One Man Cooks All: A Tale of Easter Dinner

For Easter this past Friday, Husbie decided that he wanted to conquer cooking his very first turkey. And ham. And about 4 sides to go along with it. He cooked from 11:00am straight through until dinner at 5:30pm! I picked up his camera and tried my hand at documenting the process, with Husbie’s help to adjust the settings as needed which was actually quite frequently since he’s the professional (and who am I kidding, I can’t take pictures with an SLR to save my life). Here’s what the insane one-man-cooks-all menu looked like:

Roast Turkey with Lemon and Thyme
Bourbon & Citrus Glazed Ham
Bacon Wrapped Lemon & Leek Stuffing (keep scrolling for the recipe – you know you want to!)
Spiced Glazed Carrots
Mapled Brussel Sprouts with Pecans
Garlic & Herb Mashed Potatoes

For dessert, I wanted to bake something since that’s where my skill set lies (I pretend I’m good at something in the kitchen so my housewife dignity stays intact), but the oven was occupied with 25 pounds of sweet, sweet meat all day so Nathan’s Aunt brought over a black forest cake from the grocery store which was delicious. It had layers and cherries on top which is more than I could have accomplished!

Here is my attempt at being the photographer for once. I noticed I focused on odd things every once in a while, so I’ve made a mental note to pay more attention to that next time.

 

Holy moly did we ever stuff our faces. Husbie nailed it! The favorite this time around was the Bacon Wrapped Lemon and Leek stuffing, found in the cookbook What to Cook & How to Cook It by Jane Hornby. Here’s the recipe!

Ingredients
2 slim leeks
1 onion
Olive oil
5 oz crustless white bread, about 5 slices (we used whole wheat)
A few sprigs fresh thyme
1 handful fresh flat-leaf or curly parsley
1 handful fresh sage
1 lemon
1 medium egg
12 strips smoked bacon
salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Trim and discard any tough green leaves from the leeks and rinse them well. Slice the white and pale green part thinly into rounds, then thinly slice the onion. Place a frying pan over low heat, add some olive oil, then the onion and leeks. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.
2. Tear the bread into big chunks and put into the bowl of a food processor with the parsley and sage. Strip the leaves from the stems of the thyme, then add to the bowl. Pulse to make fine, herby crumbs.
3. Zest your lemon and put aside. Squeeze the juice from half a lemon into a small bowl and lightly beat the egg into another. Stir the bread crumb mixture, lemon zest and juice, and the egg into the cooked leeks and onions, and season with salt and pepper. Allow to cool for a few minutes.
4. Stretch each bacon strip a little by holding one end of a strip, then running the edge of a knife along its length. It will increase in size by about 50%. Repeat with each strip.
5. Lightly oil a baking pan. Shape the stuffing into golf ball sized balls, then wrap each one in a piece of bacon. Put the balls into the pan with the loose bacon ends down so that they don’t unravel as the stuffing cooks.
6. Put in oven at 425°F for 20 minutes.

I feel like I could eat this any day of the week instead of saving it for holidays only. After all, life is too short to not eat bacon! 90% of the world’s population eats bacon, and the other 10% are lying.