Thanksgiving 2020

Thanksgiving 2020 looked different for many of us than past Thanksgivings. Ours was a small affair, just three of us, but we still had a lovely day with a ton of excellent food. Here are some photos of our spread along with some of my thoughts on how things went:

The Table

“I haven't used this tablecloth in like 10 years" - Mom

Indeed my mom had not brought out this tablecloth, a gift from my aunt, in about a decade. However, she used it (and the matching napkins) for Thanksgiving this year and I loved the rustic feel it brought to the table. We have our usual "fancy" Dutch-inspired plates as well as our silver-rimmed cups and nicer serving ware. We are not an exceedingly fancy family when it comes to dinnerware, but I thought this all came together nicely in the end. The little Thanksgiving turkey chocolates on each place setting were a cute touch!

The Turkey

“This is not going to go well" - Will

We ordered a "petite" turkey from New Seasons Market which turned out to be a decently sized 9.5 lbs (not as "petite" as we'd hoped for). Based on everything she had read, my mom planned to roast it for 2 - 2.5 hours. However, when I checked the temperature at 1.5 hours it was already pretty much ready to go so we took it out early. Because the turkey cooked faster than we'd expected, it didn't brown up as much since we didn't remove the tin foil. But it tasted good nonetheless! Will was tasked with carving the turkey, to which he responded with the above quote. Will had nothing to fear though. After carefully watching a YouTube video, he managed the turkey carving swimmingly, a good omen for his future career as a surgeon.

Bonus footage: Will and I pulling apart the wishbone and me winning

The Sides

“I'm going to need a Lactaid" - Evan

Not pictured here: mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and dinner rolls

The above was said in reference to the stuffing we made which was actually a bread pudding, Ina Garten's herb & apple bread pudding. This recipe is so yummy and also chocked full of cheese and cream, not boding well for my lactose-sensitive stomach. We actually did pretty well with keeping the Thanksgiving meal almost 100% lactose free through the use of lactose or dairy-free cream, milk, and butter. However, one simply must commit to using real cheese in the case of the bread pudding. Cheese is not so easily replaced. The stuffing was monstrous and excellent. I didn't grow up a huge fan of stuffing, but Will brought this recipe and I did indeed love it. I had it for breakfast this morning!

I also must give a shoutout to my friend Heidi for giving me her cranberry sauce recipe. I've never made cranberry sauce before, but it was super easy and absolutely DELICIOUS. The recipe consists of cranberry, sugar, orange juice and zest, ginger, and rosemary. It also called for bourbon which I did not add (and didn't miss). The cranberry sauce was perfectly sweet and the spices came through nicely.

The Dessert

“Oh crap I forgot the tin foil" - Evan

I was managing many different parts of the Thanksgiving dinner and some of the timing on covering the pies with tin foil slipped my mind resulting in the slightly charred crusts you see in the photos. That said, the pies all tasted amazing anyway! We stuck to just one pecan pie (we've had a lot of apple stuff this year) and I made my mom a mini pumpkin pie since she loves pumpkin pie (Will and I aren't huge fans).

All in all, despite its imperfections, Thanksgiving 2020 was lovely. The small crowd is not our usual way to celebrate, but we still had Zoom/FaceTime calls with friends and family. The intimate dinner was actually very nice and of course, the food all tasted great.

Now onto the Christmas season - my favorite time of year!

- Evan