Reviewing Recipes from Thanksgiving

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  It feels slightly silly to still be talking turkey so many days later but once I get this review out of the way we can move on to bigger and better things. 

 I have been busy getting the house ready for Christmas and writing posts for a delightful design so my writing here is a little slow.  Thanks for still coming back!

 Roasted Turkey

I've used this method of cooking the turkey twice now and I will never go back.  It's just too easy. 

Last year I used a brine from Williams-Sonoma but I wanted to keep it super simple this year.

I just chopped a bunch of mixed herbs, stirred them with room temp butter, and rubbed that under the skin.

I put the leftover herbs (whole) inside the turkey.

Then I just followed PW's directions and BAM--fantastic turkey with great flavor.

The only downside to this recipe is that because there is such a strong herb flavor to the turkey it doesn't work that well as leftovers to mix with other recipes.  

I made chicken spaghetti with the leftover meat and it did not work.

Sage Stuffing

I have yet to make a stuffing where everyone goes crazy and eats the whole pan.  The thing is, this recipe was REALLY good.  But it called for 1-inch chunks of bread.  I have come to the conclusion that unless my stuffing looks like stove top then no one will really eat it.  Next year I'll be making the same recipe, but with smaller pieces of bread.

Creamy Mashed Potatoes

They are good.  That's all there is to it.  If you have not made these yet stop whatever you have planned for your Friday night and make these potatoes!

Turkey Gravy

I made my own and didn't rely on my friend Wiliams-Sonoma.  It was very easy and I plan to do that again.

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pomegranates and Vanilla-Pecan Butter

Aren't they pretty?  They were very tasty.  I confess this was the first time I have ever bought a pomegranate, but cutting off the top and peeling back the skin was super simple.  I usually make Ina's brussels sprouts lardons but I wanted to try something new this year. I like that this recipe is made in the oven instead of on the stove top.  I also like the pomegranates better than the golden raisins because of the color. The recipe called for pomegranate molasses.  Really?  We do not have that at our store so I just used traditional molasses and it was great!  The vanilla bean is WORTH IT!  Buy two and 

save the second one to make a vanilla butter cream frosting.  

The only thing I missed in this recipe was some element of salt.  I think I would do a combination of the two recipes and add the pancetta from Ina's sprouts to these.

What recipe was your biggest hit?