Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house again this year. I wasn't sure how smoothly it would go having a new baby and a toddler, so I cooked a few things in advance.
Tuesday: scratch pie crust apple pie
Wednesday: I made a double batch of the traditional green bean casserole, but left off the fried onion topping so it wouldn't get soggy. I tried a new stuffing recipe from the food network. It smelled delicious as it cooked. The next day it wasn't as fantastic as I expected, so I think i'll try it again when I can serve it fresh. I also remembered to make the cranberry sauce--I just followed Ocean Spray's recipe on the bag for whole berry sauce--I think it's better when it can refrigerate overnight.
Thursday: Here's our turkey!!

Ha ha, just kidding. This is the real bird. I use Alton Brown's roasted turkey method. His method is great. I made a 17.6 pound turkey and it cooked in 2 hours 45 minutes. This year I didn't use his brine recipe though. Kyle's mom got a brine in a jar from William Sonoma---it was good, but expensive, but super simple, soo...you gotta weigh your pros and cons. I would definitely use it again.

The rest of the menu was mashed potatoes, of course, gravy, roasted brussels sprouts from Redbook Magazine...their website doesn't have it. It looked very pretty but I forgot to get a photo! Here's the recipe:
2 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
2 red bartlett pears, cored and wedged
6 shallots, quartered
10 fresh thyme sprigs
3 T olive oil
coarse salt and ground pepper

Preheat oven to 425, toss ingredients with the oil and spread out on a cookie sheet (or 2). Roast for 30-35 minutes until Sprouts are browned. YUM!

For dessert we had apple pie, pumpkin pie and pumpkin cheesecake.