A Simple Thanksgiving
THE FARMHOUSE
Thanksgiving is almost here and I can’t wait! Thanksgiving is my family’s big holiday – the one time of year we all gather around a table, enjoy each other’s company, and eat a delicious meal. And oh goodness the food! Today we we wanted to show you what Thanksgiving looks like when we host. We’re sharing an entire Thanksgiving meal, a few of our favorite recipes, and a simple place setting. Let’s dig in…
*this post is sponsored by Butcher Box
Psst: we’re talking about meat today, so if you’re a vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, etc, you might want to skip this post.
Of course the centerpiece of our Thanksgiving table is the turkey, and this one did not disappoint! It came from Butcher Box and was free-range, free from preservatives and antibiotics, and absolutely delicious. (Psst: Butcher Box is giving away a FREE turkey + $100 off with each new member order today (Friday Nov. 5th)! Click here to grab your Butcher Box deal and use code TURKEY100!)
Have you heard of Butcher Box before? Garrett and I have been customers for about a year now and we love them! They’re a subscription service that delivers sustainably-raised meat straight to your door every month. We’ve appreciated the convenience of front-door delivery, the flexibility of skipping boxes or adding items depending what we have going on that month. Since signing on with Butcher Box, we’ve completely ditched store-bought meats and we love that they align with our commitment to eating sustainably-raised meat. Butcher Box partners with farmers, ranchers and fishermen to bring the highest quality meat and seafood directly to your door - 100% grass-fed beef, free-range organic chicken, pork raised crate-free, and wild-caught seafood. If this sounds like something you’d like to try, you can get you own Butcher Box here.
Let’s talk about how we prepare the turkey…
Cooking the Turkey is pretty straight forward as there are great instructions included on the turkey. We use a large roasting pan to bake it in the oven. Butcher Box Turkeys are free ranged and come without any additives so the natural turkey flavor really shines through! We do cook our birds with stuffing (recipe below) and this adds a bit of cooking time since the air can’t reach the inside but they do turn out pretty good since the bread mix adds some nice liquid broth. I also like to rub the outside of the turkey with a mixture of butter, chopped herbs from the stuffing mix plus rosemary, and salt.
Rustic Stuffing
Serves 8
4 c. dried bread crumbs
2 eggs
1 lb Butcher Box ground pork or sausage
~3 c. chicken broth
2 cloves garlic minced
1 shallot minced
2 tbsp flax seeds
2 tbsp flax seed meal
2 tbsp sunflower seed
¼ c. currants
1 large kale frond
Salt to taste
Optional Chopped Herbs: 2 tbsp minced Italian parsley, 1 tbsp minced chives, 1 tsp minced thyme , 1 tsp minced oregano
I like to keep the remnants of some crusty bread loaves in the fridge to turn into bread crumbs for Thanksgiving dressing (or a yummy bread pudding breakfast!). You can use the pre-made crumbs but it’s also super easy to make your own. I just chop the bread into small cubes and then toast ½ of them on a baking sheet in the oven for a few minutes. I blend these toasted cubes to make a finer bread crumb then combine with the rest of the larger cubes in the dressing. The combination of finer crumbs with the cubes gives a nice texture.
Toss all of the dry ingredients, the finely chopped kale (including stem) and any herbs together. Brown the ground pork on the stove top and stir that in. Beat the two eggs in a bowl then combine with 2 c. of the broth. Pour this mixture over the stuffing mix and stir. The total amount of broth needed depends on how dry your bread crumbs are. You want enough broth that liquid begins to squish out when the dressing is compressed but not so much it pools in the bottom of the bowl.
This base stuffing can then be baked in a greased casserole dish, stuffed into a turkey, or combined with a little grated parmesan for stuffed mushrooms!
Stuffed mushrooms can be served as an appetizer or a side. My sister first served these over a decade ago at her house in Portland and they’ve become a mainstay at family gatherings. The great part about Garrett’s recipe (shared below) is that he uses the same stuffing in the mushrooms as he does to stuff the bird (with the addition of cheese), who wouldn’t like a dish that can do double duty on Thanksgiving!
Stuffed mushrooms
Makes 16
16 baby portabella mushrooms (or crimini mushrooms)
Stuffing (recipe above)
Grated parmesan cheese (see note below)
Pop the stems out of mushrooms and place them cap down on a baking sheet. Add grated parmesan cheese to the stuffing mix ~1:6 (¼ c. grated cheese for every 1.5 c. stuffing mix) and scoop a spoonful into each cap. Add a sprinkle of parmesan on top and then bake at 350 degrees for ~20min. These are excellent as an appetizer or as a side with the main meal!
Brussels Sprouts have been a mainstay at our Thanksgiving celebration for as long as I can remember. They were my Grandpa Ort’s favorite but as kids we never liked them (like made faces and spit them out and did all the things you now shake your head at as a parent). That is until I had them prepared by Garrett’s family, sautéed in a cast iron skillet with bacon. Now Brussels are one of my favorites!
Bacon Brussels Sprouts
1 lb fresh brussels sprouts
10 oz Butcher Box Bacon
2 shallots
1 small onion
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
Salt to taste
Cook the bacon on the stove top in a cast iron skillet until browned and chop the strips into bite sized pieces. Rinse and halve the brussels sprouts and add to the bacon drippings in the skillet. Sauté on medium heat for a few minutes and then add the chopped onions and shallots. Continue to sauté with intermittent stirring until the brussels sprouts are just fork tender ~15-20 min. Covering periodically with a lid can help tenderize the brussels with steam. Add the balsamic and salt and serve warm.
We are far from fancy around here, but I do love to set a low-key, un-cluttered (except with food!) table at holidays. With kids, I’ve found less is more so kept it simple with linen napkins, a table runner, and my great grandmother’s china, which is about as formal as we get ;). For a little festive touch, I added a leaf from our yard to each place setting. And yes, in case you’re wondering, we often eat in the kitchen when it’s just the 5 of us. I really love the intimacy of it!
Lastly we always have some yams with Thanksgiving and my current favorite way to prepare these is by combining with apples and sweet potatoes. The apples add a little sweet and tart and the sweet potatoes offer a complementary flavor with a slightly firmer texture. The spices just make it taste like fall! Time saver tip: if oven space is at a premium you can prepare these in advance as they keep well in the fridge after cooking. Also you can shorten the baking time by first boiling the ingredients until fork tender ~15min and then baking.
Spiced Apply Yams
6-8 servings
1 large yam
1 large sweet potato
2 medium apples
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp molasses
2 tbsp butter
¼ tsp ground allspice
¼ tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Grease a baking dish big enough to hold the ingredients. Peel and chop yams, sweet potatoes and apples into ~1/2” cubes. Add ¾ of the chopped apple to the bottom of the baking dish. Add the olive oil, honey and spices to the chopped yams, sweet potatoes and remaining apple chunks. Once they are well, coated add them into the baking dish on top of the apples. Dot with butter and bake at 350 covered for at least ~60min. It’s hard to cook this one too long as the dish just keep baking down into a wonderful creamy consistency!
