(Belatedly) Thanksgiving

Guest post by Chef Adrienne:

Sharing the joy of our feast - for which we were very thankful - somehow got away from us in the last few weeks. So much holiday joy to be had, so little time. 

Very satisfying grid of cornbread I made for the pecan cornbread stuffing.

Cranberry pear dressing. Pears are a nice cut against the super sour of the cranberries.

Bread and butter: my breakfast and lunch. I was reminded of my Mammy (Pop's mom) taking a similar meal (without the tea) on days when she was over the stove cooking for a bunch of folks for a long time.

"You've got a little something on your face. Right there....No right...a little lower."

Susie whips up sweet potato pecan drop biscuits. These were delicious. 

OKAY people! Turchetta. You do all the work of butchering up front (and the sticking the carcass in the freezer for stock making) and you end up with an awesome roll of turkey stuffing deliciousness. This is the turkey marinating in herbs and spices for 24 hours.

This is the skin I removed from the turkey in one piece. 

This is all the meat put back on top of the turkey skin. You don't think it's going to fit, but then again, of course it all fits.

Smashed the stuffing on top. This was like a continent of turkey meat and cornbread. I placed a horse in the picture for scale.

After you rolled it all back up (not freakin easy!) it looked like some anaconda devoured Thanksgiving and curled up in a corner to digest. 

Tie that baby up and place it over the wings and necks in a pan with rosemary, celery and onion. 

All wrapped up in cheesecloth and roasted for a couple hours. The gravy from those pan drippings was amazing. 

Terrible light, but you get the idea. Lovely when you cut into it. 

Friday we had our traditional mashed potato croquettes with over-easy eggs.  Later that weekend I made leftover pot pie. Here's the layered pie: chopped up turkey roll, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes. 

It was amazing.

The day & all the days of leftovers were indeed amazingly satisfying. Thank you to Adrienne for all her hard work, and thank you to Susie & Paul for sharing the holiday & their incredible cooking with us!