Monday 15 November 2010

Well Thanks For The Time I Needed To Think A Spell

I realize that Canadian Thanksgiving was a month ago and it's a bit ridiculous for me to post about it now but I loved my Thanksgiving dinner and it's almost American Thanksgiving so that's my excuse. I'm kind of debating celebrating American Thanksgiving just so I can have a full turkey dinner again.

My dinner consisted of (clockwise from the left) spicy green beans, sweet potato / turnip mash, roast carrots, turkey!, homemade cranberry sauce, and cowboy potatoes (which are actually called Jamie Oliver's Painted Hills Potatoes but I think cowboy potatoes sounds better.)

I don't have a large enough roasting pan to roast a turkey so I bought an aluminum one and threw celery, onions, lemons, apples, and fresh herbs in the base to keep the bird raised off the bottom. I seasoned the turkey with salt and pepper and filled the cavity with heads of garlic that I'd sliced horizontally through the cloves. I cooked my turkey upside down (because that's how Nigella does it) so it looked ugly but was moist and flavourful.

I was really happy with my side dishes. I was able to do a lot of prep ahead of time (I made the potatoes and the mash the day before and cooked them with the turkey) so when my kitchen sink clogged from the peelings of 20 carrots that I tried to send down the garbarator all at once and Shawn had to dismantle the pipe under the sink, it didn't throw my dinner off by too much.

Dessert was my grandma's pumpkin chiffon pie and chocolate mousse pie. Shawn had requested chocolate mousse and I was fully committed to making it until I realized that I didn't have any chocolate mousse vessels. The only thing I could think of using was wine glasses but then we wouldn't have anywhere to put the wine which I think we can all agree is a completely unacceptable situation. So I piled the mousse in a pie crust and called it mousse pie and everyone was happy.

My sisters both had other commitments but my mom, dad, and Westy came, along with Shawn's mom and brother. I made too much food, as usual, and I got quite shouty at Shawn when the sink was broken, but the evening was a success. Plus we had enough pie left over that I had pumpkin pie for breakfast for days afterwards so I was a very happy lady.

22 comments:

  1. Om nom nom!! May I request a recipe for the pumpkin chiffon pie? It sounds divine!

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  2. Totally love leftover pumpkin pie for breakfasts, too!

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  3. That looks so delicious! I'm so happy to be a dual citizen, so I'm SUPER excited for my Thanksgiving meal next week. Woo!

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  4. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. The food is sooooooo gooooood!

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  5. Mmmmmmm!

    So proud of you for pulling all that off. I am many years away from such a feat :)

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  6. That "mousse pie" looks SO yum!

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  7. I LOOOOVE turkey dinner, which is why I'm peeved that a certain recently-moved-to-town inlaw wants to host it.

    Maybe I'll just celebrate American Thanksgiving instead. :)

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  8. I think pumpkin pie for breakfast is one of the best things about Thanksgiving.

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  9. Mmm...pie. I think celebrating American Thanksgiving is a great idea. It's sort of like being neighborly, yes? ;)

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  10. OhmyGod. Mousse pie. I need mousse pie all of a sudden. Damn you!

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  11. It is always acceptable to put chocolate mousse in a pie crust.

    (Usually, I put the mousse into the fancy crystal wine glasses we inherited from Dan's grandma, leaving the regular wine glasses for wine. But if you don't have any grandma wine glasses, then this remedy will not work for you.)

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  12. Pie for breakfast is pretty much the most awesome thing ever and probably the best part of being a grown up.

    Also, did you make the roasted whole carrots? Do you have a recipe? They look AMAZING and I want them.

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  13. I think you should most definately have Thanksgiving again. And if you want, I'll come to thisone to test the stuff out. No really, you're welcome.

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  14. Yum! Looks great and makes me look forward to my Thanksgiving next week!

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  15. Your Thanksgiving meal looks amazing! I was wondering how it all worked out after your panicked Twitter posts, so I'm very glad it came out so well! Everything looks delicious... I say you should celebrate the American one too so we can have more pretty photos of yummy food. :-)

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  16. Um, come to DC and you can cook me a Thanksgiving dinner. Please bring pups. Shawn is also welcome.

    Merci and thank you.

    I also have a working sink.

    And dishwasher.

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  17. *DROOOOOOOOL* i am fairly DYING for it to be next thursday already so i can go to my mom's house and EAT MY FACE OFF. why is it not thursday yet? why?

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  18. Look at all that deliciousness, lady! Well done!

    Also, cowboy anything just sounds better, in my opinion. Maybe not anything, now that I type that. Like, cowboy lice definitely does not sound better.

    Cripes. Aren't you glad I'm not at your holiday dinners?

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  19. I have never made pumpkin pie but would love to and your mums pumpkin chiffon pie sounds so yummy. Would you share the recipe :-).
    Also can we all come to yours for dinner next week that food looks perfectly scrumpy. (yum)

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  20. Looks super yummy! We planned our own Thanksgiving meal last night, (including a shopping list and a day-of schedule,) and I'm embarrassingly excited about all the cooking that will be happening!

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  21. Looks great!! I had Canadian Thanksgiving this year with my Canadian friend in Philly that I hadn't seen in about 8 years. It was so much fun!

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