It was just our little family of three this year but I wanted it to be just as special as always. I'm not going to lie.....I was a nervous wreck! I have never made a turkey and I was terrified to do gravy. I also wanted to make Rick his favorite....Banana Cream Pie....but I had never done that before either. I made my pies the night before....Banana turned out good, my pumpkin is a different story.....read on to see what happened :) I woke up Thanksgiving morning and tried to decorate the table. Unfortunately the only tablecloth and dishes I had were all white. I LOVE white but I was wishing it was looking a little bit more "Thanksgivingy". Then I remembered I had bought a box full of fake leaves the day after Halloween for $.99! So I scattered them around the table, brought in our Halloween pumpkins, and tied brown ribbon around the glasses and pumpkin stems.
Working away at my turkey....I used Kelsey Nixon's (from The Next Food Network Star) Turkey Breast recipe (Thanks Carly for recommending it!) It turned out really good. I didn't have a meat thermometer, I think I probably should have taken it out about 10 mins earlier because it was a tiny bit dry but it was still good.Recipe:
ROSEMARY ROASTED TURKEY BREAST
Ingredients
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup garlic, minced
½ bunch rosemary, chopped
½ bunch thyme, chopped
1 T. Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
1 (6-8) lb turkey breast bone in
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a small bowl, mix the butter, garlic, rosemary and thyme; set aside
3. Wash the turkey inside and out; pat dry. Remove any large fat deposits. Loosen the skin from the breast. This is done by slowly working your fingers between the breast and the skin. Work it loose, being careful not to tear the skin.
4. Using your hands or spatula, spread a generous amount of the rosemary mixture under the breast skin. Rub the remainder of the butter mixture over the outside of the breast. Use toothpicks to seal skin over any exposed breast meat. Season the outside of the Turkey breast with Italian seasoning, paprika, black pepper and kosher salt.
5. Arrange the carrot, celery and onion inside the bag to create a base for the turkey to sit on. Place the turkey on top of the vegetables breast side up. Roast in the preheated over 1 ¼ to 2 hours, or until the internal temp of the bird reaches 170 degrees.
6. Allow turkey to rest in bag for 10-15 minutes before removing from bag and carving.
ROSEMARY ROASTED TURKEY BREAST
Ingredients
½ cup butter, softened
¼ cup garlic, minced
½ bunch rosemary, chopped
½ bunch thyme, chopped
1 T. Italian seasoning
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
1 (6-8) lb turkey breast bone in
1. Preheat oven to 350
2. In a small bowl, mix the butter, garlic, rosemary and thyme; set aside
3. Wash the turkey inside and out; pat dry. Remove any large fat deposits. Loosen the skin from the breast. This is done by slowly working your fingers between the breast and the skin. Work it loose, being careful not to tear the skin.
4. Using your hands or spatula, spread a generous amount of the rosemary mixture under the breast skin. Rub the remainder of the butter mixture over the outside of the breast. Use toothpicks to seal skin over any exposed breast meat. Season the outside of the Turkey breast with Italian seasoning, paprika, black pepper and kosher salt.
5. Arrange the carrot, celery and onion inside the bag to create a base for the turkey to sit on. Place the turkey on top of the vegetables breast side up. Roast in the preheated over 1 ¼ to 2 hours, or until the internal temp of the bird reaches 170 degrees.
6. Allow turkey to rest in bag for 10-15 minutes before removing from bag and carving.
The finished turkey!
Daci playing around at the table while she was waiting for dinner to be ready
daci loved playing with the leaves. In nursery they get to hold stars up above their head and sing twinkle twinkle little star. She kept holding the leaf up and singing, "twinkle, twinkle!"
Sorry...not a great picture but I had to stick it on.
Rick carving the turkey
Daci impatiently waiting for the food. Once she was in her chair she wanted "nummy nums!" We told her we had to have a prayer first and she was not happy about it. She grumpily folded her arms and scowled at us during the prayer :)
The complete meal: Rosemary Roasted Turkey, peas, Cornbread, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy!
Daci loved the cornbread and peas the most. She kept saying "I like it!" and then by the end she was exclaiming "I LOVE IT!"
A little family picture after dinner. Don't mind Daci's absolutely crazy hair. As it gets longer, it gets crazier. She has SOOOO many calics in the back and they are uncontrollable. I have tried combing it every way possible and nothing works. I even hair sprayed it down this day, and within minutes it was poking straight up again! 
Ok...the sad pumpkin pie story. So I have made quite a few pumpkin pies. They aren't hard. I whipped up the pie, stuck it in the oven and then remembered I needed a few more things for dinner the next day so I ran to the store. The pie was supposed to cook for 40 minutes. I got home right when it was done but for some reason I completely forgot it was still in the oven. I was positive I had taken it out. I kept saying to Rick "Wow that pumpkin pie smells so good! I can't believe we can still smell it so strong when it is in the fridge!" About an hour and a half after it was done I walked by the oven and realized it was still on. I reached over to turn it off and all of a sudden remembered my pie was still in there! Grrrrr! So mad. I was literally on the verge of tears. PUmpkin pie is my favorite thing about Thanksgiving and I was so looking forward to it. Rick, being the sweet husband that he is said he would go out in the freezing cold weather and the crazy crowds to get me one. I took him up on the offer but decided to test the ruined pie first. The crust was rock hard but I can't eat the crust anyway so that didn't really matter to me. The top was burnt, but the middle still tasted great! So I decided to keep my black pumpkin pie and I very much enjoyed it the next day :)
