Our "First" Thanksgiving

This year Ross and I celebrated our fifth Thanksgiving together, but in some ways it was like our first Thanksgiving because we hosted my family and made the turkey! Since we've been married, we've gone to Kanas City to have dinner with Ross' family for Thanksgiving. This year we decided to stay home and we invited my family to our house for dinner. My parents had planned on coming and my sister and her family decided to come that day, too, so we had eight people for dinner. Well, nine if you include Lucy. :)

Neither of us had ever made a turkey before and I was excited to do so, but a bit intimidated by it. I've always thought it to be a long process and was afraid something might go wrong...the turkey wouldn't have been thawed completely when it came time to bake, it would have been over- or under-baked, making it take forever to be done or be completely dry that it did not taste good at all. I'm happy to report that none of those worries came true and we served a very delicious and juicy turkey!

I bought our 10-pound turkey Monday afternoon and put it in the refrigerator to thaw. I probably should have bought it Sunday to have more thawing time, but it turned out okay. We decided to put it in a brine and I used the Pioneer Woman's turkey brine recipe. It consisted of water, apple cider, brown sugar, salt, orange peel, pepper, and a few other seasonings. The turkey was still a tiny bit frozen Wednesday night when we put it in the brine, but figured it would be okay and continue thawing overnight while in the brine.

We got the turkey out Thursday around 12:30, washed it off and let it soak a bit, and put it in the oven. We followed the Pioneer Woman's Roasted Turkey recipe for baking it and were very pleased with the outcome. We had to keep an eye on the turkey, checking the temperature and smearing it with a butter mixture every half hour after the first hour and a half, and before we knew it, the turkey was ready to come out of the oven. We let it set for a bit and then Ross carved it while my Mom, sister, and I were getting all of the sides ready. We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, corn, green beans, sweet potatoes, and rolls for dinner. It was all so good! Perhaps I'm a bit biased, but I think this turkey was the best I've ever had. I'm not a huge fan of Thanksgiving turkey because it usually seems to be a bit dry, but our turkey was so good and juicy. I am very proud of Ross and I for the excellent Thanksgiving dinner we made!