December 28, 2012

Christmas Dinner 2012, Part One

White meat on my favourite turkey platter
Wow, it's nearly been a week since I hosted Christmas dinner! With all the shopping and running around going on paired with heavy doses of itis, time sure does fly by.  I've been away from Jubes & Tank and I'm sorry. There's a lot of catching up to do!

Here's a glimpse of Christmas dinner preparation/turkey carving. :)

DIY dried bread cubes

Mirepoix, herbs and dried fruit for the dressing
There's a mixture of apricots, cranberries and raisins in there

..and sautéed mushrooms!

My homemade vegan turkey loaf. No Tofurky here!

Tried the high temperature cooking method

16.6 pound turkey, not sure if I like this method of cooking...it was messy.

But we got crispy skin!

Mum's appitizer dish, fried wantons (vegan and non-vegan) with a sweet chili sauce 

A side by side of the two turkeys.

I prepped for nearly two days and got to sleep in the day of the dinner. I love that. I love sleep! I woke up refreshed, took the real turkey into the house to come to room temp and preheated the oven to 475F. It was going to take about two and a half hours for a nearly 17 lb turkey.

Now, let me warn you. If you don't mind having to deep clean your oven afterwards, try the high heat cooking method. But if you're like me and loath it, especially when I have to literally stick my head in the oven, bent over, scrubbing like a crazy person...not so fun. (My manicure!) And before you say it, I did three cycles of steam cleaning. I won't do a full self clean on the oven as it tends to...break it. I've done my research- so not a good idea!

As for the meat, it was fairy juicy- I won't say it was perfect, it was not. It had it's dry bits and those went into the soup pot. I think I'll be sticking to the high heat, regular heat method from now on. A smokey kitchen makes for a grumpy gal and I'm already a kitchen Nazi as it is. Any more and no one gets dinner! 

Since I made the stuffing, Rich's faux bird, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and had pre-cut my root veggies, I just threw them in after the turkey was out of the oven for about 30 minutes to cook and/or to warm through. I had a whole schedule written out.

Part two to follow!

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Hi, I'm Janetta from Toronto. I cook, bake and often veganize recipes. I photograph nearly everything and those photos will most likely end up being posted here. I've got a little black cat named Tank, who's really cute and a little bit nosy. You'll see a lot of photos of her too!

Contact me at: jubesandtank@gmail.com

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