Thanksgiving Prep Full On

 Yesterday I made the brine and will pick up the turkeys today and brine them.  Three turkeys will be cooked this year.

 I made gingerbread cookies and half iced them with white chocolate and sprinkles.

 And I made vanilla bean shortbreads.

I dipped them in melted chocolate and the rolled the edges in toasted walnuts.

• 1 cup unsalted butter, (2 sticks) at room temperature
• 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
• 1 Tbsp pure vanilla vanilla bean paste

1. Set oven to 350F
2. Cream the sugar and butter together with the vanilla bean seeds. Blend in the flour and vanilla extract. Keep stirring until the dough comes together.
3. Turn the soft dough out onto a floured surface and for into two disks, like for pie dough. Wrap the disks in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, about an hour.
4. Roll out the dough on a floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick and cut out the cookies. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet.
5. Put the baking sheet in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
6. Bake the cookies for about 13 minutes until firm.
7. Cool on a rack 
8. Melt some good chocolate and pan roast some chopped walnuts. 
9. Dip the edge of each cookie in melted chocolate and then roll in the nuts.  Let them set up on wax paper.