In the past, this blog as gone in many directions. I recently decided to share a passion of mine. My friends and I have started a tradition of Friday night dinner parties. I live with six girls in my college apartment, and on Friday nights we all cook, and four of our guy friends bring wine and drinks over. This tradition has made us grow much closer, because nothing brings people together like sitting around the dinner table.
For our last dinner party we decided to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner. Having only one oven, minimal kitchen space and utensils, and a tight budget, this proved to be a difficult task. However I had racked up enough points on my grocery store bonus card to get a coupon for a free turkey! We decided to move our dinner to Saturday, to have time to cook the turkey, and spend Friday night cooking one of the more time-consuming side dishes.
This was my first time cooking a turkey, so I decided to do some research. It was very lucky that the week before, in the grocery store, I had read about defrosting turkeys, and had planned to purchase the turkey in advanced in order to have enough time to let it thaw. We decided on a 20 pound turkey (a massive beast) which took a substantial amount of time (and space) in the refrigerator.
On Friday night, I cooked the sweet potato casserole, my favorite dish for Thanksgiving. It is a time consuming process, because the potatoes often have to bake for over an hour to soften, and another 35 minutes in the oven to cook the casserole. We decided it was best to form a checklist, to get everything into and out of the oven in a time efficient manner, and still have everything hot!
If it is your first Thanksgiving dinner, this may be of help to you!
10:00 am: Prep the turkey
