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First Thanksgiving

Saying that this was our First Thanksgiving is sort of a lie.

When we first moved to North Carolina, we didn’t really know anyone and couldn’t afford to head back to New York for the holiday.

We bought a turkey breast and some veggies and had a quiet Thanksgiving just the hubby and I.

This was our first Thanksgiving in our new house and it was also the first Thanksgiving that we would have visitors.

My parents and brother made the trip from Long Island to North Carolina to spend Thanksgiving with us. Needless to say, I felt the need to make sure we did it right.

We ordered our turkey about six weeks before Thanksgiving. We bought it from Rainbow Meadow Farms, which is the local farm where we already purchase our chicken, pork and eggs.

We asked for a 10-12-pound bird because we knew we wouldn’t be feeding a large group.

Our menu also included:

Spinach with goat cheese, tomatoes and pecans
Batus sweet potatoes
Roasted red potatoes, peppers and onions
Bread stuffing
Cranberry sauce
Garden peas with onions
Rice pudding
Butterscotch pecan pie
Apple pie with crumb topping

Food Prep

We tried to get some stuff done on Wednesday night to lessen the stress on Thursday.

Anytime you can prepare food the night before, do it. It really, really helps.

I made both pies, the cranberry sauce and prepped the turkey the night before. C made his rice pudding.

I should mention that this was the first time I ever made pie. Ever. In my life.

Personally, I’m not a fan of rice pudding. It’s a consistency thing for me. But it was a big hit with the family.

I started cooking around 7 p.m. and we hit the sack at nearly 1 a.m.

To prep the turkey, I used bacon grease, olive oil, honey and butter as a marinade. I brushed the mixture all over the turkey before putting it back into the fridge.

Turkey Mini-Crisis

It was when I was doing this that I realized that our turkey still had some tiny pin feathers. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never seen feathers on a dead, ready-to-eat turkey before.

The small feathers remained because the farm specializes in sustainable agriculture and the feathers remnants are an indication that they were hand plucked and not run through a machine.

Ask your parents or grandparents and it’s likely they had to pluck a few feathers from their Thanksgiving turkey growing up.

After much Googling, we found that we could either use a candle flame to burn the feathers off (something my grandmother used to do), pull them out manually or just stop worrying about them because they’ll burn off in the oven. After some pulling, I went with the oven burn.

And don’t judge me, but while manhandling this turkey, I totally wore latex gloves. I have made HUGE strides when it comes to handling raw meat, but this was just too much. I also like to think of it as a health precaution.

Along with the turkey came a bag full of innards. This included the neck, liver, heart and some other organ that I couldn’t identify. I wrapped these innards in a piece of cheese cloth and tossed it into a large pot with one carrot, one celery stalk and a quarter of an onion. I filled the pot with water and let boil for about two hours creating a clean turkey broth.

Turkey stock and cranberries simmer on the stove.

The turkey broth was used the next day for the peas, the stuffing and soup on Friday.

Thanksgiving Day

I was convinced it would take my parents about 12 hours to make the trip from New York. Fortunately for them, they made great time. When I spoke to them at 9 a.m. they were about three hours away.

C and I found ourselves a bit behind schedule.

Our turkey tied and ready for some time in the oven.

While C cleaned the bathrooms, I took care of the food.

To appease the stuffing crowd, I put some in the turkey and baked some separately. Also in the turkey were two lemon halves left over from when I was making the apple pie.

The turkey would take about three hours to cook and we timed everything else accordingly.

After 3 hours in the oven, our turkey was done. I used a meat thermometer to make sure I cooked it thoroughly. Remember to consider the stuffing when figuring out cook time.

I had a few issues.

The onions for the peas went from cooking to burning so quickly I barely saved them and the crust of the pecan pie was a bit over cooked.

We also didn’t have a proper cutting board or knife to cut the turkey well. While my parents were pretty hands off in the kitchen, I let my dad tackle that part.

I also didn’t know my brother was coming until he showed up at the door so we were a bit unprepared for another guest.

Other than that, our first Thanksgiving went off really well.