Bon Appetit Thanksgiving Special

I realize this has nothing to do with makeup, but I really wanted to share my thoughts on the November issue of Bon Appetit magazine.  First of all, I am a big fan of cooking, and Bon Appetit magazine, and the holidays, so when I received my Nov issue two weeks ago I was really excited by the recipes they suggest for your Thanksgiving meal.  The magazine provides suggestions and recipes for each component of Thanksgiving dinner, from the turkey, to the different gravies, sides, and stuffings. 

I made my first Thanksgiving dinner two years ago and I think the food turned out really well.  A few weeks before Thanksgiving, I went to Williams Sonoma for a turkey demonstration, which inspired me to try it myself.  It seems like it would be really complicated to produce, but with the right tools, making a turkey isn't really all that difficult.  I picked up an All-Clad roasting pan from Macys, which came with a rack and those giant forks to pick up the turkey (not sure what the technical name is for that).  At Williams Sonoma I purchased a brining solution, brining bags, and a roasting thermometer.  The thermometer is a really cool gadget: its attached to a cord which you can stick the end into the turkey, close your oven on the cord and leave the thermometer on the outside.  It tells you what the temperature of the turkey (or whatever other meat you prefer to do, it has a setting for beef, chicken, pork, etc) so you know when it's done.  Highly recommended! I believe it was a Williams Sonoma branded thermometer, for reference.

All I did to make the turkey was, wash it, soak it in the brining solution for about a day, put my turkey into the roasting pan, stuck the thermometer in, and put it in the oven until it hit 165 degrees.  I also made cranberry sauce from scatch, gravy, green beans, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing (not in the turkey, I did this on the side, since some people say putting stuffing in the turkey takes longer for the turkey to cook therefore drying it out more), and flan for dessert.  Flan isn't exactly traditional Thanksgiving dessert, but I really like making and eating it :)

I don't have a ton of time to decide whether or not I want to host thanksgiving dinner this year, but if I decide to, from the Bon Appetit recipes I would do the malt-beer-brined turkey with malt glaze, the potato gratin with mushrooms and gruyere, the maple-braised butternut squash with fresh thyme, and for dessert, the vanilla-spiced caramel and pear tart.  yummmm!