A Really Good Thanksgiving Dinner Menu

Thanksgiving has come and gone; weeks of planning, days of cooking, a weekend of entertaining house guests and constant eating leaves testimony to a truly wonderful culinary experience.  It took me just over a week, with lots of help from my family, to get the house back in order.  And now I will share with you what Marnie and I found really worked for Thanksgiving Dinner.

Obviously, it started with the Turkey. Marnie adored the brined turkey, Me, I felt it was a lot of work for not a huge return.

Cooks Illustrated Roasted Brined Turkey

The Brining recipe we used was from Cook's Illustrated called "Roasted Brined Turkey". Not sure if you will need a membership to see this page or not. Here is the link.  If you have a magazine subscription, the original published date was November 2004.

In future, I'd get a frozen butterball.  They are essentially pre-brined.  To Marnie this is sacrilege but I didn't notice a huge difference.

Now on to the sides, my FAVOURITE part of the meal.

We rocked the house with the side dishes we chose. Sadly most of them came from Cook's Illustrated and without a membership you might not be able to see the full recipe online.  I'm fairly certain you can find them in their cookbook collection at the library.

First off, roasted green beans. Simple, classic.

Cook's Illustrated Roasted Green Beans

Then cauliflower in a cheddar sauce with bacon.

Cooks Country Creamy Cauliflower Casserole with Bacon and Cheddar

My cheddar sauce turned out to be a bit runny, because they way I cooked the cauliflower had it retaining a lot of water.  Next time I'd roast the cauliflower - or let it sit out to dry for much longer. However, it tasted so good, no one cared about the sauce thickness except me.

We also served roasted brussel sprouts (brussels sprouts?  Spelling these suckers is very confusing) with bacon, red onion and squash.  Oh, it was so good. So, so good.  And I don't like brussel sprouts.

Cook's Country Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Onion

The inspiration for the side dish was this Cook's Illustrated recipe plus Pioneer Woman's thanksgiving throw-down with Bobby Flay's recipe.

The Pioneer Woman's Beautiful Brussels Sprouts

I totally bastardized them.  I kept Cook's Illustrated's way of roasting the actual sprouts but I added squash which I microwaved and then pan fried to a golden brown.  Then I tossed everything together.  It was amazing!  I did end up hunting down the pomegranate sauce.  But that is a very unique taste,  And I did not have the courage to use it.  Not sure how it would have paired with the bacon.

We also had stuffing.  My stuffing recipe inspiration comes from my Mum who adds cream cheese and sausage and my mother in law who showed me the basics.  Cook's Illustrated also taught me why it's better not to stuff the bird. They also provided the brilliant advice of baking your stuffing with fried turkey wings on top.  Fantastic!  I admire the chefs behind Cook's Illustrated so much.  Here's a link to their recipe.  There's no picture because I didn't follow one recipe, and I forgot to take a picture of my own.

And then the pièce de résistance number 1 - Mashed Potatoes.  Hands down, in my humble opinion the best mashed potato recipe, and the best advice on how to mash them recipe;  goes to Ree Drummond, Pioneer Woman.

The Pioneer Woman's Delicious Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Did I mention these are the very best.  I learned that once you've boiled the potatoes you should mash them without adding anything else to let out all the steam they contain.  This was a game changer for me. And it made all the difference.  Ms. Drummond also suggests you take the casserole out of the fridge and leave it out for a couple of hours to bring it to room temperature before you heat it up in the oven. I totally forgot to do this.  So I ended up microwaving it for a few minutes and then sticking it in the oven.  Worked like a charm.


pièce de résistance number 2 was the gravy.  Again, I go to the gods of cooking, Cook's Illustrated for their phenomenal gravy recipe aptly titled Best Turkey Gravy.

Cook's Illustrated Best Turkey Gravy

I am not the quintessential homemaker. While relatively organized, I tend to fly by the seat of my pants often.  But I had a brilliant homemaker moment when making this gravy.  I was able to use homemade turkey stock that I'd frozen, made from last Thanksgiving's turkey.  That was a full circle instance that made me smile.  I don't really like turkey stock soup.  I made the stock on a whim and then froze it because I didn't really know what to do with it.  Now, I've got a new Thanksgiving tradition.  And how I love a good tradition.  Cook's Illustrated has a wicked turkey stock recipe.  (Of course.)

And finally pièce de résistance number 3:  DESSERT! I served The Pioneer Woman's Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake with Salted Caramel Sauce.  I'd like a moment of silence to honour how truly divine this recipe is...

Ree Drummond's Pumpkin Gingersnap Cheesecake

Making a cheesecake intimidates the heck out of me.  This was a cake walk. :)  I looked like such a superstar and it was so easy.  I am extremely grateful Ree Drummond chose to share this.  You too can look like a superstar with this recipe.  It is so good there are no words.   Interestingly, there's actually two ways to make this recipe.  I followed the Food Network recipe.  But Ree posted a slightly different version on her blog. As far as I can tell one has slightly more cream cheese than the other and the caramel sauce is worked in differently.

So there you have it folks, Thanksgiving Dinner from start to finish brought to you by my culinary heroes Cook's Illustrated and The Pioneer Woman.  Tested by Marnie and myself.  I can't wait for next year!!!