Kick off to Thanksgiving Week

Jason and I had his side of the family over Saturday night for an early Thanksgiving dinner since everyone will be spending Thanksgiving Day other places. It isn't often that we are all able to get together so it was really nice to have everyone over to kick off the holidays with family. We stuck to a traditional Thanksgiving meal so we Jason was in charge of the turkey while I made cornbread dressing (recipe coming soon), salad and a dessert. Each guest brought a side dish as well to contribute to the meal. It was a feast for sure.

Spring mix, chopped pears, cranberries, sugared mix nuts, and feta cheese

 

I think we got a little carried away this year when buying a turkey because we had this 19 pound bird to prepare...Holy big bird! We are currently making our way through lots of turkey leftovers and it's not even Thanksgiving yet. Hopefully I won't be throwing in the towel before Thursday.

 

 I have to brag on my husband for a minute and tell you how wonderful this turkey turned out. The meat literally fell off the bone as he was carving it. While he was cooking I found him a time or two dancing around the kitchen saying how much he loves cooking a turkey. It's the little things that make us happy.

After removing the giblets out of the cavity he filled the turkey with chopped onion, sliced apples, and celery. On the side he made a marinade using 1 tablespoon Sriracha ( he has a slight obsession), 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, and about 15 oz. of worchestire and teriyaki sauce each. He added some thyme and rosemary into the marinade and placed a few springs of rosemary under the skin of the turkey. After pouring 1/2 stick of melted butter over the turkey and sprinkling it with salt and pepper Jason poured the marinade over the turkey along with some of the aromatics that didn't fit inside. He then loosely covered the roasting pan with foil and baked the turkey in the oven on 325 degrees for 4 hours. Once that was done the foil was removed and the turkey continued to cook for another hour on 425 degrees. If you are cooking a turkey this Thanksgiving I highly recommend adding some spices under the skin because it really adds a lot of flavor to the meat.

 

The skin looks burnt but I promise it was not