OK, so I have some catching up to do...
Thanksgiving was SUPERB. I must say, I blew my own socks off with how good the food was!!
I had roasted and pureed and frozen a pumpkin earlier this fall from our garden bust since I was making two pumpkin desserts, I knew I had to get more pumpkin. Since they don't sell convenient canned pumpkin here... the process is always the same. This time I used a "red kuri squash" or "Hokkaido pumpkin" as they call it in Finnish.
It was the most vibrant orange that I had to take pictures.
I saved some seeds in case we can grow some of our own...
The table was festive. Thanks to my sister for lending her tablecloth!
Green bean casserole. The mushroom sauce was delicious and the crispy onion topping even more so!
The recipe can be found here from smitten kitchen
Whole turkeys here cost more than anyone was willing to spend so I opted for a turkey roulade (recipe here from the cozy apron.
I was unpleasantly surprised at the grocery store when the turkey filet section was cleared out. So we went with good ol' chicken breast. I think because I wasn't able to buy skin on breasts, the chicken was a little dry. I could have and should have not had them in the oven for the full time. But hey, hubby and I didn't care as we prefer dry chicken. I know, weird.
Anywho, the recipe made a really delicious main course and I would eat this and make it a 100x again.
(Didn't hubby do a good job of rolling those up?)
This got a little torched in the hub-bub of the last 30 minutes. But this is a sweet potato sage butter casserole. My sister and her husband went nuts for this and it's the one casserole I made two of because I knew it'd be popular. We love our starchy carbs in this family.
By the time everything was ready, we all charged at it ravenously so I forgot the picture of the stuffing but you can see it in the corner on the left of the plate there. And the cranberry sauce was orange scented and super yummy and fruity. I used frozen lingonberries since they were cheaper than cranberries and it turned out just fine. I also reduced the sugar somewhat.
(I omitted the chestnuts and instead of baking a cornbread, I bought a nice loaf of gluten-free bread)
Dessert was the traditional pumpkin pie. My nephew has said many times that it's his favorite so I took it seriously. I don't think I mentioned it before in this post, but everything you've seen has been gluten-free because of my dad's celiac disease.
Hence the pie crust looking so dark. I didn't burn it! It is made with half buckwheat flour and half gluten free flour mix. Gluten free pastry doughs have been my downfall many a time baking for my dad, so I was pleased to make a half way decent one!
Finns can see the recipe I used here at pirkka.
It's tough to find a recipe without evaporated milk and canned pumpkin! (things we don't have here)
The grown-up dessert was a pumpkin creme brulee. I'm really into them right now since I splurged on a set of ramekins and a brulee torch a couple months ago.
These were a SUCCESS and we all practically licked the ramekins clean.
Recipe here at love and olive oil
All of these recipes and the ideas for the pie and table setting can be found here on my thankgiving pinterest board.
And because no post is complete without a flower picture, here is my amaryllis that was in perfect bloom for the occasion. It's already wilted now. But it was glorious while it lasted!!!
Ah, now on to Christmas feast plans...
