At some point during the pandemic, I started making Pinterest boards for dinner parties that I wanted to host when lockdowns finished and life returned to “normal”. To be honest, they were all various Thanksgiving themed boards, based around me FINALLY roasting a turkey for the first time in my life. I decided this was my year, and invited a very small group of friends over to be my guinea pigs in case it all went awry. Spoiler alert: it didn’t.

We had so much fun, my turkey was amazing (if I do say so myself), and while I have a bit of work to do on timing and a lot of work to do on carving, I can’t wait to do this again. For this inaugural Friendsmas Feast, all the recipes were from Smitten Kitchen (which the exception of our signature drink and snack to start). I was so wrapped up in the night, I didn’t take many pictures, but here are my notes on everything we had, so I can remember it all for next year:

Signature Cocktail: Our cocktail was a Pomegranate Aperol Spritz which was the best cocktail I’ve had all year, and is a mixture of pomegranate juice, Aperol, prosecco and soda water. Garnishes of orange wheels and rosemary springs make it super cute and festive!

Appetizer: Our pre-dinner snack was Whipped Goat Cheese topped with caramelized shallots, fried rosemary and dates (the original recipe also calls for bacon, but I left that out). I served this with crostini and crackers and it was outstanding.

Turkey: I’ve been intimidated by roasting a turkey for my whole life, and kept psyching myself out about it in the weeks leading up to this Friendsmas. To set me up for success, I did a few things: a) borrowed my Mom’s roasting pan b) borrowed my brother’s digital meat thermometer and c) printed off this method and recipe and read and re-read it multiple times during the week of the party, with Deb’s voice in my head to pump me up. I followed every instruction to the LETTER and (almost) everything went according to plan. My only hiccups were that I would have timed the turkey to be out of oven, rested and carved BEFORE anyone even arrived. It was a little stressful trying to do all that (plus figure out how to work the thermometer!) while everyone was watching. Aside from that, it was smooth sailing, and the turkey was so juicy and so good. I would also get a bigger turkey next time as it turns out my friends all prefer white meat!

Gravy: Now, a brief aside on gravy. I was actually going to just skip it, but the crowd requested it, so with the help of Heini, I decided to wing it. I put the roasting pan over a burner, added cornstarch and water (and a little Better than Bouillon) and whisked until it was smooth. Because the turkey roasts on a bed of quartered red onions, the drippings and therefore the gravy was overly oniony, but I don’t think anyone minded.

Sides: My theme for sides was basically “things my family won’t eat”. I didn’t want to make any of my usual Thanksgiving sides (i.e. mashed potatoes, stuffing), so I switched it up and here’s what we had instead:

Dessert: In a plot twist, I asked my friends to bring dessert, so I could keep my focus on the turkey. They brought sourdough brownies that they warmed up and served with vanilla ice cream and was the perfect end to our meal.

Overall I give myself a B+! I’m excited to make this a yearly tradition, and to keep refining my menu and working on my gravy!