Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, but ever since I got a nine to five job (I’m still in denial about this) taking a vaca during Thanksgiving seems to happen each year. Which makes sense though because you can get five days off for the price of two. This year I am headed to Hong Kong and Vietnam and I am so excited. With that said I was pretty bummed to miss Thanksgiving and I really wanted to host this year so I decided to have Thanksgiving at my place Halloween weekend. I was pretty pumped and really wanted to make everything. The only thing I allowed people to help me with was the stuffing, apps, and wine. This was also my first time making a turkey. The turkey involved the first lesson I learned; turkeys come frozen. Now that I think about how early you start seeing the turkeys in store I realize that was a pretty blonde moment but it just didn’t occur to me. Lucky enough thouhg when I was talking about cooking and that I was planning on buying the turkey the day before my friends informed me that that isn’t enough time. It was Thursday so I bought the turkey that night and it had time to defrost. Phew first dilemma avoided.
Saturday rolled around and I was in the zone. I bought all the groceries and made the pumpkin pie and pumpkin whoopie pies. I was ready. I went to bed excited for the morning.
On Sunday I got up and cleaned and got the table and living room ready. Now it was time for prep. I made the sweet potatoes in the morning and was just planning on reheating them when I pulled out the Turkey. I had the green beans cleaned and good to go.I had the apple dumplings ready to throw in the oven when we were eating, I had the brussel sprouts cleaned and I got all other prep/meals ready/cooked/ready to be cooked—I had my shit together is what I am trying to say. It was finally time to put the turkey in. I took a photo of my beautiful first turkey popped it in the oven and was ready to relax.
It had been about 45 minutes and I had turned the oven down and done the first basting when I was sitting on the couch enjoying an episode of Gilmore Girls when all of a sudden it sounded like a bomb when off and all of the electricity went out. My first thought was my oven had exploded. I walked into the kitchen and confirmed this thought was a dramatic thought since the oven and kitchen were still intact. I heard people talking outside my apartment so I slipped on my rain boots and ran out to find out what was going on. A transformer had blown and the entire apartment building was out of electricity. BUT WHAT ABOUT MY TURKEY?!?! I first called my dad and he said the electricity will probably be out for a while and it might be best to move the turkey. Then I called my sister and told her to make room I was on my way. I was still in my pj’s so I looked insane; picture me running down the street with a raw turkey, pj’s, and rain boots. It was a low point moment.
I got the turkey in their oven and thankfully the electricity came back on an hour later so it was back to the car. Thanksgiving was only an hour late and everything was fabulous.
Check out my recipes below. I highly suggest the gravy but all the recipes were fabulous!
Potato Recipe – for the potatoes, I didn’t peel then and I didn’t use a ricer. I instead just put the boiled potatoes in my kitchen add and whipped them in there.
Sweet Potato Recipe– I followed this recipe but used the extra link too. I added sprigs of rosemary in between the potatoes but not all of them.
Pumpkin Pie – I didn’t use grated hazelnut in the paste because I didn’t have it, instead I just used nutmeg.
Looks delicious! Love the turkey in the car picture too.
So classic! 🙂 Well done Miss Colt!
Will you cook this all for me in Hong Kong? You have a microwave and two hot plates to work with.