Easy First Thanksgiving Meal: You Can Do it Too!
Sharing what I made, the prep, how long it took to cook, and thing’s I’ll do differently next year.
This was my first Thanksgiving where I was living alone, far away from family and, unfortunately, wasn’t able to go home for the long weekend. Flights were very expensive, it would have taken a day to travel there and back- with those variables, it didn’t happen this year. Although sad to not be home with my extended family and friends group, I was able to cook a whole meal (by myself!) for my boyfriend and I this year — small crowd!
I had asked my boyfriend what his favorite side for Thanksgiving was- and we each got to chose one to have with our meal. He chose mashed potatoes and gravy… My tried and true, never fails, best side for Thanksgiving is green bean casserole- no one will ever change my mind. Since we just moved, I tried out or regional store — King Sooper’s — grocery pickup. When I ordered, they were offering a special of $15 off your first pickup and no fee! About 10 days before the holiday, I took advantage of this and got (most) of the ingredients we needed, our turkey, and the rest of our groceries for the week. I ended up spending about $95 in total with the $15 off and some additional products that they were out of when I picked-up that I purchased later on.
Tip 1: Shop early! I know from working in a grocery store for 10 years and from personal experience- If you are having a small gathering, you want to pick up your turkey as soon as you can and keep it in the freezer. The stores do not get many small turkeys in stock, so you want to act fast to get one under 14 pounds.
The Menu
Herb and Butter Roasted Turkey
Herb Baked Stuffing with Gravy
Chunky Cranberry and Apple Sauce
Green Bean Casserole
Pecan Pie
Turkey time!
The turkey that I decided to make was a recipe (I adapted a little) from Half Baked Harvest. Tieghan’s recipes I sometimes find to have a lot of butter, cream or cheese in them, but this one was for a special day and I didn’t find too much out of my comfort zone. I followed her timing for taking the turkey out of the fridge (12:30pm for me) and then cooking and resting it. Some adaptations that I made: I did not have any cheesecloth (and was not about to head to the grocery store on Thanksgiving), so instead of using 2 sticks of butter — 1 for under the skin and 1 for soaking the cheesecloth — I found that using just one — about half for under the skin and half to brush on the outside of the turkey during roasting was plenty. I brushed the additional butter/drippings about every 30 minutes on the turkey. Additionally, I didn’t pick up fresh herbs and instead used dried that I had on hand and it turned out beautifully.
My turkey’s thermometer did “pop” much sooner than instructed in the recipe- so if you have a smaller turkey than in the recipe (14–16lbs)- next time I would try roasting at 450° for only 30 minutes and then lowering the temperature to 350°. In total, the cooking will take less time for a smaller turkey- but I am glad I watched the thermometer rather than jus relying on the time this Thanksgiving.
Iended up not using the white wine gravy recipe that Tieghan describes here, just because I didn’t have any white wine on hand — how could I not, I don’t know! In the frozen turkey I bought, there ended up being a gravy packet that came with it, so instead I followed that recipe and it turned out decent!
Tip #2: If you don’t have a fat-separator measuring cup, you can pour your drippings into a normal liquid measuring cup and place it in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Then, just skim the fat that rises/solidifies off the top with a spoon!
Stuff that bird!
This recipe by How Sweet Eats was so good! I ended up purchasing a 12oz bag of stuffing bread (cubed) from the store, so I had to 2/3 this recipe to make the proportions right. Again, I used dried herbs in this recipe (same measurements) and liked it just the same! The bag of stuffing bread came with a packet of powdered herbs, which I think must have had additional salt in it, because with the salt the recipe called for and this packet, the stuffing was a bit salty. Knock down the salt if you end up using both, like me! Towards the end of when the turkey was done, I started to prepare the stuffing and when the turkey came out, I put the stuffing in. I like to eat my stuffing with gravy on top, and add a bit of cranberry sauce, too.
Cranberry sauce that we made this year was at recommendation from my boyfriend’s mom, who makes this every year for his family. It was really good! It is similar to one that my mom and I like, that essentially switches out the apples for pears. After tasting this recipe, I also thought it would do well cooked down a little more and made into a tart- from savory to sweet in no time! I made the cranberry sauce when the turkey had just started roasting so that it could chill for a couple hours before dinner time.
Chunky Cranberry and Apple Sauce
Ingredients:
1 cup water (or apple juice or apple cider)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1.5 cups of peeled, cored and diced apples (I used fuji)
12 oz bag of fresh cranberries
1 t pie spice
1/4 t vanilla extract
- Add the water, sugar and maple syrup to a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil.
- Add in the diced apples and cook for ~5 minutes until soft.
- Add in the bag of cranberries and the pie spice. Boil, uncovered, for 10–15 minutes, until most, but not all, of the cranberries pop open.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Refrigerate for at least 1.5 hours and serve chilled.
Last but not least- the Green Bean Casserole!
Once the stuffing was in the oven for about 20 minutes, I threw the casserole in with it on a second rack. This year, I used King Sooper’s brand Fried Onions (mostly because that is all they had in stock when I ordered my groceries)- big mistake! They were beyond salty and made the whole casserole way too salty in some bites. I would recommend buying name brand French’s Fried Onions- in my experience, those are not too salty and make for a good crunch! What I did like about this Campbell’s recipe (on the can of Cream of Mushroom soup), was that they mix in some fried onions to the casserole, not just on top- this added a little bit of a different element to the dish.
Isubstituted the 1/2 cup milk for a 1/2 cup of unsweetened, vanilla almond milk. The texture and taste were the same as normal (delicious) and the cook time did not vary. I also used (drained and rinsed) french cut green beans this year, which worked better than frozen beans. Frozen beans can leave your casserole watery, so if you do use them — make sure you run them under warm water, drain and pat them dry before mixing into the casserole.
Tip #4: I recommend stirring the Green Bean Casserole half way through baking to ensure uniformity in heating.
You scream, I scream, we all scream for.. Pecan Pie?
That’s how the saying goes, right? I had made this pecan pie recipe by Food.com before and it never disappoints. Also, instead of using a store-bought crust, I made this flaky pie crust by hand which is SO good. I had never made this pie in a higher altitude before, so next bake I will bake for an additional 10 minutes (I usually do 45 minutes, based on the comments), as it was a little giggly when I cut into it a couple hours later. I made the pie first from between 10am-12pm the day of Thanksgiving! It is imperial that you add a scoop of Vanilla Bean ice cream on top of this pie and it’s always the best way to end the night.
I would say that my first Thanksgiving was a success! Even though I purchased the ingredients for, I ended up not making the mashed potatoes because it (of course) would have just been too much food for the 2 of us! 3 days later we are still eating leftovers, so I couldn’t imagine if we had mashed potatoes, too.
