Our Soul Food Thanksgiving

 

The only pics we took of the meal (I was tired, yall!)

This was our first Thanksgiving living together, so I wanted to make it something special and show Tyler a bit of what I grew up eating when my family celebrated the holidays. My family liked to eat, so growing up Thanksgiving was a pretty big deal -- especially my mom's side of the family and other loved ones in Alabama. I decided to prepare a Southern "soul food" feast for him to flex my cooking skills (more than I already have been over the past year, haha!)

I had planned on vlogging the entire preparation and meal itself, but to be honest, I was dragging-ass that entire day and didn't even get started until late in the afternoon. I also, unfortunately, didn't take pics of the entire process, because I was just entirely too focused on making the meal -- which included a turkey, mac and cheese, dressing, giblet gravy, collard greens (with smoked ham-hocks), deviled eggs and candied yams. 

Inject your turkey (so many times), yall!

I always inject my turkey with Tony Chachere's Creole Butter Marinade, but this time I supplemented the bottle of marinade with an extra cup's worth of melted butter with various herbs and garlic infused in it. I covered the turkey with aluminum foil in its roasting pan and baked at 325 degrees. Every 15-20 minutes of the cooking process, I sucked up the resulting turkey broth with the injector and then re-injected it into the turkey's breasts and thighs. I repeated this process so many times that I lost count. In the end, the turkey's breast meat was so moist that it practically crumbled as I carved the bird.

My homemade(ish) mac-and-cheese recipe

I'm too lazy to be making mac-and-cheese the way some people do on Thanksgiving, but my recipe is still pretty damn good -- and you wouldn't know that I "cheat" with some of the ingredients by tasting it. 

• Oven-safe skillet (9")
• 2 segments of Laughing Cow White Cheddar cheese
• 2 slices of Pepper Jack cheese 
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (for roux)
• 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (for crust)
• 2 cups whole milk
• Tony Chachere's creole seasoning (to taste)
• Dried macaroni noodles (1 1/2 cups dry)

Combine all but 1/2 cup cheese into a skillet with the milk and simmer, stirring frequently as the cheese melts. This will result in a somewhat thin roux. Sprinkle with seasonings and stir some more. Boil the macaroni noodles and strain, leaving about two tbsp. of the noodle water with the noodles. Add to the cheese sauce and stir thoroughly. It will be slightly thin of consistency, but the starchiness of the pasta water will help thicken it up, and the noodles will soak up some of the roux.

Top the skillet with the rest of the shredded cheese (add more than 1/2 cup if you're big-backed). Put the skillet in the oven uncovered and broil on high for five to eight minutes, or until the cheese forms a golden brown crust on top.