T (not tee) giving

This year was the first time that Ian and I had ever hosted Thanksgiving, and needless to say, the prospect can be quite nerve-wracking for first-timers. We knew that there had to be a turkey involved, but what next? Lucky for us, Epicurious provided us with full menu listings for the big day; though many of these dishes were a bit advanced for the feast-making novice, we were able to pick and choose a few tasty culinary delights. On the menu...

Hors d'œuvres: cucumber slices w/ salmon pâté and sprigs of fresh dill
celery sticks filled w/ cream cheese, topped w/ green olive slices and paprika (a childhood favorite of mine)
Brie with assorted grain crackers
Greek and French olives
Shrimp with cocktail sauce (brought by my mum)

The main course: turkey (a no-brainer for the omnivorous)
homemade herb stuffing mashed potatoes w/ chives autumn roasted vegetables
yams with molasses-ginger butter
Greek salad with olives, feta and tomato

Dessert consisted of a blueberry pie (brought by my mum), vanilla bean ice cream, and Amish friendship bread. Everyone seemed fairly delighted with the food - especially me! I was pretty nervous about tackling that turkey (I've never cooked one before).

Earlier this month, I practiced by roasting a small chicken (also a first for me). That came out reasonably well, even the trussing. Since we waited until the night before Thanksgiving to go grocery shopping, we ended up with one that was way too huge - over 18lbs.! We had wanted to get a fresh turkey, to avoid all of that annoying thawing business, and only gigantic turkeys were left by the time we skated into Stop & Shop at 9:00pm.

I stuffed the turkey with the delicious herb stuffing that Ian put together and ended up cooking the turkey for about 4 and a half hours total.


I couldn't have asked for a more delicious bird! Honestly, I can't believe that we actually pulled it off.. I didn't eat much meat at all (mostly fish) for years, and only recently started reincorporating poultry into my diet (per a nutritionist's recommendations). Yes - that is my hand you see there in that raw turkey. Ugh.

And this was my face while I was stuffing that turkey...............

But in the end, the deliciousness was worth it.