I just realized that I made a Thanksgiving dinner that anyone could make, whether or not they like to cook. Seriously. I love to cook, but this year I wasn't in the mood. I also don't like turkey, so we rarely have it. At most, I might go to Honeybaked Ham and buy a couple of lbs. of sliced smoked turkey and make homemade dressing.
My brother couldn't come since he has to work tomorrow, and I don't have any family close by, so Thanksgiving was just me, my son Michael, and his roommate.
Mike and Landon came over about 1:30 and we had our meal. I had put a pork tenderloin in the oven early this morning and let it cook low and slow. There was orange juice in the bottom of the pan, then I had marinated the little roast in soy sauce, honey, and onion powder, with a lot of apricot preserves on top. Five hours at 300 degrees, with the pan covered. Really came out tender and flavorful, and not too sweet. Anyone could make this recipe. Seriously simple. [Note: if you prefer turkey, this is how my parents always cooked the bird and it was delicious: wash the bird, dry it, and salt it, then cover it in butter, wrap it in foil and bake it according to the package directions, occasionally basting. I prefer getting the slices of smoked turkey from Honeybaked Ham...]
My mom made the best dressing in the world. (I wrote about it here.) I started to make dressing last night and realized I had no cornmeal in the apartment. I had bought stovetop stuffing, just to make it easier to make dressing. (Tearing up stale bread is my least-favorite part of making dressing.) But I could not make cornbread dressing without cornbread, so I just made Stovetop stuffing, two packages. I used chicken broth and a lot of extra butter and it turned out fairly tasty. [Yes, my mother is flipping over in her grave but hopefully next year I will have a bigger kitchen and I will remember to buy cornmeal...)
I was going to make a broccoli casserole and I realized that since I only have one oven, that was complicated. So I fixed the casserole but on the stove top. I thawed a package of frozen broccoli and steamed it. I made a sauce of cream of mushroom soup, mayo, butter, and parmesan cheese, with some extra garlic and onion powders. Mixed it in a bowl, then microwaved it a minute and mixed again. Super easy. Pour it over the broccoli. It was tasty. I unfortunately had not cooked enough broccoli but we each got a small helping. Then Michael asked if he could just finish it. I said sure. I thought he was going to lick the bowl. That's basically the broccoli casserole recipe except I used parmesan instead of grated cheddar because I didn't have any grated cheese, and had no Ritz crackers to put on top.
For dessert, I had ordered a coffee cake from Feridies and served that. Delicious -- most bought cakes are not great, but this cake was fantastic! (Highly recommend it if you are looking for gift ideas.) Landon just had three teeth filled and Michael is getting a crown on a tooth next week so the cake was a better idea than pecan pie. All the food I served today was soft and easily chewable. I will make a pecan pie at Christmas, when everyone can chew normally, hopefully.
After lunch we watched Red Notice on Netflix. Funny movie. Hope everyone has a safe and pleasant holiday weekend!
