Thanksgiving Prep

This year Rob and I were hosting an additional 6 people for our Thanksgiving meal.  Rob's family and a couple we are friends with and actually did Thanksgiving last year with.  The good news was this year, the food was more proportionate to the amount of people we had than last year. 

I took the day off on Wednesday to prepare a bunch of food for everyone and if I am being honest, avoid the traffic around the beltway.  I wanted to make a lot of this meal from scratch this year.  Call me nuts, but it sounded like fun.  I was able to make everything I wanted to without too much trouble.  My biggest challenge was to try to re-create my grandmother's bread.  I received a lesson with my sister last year from my older brother who makes it at Christmas for us, but it had been almost 11 months, it took a bit of recall to remember what I was supposed to do.  A couple of phone calls to my sister and a lot of kneading later produced this:

 

I thought 3 out of 4 loaves wasn't too bad.  It's not perfection, but it was a really good first attempt.  The best news was it all still tasted amazing and that part made me happy.

Of course, I had a great helper that supervised the whole process.  

Overall I was able to make the 4 loaves of bread, an apple pie, a pumpkin pecan caramel cake, home bread for stuffing, then the stuffing, some corn pudding, broccoli cheese casserole, sweet potato pie, mashed potatoes, turkey and even pan gravy.  It was absolutely delicious but probably a bit much work for next year.  I'll let anyone else volunteer to do it all next time. :)

Appliance Logisitics Management

This blog title and my job title are pretty similar so you might think there might be a transferable skill or two that might make Thanksgiving Day Chaos in the Kitchen a little less so.  I have given this all of 5 minutes of thought and decided that yes, there are some skills I have that could be put to good use to determine what to cook when and where.  However, the thought of making a project schedule for Thanksgiving is a little too dorky, even for me.  But if we aren't going to use a project schedule to get everything cooked on delivered to the table while it's pipping hot, then how in the world do you do it?

Magic.  That's the best answer I can come up with.  Given the amount of time the turkey takes in the oven which very few if any other dishes can be cooking at the same time (in us single oven homes) and limitations of a 4 burner stove.  Then there is the question of when exactly the turkey will decide it's done.  Pretty much all of dinner hinges on how finicky your bird is.  Generally you can ball park the half an hour to an hour it will be done given the handy dandy decoder ring that comes on the back of all turkey packages.  But that doesn't help if you guess wrong by 45 minutes.

If you think about it, it's kind of like a race.  There is a decent warm up period where you wash the bird and get it all "happy" as Emeril would say.  Stretch the birds legs, rub it down and toss it on a rack on the oven while trying not to ooze raw turkey germs every place.  Once that oven door closes, it's like the shot is fired and you are off!  You only have 4 hours to mash potatoes, stuff the stuffing, make green bean casserole, bake bread/rolls, get the gravy going, make some sweet potato casserole, find room for all of this in your kitchen, set the table which includes finding serving spoons and dishes for everything you are making, watch 4 pots, and make 3 pies (if you have no sense and didn't do this a day or two before and if that's the case, I really pity you).  Let's not forget the how many times you are going to need to wash/rinse and reuse measuring cups and spoons unless you are crazy and have 2 or 3 sets like Rob and I do.  Oh right, and then calmly come to the table gracefully without hair full of flour or bits of potato on your clothes and preferably not sweating like a pig.  Thanks Martha Stewart.

Some of these things can be done the day before or by innocent bystanders, but they always seem to be really into the game on TV while you are frantically chopping away at the carrots and potatoes.  However, even with all your prep work, that final leg is like a give it your all to win the race finish.  Things are moving in an out of the oven like a revolving door at Macy's on Black Friday, dishes are getting added to the sink as if it should be bottomless and people start to hover in anticipation while things fly to the table.  It's amazing it all comes together (usually) in the eleventh hour.  I do remember one Thanksgiving where my mother had everything on the kitchen table and we ate the whole meal before we realized the stuffing had been left in the microwave.  You win some, you loose some.  More for leftovers later.  :)

So while we are all racing to the finish this Thanksgiving, remember to set a good pace and just finish strong.  Graceful would be a plus, but getting the turkey on the table is all that really matters in the end.

Bound to Forget Something

Here we are just a few days away from the most complex cooking days of the year.  Of course it results in the most delicious comfort food, but it's not exactly a simple meal to pull together.  I am sure years ago it used to be, but we are the Foodie Generation.  We like different and interesting takes on the classics which usually adds a layer of complexity to cooking.  A lot of times it means just adding some extras to make the dish "yours".  Now remembering to get all those "extras" is a feat in and of itself. 

Rob and I are splitting our holiday cooking with friends of ours that are coming over to celebrate.  So before grocery shopping this week, Rob and I looked at the portion on the meal that we are responsible for and took an inventory our pantry for select items.  We even went so far as to check, ok, got the stuffing*, but what does the stuffing take.  I think 9 times out of 10 that's where people get tripped up; remembering every ingredient that goes into a dish.  It's not a lot of fun to find out on Thursday or even Wednesday that you actually ran out of vanilla last time you baked and haven't replaced it or you are running low on flour and various other kitchen staples.  So we triple checked our list and tried to think of everything.  I was determined to have ONE trip to the grocery store.  Rob was a hero and went after work to deal with the mob and got everything on the list.  Sweet!  That night we made enchilada lasagna for dinner which called for onions.  I went to our onion bag and came to a very sad realization that we only had three small onions, two of which I would need to make dinner.  Dang it all to fudge! 

Needless to say, our one trip out wasn't exactly a success, but it wasn't a total failure.  I had to run to Target today to get some household staples knowing all weekend was going to be a zoo at any shopping center.  Thankfully, Target has decided to start carrying groceries including bags of onions.  Wohoo!

*No, I do not "make" stuffing.  If you are a super foodie you can go harvest your own fruit bowl and exotic breads and make your own special creation, but my Thanksgiving prefers Stove Top.

The next challenge in Thanksgiving cooking: Appliance Logistics Management

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were trying to figure out what to do for Thanksgiving this year. We had offered to make Thanksgiving to Rob's classmates, but no one took the offer, so we were left with the two of us. I had been talking with my co-worker, Sarah about it and she said, "Well if you two haven't made any plans, why not come to my house for Thanksgiving?" Sweet!

Rob made his pumpkin bars and I brought sweet potato casserole. Both were big hits. We got to meet Sarah's family and friends who were all very nice and fun to be around. We played our first game of corn hole. We had beginners luck to win the first game and then were beat twice. Oh well, it was fun and it was gorgeous out!

I love Thanksgiving because it's a time for people to get together. Family, friends, who ever is nearby. The feeling of just being together and celebrating is something I look forward to each year. Each year since I left college has been different, which makes them all memorable. I have Thanksgivings at home, with friends families, at friends houses, and even hosted for international students who have never experienced Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for meeting someone is generous to share the holiday with me and Rob. We had a great time and have lots of leftovers to keep us going for a while. :)