This is obviously my favorite holiday: the whole point is friends and family gathered around a table groaning under the weight of too much delicious. I love cooking for a big table full of folks, so this is just great! We trade off hosting with a group of friends, and this year, we are the home, so I get to do the main courses. Yes, courses — why only cook a turkey, when you can also smoke a ham?
Started cooking yesterday — pie dough and cookie crumbs for the desserts. Up at 7 this morning tomake the pie fillings:
- Pumpkin (spiced heavily with garam masala)
- Key lime
- Apple
- Chocolate dulce de leche pecan (gracias a @Pati_Jinich for this show-stopping dessert)
Once they were all done and colling on the porch, time to dress the turkey and start it cooking. Lemons and a pile of aromatic herbs (rosemary, sage, bay leaves, thyme) inside, then rub he whole bird with olive oil and salt and pepper it very liberally. In a 450 oven for 15 minutes, then down to 375 for about 2 hours to cook it — it’s a 16 pounder….
Then glazing the ham and putting it outside on the smoker for a few hours. It comes in later to finish in the oven with the sage sausage stuffing.
Mulled cider is cooking in the crock pot, with the bourbon and rum alongside for drinks.
The Secret Onions are cooking — a friend called them that 25 years ago, and that is their name: onions braised in honey. The potatoes will go on shortly.
6 friends coming over with the snacks, the pasta course, and some delicious veggie side dishes.
Hoping everyone has a lovely day, eats too much, and is thankful for the people gathered around your tables out there….