New York Thanksgiving

By grace.g.yang ยท November 17, 2008
Under: My Life,Recipes

This year, David and I started a tradition of having a big Thanksgiving dinner in New York with our friends before celebrating with our family in North Carolina. Over the weekend, David and I set up our tiny apartment for a dinner party similar to the ones we have at home with our mom and friends. I’ll go over some of the dishes I prepared with step-by-step instructions so you too can have a great (stress free) Thanksgiving. Below are the dishes I prepared (and when I prepared them) – I started preparing a couple days in advance so I wouldn’t be stressed out and could enjoy time with my guests on Saturday:

Cheese Sticks (appetizer) – Saturday, 20 minutes before party
Waverly Inn Biscuits – Saturday, 1 hour before party
Martha Stewart’s Mashed Potatoes – Saturday, 45 minutes before party
Sweet Potato Casserole – Saturday, 45 minutes before party
Cornbread Stuffing – Started on Tuesday, finished on Saturday, 1 hour before party
Green Bean Casserole – Started on Friday, finished on Saturday, 1 hour before party
Buttermilk Brined Turkey – Started on Friday, finished on Saturday during party
Gravy – Saturday, during party
Cranberry Sauce – Thursday
Pumpkin cheesecake – Friday
Truffles – Thursday
Drinks: PAMA liqueur with prosecco before dinner, white wine and Shiraz with dinner

Let’s start with the easy stuff – cranberry sauce.

Cranberry sauce, in my opinion, is great with a bite of turkey, some stuffing, and a little bite of mashed potatoes (and gravy). It’s SUPER simple to make and takes about 10 minutes, so there is absolutely no reason you should serve canned cranberry sauce this Thanksgiving!

Ingredients:

– 1 bag of fresh cranberries
– 1 cup of water
– 1/2 cup of sugar
– Orange zest (about half an orange)

Dump all of the ingredients into a pot:

Turn the fire to medium high and wait for the cranberries to start popping – you can actually hear the cranberries pop! Once they’ve popped, the mixture should bubble like this:

Make sure you stir the bottom of the pan so the cranberries don’t stick to it. The cranberry sauce can be transferred to a container and you’re done!

Tomorrow, we’ll make truffles!

Reader Comments

I hadn’t realized the cranberry sauce was made fresh! It was really good.

I was pretty floored by the whole meal, in fact. Thanks so much for having us! It was really amazing.

Oh, I think I forgot to grab our name cards! I wanted to save those as a souvenir. ๐Ÿ™‚

#1 
Written By Danny Reeves on November 17th, 2008 @ 10:07 am

wow grace, that looks like a lot of work, did you have any help on this whole meal from anyone other than your lame duck bro-ster? any key non-asian (specifically blonde) people in your life?

#2 
Written By anonymous on November 17th, 2008 @ 8:34 pm

The menu sounds fantastic! Sometimes I think I love all the prep that goes into making holiday meals even more than eating them.

#3 
Written By Maggie on November 18th, 2008 @ 6:55 pm

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