Excess is a word that captures this Thanksgiving pretty well. We had such an excessive amount of food that we've got meals covered for the rest of the long weekend and the next week, easily. But we also found ourselves surrounded with an excess of good company and laughter, something it's been harder for us to find since landing in the US a few years ago. Sure, a pandemic hitting just after Nicolas hit his one-year in the US didn't help, but overall this country has been the loneliest place that we've made home as a couple, so yesterday was a beautiful change in pace, with over twenty guests joining us for our very first party in our new home - pix on that to come soon!
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| A sneak peek at our Thanksgiving tables at our new home and some portion of the meal as we all dove in. |
We prepared the turkey, as usual, but among the other dishes we prepared were a few delicious and definitely blog-worthy specials. I won't bore you with a typical recipe-blog-post style multi-paragraph story about how this food and drink transformed their lives or some other nonsense I always have to scroll through to get the good stuff. With no further ado, some classics - one that first made our Thanksgiving repertoire in 2020, and two new ones that made their debut yesterday: Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes, Vanilla Orange Candied Cranberries & a Cranberry Gin Fizz
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| Pre-mashing: get a load of all that cream cheese! |
Ingredients (10 servings):
- 5 Pounds Russet Potatoes
- 8 Ounces Cream Cheese
- 1 Stick Butter
- ½ - 1 Cup Milk
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- 8 cloves of minced garlic
- ½ Teaspoon Pepper
- Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut potatoes into 1 inch cubes. Place in a large pot, covering them completely with water. Boil the potatoes for 15-20 minutes until tender. Drain and return to pot.
- Add cream cheese, butter, milk*, and seasoning. *Start with just a half cup of milk. After mashing, add more milk as needed to achieve desired potato consistency.
Vanilla Orange Candied Cranberries
- 3 3/4 cups sugar, divided
- 1 3/4 cups water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons Grand Marnier
- 12 ounces fresh cranberries
- In a sauce pan, mix 2 ½ cups of sugar and all the vanilla, Grand Marnier, and water. Heat over medium until all the sugar has dissolved into a simple syrup without allowing it to boil.
- Remove from heat and mix in the cranberries, ensuring they are all submerged in the simple syrup by placing a plate atop the sauce pan.
- Leave the sauce pan in the refrigerator overnight.
- Strain the cranberries, saving the vanilla-orange-cranberry simple syrup for cocktails!
- Place the remaining sugar in a rimmed dish. Roll them in the sugar until they are coated, transfer to a baking sheet, and let dry for one hour.
- Once the sugar has hardened, store in an air tight container in the fridge until ready to serve.
- 2 lemons
- 1 orange
- 3 cups dry gin
- 2 cups ginger beer
- 2 cups vanilla-orange-cranberry simple syrup
- handful of candied cranberries (garnish)
- mint (optional garnish)
- Squeeze the lemons.
- Mix the lemon juice, vanilla-orange-cranberry simple syrup, and gin.
- Slice the orange, add to the pitcher, and muddle with a wooden spoon.
- Mix.
- Top with candied cranberries, ginger beer, and mint (optional).
- Enjoy!
