Let’s have an”easy” & “delicious” (AKA my) THANKSGIVING 🦃

Hi everybody! I don’t need to remind you that Thanksgiving (in USA) is around the corner. And even though I am based in Canada, I love celebrating Thanksgiving ( well I love any kind of celebration ☺), so why not celebrate it for the second time, with my US friends!! Let me tell you from the start, that I won’t be giving  you any complicated recipes for stuffing or marinating the turkey. I want you to have an easy Thanksgiving as I do! And I am about to tell you, that I have discovered few years ago a secret to a perfectly cooked, juicy and tender turkey.

I have been receiving compliments for many years, how delicious my turkey is, how tender and juicy; how come? Well, I am about to tell you my biggest secret, that non of my family members knows. So, the secret is, that I have discovered few years back, that in my local grocery store, they are selling frozen seasoned turkeys!!! Wow, yes and that is the biggest secret about my juicy and tender turkey 🙂 You might be saying now, oh no, that’s not the traditional way….no, it is not, but I am busy mama with two kids and full time job, so I am sure, you will understand and those who are in a similar situation as me, heck go for it Mama, you deserve to have “hassle free” Thanksgiving 🙂  Imagine, that you wake up on the Thanksgiving morning, take out your turkey from freezer and place it directly into the oven. Yes, that’s it….now you can either go back to bed or do whatever you want…Interested? Well here is the recipe….😃

Haha, yes it can be this easy! I know, I know, some of you love the traditional way to cook turkey, I am with you as well. But most of us don’t have that much time spending in the kitchen, so I just went for it and it totally changed my stressed Thanksgiving dinner to an easy breezy, joyful preparation of turkey. And so far, turkey always came out juicy and tender and almost at no effort.

So, because I have just given you the secret to easy preparation of turkey, now we have a bit more spare time, so let’s prepare some nice butternut squash plate. If you have a big oven, you will have no problem getting the giant pan with turkey in and cooking sheet with 2 nice butternut squashes. If your oven is too small and can’t cook turkey and butternut squash at the same time, you can cook it in enamel cookware like cuisot or creusete on the stove or you can pre-bake it a day before and on the day of cooking, you will just need to reheat it, right after you take your turkey out of the oven.

This butternut squash is so delicious, little sweet, garlic taste and sweet red onion, hm it is really good, you wont regret preparing this side dish on Thanksgiving dinner.  I guess I like orange or the orange color comes with the season…the next side dish I prepared sweet potatoes with clementines, garlic and rosemary. And I sprinkled a bit of smoked paprika over it, you will be in the heaven when this will start to smell in your kitchen. Sweet potatoes are baked in no time, so you don’t need to worry, even if you take out your turkey from the oven, you can slip the sweet potatoes right away in the oven and it should take roughly 30 minutes, if you will cut them in fairly small pieces. Clementines will give fresh sweet taste and garlic will assure to keep nice sweet taste as well. Once you bake garlic, it has incredibly good taste, it is sweet caramelized, just perfect.

And least, but not last my Pumpkin bundt cake. This one is one of my latest creation and a big hit in my family, for it’s soft and moist center and plus that lemon cream cheese glaze gives it this elegant, yet sweet-sour taste….hm to die for😁😋 It will be a big “wow” on your Thanksgiving dinner table. I allow myself even say, that this pumpkin bundt cake will steal the show….I am now letting to judge yourself.☺

You will find this funny, but this is what you will need to prepare  already seasoned frozen turkey, with gorges baked butternut squash and sweet potatoes. Here you can find recipe for Thanksgiving Pumpkin bundt cake🎃🍰

Yield: 6-8 persons

INGREDIENTS for Thanksgiving dinner:

Turkey

• one frozen seasoned turkey 10 lbs / 4,5kg

Sweet potatoes

• 6 large sweet potatoes cut in large rectangles
• rosemary
• salt and pepper
• smoked paprika in powder
• 3 clementines cut in half
• 2 bulb of garlic cut in half
• 2 tbs olive oil

Butternut squash

• 2 medium butternut squashes cut in half, remove seeds
• 100 g arugula salad
• 6 tbs olive oil
• 4 small red sweet onions
• 2 bulb of garlic cut in half and 1 clove of garlic
• salt and pepper
• 6 tbs of Parmesan (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. For the turkey, follow the instruction on the label.
2. For sweet potatoes, preheat the oven on 180 C/ 356 F.
3. Wash potatoes and cut in rectangles, place on baking sheet, season (salt, pepper, rosemary or your favorite seasoning ), pour over  half of the portion of olive oil, place bulb of garlic cut in half and clementine on the baking sheet and bake to 30-35 minutes.
4. For butternut squash, preheat oven on 220 C/ 425 F, cut in half, clean from the seeds, place on baking sheet, season, pour over olive oil, place garlic bulbs cut in halt, inside the squash, in seeds cavity.
5. Cover with aluminium paper and bake for 45 minutes.
6. Cut onions in small quarters and place them around the squash, brush the onions with the rest of the olive oil and let bake for another 30 minutes, uncovered.
7. In a small skillet, preheat 1 tsp of olive oil and on medium heat fry lightly 1 clove of garlic, add arugula salad and toss it in the skillet for 1 minute.
8. Once the butternut squash is cooked, place it on a presentable plate, add the fried arugula salad on the squash and serve together with sweet potatoes and turkey.

As you can see, this is pretty much it, 8 sweet steps to easy Thanksgiving dinner! Hope you will enjoy it as much as I do. I wish you the best Thanksgiving ever!!🦃☺