Non-Cooking: Thanksgiving in January!!!

If you are a cooking junkie like me, the epitome of the cooking experience each year is Thanksgiving. In September/October, I kept seeing recipes for Thanksgiving foods (stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, etc.) and I was dying to try my hand at them. However, I always travel to Philadelphia to spend Thanksgiving with my dad's family, so for actual Thanksgiving I was limited to making a pecan pie and buttermilk biscuits (mmmm, pecan pie and biscuits). A few weeks ago, I decided to throw my own Thanksgiving, because let's face it, no one would object to a second Thanksgiving. I waited until the holiday season was finished, invited friends and family over, and got to planning.

This was my first time attempting to cook for a large party (12 of us in total), and trying to make more than one appetizer/main meal/dessert combo. In planning the menu/timing of everything, I looked for things cooked  tried to avoid cooking multiple hot items that needed the oven. I went pretty traditional with the side courses, but veered from tradition when it came to the meat. I am not a big Turkey person, and had seen an awesome looking Prime Rib & Roasted Vegetables recipe in Cook's Country magazine that had caught my fancy. My parents got me a roasting pan for Christmas, and this seemed like the perfect way to break it in! Now, I have never had prime rib before. I also was completely unaware of how expensive it was! However, I didn't let any of that stop me! The one change I made (which I am really happy I did) was to go smaller on the prime rib & to add a slow cooked pork loin as well. 

Overall, I decided on the following menu (pictures to follow) - all recipes are some offshoot of either America's Test Kitchen or Brown Eyed Baker:

1) Garlic/Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

2) Crispy Skillet Stuffing 

3) Roasted Prime Rib + Roasted Vegetables (my first time ever having prime rib! boy is it expensive!)

4) Slow-cooked pork loin w/ cranberry sauce

5) Whole Wheat Rolls

6) Sweet Potato Pie

7) Dutch Apple Pie

8) Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars (last minute add when I freaked out about not having enough dessert that was very worth it!)

The Wednesday before my Thanksgiving, I went to my very first butcher shop! Apparently there has been one where I live for ages but I never knew about it. I was pretty intimidated by the whole experience, but I came away with a 5 lb prime rib & a 4 lb pork loin. The butcher cut the bones for the prime rib & tied it all back together so I could cook it with the bones & then easily remove them. He also let me tell him exactly where to cut the pork loin! So cool.

I prepped/aged the prime rib by scoring the stop in a crosshatch fashion, rubbing it with salt, and letting it sit uncovered in my fridge until I was ready to cook it (weird). This is apparently KEY in having a tender prime rib.

The real fun began on Friday. I stopped by the international supermarket on my way home. At the time, that was only my second trip there. After realizing how cheap and high quality the produce is, not to mention the wide variety available, I have now decided to make it a weekly stop. Seriously, I can save at least $0.70/pound on apples, and all the other vegetables are at least half the price of Giant but the same if not better quality. This meal was vegetable heavy, but I got all the vegetables I needed for $35! I was even able to find parsnips which honestly I had never even seen before. It's a bit of a zoo but worth it.

Once I got home around 6:30/7, I got to cooking and made all the desserts, finishing around 10:30/11 (life got in the way of my plans to make the pie dough ahead of time).This was my first real test on timing & I really enjoyed figuring out how all the different steps fit together. My one misstep was leaving the melted butter for the sweet potato pie in the microwave until halfway through cooking! Whoops. Luckily, it's a custard type pie so I mixed it in and didn't think it made too big of a difference.

Dutch Apple Pie (inspired by my obsession w/ Sara Lee's)

Sweet potato pie (w/ bourbon!)

Pumpkin Bars (sorry I don't have a better picture!) These were seriously delicious and I might make them for my coworkers soon.

Saturday morning, I woke up, and toasted the baguettes for the stuffing and made the rolls. 

Afterwards, I had some time before I needed to get the meat started & hit the trainer for an indoor bike ride (preparing for all the delicious calories). Then I ate lunch, and started the meat, which both took between 3 and four hours to cook and was a huge risk when it came to timing.

Aged Prime Rib

The meat dishes were super simple. For the prime rib, I just added pepper, put it on the roasting pan, and put it in the oven. For the pork loin, I seared it on each side in the skillet, then put it in the slow cooker w/ some cranberry sauce and a couple of other ingredients. Then I let them cook to the desired temperature.

I took a short break to cuddle with my cat (how can you not when he looks like that?!), then around 4 got back at it & prepared all the sides (stuffing, masted potatoes, roasted vegetables). I chopped so many vegetables! Once the prime rib was cooked to the desired temperature, I let it rest while I cranked up the oven & cooked the brussel sprouts, red onions, carrots, and parsnips in the bottom of the roasting pan (with some of the fat). When those were finished, I finished off the stuffing (which had been started on the stove & finished in the oven), and then put the prime rib back on the roasting pan & broiled the veggies/prime rib for about 5 minutes. By that time the pork loin was done. My parents arrived right on time, and they came through big in helping with last minute cleaning/prep. My other guests arrived right on time (which was quite the nice surprise) and we sat down to dinner!

Prime Rib! The vegetables were actually my favorite part of this dish but prime rib fans were quite the fans of this.

Mashed Potatoes (the only "light" recipe I used)

Skillet Stuffing (made with french baguettes versus sandwich bread)

Carving the prime rib (I am so not good at that & need better knives)

My dad helped carve the pork loin - apparently the only picture I snapped of it?!

My friends are shocked at how good everything is

Good Friends + Good Food = Happy me!

My family self-outcasted to the living room due to lack of space. At least they got invited?

Not pictured (due to not wanting the paparazzi to go crazy) is the fact that my faux nephew (who just turned one yesterday!) and my real nephew met for the first time! My faux nephew is quite the flirt &  has mastered the flirty eyes and "come hither" look. Both little one were quite the hits of the party.

Overall, I am super happy with how everything went. It was quite the challenge and a lot of hard work, but it capped off the journey I have been on for the past year. It was basically the Marathon equivalent of my cooking habit. 

My two big development points are 1) remember to offer people drinks when they get in (and remember if I buy soda for when I do so I don't have to bring it in to work next day) and 2) I need to buy some warming platters/trays to keep food warm for seconds. Other than that, just keep on keeping on!

After all was said and done, I was quite proud but quite tired! I cleaned up, and then collapsed on my couch. 

I got up the next day, met up with my team, and had an awesome run despite being limited to a 4 mile loop (boo snow!). It turns out Thanksgiving is great carb loading. Who would have guessed?!