This post is all about my Thanksgiving adventure. I am being a bit dramatic, there was nothing adventurous about it really, it was just a great day spent with delicious food and family.
Erik and I got over to my parents bright and early, about 8am. We prepped and got the turkey in the oven by 9am. This turkey was a beauty; 17 pounds from Bar 5, a local farm in MN, fresh, organic, free-range, all the good stuff. I received the recommendation from the contact on Twitter at the Mpls Farmer's Market. This turkey was not cheap, though.
The recipe we use each year is from Cookinglight.com, a parmesan sage turkey with sage gravy. Doesn't that sound so good? It is. Recipe is at the bottom of this post.
Here's the funny story about the turkey. It is only funny now that some time has passed, it wasn't very funny the day of. Here goes...we roasted the turkey breast-side down. Basically, the turkey was upside down. Upside down! And we didn't notice until we took it out of the oven and it had rested for about a half hour. We were so busy cutting sage, rubbing butter, loosening turkey skin that we didn't realize the breast side was down. We should have known better, but in our defense, this was only the 4th time ever roasting a turkey.
It actually wasn't that big of a deal. I spent some time researching that evening and it turns out a lot of people roast turkey breast side down for moister breast meat. The breast meat was moist, but I was a bit disappointed because the parmesan sage rub didn't get anywhere near the breast meat.
You live and learn, right? That's what cooking is all about, making mistakes (though it was only a half mistake since the turkey stilled turned out alright) and making sure you don't make the same one twice. I totally messed up lemon curd once (took it off the heat before it got thick enough) and basically had lemon soup. Not good. I will never take lemon curd off the heat before it is thick again, though!
If you notice an improvement in the photos in this post, it's because I checked out a camera from work (I work at an advertising agency and we have some pretty high tech stuff around here). Even though I know nothing about photographer (I'm sure you can tell), just having a decent camera makes such a difference!
Mimosas! 
A lovely cheese board.
My sister and I made pumpkin pie bites, the recipe is from Bakerella, posted below.
The crust is a made from a pumpkin cookie cutter.
How amazing are these? My brother and sister-in-law made them.
The upside down turkey. At this point we were aware of the screw-up. At least it was brown and crisp! 
Our centerpieces.
Placecards of course. How lovely is the handwriting? My sis-in-law does calligraphy and other fancy handwriting, check out her work at Lovely Scribbles.
Parmesan Sage-Roast Turkey and Sage Gravy (from Cooking Light)
Ingredients
3 cups chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped carrot
10 garlic cloves
Cooking spray
1 (13-pound) fresh or frozen turkey, thawed
1/3 cup (1 1/2 ounces) grated fresh Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
5 tablespoons chopped fresh sage, divided
2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, divided
1 lemon, halved
2 1/2 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth, divided
1/3 cup chopped shallots
1 cup sherry
1/4 cup all-purpose flour (about 1 ounce)
1/4 cup water
Preparation
Preheat oven to 425°.
Combine first 4 ingredients in bottom of a shallow roasting pan coated with cooking spray. Remove and discard giblets and neck from turkey. Rinse the turkey with cold water; pat dry. Trim excess fat. Starting at neck cavity, loosen skin from breast and drumsticks by inserting fingers, gently pushing between skin and meat. Lift wing tips up and over back; tuck under turkey.
Combine cheese, 1/4 cup sage, butter, minced garlic, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; rub mixture under the loosened skin and over breast and drumsticks. Rub turkey skin with cut sides of lemon halves; squeeze juice into turkey cavity. Place lemon halves in turkey cavity; tie legs together with kitchen string.
Place turkey, breast side up, on vegetable mixture in pan. Bake at 425° for 30 minutes, and pour 2 cups broth over turkey. Tent turkey breast loosely with foil. Bake an additional 30 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 325° (do not remove turkey from oven). Bake at 325° for 1 1/2 hours or until a thermometer inserted into meaty part of thigh registers 180°, basting every 30 minutes. Remove turkey from pan. Cover and let stand 30 minutes; discard skin.
Place a large zip-top plastic bag inside a 4-cup glass measure. Pour drippings through a sieve into bag; discard solids. Let drippings stand 10 minutes (fat will rise to the top). Seal bag; carefully snip off 1 bottom corner of bag. Drain drippings into a medium bowl, stopping before fat layer reaches opening; discard fat. Add enough of remaining chicken broth to drippings to equal 3 cups.
Heat a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add shallots; sauté 1 minute. Add sherry; bring to a boil. Cook until reduced to 1/2 cup (about 5 minutes). Stir in remaining 1 tablespoon sage, and cook for 30 seconds. Add reserved drippings; bring to a boil.
Lightly spoon flour into a dry measuring cup; level with a knife. Combine flour and water, stirring well with a whisk. Stir flour mixture into drippings mixture; bring to a boil. Cook 2 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly. Stir in remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Serve gravy with turkey.
{Photo credit: Bakerella}
Pumpkin Pie Bites (from Bakerella)
Ingredients
2 refrigerated ready-to roll pie crusts
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Pumpkin-shaped cookie cutter
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Use cookie cutter to cut 12 pumpkin shapes from each pie crust. You will need to roll the dough thinner than it comes out of the box.
Press dough shapes into a 24 cup mini muffin tray. (Make 12 at a time, alternating cups to make sure pie crusts don’t overlap each other.)
Apply egg whites from one egg to the top edges of each pie.
Mix cream cheese, sugar, canned pumpkin, remaining 2 eggs, vanilla and pumpkin pie spice together until thoroughly combined.
Spoon mixture into each pumpkin-shaped pie crust.
Bake for 12-15 minutes.
Remove pies to cool and repeat with second pie crust. Place the muffin tray in the freezer to cool it quickly for re-use.
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