My Very Simple Thanksgiving

 

I had a big surprise this week when a good friend of mine showed up on my doorstep for the Thanksgiving holiday.  No worries at all, I had planned a small feast which was perfect for one or two people and we had a great meal as well as a wonderful time.  Everything I prepared to eat came out of my pantry and chest freezer using items I already had on had so it was very low cost to put together.

 

Dinner rolls & a pumpkin pie

This is quite easily the smallest Thanksgiving feast I've ever prepared, but it certainly was not lacking in anyway.  Instead of preparing a turkey I marinated some cut up chicken I had put away in my freezer - a large breast half, a thigh and two drum sticks.  I made all the usual accoutrements too, just on a much smaller scale - mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, sautéed green beans, cabbage salad & fruit salad, pickles and olives, even some dinner rolls.  Of course, I made a pumpkin pie too.

 

I roasted the chicken in my toaster oven and it was perfect!

The day before, on Wednesday, I made some brine to marinate the chicken in overnight, very similar to my turkey brine recipe.  I thought it would be fun to try it.  I also made a half recipe of whole wheat dinner roll dough and my grandmother's recipe for No Crust Pumpkin Pie.  I cut the batter in half to make a pie in my vintage glass Pyrex pie pan and put the rest of the batter in the freezer to make another little  pie later, perhaps at Christmas. There may have been some preliminary taste testing of the rolls, I cannot confirm or deny.  For supper that evening we did a small charcouterie board and martinis.

 

Mashed potatoes with carrot

Stuffing

Delicious gravy

We decided to have our Thanksgiving Day meal as a late lunch.  I started cooking around 12:30 and dinner was ready at 2:oo.  I can tell you right now I made way too much food for two people, but it was so good.  We enjoyed every bite and left the table completely stuffed.  It didn't stop us from enjoying leftovers later that evening and pie too.

 

A beautiful feast indeed

I tried to keep it on a much smaller scale but even still there were a lot of leftovers which will be eaten in the next few days, I'm sure.  Needless to say I was feeling very blessed with the abundance of food I was able to serve this year for Thanksgiving.