Easter Dinner - Turkey, Taters, Stuffing, Green Bean Casserole & Homemade Cranberry Sauce

I wasn't feeling turkey for Easter this year.  I wanted to do lamb but my son asked for the bird, so of course I obliged (I saw at Costco they had these roasted lamb shanks with garlic sauce, already cooked and just needed to be heated, so thought I would do that another time for $19.95).  I was glad we didn't have turkey at Christmas so it was enough of a break since Thanksgiving.  I usually buy a fresh turkey, but for cost savings this year, I bought a frozen Butterball - 10 lbs. for $20.  That took four days to defrost in my fridge!

I decided to to do an "all meat" pork stuffing this time with very little binder.  I used this recipe.  This is the first time I've made stuffing like this, I always do a bread and/or cornbread based one.  My son doesn't like stuffing (I KNOW, whats wrong with him? He won't have it on leftover turkey sandwiches either!) though will have a bite or two at dinner to make me happy.  I thought I'd try this one and see if he liked this type.

However, in the end, I chickened out of stuffing it with "RAW" sausage and just made it like I normally would and cooked the sausage.  I will perhaps make this again, but in a loaf pan and not in the turkey cavity so I can cook it from raw state. I fried the onions, celery and peeled Granny Smith apple (diced) in a bit of olive oil and then added the sausage.

I pulsed the croutons in the food processor with 2 tablespoons of poultry seasoning, fresh thyme, rosemary and sage.

I never use egg, but did this time to bind it.  I mixed it all by hand then stuffed the bird: the neck & cavity and put it in on a rack in a roasting pan.

I put the neck in the pan and about a cup of Kirkland organic no salt chicken broth.  I rubbed the bird with butter, seasoned with fresh cracked pepper and draped 2 slices of nitrite free, no preservatives bacon crisscross over top.  I covered and sealed the stuffing and then whole pan tight with tinfoil.  It went in the oven at 325°F.  I set my timer for 4 hours.

I make my green bean casserole a lot for Easter/Thanksgiving/Christmas.  It's a "gourmet" version and takes a bit of work, but worth it.  However, I do cheat and use a can of Campbell's mushroom soup - I happen to really like it in this dish and being honest, I really do love Campbell's mushroom soup in certain recipes.  I used this recipe this time, though slightly edited.  This time I didn't use mushrooms, but used bacon instead.  I suggest ALWAYS to use bacon in this casserole, I would have used mushrooms too if I had them.  I would have cooked the bacon in the oven first but it was too late as the turkey was already in, so I just did it in the fry pan with the onions, garlic and butter.

I drained the fat off after.  Lucky for me, my absent sous chef decided to clean and cut my green beans since I couldn't get my usual ones from Costco this time that need no cleaning or cutting.

(He trimmed both ends and then cut them in half.  He also grated my Gruyere cheese for me.  I used about 2 cups, so, much more than the recipe called for.  I boiled/blanched the beans for 8 minutes then plunged them into ice water.  I combined the frying pan ingredients with a can of mushroom soup and about a half cup of broth.  Then I mixed in the cheese and beans.

I poured this into greased (Pam) 9" x 13" pan and sprinkled the topping over.

I covered with foil and put in the fridge until the turkey came out of the oven.  Normally I would do all this the night before, but it just didn't happen that way this year...

I made the cranberry sauce the day before.  The homemade cranberry sauce is sooooo easy and so good.  It is unbelievable to me that for all these years, I never ever thought to make it myself (probably because it's sweet...).  Thanksgiving last year was the first time I did it and I will always do this from now on.

So, starting with the cranberry sauce, I used Bobby Deen's recipe and followed it exactly (freshly squeezed OJ) as it's perfect.  ⅔ cup sugar, ½ cup of orange juice, 1/2 cup water, ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon, ⅛ teaspoon of kosher salt and one 12-ounce bag of cranberries.  I also use the zest of the orange too for added flavor.  I zest the orange first and then squeeze it after.  I bought frozen cranberries as I couldn't find any fresh this time.  I guess they only are fresh in the winter months?  All the ingredients went into the pot, simmered 15 minutes and was done.  I waited for it to cool then put it in the fridge.  This turned out tart, with just the right amount of sweet and I love the orange in it!

The taters were just Yukon Gold, mashed with butter and milk, which are my favorite to mash and I don't peel them - easy and delicious.  The turkey came out tender.  All the bones went into a pot for soup tomorrow.

Everything tasted good.  It is always so much work for minutes of eating.  I wasn't even really hungry after cooking all day, so still have my dinner plate sitting, waiting for my second wind.  Ah, but tomorrow will bring that ONE turkey sandwich with mayo, stuffing and cranberry sauce...Mmmmm.