My family is getting together next month at a family cottage to celebrate when we are all able to be there. So for this weekend I cooked dinner for me the hubby and my mom cause my dad is out west at the moment.
You'd think that would mean it would be a small affair but for me any holiday can never be small. I love to entertain, cook and be festive! So here is a little peak into our holiday season.
Got these super cute little cupcake toppers, how perfect are they!?! I made vanilla cupcakes with cherry pie filling and cream cheese icing. (and yes those are my magical white pumpkins I have been dreaming of since last year)
The makings of a pretty table setting!
A little afternoon snack! Baked Cream Cheese Crab Dip!
A must for my turkey is a brine (recipe to follow photos)
A turkey brine makes the juciest turkey you'll ever eat, I promise!
My Brine Recipe
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sea salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 whole heads of garlic
large pot
water
Fill pot up 1/3 full with water, add salt and sugar bring to a boil and simmer till all is dissolved. Take off of heat, add ice and cool water till pot is 2/3 full. Wait until water is 100% cooled down and add in whole defrosted turkey add as much water as required to cover turkey. Then add in rosemary, and cut garlic heads in half to add in as well.
You want to let it soak for at least 6 hours at most 30 hours. If you don't have the fridge space to keep it cool remove some liquid every few hours and add ice.
Cook turkey as usual but you will not have to baste as often and be sure that if you use the drippings for gravy you put a potato cut into 4 in the pan when reducing liquid to soak up the salt. I made the mistake of not doing that one year and on man it was like salt water lol no good.
Table before and after food is cooked lol ( yes I turned a pumpkin into a vase for the table center piece <3)
YUM! So we had brown sugar and cilantro carrots, my moms recipe homemade stuffing (I am addicted to hers and never care to try another recipe lol), garlic mashed potatoes with a sweet potato tossed in for some extra tastiness and of course TURKEY!
After we digested and cleaned up, we settled in for a game of rummy and had an AMAZING pie that my mom picked up from the farmers market off of Bronson. Apple caramel walnut pie!
What a beautiful meal! And here I am waiting for my fiance to get home to we can have dinner...not helping! haha! Looks like you had a lovely holiday!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much honey! It really was a nice day with my family and I am thankful for every day like that we get to share together! Plus I am a pig so that much food involved is a bouns lol
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