The Amateur Gourmet
Recipes, restaurant reviews, and personal essays — twice a week since 2004.
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Writing about food since 2004.
The Thanksgiving Post: “How Moist Was My Turkey”
The Amateur Gourmet
Thanks for reading. Recipes, restaurant reviews, and personal essays — twice a week since 2004.
Free, twice a week. One more click on Substack to confirm.
Dinner looks great but bravo on the post…I love it! A work of art!
That looks like the same brine/oven temp recipe that I used. Came out *fantastic*, didn’t it? That brine recipe is a solid keeper. I’ll be using that ad infinitum. I hope you didn’t try lifting the bag out of the brining vessel like I did. Luckily, I had it in a large bucket so it all stayed fairly well contained. Unlike my bowl of giblets that I had balanced precariously in the top of my fridge…only to have tip over and slide out of the plastic wrap and drip/fall down the back of the fridge. It was only when I got to completely cleaning out the fridge last night that I found some stray giblets that were hiding behind some other foodstuffs.Let’s hear it for Clorox cleaner. Not how I wanted to spend my Sunday night. :(But the meal, she was a success. 🙂
Congratulations! It looks like you had a great time during Turkey Day and that everyone enjoyed the meal 🙂 And thanks for making more of your cartoon-like posts–those are my favorite!
A sweet, sweet turkey triumph, AG!! Kudos to you on an ambitious menu successfully plated — and way to go getting everyone to help out, very democratic. Your grandma’s softshoe routine was delightful too…I wondered if your family was the “board games after dinner” type and now we know the answer. 😛
Wonderful menu – everything looked delicious. Congratulations !
Nice turkey!Do you know of a comic strip creating program for a PC? I love those things!
I LOVE your father!I bet he ate it all and loved it.
I read your site all the time but had never left a comment no matter how fab the food looked=)However…I HAD to make an exception this time because your grandma is so gangsta. “Gangsta” means badass in a cute way here.The food not only looked great but your family radiates love too. You should feel very lucky!
I’m impressed that you carved the turkey in your nice shirt…without an apron! Your meal looks terrific; congrats on the first of what should be many happy Thanksgivings at home.
Fantastic, as always! Can you PLEASE post the recipe for those mouth-watering Key Lime pies???? Please? Pretty please?
Too cool! So envious…
I love your grandparents!
This year was my first attempt at putting on a full-on Thanksgiving meal. Turkey turned out great – didn’t brine, but did cook it upside down for the first hour or so.Kudos to you on the carving though, I totally wiped out there.
looks like you guys had a great time. the food looks amazing…and your grandma’s dance routine was so cute..!
That was a fun post. Thanks for sharing all the great photos. I’m surprised you still had time to snap photos with all of your busyness. But you never did answer the questions, did you? Just how moist WAS your turkey?
Looks quite fab!!! So tell us, do the others want to continue holiday meals at home (where you slave them in the kitchen) or start heading out as before? Bravo!!!
Love the Bubbie dance of joy and cuteness. And Michael’s looking ridiculously hot these days. Wasn’t he just a snotnose kid in the last dinner pics? Yummy. And turkey looks wicked – way to vanquish the beast.
mmmmmmm.. brined bird. I also used Curtis Stone’s technique of flipping the wings under the bird so they don’t dry out. The underside protects them from overcooking. yummmmmm..Please post recipe for apple cobbler.. please.
Your grandma and grandpa are the cutest. And you play piano, TOO?!
The sweet taste of success! Well done AG…
The bird looks fab. Brining in the roasting bag is genius, will have to try with chicken before I graduate to a turkey.BTW- your parents don’t look old enough to be your parents. Please tell them and pray that you get their youthful genes.Happy Holidays! Bring on the fudge!
Adorable watching your Granny and Gramps cutting the rug after supper! Thank you for sharing such a functional Thanksgivingevening. Congrats on your first homecooked holiday dinner, it looked delicious.
So, what was the turkey’s name? Much love
The best part? The dancing. Work it, grandma. Congrats on a mouth-watering feast, AG!
Hotness… love the comic book style telling. Looks delicious… I can’t believe you made all that food. Or taht you have such a huge house, I’m jealous. That’s not in NYC is it?
Adam, I think it’s time to come to a realization that you may be loathe to admit – you’re no amateur anymore. You may have been a fumbling kitchen neophyte while in law school, but the time you have spent in NY has sharpened all your palates. We, your loyal readers, have watched you grow in so many ways, and with the amazing Thanksgiving feast you and your family prepared together, a new milestone has been reached in the Roberts’ household – your love of food has brought your entire family closer together. Ephiphany!
Looks like fun. I brined the turkey a la Alton, as well, and WOW!I’ll be doing my next roast chicken with a brine, too. What a great technique.
Well, just the thought of Heidi shopping off a 4 page list was a enough to make me laugh out loud, but then she told me she was helping you prepare the feast and she sounded exhausted, but actually kind of proud of herself was amazing!! I heard you had a delicious feast!!! Its nice that you started a family tradition of eating in your house on Thanksgiving, you all looked fabulous, and happy…I wish you much success with all your writtings and I can’t wait to read your book…xoxoxox robin from nj
Ridiculously great post, as always. Thanks for the laugh.
That was really fun to see. Loved your piano playing and the softshoe too.
AAAAAAAHhhhhhhhhhH!!!! Grandma is so cute! Check you out with your mad piano skillz too…yeow. Quite the talented family
Glad to see that I’m not the only one who has posted a holiday dancing scenario on their food blog.
Looks like thanksgiving
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That was really fun to see. Loved your piano playing and the softshoe too.