Bonnie’s Fabulous Thanksgiving Feast 2022

It gives me great pleasure to present Chef Bonnie and her extraordinary Thanksgiving extravaganza.

This feast is a labor of love that is several days in the making, but much longer than that in the planning. As a result, we enjoyed this fabulous, mouthwatering spread of 17 dishes that makes me salivate for more… although I admit I already stuffed my face with leftovers twice today…

There are 14 main dinner dishes – Lemon Turkey Breasts Stuffed with Herbs, Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecans, Cauliflower Puree, Pears with Goat Cheese and Cranberries, Green Bean Casserole in Cashew Sauce, Cranberry Orange Sauce, 2 versions of Popovers and 2 versions of Bonnie’s Signature Stuffin Muffins (Gluten Free and Gluten Full).

Plus 3 homemade desserts – Apple Pie, Sour Cherry Tart, and Pumpkin Cheesecake that is both gluten free and dairy free – but you would never know it!

And did I mention this whole dinner is gluten free and dairy free – except for one set of Stuffin Muffins and Popovers for the Chef herself? With 15 dishes/desserts to choose from, I’m in heaven! Bonnie thoughtfully separates the two gluten items on the left and the equivalent GF items on the right.

Planning and Grocery Shopping on Tuesday

For the last few weeks. Laura, Bonnie and I have been talking about the menu.

After reaching a consensus, Bonnie made a detailed ingredients list. Since she was cooking in my apartment starting Wednesday, she sent me the list and I started pulling out items that I already had. That way when she wouldn’t come back from the grocery store on Tuesday night with duplicates.

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I ordered a new table protector, and made a Vegetable Ikebana table arrangement during my Monday class. In addition, I made several trips to my storage unit to return artwork from my recent Studio Tour. It was the least I could do.

However, the table stayed like this for all of 10 minutes before I pulled out all my pie pans and utensils, serving dishes, and more – which I am deliberately not showing you. I would rather you remember these two images.

Prep and Pie Night

Pie Night on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving has been a family tradition going back many years. It’s Bonnie’s time to focus on baking at least 2 desserts. You can read more about Pie Night at Bonnie’s Thanksgiving Feast Challenge 2020!, when she baked and cooked in her own apartment during the pandemic and brought everything here.

This year she made a Sour Cherry Tart and Apple Pie for Pie Night. She started by making the pie dough for both desserts from scratch. The dough quickly went into the refrigerator to firm up for rolling.

Early on she strained the tart cherries, thickened the cherry sauce, and then filled the pie crust.

The Apple Recipe called for Granny Smith Apples. I love tart apples, and cherries too! They make the best desserts.

I wish Mom were here to see this masterpiece of a pie. It looks as good as the ones she and I used to bake together. Our secret was lots of lemon and cinnamon, which has now been passed down to Bonnie and Laura.

Here is the Apple Pie with the top crust on. For the sake of time, she passed on doing a lattice pie crust.

Into the oven they go.

While waiting for the desserts to bake, the Chef made Cranberry Orange Sauce and Butternut Squash Soup to give herself some breathing room on Thursday, the big cooking day.

It’s so interesting to watch as Bonnie cooks and bakes – and posts along the way on her Instagram account @bonniesbitesoflife. There’s a certain rhythm to it all.

Then she put the butternut squash and Granny Smith apples in the Vitamix blender to give it the smooth, creamy texture.

Bonnie also slipped in a quick rejuvenating nap (with all the lights on!) while the pies were baking. This nap was well deserved since she had been teaching in the morning and was already up for 16 hours.

What a difference a nap makes! And what a delicious-looking tart she just took out of the oven! I’m salivating….

Here comes the apple pie.

Now it’s time to clean up for the Big Day before going to sleep. I hate waking up to a bunch of dirty dishes in the sink.

Thanksgiving Day

Bonnie always begins the day by turning on the Thanksgiving Parade. Then she started cooking by soaking the cashews for the Green Bean Casserole from @daniellewalker. Ah, she’s sure got the art of multitasking down as you shall see..

I could barely keep up with Bonnie as she moved from one dish to another, with hardly anything written down.

One could say I was her sous chef, which I like the sound of. In reality, my job was to help her avoid logjams at the blender, mixing bowls, pans, sink and utensils. Thus I hunkered down with rubber gloves and did a lot of washing and scraping. Not as sexy sounding, is it?

Somewhere along the way, this tray of cauliflower florets showed up roasted to perfection for the Cauliflower Puree. I couldn’t resist a taste test.

Then Bonnie turned her attention back to dessert, and to getting the Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake into the oven. Thus I got to sample the leftover batter, once I got it off the blender, that is. I savored every minute of this task!

The Turkey

This year, Bonnie bought a 4th turkey breast vs. the usual 3. I admit to being skeptical about whether it would fit in the roasting pan. She was confident it would fit, and it did.

I love the expression on her face as this picks up this slippery turkey breast.

The recipe called for herbs to be stuffed under the skin. She used fresh rosemary, thyme, sage and basil.

Lastly, she added some dijon mustard to give the turkey a pop of flavor.

Then Laura was recruited to mash the sweet potatoes before they could move on to the next stage – the hand held mixer.

Often I forget how many steps there are to these recipes. Below Bonnie is adding the chopped pecan topping to the sweet potatoes to finish off the dish before it does into the oven with the turkey.

After a few hours, and several checks of the meat thermometer, the turkey is ready. Bonnie reports the pan is heavy (“Mom, take the picture already!“)

She took a brief break to pirouette around in her favorite apron (wish I had a video of that!). Bonnie loves the deep pockets. Don’t we all?

Joy!

Look at the absolute joy on Bonnie’s face as she take the popovers out of the oven and assess’s how much they popped! This was one of the best batches ever. They are really tall and fluffy. Success!

Maybe there’s not so much joy in the photo below. Can you guess which popovers are the gluten free ones?

Although this batch didn’t pop like the other one, these little muffins taste fantastic! You would think that they have butter in them when they don’t. These popovers remind me of the Bloomingdales ones I craved for years. When I got up the next day, they were the first thing I ate.

We’re getting closer to dinner! Hurrah! Bonnie is carving the turkey. I took this photo since it reminded me of a Wayne Thiebaud painting where he stuck a big black knife into a roundel of cheese.

It was surprising how fast Bonnie could carve the turkey. Clearly her knife skills are superior to mine.

Once the turkey was plated, it was a signal to start unwrapping the other dishes and place them on the buffet counter.

Photo op time!

“Only be quick about it so we can take our food while it’s still warm!”, says Bonnie. (Note: Besides removing the garbage bag, please remind me to take the sticky notes off the door next Thanksgiving…)

Bonnie always likes photos from up high. Hope she sends me this shot.

Soup’s On!

We started with the Butternut Squash Soup, which was simply delicious!

Dinner Is Served!

At last it was time to dig in for the main course. Very serious stuff…

Well, maybe not so serious….“Mom, enough pictures already! It’s time to eat.”

Menu

Here’s a photo of each dish so this blog can double as a 2023 menu planner:

Lastly, we come to my two contributions.

And here she is, the satisfied Chef.

The Finale – Dessert!

What an amazing taste and texture this Cheesecake Pumpkin pie has!

I won’t say that Bonnie, Laura and I fight over the this addictive GF dessert, just that we’re on the honor system not to take more than our fair share. But it’s so tempting… I’ve been eating the teeniest slices since Thanksgiving to make my leftovers last as long as possible.

What a delicious way to end a meal! Three homemade desserts with a marvelous Coconut Whipped Topping from Sweet Rose from Trader Joe’s.

The Last Tradition

Finally, I have to close this blog with our annual Thanksgiving family selfie. It’s a tradition. As you can see, our Thanksgiving family motto is Let’s Get Stuffed. And so we did. The best tradition of all.

In addition, the tradition continues as we stuff ourselves for several days with leftovers. That could be the highlight of this holiday season… eating so well and not cooking for several days afterwards.

Food for Thought

After looking over the photos and thinking about all the dishes, I realize what an extraordinary meal this is. I know I’ve said this before in Mother’s Day: A Ballet of Flavors, but watching Bonnie put this together is a unique experience, like watching a choreographer arrange a dance. This is described more eloquently in the blog.

Bonnie, now I’m talking directly to you. You performed like the veteran food artist you are, and are in control of every step along the way. Even when things go awry, you calmly make adjustments but don’t lose your cool. These impressive character traits serve you well in cooking, teaching and, most importantly, in life.

This is truly a fabulous feast – and fabulous feat too! Thank you, Bonnie, for making this day so exhilarating and memorable.

With much love,