I love obatzda.
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Same - they’re always a hit!
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Other than our last minute change of guest list, everything went smoothly. Our 15 pound bird cooked in about 2 hours and 20 min on the convection roast setting and we were eating by 1 pm. Sides were bacon mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows and pecans, cornbread stuffing, farmhouse stuffing, green bean casserole, corn pudding, cranberry sauce, and gravy. We took a long rest before dessert, which was a bourbon pecan chocolate pie, a Costco pumpkin pie, an apple pie from the bakers at our favorite coffee shop, and a pumpkin cheesecake from my husband with a gingersnap crust and decorative white chocolate shavings, with ice cream for those who wanted it. I made a batched bourbon and maple syrup cocktail that was delicious and festively autumnal. We also had apple cider from a local orchard for those not imbibing. Our missing guests received a delivery of everything. All in all, it was a great meal, and hopefully next year will go just
as smoothly with all guests present!
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I’m enjoying a well-deserved (IMO 
) day of rest today following a successful feast yesterday! Everything was delicious but the duck breast (rubbed with baking powder and salt and dried in the fridge over night before searing) was the best I’ve ever made, and my stuffing was perfection this year. My spicy jalapeno crab cakes were also fantastic. I finished off my guest’s contribution of seared ahi tuna bites and Brussels sprouts salad today for lunch as I wanted something lightish after a big day of eating and drinking yesterday, but there will definitely be stuffing and pie later!
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All’s well that ends well. After spending over an hour trying to get to my friend’s parents place across town for lunch and being thwarted by NYC transit even hours after the parade was done, I called an audible and went straight to my main stop: my friends who were hosting another family and me for the afternoon/evening. Fortified immediately with a great cup of coffee and a snack to tide me over till we puttered about over apps and then the main meal.
Everything went mostly smoothly and was mostly delicious.
The puff pastry bites (reworked from the dip I didn’t love) were the surprise hit of the app session, and two entire batches were decimated (one batch was for the ill-fated skipped stop).
The mushroom and leek bread pudding and the mac and cheese both worked even better than I had hoped (the pasta in the mac was soaked but uncooked, and I had swapped the bread cubes in the bread pudding for stuffing cubes) and baked up gorgeous. The small sticky toffee pudding would have been better baked fresh, but despite everyone else being a pie eater, there were only two small pieces left (and I only tried half a piece to taste it).
The wines I transported turned out to be very good (the Haut Brion that was expected to be excellent, but was just past prime) and fantastic (the Haut Medoc we had no expectations for, but was a surprise gem), plus a lovely Saint-Emilion and an Oregon Pinot chosen to round out the selection, and we ended with the Sauternes I requested (to my host’s delight – I love it but usually demur on opening a bottle because we feel compelled to finish the whole thing between two of us 
, but there were enough people last night to distribute the damage 
).
A wonderful afternoon/evening with great company, an abundance of delicious food, and festive drinks to accompany it all!
The food:
Kenai / jalapeno cheddar dip puff pastry spirals
Homemade gravlax with lemon spread
Homemade cheese dip with cranberry jalapeno salsa
Tuna spuma / mousse with breadsticks
Butternut squash soup
Dinner
Duck breast (with bourbon cream gravy and spiced apricot chutney)
Turkey with herb butter
Mac & cheese
Mushroom & Leek Bread Pudding / Stuffing
Mashed potatoes
Green beans and bacon
Roasted brussels sprouts with labne and pickled onions
Sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce
Apple pie
Pecan pie
Cookies
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Beautiful! Thank you for sharing 
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Your duck breasts look spectacular (good thing I didn’t omit “duck” in that sentence bahahahaha)! Ima sucka for crispy skin, so any tips & tricks like proportions of salt vs. baking powder, or a link would be great!
We still have two duck breasts in the freezer for the upcoming holidays, and I’d love to make them that way.
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I agree! That bread pudding is intriguing.
Bread pudding? All I see is @Meekah’s beautiful autumnal table scape, but maybe I’m missing it? 
Oh, I forgot to pack myself any leftovers, even though when we emptied everything for storage, we left it all out with takeout containers for everyone to divvy up. Put it down to the (dessert) wine.
Luckily, I have a small container of bread pudding / stuffing that wouldn’t fit into the travel pyrex dish , and a little cheese sauce that was too much for the mac, so there’s still things to go with the chicken thighs I had planned to cook today.
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I did everything, worked from 10 am onward, just short breaks … we sat down to dinner at 7:45. Cozy, just 3, my daughter, her ex. I didn’t have to worry about whole house being spotless. I even ate some, for a change. Everything was perfect except the green beans … the market where I bought them turns out they were old and tough (they looked fine!). I boiled, shocked, drained then sauteed with garlic in butter and olive oil. Peeps liked even though I didn’t.
Over the years, I’ve had trouble cooking a good turkey, good gravy. This time was beyond perfect. (I’d love to teach a class in how to do this now!) It was a fresh Butterball 14.25 lbs, breast side down for the first hour, 2 quartered lemons in the cavity. I used the Petrini recipe salt, paprika, butter, olive oil, white pepper paste and also midway, the warmed up white wine and brandy over the turkey.
I used the fantastic turkey stock I’d made from wing flats and used Alexandra’s Kitchen recipe for make ahead starter (I was late and did it just before needing it … per comments used 1 Tablespoon more flour), drippings and a teaspoon of Kitchen Bouquet (It was already pretty brown but I wanted to try this this time.)
My daughter’s ex is from N. India and I think it’s his favorite American meal … he had two big plates (that made me happy!) and took some home.
I had some slices of Acme sourdough but no one wanted it. I was sad that I’m not one of those people who can get up early and make pies from scratch and then do everything else. My daughter made Dubai chocolate Rice Krispies but we were too full to try them.
I got fancy adding fresh chives to the mashed potatoes but I couldn’t really taste them. I guess they made it prettier but I wouldn’t bother next time.
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That choucroute garnie looks beyond amazing!! 
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What a feast!
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A great idea for leftover turkey 
I’ve got the juiciest (duck) breasts in all the land! To prep them, I laid them out skin side up in the fridge, uncovered, for about 6 hours to let the skin dry out a bit before scoring. I scored in a cross hatch pattern about 1/4” wide, then rubbed with baking powder and salt on the skin side only, then back into the fridge, uncovered, for another 18 hours or so. As for the baking powder mixture, Serious Eats recommended a ratio of 3:1 or 4:1 kosher salt to baking powder, so for the four 5-6 oz breasts I had (one didn’t make it into my photo), I mixed a 1/4 t. of baking powder with around 3/4 t. of table salt (if I had used kosher salt I would have done 4:1). https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-get-crispier-chicken-turkey-poultry-skin-with-baking-powder
To sear, I started skin side down in a cold pan over medium heat and let them cook undisturbed until the skins were deep brown and fully rendered, probably 10-12 mins. I drained the fat from the pan a couple of times during this process just so they didn’t start deep frying, because that skin released a TON of fat, but didn’t move them at all. Once the skin side was completely done, I gave the meat side just the barest sprinkle of salt, flipped and cooked one minute on the meat side, just to color the exterior, then rested (skin side up, natch) for around 5 mins before slicing. Beautiful rosy pink all the way through, perfectly seasoned and the crispiest skin ever. If you have thicker breasts (mine were probably only 1/2-3/4” thick), you might need an extra couple of minutes on the meat side.
Served with a sour cherry miso sauce (shallot, cherry jam, frozen cherries, miso, red wine vinegar, rosemary). Just fabulous.
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They also published a Turkey pho recipe from Samin Nosrat from a few years ago which looked reasonable.
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