Leftovers!

So Thanksgiving was a success. I think I can say that. I figure if my food was really nasty I wouldn't still be eating it, five days later. I usually have a four day leftover limit, but with Thanksgiving leftovers I extend my limit by one day so I can get a bit more of the stuffing and sweet potatoes and sprouts that I love so much. I figure I am willing to put up with a tiny bit of mold and funk since Thanksgiving is just so good. Yum.

A full fridge. And my Innocent with its cute little knit hat. So cute.

I learned a few things about cooking Thanksgiving dinner. One, don't cut yourself during the second Thanksgiving related task you are doing. Yes, I did that. I started to prep on Wednesday and during the second job I did, cutting the bread for the stuffing, I managed to also cut two of my fingers with the serrated knife. So fun. So for the next day and a half I cooked like this (to save my guests from being served turkey with a side of blood):

Another gem I learned is that Thanksgiving is one of those nights where you tend to go just a liiitttllleee overboard. You make two types of potatoes because you love mashed so much, even if someone else in your family prefers roasted. You make stuffing because, again, you love it so much, even if the same person in your family won't touch it. You make two desserts, a pumpkin pie (with homemade pie crust) and a fruit crumble because one dessert isn't enough, and fruit desserts are just so appropriate. You make two homemade hors d'oeuvres to go with that roasted pear Bellini you insist on serving, because the roasted pear Bellini sounds too damn good not to make (and trust me, it was damn good), and so you need food to go along with it. So yes, I went overboard and made too much but hey! At least I am enjoying it all over again, for five. straight. days.

My arms, the bird apres Dave's stellar carving job and the other stuff.

Another helpful tidbit is to check your oven to make sure the heat is on, because YES, my oven decided to shut itself off right after I put the turkey in. I could not believe it. I had the dumb thing on for about five straight hours on Thursday, and then the turkey goes in, and the oven decides it's done for the day. The knob was switched to "on," the light was on, but there was no heat. For 90 minutes. Dave, his dad and I stood around staring at the stupid bird saying "it looks just as it did 90 minutes ago. It hasn't changed." Luckily the oven decided to cooperate after I turned it off and back on, and since I was using the convection setting, it heated up quite quickly. Instead of the turkey being done at 7:15, the heat came back at 7, so the turkey took until 8:30. It actually went much quicker than I expected, but I guess having a small-ish bird helped. When I finally checked the temperature, the meat thermometer shot up to 180, which is the high range, and I immediately thought "oh, no! Now it's going to be DRY!" But it wasn't, it was actually pretty good. I had slathered the thing with a pancetta butter, so that helped.

My pie was a huge success, based on the comments my lovely guests made. Dave even went so far as to say it was the best dessert he's ever had. Let me repeat that - the BEST dessert he has EVER had. And I didn't even need to pay him to say that. And it was just a Williams-Sonoma recipe. Yeah for Williams-Sonoma! The crust did not come out well. The raw crust looked amazing, then it shrank in the oven and got all blobby and wrinkly and I kept trying to push it back up the sides of the pie dish. I think the filling was so good, the less-than-flaky, too-thick-crust was forgiven.

I still have the turkey carcass in my fridge, does anyone want it? Maybe I'll leave it lying around to see if Riley picks it up and takes it to bed with her. Overall, my first Thanksgiving was a nice surprise. I would do it again next year...I think...although NOT doing it again next year sounds just fine too.

 Riley, hoping hoping hoping she gets some food. She got a little.

Here she's thinking that UNDER the table is a better strategy for finding bits of turkey. It wasn't.

And now - on to Christmas shopping!