Thanksgiving Day Tips

The Super Bowl of Cooking is just around the corner: Thanksgiving! For some people, it’s the one day of the year they dust off their cook books and sweep the cobwebs from the spice cabinet. For nearly all of us, it’s probably the biggest meal we’ll prepare this year, and the addition of out of town family and friends just adds to the pressure.

But you don’t have to run around like a turkey with its head cut off! Take a deep breath, relax, and check out some tips from a Turkey Day veteran that will help you take some of the stress out of this iconic American holiday.

1. Plan your work and work your plan. You will relieve a lot of stress and eliminate some nasty surprises by making a game plan for the Big Day. Set a menu, check your pantry, and make a shopping list. Go a step further and plan what you will do on the days leading up to Thanksgiving. More on that later.

2. This ain’t the time to be free stylin’. In other words, don’t set yourself up for failure by trying new recipes on the biggest cooking day of the year. Test a new recipe well in advance so you know it works, or have time to find a replacement if it doesn’t. Professional musicians know that on the day of their performance, they should only go for 80% of what they are capable of. The same with cooking. Stay in your wheel house when under pressure.

3. What can you get off your plate? As for food, there are several things you can in advance. Cranberry jelly can be made a week before. Fresh cranberry relish and many desserts, 2 days before. Homemade bread and pre-chopping your veggies, a day before. Some things, like bread or pies, can even be frozen well in advance. I always set the table the day before, so I’m not rushed and can enjoy making it attractive.

4. Turkey Tips: 1) Don’t forget to thaw it! If your bird is frozen, be sure and put it in the fridge a few days before you cook so it can thaw slowly. The day before, take a look and if it isn’t completely thawed, you can put it in cold water, changing the water every hour or so. I have used my laundry sink for this. 2) Brine makes it fine! Brine is basically water with LOTS of salt and sugar in it, along with other flavorings, depending on the recipe. By soaking your bird in this solution for 12 hours or so before cooking, your meat will be seasoned all the way through and will be juicier. A basic brine recipe is 6 quarts of water, a pound of salt, 3 cups of sugar (white, brown, honey, molasses, your choice), a handful of garlic cloves, a tablespoon of your fav dried herbs, and lots of ice cubes. You can find lots of brine recipes online. You have to heat the water to dissolve the salt and sugar, but once it cools and all ingredients are added, you take your cleaned bird and submerge it in the brine overnight. I actually put my turkey in a clean kitchen garbage bag (unscented), place it in a cooler, and pour the brine/ice mixture over it, and set it on my outside deck overnight, if it’s cold enough. There’s always still ice cubes in it the next morning. 3) Cut the cooking time with a bag. I’ve cooked my turkeys for years in cooking bags. Takes hours off the cooking time and eliminates the need for basting. 4) Savor the flavor. I always add good aromatic veggies, like celery, garlic, carrot, onion, around and inside the turkey. I take fresh herbs…sage, rosemary, parsley, etc. and put them in a cheesecloth bag and put into the cavity. Makes it easy to remove them later.

5. Do the Mashed Potato: Your family will be dancin’ with delicious mashed potatoes; mine does! There isn’t a big secret to yummy spuds. I buy the super large ones to cut down on peeling time. I cube them and boil in salted water until fork tender. Drain the water and add lots of real butter and cream and salt and pepper to taste. For five pounds of potatoes, I would add 1 ½ sticks of butter and ¾ cup of heavy cream.

6. Gravy Train: What good is mashed potatoes without the gravy to go on top? I’ve had so many people tell me they can’t do gravy. But it’s really not complicated. I start with a roux, a mixture of butter and flour. If you use ¼ cup of butter and ¼ cup of flour for your roux, you will thicken 2 cups of liquid. (You can easily increase the amounts to make the gravy you need.)You melt the butter in a skillet and add the flour, cooking for a few minutes. Add your turkey stock (avoid adding the fat that floats on the top) and stir. Once it comes to a boil, you know how thick it will be. You can add more stock if you want it thinner, or a little cream or half and half. Salt and pepper to taste. This kind of gravy will thicken further as it cools, so the next day you can thin the gravy with stock or a little milk if desired.

7. Relish the cranberry. One of the easiest things I make each year for Thanksgiving is cranberry relish and cranberry jelly. To make the relish, take a 12 ounce bag of rinsed cranberries, one roughly chopped orange (including peel) and one roughly chopped apple. I use a food processor to quickly pulse it all together, but you can chop it all together by hand. Add sugar to taste, about ¾ cup or so and put in the fridge a day before you want to eat it. That way the juices meld together. To make the jelly, you can follow the recipe off the bag: 1 bag of cranberries, 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of water. Simmer for 10 minutes. You’re done. I jazz mine up by using orange juice for the water and putting orange peel in the simmering liquid. I remove the peel when it’s done and use an immersion blender to make it smooth. You can leave it chucky if you like. This will keep in the fridge for a week.

8. Unroll the Pumpkin Roll: If you love the pumpkin roll taste but hate rolling the sponge up in a towel, etc., then just unroll it! Use a glass dish or any other pan and cut out the sponge to fit and cover with some of the cream cheese filling. Continuing alternating layers until you reach the top. Any recipe will work, including the one on the Libby’s Pumpkin can. I like to put chopped pecans on my sponge before cooking, and toasted ones on top of the finished dessert. I call it the Pumpkin Roll Torte.

9. Don’t forget to be thankful! When families who haven’t seen each other in a while get together, it can be glorious…and sometimes stressful! Holidays can bring out the worst in people, but let it bring out the best in you. If things don’t go quite as planned…and we all know something won’t…don’t stress and just let it go. We all have so much to be thankful for, and some burned rolls or Uncle Harold’s loud snoring during the football game shouldn’t ruin the day. Take a few moments to look around your table, and be thankful for each face you see, and remember with fondness the ones that no longer are. Life is too short to let precious moments like these pass by without cherishing them.

May your Thanksgiving be blessed beyond measure!

Blessings,

Julie

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