Thanksgiving DinnerThanksgiving Dinner

When I think of Thanksgiving, I think of a time to gather your loved ones around for a dinner with a big roasted turkey taking the spotlight at the table. It wasn’t until 2013 when I got to experience that kind of thrill for myself. My uncle would be responsible for the turkey roast and it would take a solid couple of hours. It was a big piece! And you would have to fight the little ones for a slice of the dark meat. Although it was a fun tradition, to share a whole turkey, I think I’d prefer a quicker cooking time and much more foolproof tender cuts.

For this Thanksgiving, my immediate thought was that I NEED to make turkey stuffing tarts. I had no idea how the tarts would work or how the stuffing would form, but that was my agenda. The only stuffing I’ve ever had was chicken stuffing, and that was from Woolworths, boy was it delicious. Now that I compare it to what I had now, it was really mushy and overly salted.

We gathered up a haul from the stores, with a game-plan in mind: spinach & turkey stuffing muffins, mozzarella grated elicoidali sausage spinach pasta, stuffed cornish hens and garlic bread for side.

Quickly, this list ended up being myself adding sausage into the muffins as well, not putting together the garlic bread, too much pasta (one and a half bags) and two and a 1/3 stuffed cornish hens. The “muffins” then became quiches. And the muffin tin I was to put to use quickly cooked everything to harden, so I luckily had a majority of my mixture go into the mini cupcake tin.

Really, we gotta work as we go.

The outcome was delicious quiches, a tender cornish hen stuffed with rosemary, thyme and leftover turkey stuffing to split between two people and so much dang pasta to inhale. There’s something about any thick pasta that isn’t in strands that makes you feel like you’re eating a LOT. But really, the turkey stuffing was so generous in flavour, it acts as a whole other seasoning element of it’s own – the as soon as it defrosted from the small jam-packed bag, it became 6 cups of glory. Chopped bread pieces, well spiced with all sorts of herbs and love. A++++ for Butterball’s Turkey Stuffing – it was only $5.50!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Turkey-Stuffing Quiche

Makes 30 mini quiches 

Ingredients:
Pre-made turkey stuffing
1 box frozen chopped spinach
2-3 sausages of your choice (or substitute)
8 eggs
3 tablespoons of milk
Mozzarella or any cheese (optional)

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
  2. Defrost both the  turkey stuffing and frozen chopped spinach according to directions.
  3. Drain most of the moisture from the spinach.
  4. Uncase sausages, sear and break apart on pan.
  5. Put 3/4 of the turkey stuffing in a bowl, mix with spinach and sausages.
  6. Whip up 8 eggs, add 3 tablespoons of milk and salt + pepper.
  7. Fill trays 3/5 way full.
  8. Sprinkle until topped up with turkey, spinach and sausage mixture.
  9. Top off with cheese.
  10. Cook in oven for 20 minutes or until just golden brown.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Other side images of the Thanksgiving dinner progress:

Thanksgiving Dinner

Breaking apart the remaining sausages and sweating onions for the pasta

Thanksgiving Dinner

Delicious rich pasta sauce purchased in Montreal

Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving Dinner

Probably prettier without the cheese, but the cheese really made a difference in the bites.

Thanksgiving Dinner

2 out of 3 of our cornish hens came with only one wing, and ach were stuffd with their own necks and one piece was a piece of fat. Guess that’s how we’re paying for the weight…

Thanksgiving Dinner

Three times wonder, baste baste!

Thanksgiving Dinner

Pepper sniffs out the good stuff! He knows there’s turkey stuffing in here.