Simple Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving for just two people may sound kind of lame, but for me and Noe this year, it was PERFECT. I would have been perfectly happy with just the two days off work, no feast required, but since I like to prepare food, we made our own mini-feast.

I roasted a chicken rather than a turkey. I thought of doing something more interesting, like lamb, but Noe is not crazy about lamb and I kind of figured "what the heck" - it's a comfort food kind of day. I suppose I could have found a small turkey, but - wait for it - I don't really like turkey. There, I said it. It's out in the open. I mean, turkey is okay - I just don't get what the big deal is. I've never loved it. I'll gladly eat it if it is put on a table, but do I want to make one and eat the leftovers for the next week and a half? Nope.

For side dishes we had a variation on Julia Child's braised brussels sprouts, roasted in the oven with tons of butter (and a little bacon - my personal addition); stuffing (Noe will only eat stuffing out of a box, but I cooked it in homemade chicken stock instead of water and added some onions and spices); carrots, potatoes, and onions (slow-roasted in the pan with the chicken); rolls; and perhaps my least favorite dish in the universe, green bean casserole. I fought Noe violently over this one. I see nothing good coming from a can of green beans mixed with a can of mushroom soup (for the record, I don't like mushroom soup in any form - nothing personal Campbell's) but because I am a good girlfriend and want to call in favors in the future, I made it.

Brussels sprouts braised with butter and bacon

 

Gross.

For the chicken itself, I mixed some butter with a ton of herbs de provence and rubbed it under and over the skin. I stuffed the cavity with an onion and a few whole cloves of garlic, then trussed it up and stuck it in the oven for awhile. Heavenly.

This...

 

...plus this...

...equals THIS.

We topped off the meal with some apple pie from a local apple orchard served with French vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Even though it was just the two of us, I am glad we still decided to celebrate. We compromised on some dishes and ended up with a delicious meal that didn't take me all day to prepare (although it was nice to be able to go about preparing it at my leisure). I hope everyone else had as great a day as we did.

Noe laughed at me for putting up the tree already,

but I didn't care.