Asheville Eats Turkey Day!

The idea of Thanksgiving Day often conjures warm and happy memories of being packed around a table with family and friends, various casseroles, tipsy aunts playing Just Dance and of course, the turkey. The centerpiece of most Thanksgiving tables, golden brown, crispy skin and juicy meat, just thinking about the meal and the leftovers is enough to make you drool.

However, just like we all have happy memories, we can also all point to not-so-great turkeys we've been served or made. The first time I was put in charge of making the family bird, I was fifteen and thrilled that I got to decide the rub and stuffing - and cook the turkey. Unfortunately, my family was less than thrilled when my dad cut into the breast to find it still pink inside. That year we ended up eating the sides, and a little of dessert, before the turkey was ready.

Fortunately, as the years have progressed, I've managed to avoid that particular faux paus...with turkey. But that only means that I've made more mistakes with more turkeys and had more success and many many more memories. While it can seem easier while on vacation to just go out to dinner on Thanksgiving, you may want to take advantage of all the organic markets and farms around Asheville and make dinner at home! If this is the case, we've got your back here at Asheville Connections! All our rentals come with beautiful kitchens, you can shop for ingredients downtown at the farmers market "store" location, and we have a couple recipes to inspire you!

 

 

To allow as much creativity as possible, we're just going with a basic roast turkey recipe - the perfect roast turkey recipe according to the recipe title. Favorite recipes are born from tweaking normal recipes and spicing up simple ideas, so personalize it to your family's taste!

 

But what is a turkey without stuffing? In a certain blogger's opinion it is much better, however in a certain blogger's family's opinion the answer is cries of despair and the risk of violent outbreaks. Needless to say, we always have at least one dish of stuffing on the table. In honor of my family's inordinate love of stuffing, I have found a recipe for herb stuffing that is very similar to my own clan's favorite. As with most other cooking attempts, or vacation experiences, the fun is in personalizing it, just be careful about what spices you mix...and how much of them you use...that's another story from another turkey in the not so distant past.