Hosting Thanksgiving : Champagne Turkey Recipe

My absolute favorite part of Thanksgiving is cooking the turkey! There is something about getting up early with my son Cashton and prepping the bird while we watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

This year after my prep work was done I made everyone a light egg cup breakfast ( I will share this easy recipe in a future blog) and headed off to a holiday spin class with my sisters-in-law. It felt great to get our sweat on for 45mins at CycleBar, especially knowing the feast ahead.   

My goal was to have my 18lb turkey in the oven by 11am which is why I rinsed the dry brine off the turkey,  made the bird stuffing, and marinated the veggies for the pan before I left for spin. That way all I had to do when we got home was throw the veggies in the bottom of the pan, stuff the bird and get that big boy in the oven! 

Here is my recipe for the perfect champagne turkey. 

Shopping List:

Turkey

William Sonoma Dry Brine

Brine Bag

Champagne 

Carrots

Celery 

Garlic

Shallots

Rosemary 

Chicken Stock

Butter

Seasoning 

Stuffing (I use Stove Top Turkey Stuffing) 

Twine

Tin Foil  

Directions: 

• 24 hours before cooking, take thawed turkey and rub with dry brine. Place in brine bag and refrigerate overnight. 
• This is an optional step but you can marinate your veggies in chicken stock the night before as well. Just mix carrots, shallots, garlic, and celery in a large zip lock bag and add stock.
• The next morning rinsed brine off bird and dry. Place on rack in roasting pan and mix melted butter and seasoning together. Brush bird with mixture and slide a few slices of butter under the skin around the breast. Garnish with rosemary. 
• Add veggies to the bottom of the roasting pan. The veggies and drippings are AMAZING when done.
• Make Stove Top stuffing. I recommend 3 boxes. 
• Stuff bird right before baking and tie legs together with twine. 
• Bake at 350. The time is based on the weight of your turkey but I have included a time to weight chart below. 
• Let bake uncovered for 30 mins only basting with chicken stock until skin is browned, then cover with tin foil and start alternating between champagne and stock every 30 mins. 

Caramel Apple Mimosa:

If you listen to our show you may know that my mother is a wonderful bartender and she always comes up with the most amazing cocktails for my events and holiday parties. This year she opted to make a Caramel Apple Mimosa for our brunch spread before Thanksgiving dinner. Here is what you need to make this sparkling beauty happen! 

Ingredients:

1 1/2 oz of Stoli Vanilla Vodka

Apple Cider

Prosecco

Ice

Garnish with rosemary and whole cranberries 

Caramel, cinnamon, and sugar for the rim

Table Design: 

When it comes to table design, I have been working on this look for weeks. I really wanted to use our wedding china that we have only pulled out a handful of times in 10 years. I revolved our silver Vera Wang Grosgrain settings and chargers around the soft gold hues that our dining room is decorated in. I enhanced these colors by renting gold Chiavari chairs from Party Reflections and adding white and gold pumpkins along with crystal candlestick holders for our centerpieces. To keep these colors from falling flat I wove eucalyptus garland through the table runner for a pop of green.

Our Aupair Elena was sweet enough to help me with place cardholders. I have terrible handwriting and I am well aware of it. Elena also helped me with the labels from Cashton's birthday party so I knew she was the right person for the job! I found some adorable Thanksgiving place cards at Sur la table. They were 2 dimensional and featured a turkey with real feathers for some holiday flare. 

When we sat down for dinner this year I started to reflect on our Thanksgiving holidays of the past and decided that this Thanksgiving was my favorite of all. It's not often you can get BOTH sides of your family together, especially when they are scattered along the east coast. This year's turkey feast left me feeling extra loved and blessed like no other. 

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Perfect Pumpkin Pie For Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving our family is doing something we haven't done in years. We are entertaining both sides of our relatives for the weekend and we'll be hosting thirteen for dinner Thanksgiving day. 

We will be preparing two twenty-pound turkeys, one in our deep fryer and the other in the oven with my Champagne recipe. Our family has divided the rest of the menu so that not one single person has to carry the load. The other dish that I have volunteered to make is pumpkin pies. 

I found a simple recipe on Pinterest but things didn't quite go the way I had planned on my first go-round. However, after making some adjustments I think I have perfected these blueprints for the perfect pumpkin pie!   

Ingredients

• 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
• 1 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
• 2 large eggs & 1 egg for egg wash
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 unbaked deep-dish pie crust
• 1 sheet of roll out dough 

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 425-degrees. Prepare a pie crust in a pie plate. I put my store-bought pie crust on a cookie sheet to give the pie more stability when taking it in and out of the oven. Egg wash the sides of the pie crust so that it does not burn.
  
  
• Combine all wet ingredients in a bowl and the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.  Then in a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the wet and dry ingredients until smooth. Pour into pie crust.
  
  
• Bake in a 425-degree oven for 15 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for 35-40 minutes. You'll know it is done when you can tap the middle and it doesn't jiggle. If the pie is baking faster then you like on top, feel free to cover with foil.
  
  
  While the pie is baking roll out the store-bought dough and use cookie cutters to produce the designed you would like on top of your pie. I opted for fall leaves. Spray your cookie sheet with Pam and egg wash your cutouts. Bake alongside your pie until golden brown.
  
  
• Cool completely before serving.
  
  

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Fun Holiday Snacks To Make With The Kids

We did this fun activity with Cashton a few days ago but the kids are about to go on Christmas break and I know some of you will be looking for things to keep them busy so I thought I'd share. This project was simple but fun. Cashton's favorite snack in the world is graham crackers so I knew he would be interested the second I brought out the box. I picked up these Candy Melts while I was running errands through Michaels, picking up Christmas decor and since they were on sale I grabbed two bags of them. You can never have enough chocolate in the house, right? 

After following the easy step by step directions in the microwave we had ourselves all the ingredients we needed.  Cashton needed a little help spreading the white chocolate over the cracker but he loved decorating the cookies with crushed candy canes. (I bought a bag of them already crushed but if you have older kids that might be a fun project for them to handle.) 

We used white chocolate and graham crackers for our holiday cookies but you can get creative with it too and expand your menu. Feel free to use any color chocolate (they legit come in every single color) or swap our graham crackers for your Oreos. If crushed candy canes doesn't do it for you, pick your favorite toppings like Christmas colored jimmies (sprinkles for you non-Pittsburghers). Have fun with it !

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