Thanksgiving, Boursin Stuffed Mushrooms, and Roasting the Turkey at High Heat

Another Thanksgiving has come and gone.  We feasted all day long and with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 70’s, it could not have been more perfect.  Well, maybe if the Detroit Lions had won…but other than that…perfect!  My daughter insisted on making the Boursin Stuffed Mushrooms and who was I to argue?  It is such a pleasure to have her happily helping me in the kitchen these days. 

 

These mushrooms are one of our favorite things to eat and people actually fight over the last one when I take them to a party.  They fit perfectly in the quiche plate and we used a new tool…a melon baller… this time to remove the mushroom stems and “hollow” out the mushrooms.  It worked perfectly.  We had nice and neat and perfectly shaped cavities to stuff the mushrooms. 

In case you missed it, here is the recipe for :

Boursin Stuffed Mushrooms

Boursin Stuffed Mushrooms Makes about 16 Preparation Time: 10

minutes Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

1 package (10 oz.) mushrooms

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

1/4 cup unseasoned dry bread crumbs

1 package (5.2 oz.) Boursin® Garlic & Fine Herbs

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese (optional)

Instructions:Preheat oven to 400°F. Remove and chop mushroom stems. In 12-inch skillet, melt butter over medium-high heat and cook mushroom stems and onion, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes or until tender. In medium bowl, pour mushroom mixture over bread crumbs. Stir in Boursin, parsley, salt and pepper. Evenly spoon mushroom mixture into mushroom caps; arrange on baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes or until mushrooms are tender and golden. Sprinkle with cheese.

The Stuffing

Another pleasant discovery yesterday was the corn bread stuffing.  Yes, the Southerness is starting to soak it’s way into my bones!  It was by far much better than the stuffing I have have been making all these years.  And I used the Pepperidge Farms Cornbread stuffing mix.  Imagine how much better if next year I make my own corn bread.  :)

THE TURKEY

Now for  the turkey.  In the past I have been know to toss my turkey in a Reynolds Cooking bag and call it a day.  The bags work great and there is no way to mess us your turkey.  I was going for ease and convenience.  Well, this year I decided to make some changes.  Instead, I made a rub that I have used on my oven roasted chicken and it was delicious.  I roasted the turkey at high heat the entire time with a foil tent over it.  I roasted a 12 pound turkey at 400 degrees and that bird was done and gorgeously brown in 2 and 3/4 hours!  And it was Delicious!   And don’t get me started on how delicious the gravy was made with the drippings that was for the most part already seasoned with dry rub that was part of the drippings.  So good!  This will be my new turkey roasting method going forward.  Sorry, no photos…forgot to pull the camera out when it came out of the oven.  Take my word for it, she was beauty!

Here is a link to the roasting times if you want to give the High Roasting Heat Method a try. 

And lastly, here is the recipe for the rub that I used.  I rubbed the entire turkey with olive oil, cut up a lemon and inserted it into the cavity, and then I rubbed the entire turkey with this dry rub.  It gave it a beautiful color and delicious flavor.

Dry Rub

This was used on a 12 lb. turkey

Olive Oil

2 tsp. kosher salt

2 tsp. black pepper

2tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried basil

2 tsp. paprika

1/8 to 1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

So, all in all it was a very nice Thanksgiving holiday.  I hope your’s was as well.  I know I don’t say it enough, but THANK YOU to all of you who stop by here to visit and for all the lovely comments.

Now, it’s time to wrap my head around the fact that Christmas is just a few weeks away.  I’m so not ready!