Happy Monday guys! I wanted to type this blog up yesterday but this was a super crazy weekend.. my car had a whole problem yesterday and it ended up being a weird day.
I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving this year. Tom and I had a low-key kind of day and we just stayed home. You can read all about that here! We cleaned up after dinner, watched a couple movies and passed out.
Friday we got to the gym early and went out to the mall for a bit. I found a cute present for my niece’s Christmas gift. We stopped at Old Navy after because I needed a couple thermal shirts and I couldn’t pass up $5 ones plus $1 fuzzy socks! I’m typically a small but I liked the medium fit on these.
We also got Tom a pair of flannel pajama pants for Christmas pictures this year. I’m so happy he goes along with my shenanigans haha. We spent the rest of the day home. I got back Hulu again so we are back binge watching Fixer Upper a night.
So to the recipes!!
Turkey: Tom Cooked the turkey and prepped it but we figured out how to get that golden brown look! Third times a charm guys.
First after you clean your turkey, pat dry the skin with some paper towels and preheat your oven to 350F.
In a small bowl, mix together room temperature butter with herbs and seasonings. We used oregano, rosemary, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and black pepper. You can add in sage and other herbs you enjoy here as well!
Next, rub your turkey down with the butter mixture until it’s well coated. You can also put this under the skin as well. Totally your call here.
Fill the bottom of the cooking pan with chicken broth. We used about 1.5 of the boxed ones.
Tom added a little more garlic and onion powder on top for good measure. Cover your turkey with foil. Our turkey was 17lbs and we cooked it for 3.5-4 hours with foil on. We periodically took the foil off to scoop some broth over the turkey so it didn’t dry out.
The last 30-45m we took the foil off, scooped some broth over the top and increased temp to 450. Now be careful here. Everyone’s turkey poundage is different as well as their oven. Keep an eye on your bird so you don’t burn it.
Use a meat thermometer to tell when your turkey is done. It should be about 170-175 degrees.
Pumpkin Pie: I used the Libby’s recipe and a premade crust but I used about 80-90% of the evaporated milk in the recipe. I also added in an extra 1/2tsp cinnamon, a splash of vanilla, 1/4tsp all spice, and 1/2tsp nutmeg. Tom LOVED it. It was so good. The change of spices really make a difference.
Mashed Potatoes:
These I make all year round anyway but they’re super easy and I apologize that I am not a measurements kind of gal lol. I used about 1/2 a bag of potatoes because leftovers are amazing.
Peel, cube, and boil your potatoes until soft. Use the fork method here.
Drain when done and in a large bowl begin mashing them up.
Add in about 1/2 cup of milk and a couple tablespoons of butter, begin blending together using a hand mixer.
Here is where you can add more milk as needed until you get the perfect fluffy texture you want. Be careful not to add too much or you’ll have runny potatoes.. and not to over mix or they will turn to glue.
You can also sub some milk with the left over evaporated milk from the pie. Add salt to taste and you are golden!
We also had corn, stuffing, and cranberry sauce (tom lol).
I hope these little notes were super helpful for you! Make sure to save them for Christmas time. I’m not sure what we are doing for Christmas dinner just yet but I do plan to share an early menu plan for it.
I hope you all enjoy your week! Can you believe December is tomorrow!!
What’s one thing you are looking forward to this week?
I plan to spend today cleaning, and decorating for Christmas a bit until I pull out more decorations.
