side so as to keep the sauces/dressings separate  And to make enough room to properly gorge on everything in front of us.

I didn't end up making it to the cheese cream and pumpkin roll I had planned for dessert. That's fine. I'll make it for Shabbos!

Anyway, the end result was superb.

Please ignore the gross stove top. Thanks.

Everything came out AMAZING and I am so happy I spent the time doing it all!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. May you have much to be thankful for and always appreciate it!