Thanksgiving is a tough holiday to pin down. It’s one where family and food are front-and-center and yet there is always a tinge of darkness surrounding it. This undercurrent of stress and anxiety for the person(s) fixing the meal to the possible dinner conversations that veer away from the polite and make their way at breakneck speed into the political or the religious or any other topic which no one really wants to talk about especially in between bites of turkey or stuffing. But that’s what happens in those uncomfortable silences, one person decides to push buttons a little too much and before you realize it, people have left and dinner seemingly is ruined.

Thankfully (no pun intended), that wasn’t the case yesterday. Instead it was just a normal day. There wasn’t the possible conversation topics from the previous year where the election was still in the forefront of most brains, instead it was just a day. A day away from work for some and away from school for another. That makes it a little easier to deal with and prepare for and that was how I’ll remember it.

There was no huge bird this year, it just doesn’t make much sense to prepare a large bird for only the three of us. Intstead I went with a turkey breast and that was definitely the right choice. I bought it on Sunday and started defrosting as soon as I returned home from the grocery store. It took up some space since it was still over five pounds but nothing like previous years trying to stuff a twelve pound turkey into one fridge. The rest of the week was just a mixture of planning and a little prep but come Wednesday things picked up.

First up was hitting the grocery one more time for more of the perishable items and baking needs since it had been a little while since the last time I baked. Picking the right time in the day was nice and the trip wasn’t too bad. Running around later and seeing the amount of cars in the parking lot definitely helped me know I made the right choice.

A bourbon pumpkin cheesecake was the first dessert to make and prepare. I decided to do on Wednesday since it needed a good amount of time to cool and then chill in order to set correctly. The bourbon I used was from a distillery in Portland. I hadn’t tried before but really enjoyed it once I did. The crust was a combination of graham crackers, pecans, brown sugar and butter. It’s tough to beat that combination and the ease was very nice. Everything else worked out well with the crust, the puree and then the topping though the sour cream plus sugar and bourbon wasn’t quite the hit a simple topping might have been. I just used the recipe as it appeared and didn’t try to make too many changes. That’ll change for the next time I attempt it.

While that was in the oven, the turkey was next. Taking shears to the ribs and pulling bits apart left the breasts to sit flat on the plate. Pulling the skin back so I could rub kosher salt over the meat was something I hadn’t done before so I was anxious to see the results after roasting. Back into the fridge it went, just sitting on plate uncovered. It would stay that way until it was time to go into the oven the next day.

The next thing I knew it was Thursday and time for the real fun to start. The plan was pretty simple. Get some house prep done during the Bears game and then start speeding up with an eye of eating around 5. Another dessert was needed and brownies turned out to be the call. Everything went fine with them in the preparation but they didn’t cook as well as I hoped and they stayed gooey in a raw way. I pulled them out too early and that turned out to be the biggest bummer of the day. Looking back at the recipe, I see I made the wrong decision for the pan to use. That actually made me feel better because the prep was fine so a different pan will be used.

The turkey was to be done in two parts, the first was a lower temp for a little over an hour and then when getting the meat to around 130 degrees, bumping up the oven to full blast to get the skin nice and crispy. This worked really well though I needed to line the pan better because it definitely made more of a mess than I expected but the turkey turned out well, the skin was crispy, the meat juicy and the amount of leftovers wasn’t filling the fridge which made everything just fine.

The rest of the dinner came together easily, some potatoes and veggies, store bought rolls which I don’t mind admitting. Everyone ate and no surprises were found other than the brownies.