Thanksgiving Feast

I know it's a little late, but I wanted to share details of our Thanksgiving feast. This year I decided to reign in my desire to make every.single.thing. I'd seen on Pinterest and instead focused on a few key menu items. I planned out my day in advance and mapped out what would go in the oven and when, and I had dinner on the table 28 minutes past my originally scheduled dinner time (insert fist pump here).

Turkey
A few years ago, I made this Alton Brown brined turkey. It was good, but it made a ridiculous mess of our oven. I hadn't really thought about how I was going to make the turkey this year, and the day before Thanksgiving a co-worker suggested this Michael Symon recipe, and it didn't disappoint.

You soak a piece of cheesecloth in some melted butter and sage, and place it over the turkey. This replaces having to cover the turkey in butter or oil (which I always got a little skeeved out by). It stays on the turkey for the duration of the cook time to keep it moist and yummy.

Bacon-Wrapped Green Beans
These were so good! Next time I'd only make enough to cover that meal as they were not that good the next day.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Cinnamon Pecan Crunch
Yum! That's the key thing to say about this dish. It was so tasty and very easy. Conveniently enough, it also cooked at the same temperature and for almost the same length as the green beans.

Mashed Potatoes
I always kind of wing it on mashed potatoes and decided not to do that this year. These were good, but I didn't think they were as fabulous as Pioneer Woman portrays them to be (and worth the amount of butter and such that went in them). Oh - and the recipe made a ton of potatoes. I couldn't believe how much we ended up with.