Ten Thanksgiving Thought Tuesday

I love Thanksgiving dinner, and I love to host it at my house. This is the fourth or fifth Thanksgiving we've hosted (well, minus the first one I hosted by myself in my college apartment). There is nothing healthy about our dinner, at all. And to prove it, here is our menu for the big day! Mmmm...I can feel my arteries clogging up and the Triptophan getting me ready for nap time.

1. Turkey. Adam usually brines the turkey a day or so before Thanksgiving. Brining a turkey makes it very moist when it cooks. Adam also puts an apple, onion and rosemary in the turkey, making it extremely flavorful.

2. Gravy. Probably my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner (besides #4). The recipe is my Gramma's, and is the best gravy I have EVER had. It starts with Giblet Soup...I take the giblets (heart, liver, kidneys, neck, and I'm sure some other disgusting thing) and cook them for a couple hours with onion, celery, water, and a few spices. After the soup has cooked, I take the broth and mix it with the drippings from the cooked turkey. I bring it to a boil and taste it to see if I need to add any boulion, pepper, worschestershire sauce, and maybe a little "brown" flavor. After it's ready taste-wise, I add the cornstarch to thicken it. I put it on pretty much everything!

3. Green beans. Should be healthy, right? WRONG! I cook the green beans until they are just a tiny bit crunchy and drain them. While they were boiling, I've cooked up a few pieces of chopped up bacon, which I add to the beans with a little bit of the grease after they've been drained. I also add a bit of pepper to them. Tasty!

4. Sally's potato casserole. OH MY GOD! Everytime we host a holiday meal, I ALWAYS ask her to bring her potato casserole. Even my little bro, Sam, requests her casserole! She's managed to cut half of the butter out of the dish, but I can't tell. It's always so amazing!

5. Hockey pucks. AKA dinner rolls. I'm not 100% sure why Adam's family calls this particular roll a hockey puck...I think it has something to do with the first time Sally made them...they were rock hard and shaped like a hockey puck. All of the hockey pucks I've eaten were quite tasty!

6. Green Jello. Another one of Sally's dishes. I don't even know what she puts in the green jello, some kind of cheese, nuts, maybe a type of fruit...All I know is it is so tasty! And it's green...does that make it healthy? *Papa, you would really like this dish! I know how much you like jello!

7. Gramma's stuffing. Mom is making this dish this year. It has the best flavoring and just makes me happy! Paired with Gramma's gravy recipe, I think this could make the world a happier place if everyone just took a few bites every day!

8. Salad with dressing from Cafe Girasole. Feild greens and the most amazing raspberry vinagrette made by my good friend Leslie DuPonte, owner of Cafe Girasole. Such a simple dish, and yet, so good!

9. Cranberry Sauce. Homemade. Not from a can. That stuff will kill you! Off course, it's an Alton Brown recipe that Adam found for our first Thanksgiving dinner 4 years ago. It uses real cranberries, orange juice, a little bit of sugar, and some other ingredients I can't remember off the top of my head. Last year we had some cranberry sauce leftovers...Adam sat down and ate the rest of them on Friday before I even had a chance to have any. Won't happen this year! I'm going to hide them!

10. Pie - Pumpkin AND Pecan. Adam makes the pies every year...no matter if we host or not! The Pecan Pie is awesome! I'm sure the Pumpkin Pie is very good. I would personnally be happier if he just made more Pecan...never have been a fan of the Pumpkin. It's the perfect way to end a blissfully decadent meal...of course, pie is usually served a few hours after dinner!

So, as you can see, we have a very full day of cooking and eating ahead of us on Thursday. Maybe I should boycott food until then! If I don't blog again before Thursday, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!