Our Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner

My husband and I love to cook together. We live for the holidays and accompanying food, especially Thanksgiving. I'll be bringing all the pies for Thanksgiving this year, which I'm happy about. Mostly because it will knock five more off my Tuesdays with Dorie baking list.

For some reason,  I always feel short changed that I don't get to make and cook all the cool Thanksgiving recipes I see floating around, or the ones we've made in previous years that made it to the top of our list.  I know I won't always feel this way, and that one year I'll just be happy to bring drinks.

So since we are only making the sweet side of Turkey day dinner this year, Adam and I thought we'd make a very simple pre-Thanksgiving dinner. You have no idea how excited we were to do this. Instead of making our favorite Good Eats' Roast Turkey by Alton Brown (You should absolutely make this if you are doing an entire bird! The brine rocks!), we opted for a bone-in turkey breast.

Then we made the Bacon Brussel Sprouts and Roasted Garlic Mashed potatoes we made for the first time last year. They were a huge hit, so we had to make them again. I always make homemade cranberry sauce---so when I found the holiday cranberry chutney in my recent issue of Cook's Illustrated I was happy to try the recipe out and put a new spin. I'm telling you, it was amazing. I've already had requests for the recipe. (And the reason it's not posted here is because I think you should buy the issue!)

Olsen Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner Menu 2011
Turkey Breast with Gravy - Food Network Kitchens
Roasted Garlic Masted Potatoes - America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
Bacon Brussel Sprouts - Emeril Lagasse
Holiday Cranberry Chutney with Apples and Crystallized Ginger by Cook's Illustrated (Dec 2011 Issue)
Rosy Poached Pear & Pistachio Tart - Dorie Greenspan in Baking from My Home to Yours

If you are a regular reader, you are probably wondering where the #HELLmonth posts for TWD are. Well, I'm dying over here guys! I have been locking myself in my kitchen to push through. And guess what? I only have 13 recipes left! I'll be posting...I just haven't gotten to it. But 13 people! That is huge! I'll make sure to post the Rosy Poached Pear and Pistachio start very soon! It was a delicious beast I tell you, delicious.