Thanksgiving 2012

I have been cooking Thanksgiving for my family since I was about 14 years old...the whole dinner!  Typically I would inject the Turkey and deep fry it thinking that it would not dry out the Turkey.  This was true, I always hated buying gallons upon gallons of Peanut Oil to just fry two Turkeys.

Two years ago I soaked the Turkey for about 48 hours in an Asian style marinade.  The Turkey went pretty quick.  This past year, I made a Brine similar to the Brine I made for the Pork Loin in my previous post and let it soak for 48 hours. 

Now, I always heard placing large pieces of meat in a Brine to keep the meat moist, but did not believe it till now!  There was not a dry piece on the Turkey!  This will be my go to option from this point on!

This Years Menu Includes: Turkey, Ham, Pumpkin Pie, Sweet Potato Pie, Almond Apple Pie, Green Bean Casserole, Broccoli Cheese Rice Casserole (made by Crystal), Mash Potato, Corn Bread and Brussels Sprouts.

Overall Spread

Centerpiece

Sweet Potato Pie (Top), Almond Apple Pie (Middle), Pumpkin Pie with an Almond Brittle (Bottom)

 

 

Typically every year there would be a fair amount of leftovers, but when I visited my parents the next day to eat leftovers, majority of everything was gone!  Now, normally I do not enjoy eating leftovers but Thanksgiving is a whole different story.  All and all, Thanksgiving 2012 was a success!