madamjujujive’s Neighborhood

2:30 minutes of animated butterflies and dragonflies.  Well worth your two minutes.

This was the holiday...

Table

I made these cute little placecards that look like wheat sheaths, which ended up taking a lot longer than I thought, but I can use them again eventually.

Here's the day's menu. I did end up dropping one dish mainly due to time constraints (the green beans). I took Wednesday off to prepare, but it still ended up taking a little longer than I thought.

Menu

My turkey process was very simple - easiest part of the meal. I brined the turkey in saltwater for six hours, patted it dry, then let it air dry in the fridge, uncovered, for 24 hours -- that gets the skin super crispy. It took about 2.5 hours to cook, starting breast-side down for 45 minutes, then each wing side for 15 minutes, then the breast up for 30 minutes, basting with melted butter on each turn.

Turkey

Turkey2

I just got through all the turkey leftovers, upon making a turkey tetrazzini the other night. And the bones made a bunch of rich turkey stock.

Here's some cranberry grappa jelly that I made. I wanted a homemade version of the canned jellied cranberry sauce. Everyone else seemed to prefer the whole berry cranberry sauce, but there's still a place in my heart for the jellied. The dish wasn't hard to make, but a little time-consuming because you have to strain it, and let it set in the fridge for several hours.

Cranberrygrappajelly

Brusselssprouts

This Thanksgiving, the honey learned how to carve a turkey from my mom:

Lucarving

Here's the family grabbing some food -

Buffet

then sitting down at the table...

Fam

And the honey and I when it was all done... whew...

Us