Turkey-lurkey

So I'm sitting here in my dining room, waiting on the browned butter and simple syrup to cool and I realized, I have been a terrible blogger lately. I set out to do the NaBloWriMo, and failed in the last week. Ugh. I hate that. And ever since then I've kind of fallen off the face of the earth. I have been cooking, I have a stack of recipes to share with ya'll. But, it's that time of year when I get terribly burnt out and all I feel like doing after work is reading in bed, which usually puts me to sleep by 9:30!

If you follow me on Twitter, you saw that two weekends ago, I threw my very first dinner party! You probably even saw this picture that I took just before my bird went into the oven:

That whole day I taunted all of you with how beautiful my turkey was looking, how delicious it was smelling, and I promised you a recipe. And oooooooooooooooh how amazing that turkey was. It was by far the best turkey I've ever had, hands down. Everyone who was here told me how much they loved it, demanded to know the secret, and begged me to host the party next year so I could make the turkey again. It was a very proud moment in my culinary journey.

And then I got the flu. The very next day. It was awful. It knocked me on my feet for 3 days solid. I've been trying to catch up every since then. So here is your turkey recipe. I'm sorry it's just now getting posted. But look, I took pictures!

All the credit for this recipe goes to Prudence Pennywise (go check out her blog, I love her recipes). Wow girlie, this recipe is a knockout. Because it was my first time making turkey and gravy, I did not change anything in either recipe. If you can't find sage, I bet rosemary and/or thyme would go great with this bird. Seriously, try this. I will never roast a turkey without brining it first. It makes a little bit of a mess and takes a few days of preparation, but it is so, so worth it.

Sage Roasted Turkey with Apple Cider Gravy

From Prudence Pennywise

Notes: Thaw turkey in fridge from Fri-Mon before Thanksgiving, brine from Mon-Wed night.

Brining

8 quarts cold water

1 cup salt

8 dried bay leaves

2 tablespoons black peppercorns

1 tablespoon allspice

1 16- to 17-pound turkey; giblets removed,

Herb butter and gravy

3 tablespoons minced fresh Italian parsley

3 tablespoons minced fresh sage

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

4 cups low-salt chicken broth

2 cups apple cider

3 tablespoons all purpose flour

1/2 cup whipping cream

Roasting

2 large Granny Smith apples, quartered, cored

2 large onions, quartered

1 cup apple cider

To brine the turkey:
Line extra-large pot or bowl with two 13-gallon (or larger) plastic bags, 1 inside the other. Combine 1 quart water, salt, bay leaves, peppercorns, and allspice in large saucepan. Stir over medium heat until salt dissolves. Remove from heat. Add 1 quart cold water and cool to lukewarm. Pour into plastic bags; mix in remaining 6 quarts water. Submerge turkey in brine to cover completely, gathering bags tightly to eliminate any air; tie bags closed. Refrigerate turkey in brine in pot at least 18 hours and up to 20 hours.
Line large roasting pan with 4 layers of paper towels. Remove turkey from brine and drain well; discard brine. Place turkey in prepared pan. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

For herb butter and gravy:
Mix parsley, sage, and nutmeg in small bowl. Transfer half of chopped herb mixture to small bowl; mix in 1/2 cup butter.
Combine broth and apple cider in heavy large saucepan. Boil until reduced to 3 cups, about 20 minutes. Pour broth reduction into bowl. Melt remaining 1/4 cup butter in same saucepan over medium-high heat. Add flour; stir 1 minute. Whisk in broth reduction, then cream, and remaining chopped herb mixture. Bring to boil; reduce heat to medium-low and simmer until gravy base is thickened and reduced to 2 3/4 cups, whisking often, about 20 minutes. Cool gravy base slightly. (Gravy base and herb butter can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and chill.)

To roast the turkey:
Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 350°F. Remove turkey from roasting pan; drain any accumulated juices from main cavity. Discard paper towels from roasting pan. Melt herb butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Brush bottom of roasting pan with some of herb butter. Return turkey to prepared pan. Tuck wing tips under; tie legs together loosely to hold shape. Place some apple quarters and onion quarters in main cavity. Brush remaining herb butter over turkey; sprinkle with pepper. Scatter remaining apples and onions around turkey in pan.
Roast turkey 1 hour. Baste with 1/2 cup apple cider. Roast turkey 30 minutes. Baste with remaining 1/2 cup cider. Roast turkey until thermometer inserted into thickest part of thigh registers 175°F, basting turkey every 30 minutes with pan juices and covering breast loosely with foil if browning too quickly, about 2 hours longer (3 1/2 hours total). Transfer turkey to platter; let stand at least 30 minutes before carving (internal temperature will rise 5 to 10 degrees).
Discard apples and onions from pan. Pour pan juices into large glass measuring cup; spoon off fat from surface. Pour degreased juices into gravy base and bring to boil over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally. Boil until gravy thickens enough to coat spoon and is reduced to 3 1/2 cups, about 15 minutes. Season gravy to taste with pepper.
Serve turkey with gravy.

Uh oh!

Well, it finally happened. I forgot to do a post. I was not in the best of moods last night and I just gave up and went to bed. I didn't remember until about 3 am that I hadn't written a blog!

So to make up for it, you get two posts today.

The first recipe is going to be a pretty standard pumpkin pie recipe, but I know everyone is looking for the best one right now, so I thought I'd help you out with your search. I made this one last year and it went over pretty well.

Pate Brisee (Short Crust Pastry)

From Joyofbaking.com

1 1/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp white sugar

1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut into 1" pieces

1/4 cup ice water

In food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter and process until it resembles coarse meal. Slowly add water and process until dough balls. Flatten to disk, wrap in plastic. Store in fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Roll out dough for pate brisee. Place in pie pans. Wrap in plastic and chill again for 30 minutes.

Pumpkin Pie

From Joyofbaking.com

3 large eggs

2 cups fresh pumpkin puree

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/2 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/8 ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375.

Lightly whisk eggs. Add remaining ingredients and stir to combine. Pour into prepared pie shell. Bake for 45 to 55 minutes, until filling is set and crust has browned.

Missing Recipes...

For the most part, we are moved in and unpacked. We are down to the boxes of crap that we just don't know what to do with. The stuff that I just need to take a weekend and get out of the boxes and put away, but a lot of it is decorative stuff, or stuff for our living room. The problem? We don't have furniture for our living room. I also don't have the bookshelves for my office, so a lot of that stuff hasn't been unpacked yet. So I have a bunch of random junk boxes in my garage. It is driving me CRAZY!!! I am constantly running into nights like tonight, when I need something, that I know I have somewhere, but can't find it anywhere. I looked through every single one of those boxes. I had a very specific recipe I wanted to share with you guys, but it is in my recipe box that has not appeared yet. Urgh I am so frustrated!

Instead, I pulled out the recipe book that my sister made for my wedding shower. I found this simple recipe from my mom that made my mouth water with nostalgia. I remember munching on these at Thanksgiving every year, but I never realized she was the one who made them. Although as I'm writing that, I have the vague memory of eating them warm out of the oven...mmmm.... Anyway, I haven't made this recipe myself but these are fantastic, trust me. And the recipe looks fairly simple to make (and knowing Mom, it has to be simple to make. LOVE YOU MOM, but I know how much you to hate to cook!)

Oyster Crackers

From My Mom

1 pkg oyster crackers

1 cup Wesson oil

1 pkg Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing

1/2 tsp lemon pepper

Mix last 3 ingredients, add crackers. Spread onto cookie sheet. Bake at 200 degrees for 1 1/2-2 hours. Stir every 30 minutes. Store in an airtight container. Wash entire kitchen 3 times until there is no trace that you did any cooking in the last 6 months. (Hehe *kiss*)

Note--As you can probably tell...this post is all in good fun. My mom and I are two very different people. She loves to clean, I love to cook. We tease each other quite a bit about each others strong points (like when I knew that the mystery sauce served with the asparagus at dinner the other night was beurre blanc. I never heard the end of it.) My mom and I fought like cats and dogs when I was in high school, but now that I have moved out, we spend as much time as we can together. Love you Mom!!!!

Thanksgiving Yummies

My sister asked me for this recipe today, so I figured I'd post it on here. I'm not really cooking today, sort of taking the weekend off since it's my birthday weekend.

My aunt brought these to Thanksgiving a few years ago. My sisters and I DEVOURED them. Seriously, we could not keep our hands out of the container. Mom kept telling us to stop eating cookies or we couldn't complain about our weight (it was during those awkward high school years when we all had self esteem issues). We didn't care. We kept going back for more and more and more.

For my wedding shower, my sister put together a book of recipes from everyone in attendance. Aunt Ellen submitted this one, because she knew how much I loved these cookies. These are dangerous. Proceed with caution.

Pumpkin Cookies

From Aunt Ellen

1 cup butter, softened

2 cups white sugar

2 cups pumpkin

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

4 cups flour

Preheat oven to 350.

Cream butter, sugar, and pumpkin.

Add the rest of the ingredients, mix well.

Drop cookies onto greased pan. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Cool Completely.

Ice with cream cheese frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

From Aunt Ellen

8 oz cream cheese

1 tsp vanilla

1 stick softened butter

16 oz powdered sugar

Mix together cream cheese, vanilla, and butter. Slowly mix in powdered sugar until you come to your preferred consistency and sweetness. (I like to taste the cream cheese, some people prefer it a lot sweeter. I never use all 16 oz of sugar.)