It was just Hubby & me, and Kitty Baby makes three. He took the day off, so I made my usual vegetarian stuffing, portioned out some of it & added some giblets to stuff a turkey for his meaty entrée. Kitty Baby scarfed down her serving of turkey, which was really only about half an ounce or so (I didn't weigh it; I just give her the equivalent of a soupspoonful of meat or she ends up vomiting.)
Even though it's only been the two of us forever, it's the first time I have actually tried to downsize the entire holiday dinner to a meal for two, rather than my usual large family gathering style. It's really hard to do and I didn't really succeed, except with the candied yams (I made enough for only 2 servings each). We still have lots of leftovers. I've been packaging portions & making soup stock ever since.
Kitty Baby only ate the turkey on Thanksgiving day one time. Each of the 2 other times I cut some up for her, she ignored it. I was actually surprised she scarfed it down on Thursday because she normally won't eat any wet cat food with turkey in it. She's quite particular, in fact. If it doesn't have salmon in it, she turns her nose up and walks away. For awhile I'd buy something else thinking, 'What cat wouldn't like this?' and it turns out she lives with me, that's what cat wouldn't like duck, turkey, any paté, any wet food that doesn't have gravy in the mix.
Here's what we had for Thanksgiving:
Deviled eggs from 4 eggs (fresh chicken eggs - so delicious!) = 8 deviled eggs. It took us 3 days to finish them off, but they were delicious as usual. Good with breakfast.
Mashed potatoes & cauliflower from 2 small baking potatoes + 1/4 head of cauliflower = too many servings as a side.
Brussel sprouts with red onion in a tasty balsamic sauce made with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard & horseradish (I don't even recall where the recipe originated, but my FIL loved this dish when he first came to our house for a holiday meal & I've been making it ever since.) I ate the last of this last night; just love the sweetness of the onions in this dish to counteract the tartness of the brussel sprouts.
Stuffing using my mom's recipe, plus pine nuts, mushrooms & vegetarian sausage; the liquid I use for my stuffing is Brianna's chicken-style vegan broth powder made as broth = OMG, I have never learned to downsize stuffing, surely because I love it so much.
Stuffing for the turkey for Hubby has the cut-up boiled turkey giblets & the liquid in which they were cooked; this is added to a portion of the vegetarian stuffing I make for myself.
Stuffed portabellas made with the aforementioned stuffing (the veggie version) = two servings, which we actually didn't eat until lunch the next day.
Candied yams made with 2 smallish yams (maybe small/medium) = not enough leftovers (I love my mom's candied yams, especially when heated up and sitting atop a little bowl of stuffing.) I'll be making more this week, because this and stuffing are my two most favorite things to eat together.
Turkey, which was the smallest one we could find, was 10 pounds of meat that will last quite some time, since Hubby is the only human in the house who will eat it. Hubby's work lunches are taken care of for awhile, but to allow for variety, I've packaged some for the freezer. I am also currently working on a soup stock with the bones and whatnot. Soup has always been one of my specialties; Hubby thinks I'm a culinary soup genius, which is altogether a nice opinion for a husband to have, right?
But we forgot the cranberries! Never even took them out of the cupboard. We also forgot to put the bread in the oven. But really, we didn't need either.
Then to top that off, Hubby brought home two pies. Two, count 'em, two! And the pumpkin pie is HUGE! I don't even like pumpkin pie all that much, and this was simperingly super sweet; I ate part of one slice, and that's it for me. He's going to have to eat a whole pie all on his own. He also bought half pecan pie, which we have yet to cut into. I like pecan pie, but it's always so sweet, I can never finish a whole slice. So he'll eat most of that as well, with whipped cream of course. I like whipped cream, but the pies are just too sweet for me, a concept Hubby does not even comprehend.
Maybe we can repeat this for Christmas and eldest son can partake. After all, I will be going to help him with the move; he may as well eat a traditional Christmas dinner with us.