i am piggy, hear me roar...

or just trod about in a permanent food coma. here's the best post of the year- thanksgiving recap. i'll swing through dinner real quick and then get to the main event. a lot of the main foods were repeat favorites from last year but i will insert links to the ones that are new that were based on recipes.

the main meal

the vegetarian's plate (aka, me, the rest of the carnivorous fam had hunks of turkey on their plates). the great thing about being the thanksgiving meal planner is that i get full reign on what people eat :)

- rosemary butter roasted turkey: rub the butter and rosemary under the skin of the turkey, no need to cover or put on new butter!
- smashed potatoes: half of it made up of pureed roasted cauliflower with laughing cow garlic cheese
- roasted brussels sprouts: toss in olive oil with salt and pepper
- roasted autumn squash: chop it up, use a vegetable peeler to take off the tough exterior then chop, olive oil, salt, and pepper and bake in the oven for about 20-30 minutes (flip the pieces every so often)
- rosemary bunny biscuits
- tart cranberry sauce: we used lemon juice instead of orange juice this time, delish!
- corn casserole: eum eum good. corn tastes so much better when it's loaded with cheese, i used yogurt in place of the sour cream. you can go ahead and assemble this (w/o the cheese) earlier in the day or the night before and then pop it into the oven. i also made a thin layer of cheese in the middle of the casserole.
- green beans
- cornbread stuffing
- mushroom gravy: this year we took out the soy sauce, it tastes much better. and try to get some low sodium broth- veg or chicken

dessert

i have a slight adoration for pioneer woman, so many of these came from her. i started baking pies wednesday afternoon (i should have made the pumpkin cream pie wednesday and saved one of the pies best served warm for thanksgiving day)
- nantucket pie: the crunchy topping with the tart cranberries is so yummy! i didn't add the 2/3 cup of sugar on top of the cranberries as our family really likes the tartness of cranberries, in place of the almond extract i put in 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract.

- apple pie: i realized in my quest to make a million pies that it would help to actually have pie pans...which i didn't until later when i walked to safeway and bought another. but before that happened i really wanted to bake and baked this pie in a cake pan, which meant the crust was soaked under the bubbling apple juices and never developed a crispy crust...but, heavy cream and apple mix is delicioussssss. so next time, making this in a pie pan
- sweet potato pie: i didn't use any grated orange peel and had korean sweet potatoes

- pecan and date pie: first time our family had anything close to a pecan pie, not my favorite but it was still tasty. the dates give the pie a nice texture difference with the nuts. i just used a pillsbury pre-made pie crust instead of making the one in the recipe. i also didn't have dark corn syrup so i used light corn syrup which i think still looked pretty.
- pumpkin cream pie: probably my favorite for the year. i processed gingersnap cookies and then mixed with melted butter to make the crust. man, i wish i had more...

whoosh, gluttony is probably not very becoming, especially when my pants probably don't fit anymore. i also didn't realize how much i baked until i typed it all out.