Thanksgiving Prep!

My favorite holiday is a week away and I am heavy into prep mode! I've made my list, sorted my recipes and placed my grocery delivery order. Next week, I start cooking while my family gets ready to feast.

While preparing my recipes, I asked a few of my favorite Seattle bloggers for their favorite Thanksgiving recipes and then wrote about it for Seattle Refined. I've incorporated a bunch of these recipes into my plans. I'm also excited that I don't have any stories due to anyone next week. I'm taking a week off!

What are your Thanksgiving plans? What will you be making? I'd love to hear what will be on your Thanksgiving Day table.

Thanksgiving Day

Today I hosted Thanksgiving for 13 people and my heart is full. Family and friends gathered to share the fruit of my labors (because I'm the Thanksgiving Hostess that refuses to let people bring things), enjoy time together and celebrate the day.

The food was awesome (ok the gravy was an utter fail!), the company was delightful and the kids had so much fun that all of them are passed out asleep. The food that took me days to make was excitedly consumed in less than 30 minutes, the kids lasted approximately 2.5 seconds at the kid's table before running off to play and much laughter was heard across the table.

As I reflect on today, I'm grateful for the opportunity to provide a wonderful meal to such awesome people. Throughout the day we missed my Dad and his absence was felt from the pumpkin pies to the carving of the turkey. No matter how many times he tried to teach me how to carve a turkey, I never quite got it. And I do believe Dad would have been able to save my terrible gravy. Seriously, it was congealed and just awful. I do feel blessed to have a community of wonderful friends and family that surrounds all of us with love even when it isn't Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Prep: Day Three

Tomorrow is the BIG day and I’m feeling way confident about our meal tomorrow. I’ve baked the pies, cooked the cranberry chutney, chopped and saluted the veggies for the stuffing, made the sweet potato casserole (marshmallows to be melted on top tomorrow!) and dried out the bread for the stuffing. Things are looking good! 

The turkey has been defrosting in a cold water bath to speed up the process. Maggie gleefully got me up at 5:45 a.m. this morning so I was in the kitchen cooking away by 7 a.m. after some playtime and a big cup of coffee. I think she knew that my to do list was long today. 

Tonight I need to clean up the dining room and get the table settings ready. I might even need to iron a few napkins but that will be a joy, not a burden.

Tomorrow I’ll host 10-13 people for Thanksgiving and we’ll be thankful for each other’s company and hopefully for this great meal I’ve prepared. My good friend is anxiously awaiting her second child and will hopefully join us with her family for dinner. If they don’t join us, it will be for a very good reason, she’ll be having her baby! I’m kinda hoping they don’t make it because I know how much fun it is to have a Turkey Baby and she deserves that kind of fun. That and I think she’s done being pregnant. 

May your Thanksgiving Meal be full of laughter, grace and wonderful feelings. 

Thanksgiving Prep: Day Two

Today's tasks were to continue on with the bread drying, make pie crusts and start chopping up some of the stuffing vegetables. The bread is looking delicious and is making the house smell awesome. While Molly was at co-op preschool this morning and Maggie was helping me out by taking a nice nap, I started making pie crust dough. I used my favorite recipe, which I'll include at the end of this post. 

I always love making pie dough. I once spent a year perfecting pie dough and all the tasty memories come back from that experience. I rarely make pies anymore though so when the opportunity presents itself, I get really excited. 

After making four batches of pie dough, I wrapped them up and stuck them in my very full fridge. That turkey is taking up a lot of room! I checked the time and I still had 45 minutes before I needed to pick up Molly and Maggie was taking an epic nap so I decided to start chopping! 

I use my mother's recipe for stuffing and it is a complicated beast. There is chopping and bread drying and seasonings to mind. My Mom never pre-cooked any of the veggies but I decided to roast them one year and have never looked back. I chopped the onions and celery today and placed them in the fridge. I'll roast them tomorrow for final assembly on Thursday. 

And while I was busy prepping for Thanksgiving, Molly was busy creating Orange Turkeys at school. Shortly after I took this picture, she took everything out, peeled the orange and ate it. At least it was cute while it lasted! 

Perfect Pie Crust

by Rebecca Mongrain

Prep Time: 15 minutes active




6068452



Ingredients (1 pie crust)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup COLD unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1/2 cup COLD butter-flavored vegetable shortening, cut into cubes
1/4 cup cold water




Instructions

Add the flour, sugar and salt to the food processor. Pulse a few times to mix before scattering the butter over the dry ingredients. Pulse about 6 times to cut in the butter. Add the butter-flavored vegetable shortening and pulse again, about 6 times. Scrape the edges to make sure the mixture is mixing in before adding half the water. Pulse about 5 times and then add in the remaining water. Process until the dough begins to look like coarse crumbs.

Using your hands, form the pastry to a ball. Knead the ball twice before flattening it into a 1-inch thick disk. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour, preferably overnight before rolling out.


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Thanksgiving Prep: Day One

Today is a slow start toward preparing for Thanksgiving. I had a small list of to-do's in regards to food prep but a HUGE list when it comes to preparing the house for guests.

My food list included starting to defrost the turkey and cubing the bread loaves to start drying them out in the oven. I set the oven to warm (170F) and spread the bread out in a single layer on cookie sheets. I left the cookie sheets in the oven for a few hours and then put the dried bread cubes into a big roaster pan for storage.

I brought the turkey out of the basement chest freezer and placed it in the fridge to begin the defrost process. I am behind on the defrosting process so I'll be combining the two safe methods for defrosting a turkey. 

I also started scrubbing down the kitchen. I find it so much easier to work in a super clean kitchen when preparing a big meal like Thanksgiving. Ideally my kitchen would always be super, sparkly clean but when preparing three meals a day for four humans, at times it needs a bit of Mr. Clean cleaning. I'm also preparing to tackle the mess in the dining room. I've created a mission control station at the end of the table and that needs to be cleared out. I'm hoping to really tackle it once the kids are in bed this evening because nap time is almost over and that means my prep time is at an end. What are you doing to prepare for Thanksgiving?

Thanksgiving Prep

I'm hosting Thanksgiving this year. It's something I've done in the past but this year, I thought it would be fun to blog about my process, schedule and recipes. I've blogged about Thanksgiving in the past but it has been a few years and a few things have changed along the way.

Last week, I finalized my menu, recipes and schedule. I keep my schedule on Google Drive because once you have a good schedule, you can keep using the same one with a few tweaks every year. I also keep my menu and recipes on Google Drive for quick reference. 

Tomorrow I start in on my Thanksgiving Day preparation. I'm excited to cook with Molly and a little nervous about doing this with two small children. I know if I stick to my schedule then everything will be ok or else it will make for a hilarious blog entry.

Prepping for Thanksgiving

A few years ago, I hosted my first Thanksgiving and it was a very big deal (because sometimes I make things into very big deals when there is no need)! Since then I've hosted a few more times and now it is not a very big deal. I'm not hosting this year due to being smart and waiting for my parents to offer up their hosting abilities but I thought I'd still share a few lessons I've learned along the way.

1. Thanksgiving is all about preparation and organization. Make a schedule to keep yourself on track. 

2. Create a menu that you can re-use for years to come. People like tradition at Thanksgiving. If you want to experiment, switch out a few dishes but there is no need to start from scratch every year. Remember you want to make this easier as the years go on, not harder. 

3. Keep your Thanksgiving Recipes in one document along with your schedule. I suggest printing this out and keeping it on your kitchen counter as your prep for the meal. 

4. Keep it fun! Something will go wrong. My first year hosting, I burned the marshmallows on the sweet potato casserole which was hilarious. My family still taunts me about it. I'm bringing the sweet potato casserole this year and I'm sure they will tease me about burnt marshmallows again. 

5. Be Thankful! Thanksgiving is a time for thankfulness. Be thankful that you have the ability to make such a grand meal. Be thankful that you get to celebrate with family and friends. Be thankful for the day. 

Thanksgiving Success!

Thanksgiving was a HUGE success! My Mom told me that my stuffing based on her recipe was the best. People groaned under the onslaught of food and asked for more.



There was the usual Thanksgiving Day chaos and at one point I banned my Mother from the kitchen. Luckily my Dad, the great sous chef stepped in and helped me out.



My Mom's stuffing mix takes so many bread crumbs that I didn't have a bowl big enough for mixing. I quickly thought on my feet and grabbed a new garbage bag for mixing before stuffing the bird and filling two casserole dishes.



As the dinner preparations came to a close, I turned on the boiler and put the sweet potato casserole marshmallow topping under the boiler. Before I knew it, Scott's Mom was busting into the kitchen yelling, "Burning! Something is BURNING!" and sure enough, the casserole was on FIRE! We quickly put it out and I started over on the topping. This time my Sister-in-Law and I carefully watched the topping toast.



Scott even got in the act and learned how to carve a turkey from my Brother and Dad. It was so much fun to watch!

Pre-Thanksgiving Prep

Tomorrow is the big day! Tomorrow is Thanksgiving!

Today has been full of Thanksgiving Day prep and baking. Yesterday was Turkey procurement day.



After watching the news in the morning, Scott and I determined that it was going to be a bit too difficult to get our turkey from Rain Shadow Meats on Capital Hill. We decided instead to hike up to the Safeway near us and settle for a commercially grown turkey. I mean, I know that the organic, free-range ones are supposed to be better but I was going to just deal with it and enjoy a big-breasted Turkey.



The walk to the Safeway was nice and also gave us a chance to get some exercise in. After being cooped in all day on Monday, it was a joyful walk outside. It was cold too but still joyful.



Scott was also able to wear his new hat. I knit it for him on Monday and on Tuesday, he declared it warm and perfect.



After arriving home, I decided to post on Facebook about our small adventure. My brother saw my post and quickly offered to pick up our turkey for us. I guess he wasn't to be satisfied with just any ole turkey. So he drove over from Redmond in his trusty Subaru (I really need to get one of those myself) and delivered our special turkey to our house.



He also told us that it wasn't that icy out there and that the roads were nice and clear of cars.



Today has been spent prepping for Thanksgiving. I've roasted the beets for the beet salad. Sauteed the celery and onions for the stuffing. Boiled the yams for the Candied Yams and made the sweet potato casserole. I made the cranberry sauce and roasted the garlic. I've also baked up the cherry pie. My dad is bringing the pumpkin and apple pies but my Mom specifically requested that I make a cherry pie.



Now my fridge sits in it's OMG Full state and I think I'm going to knit for the rest of the afternoon. I have to rest up for the big day tomorrow.

Breadcrumbs to Thanksgiving

Yesterday was spent cutting up three loaves of bread into little cubes and drying them in the oven. My Mom insists that this is the absolute best way to make stuffing. It's a three day process. You cut and dry the bread cubes one day, stir and possibly dry them again the next day before you begin on the vegetables.



I must say all the hard work does seem to pay off in the end. Her stuffing is always delicious and I hope to be able to replicate it this year in my home.



I also spent most of yesterday looking out at this scene. I mean if there is one thing I didn't expect to derail my Thanksgiving plans, it would be the weather! We never have snow this early in the year. NEVER!



Oh well, what is one to do but continue on their merry way pretending that all will be OK. Because it will all be OK!

The Road to Thanksgiving

On Sunday, I finished my grocery shopping, printed out my menus and made ice cream. I followed David Lebovitz's Vanilla Ice Cream recipe and it is delicious!





I did however run into an issue. The freezer bowl wasn't frozen enough so I ended up putting the custard back in the fridge overnight and refroze the bowl until this morning. It churned into ice cream quickly this morning and I made sure to have a little taste. It is awesome tasting!



I also appear to have a little helper in the kitchen when I cook. Kato hangs out just to the side of the stove waiting for food droppings. It's almost as if I have a dog and not a cat!

Countdown to Thanksgiving

In just five days, I'll be serving my very first Thanksgiving meal to Scott and I's families. I've always helped my Mom prepare the feast but this is the first year that I'm taking the lead. My Mom has reserved her seat in my kitchen and promises to help out. While we wait to see if that happens, I've begun my preparations.



I've mapped out a schedule of work which started yesterday. Yesterday morning I woke up and dashed outside. My Amazon Fresh grocery delivery was expected. I was greeted with a plethora of Amazon Fresh boxes.



I have one quick grocery trip planned for Monday for the more perishable items but otherwise, groceries have been procured!



I then turned my attention to the other items on my schedule. I ironed my napkins, collected the place mats and brought out the place cards. Thanksgiving is time of year to go all out and ironing napkins just seems right.



My (step) Grandma made these napkins for the wedding. They match my china and are so gorgeous! She also made towels and pot holders which are just as lovely. It's amazing how the bird on the napkins match my china so perfectly.

The table is ready and now the real work begins. Today I make ice cream and pie crust!