I realize I’m a dollar short and a day six days late on this Thanksgiving blog post, but hey, better late than never, right?

Last Thanksgiving prompted two blog posts about the turkey day meal: one mostly about my family visiting and details about the meal, and one in which I professed my love and thanks for my wonderful chef boyfriend. This year I’m going to endeavor to combine both the meal details and professions of love/thanks in one post. Let’s get all the lovey-dovey stuff out of the way first, shall we?

I often pick on Mark by saying that I’m the multitasker in the relationship. Let’s just say that he’s skillful when focused on one thing at a time and the reverse is not always true. The funny thing is, the exception is when it comes to cooking. And not only is cooking the exception to Mark’s inability to multitask, it’s also the exception to my ability to multitask. (I have burned more meals than I care to remember.) But, wait, that sounds like a backwards compliment. Here’s the accompanying forward compliment:

In short, Mark made Thanksgiving happen. Leading up to T-day, Mark did 90% of the work. He checked out the options for local turkeys, researched the living conditions on each farm, and coordinated the purchase of our local bird from our awesome coop. He planned out recipes, shopping lists, and a myriad of strategies for brining and cooking the turkey. He coordinated dishes that everyone was making, and compiled them in a Google Doc. And then he did most of the cooking.

I am so thankful to have such a wonderful guy in my life, with whom I can share this house, these meals, and this life journey.

Okay, on to less mushy, more serious topics, like food. (Well, some of the food is mushy, but, oh nevermind.)

This year, one of our awesome roommates and a friend of his joined in on the Thanksgiving fun, and for most of the day, Roommie and Mark were in the kitchen cooking. I made a few side dishes, but really I wanted to stay out of the kitchen as much as possible.

As you may know, our kitchen is not a fun kitchen for cooking. I mean, it’s fun if you like small kitchens with limited counter space. But it’s really not ideal or even possible for three people to simultaneously be preparing and cooking dishes, opening the refrigerator and oven and dishwasher, and keeping up with the dirty dishes piling up. So I left the kitchen stuff up to the boys and found other things to do: cleaning the house, organizing, watering plants, drinking mimosas, and just generally getting into the holiday spirit.

On a sidenote: how cool is it that I have men in my life who love to cook? I could go off on another tangent about gender roles and societal norms, but I’ll save that for another day.

In case you’re wondering, the meal turned out fantastic! Read on for details about our food, complete with links and photos.

Turkey – Our 14.5lb bird was from Stonewood Farm in Orwell, VT. Our turkey’s story, from the Stonewood Farm website, is as follows:
We grow our turkeys naturally; that is we do not feed antibiotics or growth hormones. We ready our turkeys for your family without using any preservatives or artificial ingredients. Just plenty of fresh Vermont air, cool nights, green pastures, good feed and tender loving care on our family farm.
In case anyone needs a reminder, the majority of turkeys raised for Thanksgiving meals do not have such natural living conditions. Let’s call this yet another blog post for yet another day.

Turkey brining and roasting techniques were based on the wisdom of Alton Brown.

Gravy – made from turkey juices, seasoned with herbs, and thickened with flour.

Stuffing – Mark has a fascination with dry stuffing-mixes-as-snack-food. Maybe it’s the crunch. Maybe it’s the flavor. All I know is, we acquired about five bags of organic stuffing mix back when they were on sale at Cheese Traders, and Thanksgiving was the perfect excuse to break a few out!

Whole wheat biscuits – These were mostly gone by the time dinner came around as we had been munching all day.

Kale salad – I love Heidi Swanson’s food blog 101 Cookbooks and always seek out recipes of hers when I’m making a meal. I knew I wanted to incorporate kale from our garden into Thanksgiving, and I did it by mostly following her recipe. I omitted the bread since the meal was already carb-heavy.

Mashed potatoes with kale – The two go hand-in-hand like peanut butter and jelly. In a waaaay more sophisticated way.

Creamed spinach and kale – Mark’s new signature dish, the creamed greens were smooth and tasty, and, well, green.

Why so much kale? We just had to throw kale into every recipe possible, partly because we still have tons of it in our garden, and partly out of solidarity with Vermonter Bo Muller-Moore and his fight against Chick-fil-A. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Read this and Eat More Kale! Maple-glazed carrots – Unfortunately we’ve already eaten the last of the carrots from our garden but I bought a big 5 lb bag of local Vermont carrots, steamed them in a water + maple syrup mixture to make this an entirely local side dish that tasted like heaven.

Cranberry Relish – This was a last-minute recipe that I decided to try, based on an email from Organic Gardening that I received the morning before Thanksgiving. Mark thinks it’s weird because the peels are actually left on the oranges. I think it’s great, especially with my addition of candied ginger!

I made it the night before to let the flavors really meld together.

Canned jellied cranberry sauce – As a nod to “traditional” twenty-first century Thanksgiving meals, we had to have canned cranberry sauce. Ours was organic, and free of high fructose corn syrup, that strange man-made sweetener that has been linked to obesity.

Mac & Cheese – Another Alton Brown recipe, prepared the night before by Roomie.

Broccoli with rice casserole – With apologies to Uncle Ben and Cheeze Whiz, this dish prepared by Roomie contained some god-forsaken products. While I don’t typically eat “food products” I can report that I did try a little and it didn’t kill me.

Roasted Veggies – Deliciously seasoned, perfectly roasted veggies, again prepared by Roomie.

Apple Pie – I popped my apple pie in to bake while we were eating the main courses. By the time we had room for dessert – hours later – it had cooled nicely and was ready to go. Hey Nick from Shelburne Orchards, I understand why this is your favorite apple pie recipe!

Chocolate Chip Cookies – I followed a basic cookie recipe and reduced the sugar slightly. Don’t skimp on the addition of nuts! We enjoyed a combo of walnuts and cashews.

No Bake Oatmeal Peanut Butter Chocolate Cookies – Yet another Roomie creation, no-bake cookies were completely foreign to me until the day before Thanksgiving. Wow, how have I missed out on these my whole life?

Enjoy some photos below of our meal and hanging out digesting afterward.

Buffet-style was definitely the way to go!

A random and colorful assortment of yummies.

Cheers!

Time for dessert.

Post-meal hangout time included: guitars, wine & a roaring fire. Also making appearances that night but not pictured here were: my djembe drum, Roomie’s upright bass (my first time trying to play one – I think I’m in love!), a movie on the TV temporarily moved to the living room, and lots of bad karaoke. By “bad” of course I mean good.

Very, very good.