Thanksgiving is the best holiday

I have celebrated Thanksgiving with one of my closest friends for the past 5 years. This year it was at her parent's house so we didn't do the majority of cooking like we've done in the past while away at college. We did learn how to make her mother's delicious oyster dressing that there are never any leftovers of and we made our pumpkin cheesecake for dessert. 

see those whole oysters in there??? there is nothing that tastes like this in the world.

the spread

my beauteous plate.

Pumpkin Cheesecake with gingersnap crust and cinnamon-maple whipped cream :)

Since there weren't any leftovers from the oyster dressing, we decided that we wanted more and this time we helped make it.. which means, I know how to make this now and I can have it more than just once every year. I documented the cooking process and was glad to discover that this really was not too difficult to make. I think the key is just getting the seasonings right and having good quality oysters. The adapted recipe comes from Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen cookbook, which I learned that any pepper listed in ingredients needs to be halved or else it is too spicy. Her mom didn't follow the recipe in the book exactly, so that is what I'm going to show in the following steps:

"Holy trinity" of diced green bell pepper (4 cups), onions (4 cups) and celery (5 cups)... plus some garlic (half a head) and 1/4 cup green onions.
Sautee with 5 tbsp butter over medium heat until softened and a little browned. It's always amazing how much the volume of veggies shrinks after 15 minutes of cooking.

The spice mixture: 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp garlic powder, 1-2 tsp cayenne pepper, 2 tsp sweet paprika, 2 tsp black pepper, 1 tsp onion powder, 1 tsp dried oregano leaves, 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
We sprinkled these seasonings into the sauteed veggies gradually as they browned.

getting there...

Then you pour the liquid of the oysters into the pan. We also poured half of the oysters in the pan and broke them up with the spatula.  Added a couple dried bay leaves too.

Beautiful oysters!
For this recipe you really need to buy fresh oysters that come shucked already like this so all the liquids are also there. I know that they sell oysters like this at Whole Foods Market but these were specially brought from out-of-state by my friend's grandfather.

Then we added a mixture of regular unseasoned bread crumbs and panko bread crumbs to dry up the excess moisture. We ball-parked it but it should be about 1 cup. You can also use homemade bread crumbs! Obviously throughout the cooking process you should be tasting everything to make sure the seasoning is how you like it.

Finally, pour into a buttered casserole dish.

Put the rest of the oysters in and just make sure they are mostly covered by the dressing mixture.

Sprinkle some bread crumbs on top and then bake it in the oven for about 1 hour at 350 degrees. I think you can also make this the night before and just stick it in the oven the next day when the feast is.

The finished product. This might not look like much but there is so much flavor in here; I could seriously eat this whole pan by myself.

I hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving and ate themselves into food coma like I did! It really is the best holiday as long as you plan ahead to avoid stressful times in the kitchen :)

-J