I've never done a Thanksgiving before, so I'm pretty pleased that this one turned out so well. We held it at my roommate's parents' house, where I cooked for a total of nine people. Way more food for way more people than I've ever cooked for.
The main course was ham, because I wouldn't know what to do with a turkey and also ham is fucking delicious. I basted it in a glaze of brown sugar, dijon mustard, and balsamic vinegar. I baked it for about an hour, then laid strips of bacon on top of the ham. It was ten pounds and spiral-cut, so the glaze and bacon fat dripped into the ham itself. My goal was to have the bacon crust actually be edible, Epic Mealtime-style, but it was way underdone so I ended up removing it and saving it for later.
Mashed taters mixed with gooed onions (sauteed with a pinch of baking soda until they basically melt), butter, and salt. I made them tasty enough to get away with not serving a gravy--I'd planned to make a quick brown gravy but ran out of time.
I was going to make these green beans my dad is famous for, and also steamed broccoli with cheddar sauce, but I ended up forgetting to bring the damn green beans. So I combined them--steamed broccoli with the bacon dijon vinaigrette that usually goes in the beans. The vinaigrette is pretty simple: bacon grease (bulk it up with olive oil if you don't haven enough grease), white whine vinegar (or red, it really doesn't matter), dijon mustard, crumbled bacon. Put the bacon in last so it's still a bit crunchy when served. I also made butter rolls and pretzel rolls; I just made two batches of butter roll dough, and boiled half of it in baking soda water before they went into the oven.
For dessert I made four pies: three applesauce pies and one cranberry sauce pie. One of the applesauce pies I topped with cheddar cheese and the leftover bacon from the ham (I fried it up crispy before putting it on the pie), then put it under the broiler for a minute or two to melt the cheese.
All in all, it was an overwhelming success. My main fear was that I wouldn't have enough food for everyone--originally, I was going to make sweet potato casserole, too; thankfully I didn't, because we're going to be eating leftovers for a week as it is.
Next year I'll get a little less traditional, I think.
The main course was ham, because I wouldn't know what to do with a turkey and also ham is fucking delicious. I basted it in a glaze of brown sugar, dijon mustard, and balsamic vinegar. I baked it for about an hour, then laid strips of bacon on top of the ham. It was ten pounds and spiral-cut, so the glaze and bacon fat dripped into the ham itself. My goal was to have the bacon crust actually be edible, Epic Mealtime-style, but it was way underdone so I ended up removing it and saving it for later.
Mashed taters mixed with gooed onions (sauteed with a pinch of baking soda until they basically melt), butter, and salt. I made them tasty enough to get away with not serving a gravy--I'd planned to make a quick brown gravy but ran out of time.
I was going to make these green beans my dad is famous for, and also steamed broccoli with cheddar sauce, but I ended up forgetting to bring the damn green beans. So I combined them--steamed broccoli with the bacon dijon vinaigrette that usually goes in the beans. The vinaigrette is pretty simple: bacon grease (bulk it up with olive oil if you don't haven enough grease), white whine vinegar (or red, it really doesn't matter), dijon mustard, crumbled bacon. Put the bacon in last so it's still a bit crunchy when served. I also made butter rolls and pretzel rolls; I just made two batches of butter roll dough, and boiled half of it in baking soda water before they went into the oven.
For dessert I made four pies: three applesauce pies and one cranberry sauce pie. One of the applesauce pies I topped with cheddar cheese and the leftover bacon from the ham (I fried it up crispy before putting it on the pie), then put it under the broiler for a minute or two to melt the cheese.
All in all, it was an overwhelming success. My main fear was that I wouldn't have enough food for everyone--originally, I was going to make sweet potato casserole, too; thankfully I didn't, because we're going to be eating leftovers for a week as it is.
Next year I'll get a little less traditional, I think.
