Sunday Roast Chicken Dinner

I love cooking for my boyfriend.  He is willing to try anything and thinks everything tastes great.  It's wonderful to cook for someone who's so appreciative and open-minded.  Usually he lets me decide what I feel like cooking, so when he makes a special request I pay attention.  He enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner this year and was interested in a repeat.  Since it's easier to find chickens, I substitute roasting a chicken instead of turkey.  It's really the perfect meal for Sunday, when you have extra time to spend in the kitchen.  Plus we'll have some great leftovers for lunches this week.

 Arugula salad with fresh orange champagne vinaigrette.

 Roast chicken.  Lightly salted and roasted at 350F on top of onion and carrots.

 Mashed potatoes.

 Green Bean Casserole.  Fresh beans are quickly boiled and blanched in cold water.  Nice bright flavor.

Homemade stuffing.  Japanese-style bread is toasted in the oven, then mixed with celery, mushrooms, onions, herbs and chicken stock.  I also made some chicken gravy with the pan drippings and roasted onions and carrots in the roasting pan. 

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving, it's a day to bring people together and give thanks for all the wonderful people in our lives and events we have experienced.  What I do not like is traveling by plane, train or car during this 4-day weekend.  This year I spent Thanksgiving with my boyfriend and a few friends who were staying in the area.  I haven't cooked a full Thanksgiving meal in a while, so it was with a bit of trepidation and excitement that I planned what to cook.

 My boyfriend's a Southern boy at heart, so he wanted some macaroni and cheese.  I made it with spinach, gruyere and a 3 cheese blend.  Due to limited oven space, I made it Tuesday night. It was ok but a little too crunchy on the top.

 I made a vegetarian and a meat-based dressing.  Listening to NPR, I got the idea to cook chicken drumsticks on top of the sausage dressing to give it that "stuffed in a turkey" flavor. I made both dressings Wednesday evening.

 My boyfriend picked up some pretty flowers for the table.

 We started off with some nibbles as I cooked the turkey.  Marcona almonds with sea salt and rosemary, olives, roasted red peppers, grapes, smoked salmon, salami and a smoked trout dip.  I also made two flatbreads, one with zucchini and feta and the other with mushrooms, zucchini and feta.

 We bought a 12 pound turkey, which I basted with a sage-thyme butter.  I roasted the turkey on top of onion, carrot, celery and some turkey stock, and placed lemon, onion and herbs inside the cavity.

 We needed a bit more space, so we set up a table to hold the hot dishes include mushroom dressing, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, sausage dressing, turkey, buttermilk biscuits and a cranberry nut bread.

 For a few lighter sides, I made green beans with lemon, salad and carrots with thyme.

 My turkey carving skills would have been aided by having a proper carving knife on-hand.  

The sausage dressing turned out much more flavorful than previous renditions.  The roasted chicken dumsticks gave a lovely aroma and moistness to the dressing.

***

Thanksgiving is so much more special when you can spend it with family or friends, and I'm so thankful I could spend mine with some wonderful people.  I think a few things could have been cooked with more finesse, but there were no major kitchen catastrophes and everyone had a full belly and a nice evening, which I consider to be a success.