Awesome stuffing... and other thanksgiving foods

So... our Thanksgiving was successful! Slightly delayed due to an oddly misshapen turkey (our smoked turkey was somehow smooshed at some point in the smoking process, I think.... rather than the typical broad bird, this one was a bit lopsided and high in the middle... Veronica's mom thought it looked kind of like a goose, if that helps you visualize it).

I think that my favorite part of the meal... aside from dessert which is OBVIOUSLY the best part of the meal, but in a category all its own... was the stuffing. We used this recipe. Amazing! ...With the homemade focaccia that I had made and half sweet / half hot Italian sausage. DELICIOUS! Actually... I'm tempted to make this again throughout the year. The next TWO DAYS we warmed the leftover stuffing in a pan on the stove for breakfast. AGAIN, DELICIOUS! I could seriously eat this stuff for breakfast at any point in the year. I'm not even sure what else to say about it other than that it was perfect. Great texture... really great flavor, all around wonderful.

What else was on the menu this year?

-Smoked turkey (thanks to Veronica's parents... and Godshall's Poultry)
-Homemade rolls (and the extra focaccia... which was also great for cold turkey sandwiches later)
-Roasted Garlic Lemon Broccoli
-Brown sugar baked sweet potatoes and acorn squash
-Roasted fingerling potatoes with rosemary (just with olive oil, salt and rosemary)
-Make-ahead turkey gravy (from the Noble Pig blog)
-Veronica's cranberry sauce
-Veronica's Mom's baked fresh ham and gravy (a surprise addition)
-Veronica's Mom's baked macaroni and cheese
-Veronica's Mom's collard greens
-My Mom's famous recipe (at least I think so) Four Tablespoons of Vanilla Chocolate Cake with Penuche Icing (google "penuche," it's kind of interesting... and delicious)
-Pecan pie (very interesting to make it in a springform pan rather than a pie plate... and good since I only have one pie plate... well... I didn't have a 9inch springform either, but I do now)
-Sweet potatoe pie (from to Joy the Baker... though both pies had Martha Stewart's pate brisee... though I'll probably get my Mom's pie crust recipe next time)

Some carefully planning for about the week leading up to the event meant that we weren't too stressed on the actual day (actually... about an hour before everyone arrived we found ourselves waiting on the turkey, so Veronica took a nap while I paced around being frustrated with having nothing to do).

Man, there were left overs! I now realize that "serves 8" on a regular day means that it serves 16 (at least) when you have so many different dishes. We were all stuffed, everyone took home food and we still had tons left in the fridge. (Note to self: Veronica's family are not big pecan pie eaters... That's just fine. Make it anyway. More for me. Thanksgiving only comes once a year).

Everything was really good. I had never made a sweet potatoe pie before and I'm not a conniseur, but I thougth this recipe was really good. I added some orange zest, but otherwise followed the recipe... oh, and going fridge to oven with a glass pie plate scared me (even though it was pyrex), so I had it on the couner rather than the fridge before it went into the oven... and the edge of my crust collapsed a bit (I took it out of the oven and propped it back up and it stayed mostly, but it wasn't the thing of beauty that I hoped it would be).

Among the leftover recipes were turkey sandwiches (of course), reheated stuffing, turkey hash (with the leftover fingerling potatoes) and the pot pie that Veronica mentioned in her last post. I made smoked turkey, sweet potato and black bean enchilladas (no real recipe... just threw stuff together and crossed my fingers).

A great week of preparation... a great meal... a great week of leftovers.

Bring on the Christmas food!