Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving
Hello all! This year I am doing two separate meals: we are going out of town to visit family for Thanksgiving, and then later that weekend I am hosting a Friendsgiving. For those of you who don't know what Friendsgiving is, it's like Thanksgiving, but with friends and sweatpants. It is generally more low-key, involves less preparation, and there are typically cocktails and/or board games.
For the family Thanksgiving, I will be providing two pies: chocolate cream and greek hazelnut. The chocolate cream pie is by special request from my partner and will be my first time making any sort of cream pie. I already warned him I am buying the crust; I have no time to mess around with a pie crust. The filling will be homemade, though, so I think it still counts. Doesn't seem to bother him, anyway!
The hazelnut pie is a take on a family tradition (although a different side of the family than who we are eating with). Greek walnut pie has been a long-standing Thanksgiving dessert in our family for many years. It is essentially baklava in pie form, made with phyllo dough, chopped nuts, and honey. This version will use hazelnuts because I have a little sister who is allergic to walnuts, as well as many other types of nut. Hazelnuts are one of the few types she can eat, so hazelnuts it is!
For Friendsgiving, I am making the whole meal but on a smaller scale. I am not cooking a whole turkey. In fact, I may never again cook a whole turkey as long as I live. It is painstaking, time-consuming, and ultimately unrewarding. The bits and pieces never get eaten and we end up with turkey soup and sandwiches for days. I don't need that much turkey in my life, and the only part I really like is the breast. This year I am making turkey breasts. I found a sale on turkey breast tenderloins a few weeks ago, so sitting in my freezer are three packs with two large cuts each. That should be plenty for four adults, especially when you factor in the turkey leg I am also cooking for the one dark meat lover.
I am also considering doing two of the turkey breasts with a bacon wrap, just to have something different. Maybe two with bacon, two with a honey orange glaze, and two regulars, just to keep things fresh. None of this will alter the cooking time, so it's not really much more work.
To complement this meat I will have make-ahead gravy done with turkey wings, garlic mashed potatoes, and roasted root vegetables with apples, ginger, and cardamom. These veggies were a hit last year, so they are being done by special request. After dinner, dessert will be a jiggly, fluffy cheesecake (check it out here) and a second chocolate cream pie.
Since this is Friendsgiving the meal will be accompanied by watching the "Slapsgiving" episode of How I Met Your Mother, the best Thanksgiving episode of anything ever.
So, what do you think? I am both excited and nervous. This will be a lot of cooking firsts for me: the turkey leg, the chocolate cream pie, the jiggly cheesecake. That's a lot of potential for disaster! Hopefully the Friendsgiving cocktails and smooth over some of the stress.
Wish me luck!
For the family Thanksgiving, I will be providing two pies: chocolate cream and greek hazelnut. The chocolate cream pie is by special request from my partner and will be my first time making any sort of cream pie. I already warned him I am buying the crust; I have no time to mess around with a pie crust. The filling will be homemade, though, so I think it still counts. Doesn't seem to bother him, anyway!
The hazelnut pie is a take on a family tradition (although a different side of the family than who we are eating with). Greek walnut pie has been a long-standing Thanksgiving dessert in our family for many years. It is essentially baklava in pie form, made with phyllo dough, chopped nuts, and honey. This version will use hazelnuts because I have a little sister who is allergic to walnuts, as well as many other types of nut. Hazelnuts are one of the few types she can eat, so hazelnuts it is!
For Friendsgiving, I am making the whole meal but on a smaller scale. I am not cooking a whole turkey. In fact, I may never again cook a whole turkey as long as I live. It is painstaking, time-consuming, and ultimately unrewarding. The bits and pieces never get eaten and we end up with turkey soup and sandwiches for days. I don't need that much turkey in my life, and the only part I really like is the breast. This year I am making turkey breasts. I found a sale on turkey breast tenderloins a few weeks ago, so sitting in my freezer are three packs with two large cuts each. That should be plenty for four adults, especially when you factor in the turkey leg I am also cooking for the one dark meat lover.
I am also considering doing two of the turkey breasts with a bacon wrap, just to have something different. Maybe two with bacon, two with a honey orange glaze, and two regulars, just to keep things fresh. None of this will alter the cooking time, so it's not really much more work.
To complement this meat I will have make-ahead gravy done with turkey wings, garlic mashed potatoes, and roasted root vegetables with apples, ginger, and cardamom. These veggies were a hit last year, so they are being done by special request. After dinner, dessert will be a jiggly, fluffy cheesecake (check it out here) and a second chocolate cream pie.
Since this is Friendsgiving the meal will be accompanied by watching the "Slapsgiving" episode of How I Met Your Mother, the best Thanksgiving episode of anything ever.
So, what do you think? I am both excited and nervous. This will be a lot of cooking firsts for me: the turkey leg, the chocolate cream pie, the jiggly cheesecake. That's a lot of potential for disaster! Hopefully the Friendsgiving cocktails and smooth over some of the stress.
Wish me luck!