The Greatest Food Holiday in All The Land...

Thanksgiving was AMAZING. YUMMY YUMMY. Seriously.

And it was no stress.. I didn't even get out of bed till just after noon. Nice, huh? The Husband.. he's good like that. :) He tells The Children they don't want to poke the sleeping bear any time they come close to my closed and locked bedroom door. ;)

I ended up brining my turkey breast in the same brine solution I did the whole turkey on Monday in. I roasted it after shoving a softened herb butter under the skin and brushing melted herb butter all over them... LOTS O' Buttah! Butter is your friend. Really it is. Come over to the dark side.. We have cookies. Made with Butter. :) I ended up roasting them on a baking rack, over a bed of herbs and aromatics... Apples, sliced lemons, onion, celery, split garlic cloves, and the poultry herbs.. parsley, rosemary, sage and thyme... Sing along with me.. LOL To keep the oven "moist" I poured a bit of apple cider over the aromatics, but not enough to actually touch the meat. It ended up so moist and so juicy.. was a cinch to carve up, was easy to get all of the meat off the bone (couldn't find boneless..but did find two nice split breast pieces that were the same weight). I don't know how long I roasted them for.. I used a meat thermometer in each one to keep track of progress.. and used the touch test. I'm getting very good at "feeling" a meats doneness. The Husband said he's good with me never doing a whole turkey again.. This was extremely yummy, easy to both cook and carve, and SO freakin moist. Next time I may get some turkey drumsticks to go along with it.. but really, the breasts were just perfect. :) Very happy with my results.. this is a winner! :)

I made the stuffing with a Tuscan Boule and cornbread.. lots of fresh herbs.. more butter.. sauteed celerey, garlic and onions.. It was pretty freakin yummy. I browned the tuscan bread in butter in a sautee pan and then poured what was left of my melted herb butter over them and tossed.. ended up with toasted herbed bread cubes.. That made for a NICE dressing.

The Risotto was... Umm.. devastatingly DEVINE. Seriously words can't describe how much I loved it. Replacing the pancetta with sweet italian turkey sausage.. GOOD MOVE. Holy crap. And I totally forgot to buy a bottle of white wine for the risotto.. It's the one thing I always forget. I'm a red wine drinker. I always have a bottle of red here.. but rarely a white. Well, I didn't think lambrusco would make a very good addition to the risotto.. so I got the bottle of marsala out and used it. I figured it was better than the lambrusco. It was just fine with marsala! I used fresh basil and fresh sage to finish it off.. and Seriously. Even The Husband was in awe of my goddess like kitchen skills. And he doesn't get off to Italian food quite the way I do. LOL

Ended up doing a combo of Rachael Ray's cider green beans and my everyday green beans with bacon and onions. Rendered the fat out of the chopped up bacon and then took it out to sautee the onions and garlic in the fat.. Added the blanched green beans, and then de-glazed the pan with apple cider. Let it cook off for a min to reduce the cider down.. and added the bacon back in and voila! YUM. Usually I just deglaze the pan with a little chicken stock or white wine if I happen to have any (which is rarely, as noted above LOL). May try marsala next time. Who knew?! Marsala is good for more than just chicken! LOL

The Mashed Potatoes were as always good.. Just my standard dish with cheddar, butter and sour cream. Kids fave. And since they won't touch stuffing or risotto, we kinda needed them so the kids had a side dish. LOL

Went with Hawaiian sweet rolls for the bread.. and saved a couple peices of cornbread for The Pickest Eater in All The Land, since he doesn't like hawaiian sweet bread. Whatever. How can you not like hawaiian sweet bread? I'm seriously beginning to think something is wrong with his tastebuds. LOL

Oh, and of course we had to have jellied cranberry sauce. It's The Husbands favorite, and I have to admit, even though I love fresh homemade cranberry sauce.. I love me some jellied cranberries from a can. And since it was the ONLY thing in my Thanksgiving Dinner that came from a can, I think it's forgivable. I just love the little lines.. perfect guide for slicing! LOL

For dessert.. there was apple pie, pumpkin pie (I just bought that, incase we didn't get together with The Brother and his fam.. which is exactly what happened), and leftover chocolate mint cake.

See, I totally went low key for Turkey Day this year. Yeah, seriously... for me.. this is low key. Can you even imagine what it must be like when I go all out?! I'll give you a hint..At least 10 side dishes and takes 4 dishwasher loads to clean up, plus a lot of handwashing. LOL This year.. only one dishwasher load, and a moderate amount of handwashing. LOL