Thanksgiving 2014 Menu

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday today. Pictured above is my Thanksgiving dinner from last year. Most of the recipes for the dishes pictured appeared on my site this year (including the turkey, stuffing, Brussels sprouts, biscuits and bacon marmalade).

Some of these recipes will look familiar if you've been reading my blog this month, as they've appeared in the last few weeks. Thus, some of the dishes I'm making for Thanksgiving today may appear on my site next year. Put another way, about half the Thanksgiving dishes I write about each year were made the previous year. Although sitting on great recipes for a year isn't easy, it's the best way to make sure I have a good mix of recipes. Plus, sharing Thanksgiving recipes the week after Thanksgiving isn't particularly helpful. I supplement the dishes from the previous year by making other Thanksgiving dishes in October.

Below is my menu for today. Come back next year and you'll probably see the recipes for many of these dishes.


Thanksgiving 2014 Menu

Stuffing-brined roast turkey breast (an original recipe, and a bit of an experiment. Will brining a turkey in an aromatic mix of stuffing herbs and vegetables infuse the turkey with subtle stuffing flavor?)

Bacon-shallot gravy (a Food & Wine recipe)

Sausage-cornbread stuffing (my classic family recipe and my favorite Thanksgiving stuffing; after 3 years, I can't believe I haven't shared this recipe yet)

Extra buttery mashed potatoes (a Bon Appétit recipe)

Deconstructed sweet potato casserole (an original recipe reinventing the sweet potato casserole with whole roasted chunks of sweet potato, bacon, pecans and a drizzle of maple-ginger-soy sauce)

Buttermilk biscuits (a Serious Eats recipe using a laminating technique to create flaky layers)

Apple butter (a Food Network recipe)

Cranberries cooked in honey (a Tarver King recipe that appeared in the Washington Post)

Green bean, quinoa and almond salad with yogurt-dill dressing (an adaptation of a recipe I found on Wandering Spice)

Apple pie with oatmeal crust (recipe from The Spice House)

Salted caramel ice cream (a Food Network recipe)

Wines: Schiefer Blaufränkisch Pala 2011 (Austria) and Henry Fessy Crus du Beaujolais 2011 (France) with thanks to My Poor Liver Podcast for help in selecting great wines.