Early Turkey Day!!

Thanksgiving is a big Holiday in my family, we all love to get together and celebrate every year. This year however my younger brother got to come home on leave from the Navy so we decided to do Turkey Day early since he will be heading out before the actual day. The normal tradition for the last 15 years or so is for me and my father to get up at the crack of dawn and start cooking while my brother and mother sleep in. Personally I like it like this I get to spend quality time with my dad, and that way we keep the amount of cooks down to just 2 in the kitchen instead of 4 lol. 

This year we found a 21 pound bird, and I must say after we got it home we had to admit it must have been the misfit in the bunch because it's neck socket was slightly crooked, his legs were short and stumpy, and he had a huge long neck. My dad had grabbed all the giblets out to boil them and later we found a second neck piece still inside it!! As always we rubbed our Turkey down with lots of soft butter, Stuffed him with the best homemade stuffing, then shoved his butt into brown bags which we then placed in the oven and baked until he was golden brown and delicious!!

Making the Stuffing is what got me really into Thanksgiving in the first place, when I was little my dad's mom always cooked dinner and she always let me help her make the stuffing. Over the years my dad took her place and it's become the part I look forward to the most each year.  Personally to me if the stuffing sucks then the day is ruined. We use bread cubes, celery, onion, jimmy dean sausage, sage, poultry seasoning and a couple other key ingredients. Over the years we have changed a couple of the side dishes we make, but in all the years we have never changed our stuffing recipe. It came out amazing this year, and I have to admit stuffing it into the bird is what really gives it the best flavor!!

Next we took our Rutabagas and peeled them and got them on the stove to boil, while we started the candied yams!! Those are always the best and even though they were a little more mashed then we normally liked them by the time they cooked all the way through the flavors were AMAZING!! My dad used Orange juice concentrate, nutmeg, brown sugar and some other goodies to make this dish.. the only picture I have is when we first started them, but if you look on my last pic of the whole plate you will see how dark they get from all the sugar!!

 RUTABAGAS !!! SO YUMMY WHEN COOKED!!

 

CANDIED YAMS!!

While all of this cooking was going on our two dogs, Harley and Jitters where freaking out because they knew that as soon as we had eaten they were going to get the giblets we had boiled earlier that morning for the gravy... Here is a picture of Jitter looking at me wondering if it was time yet lol..

After all the cooking I decided that, since I hadn't eaten anything all day long I was going to take a little bit of everything we cooked... Well my plate got to be really full, but halfway through I was so stuffed I ended up not being able to eat it all. I'm just glad I took home some stuff for leftovers they really are the best part of all that cooking!!! So damn good, and the best part this year was I had my brother home to enjoy it with us even if he does have to ship back out!  Here is a picture with all of the food we made... Normally there is way more of a variety, but it was only immediate family this year and not our normal crowd of 30 or so lol.. I was going to make a homemade pumpkin pie, but unfortunately I didn't have enough time to get it ready before today, so we settled on a pre-made one which was okay. At least now I have something to aim for next year making my own!!

The orange/yellow looking pile on the plate is what the Rutabagas look like when they have been cooked down and mashed they were so yummy it's the one dish me and my dad fight about for left overs!! You can also see how the Candied yams browned right up after cooking in the brown sugar and other goodies!! I mixed white meat with my favorite dark meat, and the gravy was awesome!! Overall Thanksgiving was great this year, and I look forward to doing it all over again next year hopefully at my own place!