Thanksgiving Meal

It still hasn’t quite set in that Thanksgiving has come and gone but I know we had our Thanksgiving meal. In fact, the leftovers are all gone!!! :-D I had initially planned on making roast duck for Thanksgiving dinner. I even bought the duck a couple of weeks ahead but wouldn’t you know it, I forgot to take the bird down from the freezer to defrost, which I realized only the day before Thanksgiving! That settled it…we were having turkey! Of course, at that point, the only fresh turkey I could find in the store was turkey wings. That reminded me of Thanksgiving two years ago when we had turkey wings as well because they were the only ones available on Thanksgiving morning itself. Hmmmm…I wonder if this is going to be a tradition in this household? *grin*

Not wanting to spend all of Thanksgiving Day away from Keith and Alex, I opted to make simple but traditional side dishes – cranberry sauce, green beans, gravy, baked sweet potatoes (in place of mashed potatoes to avoid dairy), and stuffing. As for the wings, I decided to cook them according to a recipe in The America’s Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook – Chicken in a Pot with Thyme and Lemon. OMG! Not only did the technique of slow-cooking the bird or in our case, turkey wings with a handful of aromatics in a dutch oven (in the oven) turned out exceptionally moist and tender meat, it also produced an intense, flavorful sauce. The only downside with this method of cooking is that it does not produce crispy skin, which is eventually removed to reduce the total fat intake (I’ve got to say that our dogs loved their treat!). :-D EVERYTHING was so delicious and utterly satisfying! We’re already craving for this meal all over again!

Note: The recipes – Simple Cranberry Sauce, Skillet-Braised Green Beans, and All-Purpose Gravy can be found in The America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook. You can see pictures of these dishes here.