Families coming together
Thanksgiving is the time for families to gather and share a healthy meal. It is a time to remember all that we are grateful for and to slow down and enjoy our blessings. Since our world is ever changing, and so much is out of our control, Thanksgiving 2022 had an even greater importance than usual. That meant that this years feast had to shine!
Much time and effort were put into developing the perfect menu. This included appetizers, and special cocktails, of course. Every family decides which dishes are staples at their table. For our family, no Thanksgiving meal is complete without turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, gravy, and mashed potatoes. Every other side is just extra. Of course, it is nice to have a salad, Brussels sprouts with bacon, spicy green beans, and roasted carrots. Those recipes are on a previous post, A Very Special Birthday Dinner.
What is important to remember is that if you want to enjoy friends and family on the day of Thanksgiving, then the preparation starts the day before Thanksgiving. There are things that can be done even before, such as choosing linens, serving dishes, place settings and a table scape. This year we decided to keep the table settings and table scape simple. The linens were soft cream, gold chargers with simple dishes and gold flatware. For the table scape we utilized fresh olive branches with gold candles interspersed throughout.
Once the menu is decided on, and all the shopping is done, it is time to start preparing to make dinner and clean up more enjoyable. Starting with the star of the meal, the turkey. If you want a delicious bird, then you need to choose a quality turkey. This is the reason that we raise Bourbon Red turkeys.
After many years of experiments with different cooking techniques we have decided on one that never fails us. We barbeque out turkey using a Weber grill. You can find how to cook a juicy delicious bird using a Weber grill on the Weber.com website. Not only will your bird be delicious and moist, by cooking the turkey in the weber, the oven will be available. The day before Thanksgiving, be sure to brine your turkey. This is necessary in my book. Do not skip this step.
Next, I start on the stuffing. Since we have delicious sausage made from meat from our farm raised pigs, we like to include sausage in our stuffing. If you want to add sausage to your stuffing, cook it first. Cut a loaf, about 1 pound of hearty, crusty bread into cubes. Put bread into a large bowl. Season the stuffing. Add 2 leeks, thinly sliced, 2 celery stalks, diced, 1 small sweet onion, chopped, 1 granny smith apple, chopped, 5 cloves garlic, chopped, salt and pepper, ¼ cup each chopped sage and parsley, 1 teaspoon each fresh thyme and rosemary (without stems). Try to disperse the seasoning throughout the bread. Add ½ cup melted butter and 1.5 cups of broth evenly over the bread. Using your hands, incorporate the ingredients. Add the 2 beaten eggs. If the mixture feels dry, add more broth or for a richer stuffing, add another ½ cup of butter. Cover the stuffing and refrigerate. When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 400°. Be sure that the foil is tightly wrapped. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for 20-30 minutes more until the edges are crispy and brown. This recipe serves 8, so I made two casseroles, one with sausage and one without.
Once the cooking area is clean, move onto the next recipe, sweet potatoes. If you want to know what the difference between sweet potatoes and yams is, you can find many articles online. More than likely, you will find sweet potatoes and not yams in your local supermarket. I like to cook yams on the stove top. I know that people will differ on this, but I love the way that this recipe turns out. You will need 2 pounds of sweet potatoes, scrubbed, and peeled. Try to find sweet potatoes of comparable size so they will cook at the same rate. Cut the potatoes into 2-inch slices. In a medium pot, combine the potatoes, ¾ cup of dark brown sugar, 1 cup of white granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon ground ginger, 2 tablespoons vanilla extract ½ cup butter and ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice.
Cook the potatoes in the mixture over medium heat for 40-50 minutes. Check that potatoes are fork tender. Do not overcook since you will warm these up the next day. Remove the potatoes from the cooking liquid. This is the tricky part of the recipe, you cannot walk away from the stove during this step. Over medium-low heat, reduce the cooking liquid until it thickens and looks like caramel. Once it is bubbly, and you cannot break the bubbles with a spoon, pour the caramel over the potatoes. Cool, cover and refrigerate until the next day.
The cranberry sauce is the easiest recipe for this meal. Rinse 1 pound of cranberries. Remove any blemished berries. In a small pot combine the zest from 1 small orange, ½ cup freshly squeezed orange juice, ½ cup water, ¾ white granulated sugar, ¼ cup light brown sugar, 1 bag (12 ounces) of fresh cranberries, pinch of salt. Heat over medium heat until sugars dissolve. Raise heat to high and boil mixture gently for 5 minutes. Add cranberries, bring back to a boil. Boil over medium heat until berries open, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Cool and store until ready to serve.
Gravy is one of my family’s favorite dishes. I make it the way that my mother-in-law taught me. I have read many articles and recipes on how to prepare gravy, and they all say to start with fat. Well, that I not how I was taught. So here we go. The most important part of the gravy is the broth. Since we are fortunate to live on a small farm, I always have chicken broth on hand. I understand that this may not be the way that everyone makes gravy, but this is the way that my family likes it. They are the ones that will eat the food!
In a large saucepan, over medium heat, brown 1 cup of sifted flour. Be sure that there are no lumps in the flour. The flour will be slow to brown at first, but do not be fooled! It will burn as soon as you turn your back! Once the flour is a deep brown color, add 1 stick of butter cut into chunks. The 2:1 flour to fat ratio makes a nice gravy. Once the butter is incorporated into the flour, add 1 cup stock. Mix well, I use a whisk for this part. Add more stock as needed. The gravy will thicken as it cools. Keep stock on hand to thin out the gravy, if necessary, the next day. Cool the gravy, cover, and refrigerate. The next day, I put the gravy in a small crock pot to keep warm.
When it comes to mashed potatoes, you can choose to make them the day before, and warm them up in the microwave or the oven before dinner. You can add more butter, sour cream or half-and-half to keep them from becoming too dry.
If you want to prepare the potatoes the day before, and mash them the day of, then peel them, leave them whole, or cut into large chunks. Be sure to cover the potatoes with water so they do not oxidize. The next day, drain the potatoes and prepare them as you normally do. If you are using Russet potatoes or Idaho potatoes, be sure to peel them since the skin can be tough. If you are using Yukon gold, you can leave the skin on.
Four pounds of potatoes will serve 10 people. Depending on how large the potatoes were cut, they will need to be boiled for 15-25 minutes. Check for doneness with a fork. If the fork pierces the potato easily, it is done. While potatoes cook, warm 1 cup milk, half-and-half or cream, add ½ cup melted butter, and 3 cloves garlic, minced. Using a colander, drain potatoes. Return potatoes to the pot to remove excess water. Once excess water has evaporated, add milk/butter mixture and mash gently. Mash until you get the consistency that you like. Season with salt and pepper, to taste.
If you made these the day before, cool, cover, and refrigerate. The next day, spread in a greased 9×13-inch baking dish, dot with more butter and bake in a 325° oven for 30-40 minutes depending on quantity of potatoes. If you wish, you can bake covered, or uncovered for a browned crust.
The day of Thanksgiving, the table has been set. The turkey is cooking outside, which frees up the oven and the kitchen. Once the turkey has reached an internal temperature of 165°, remove it from the grill and set on a carving dish. A large bird can rest up to 40 minutes before carving. oven to 400° and cook the dressing for 25 minutes. Uncover the dressing and bake for 20-30 minutes more. Stuffing should have an internal temperature of 165°. Be sure to cover the mashed potatoes tightly with foil, and place on the bottom rack. Bake for 20 minutes, checking that dressing is still moist, and that the potatoes are warming up well. Remove from oven when they reach an internal temperature of 140°, cover with foil until ready to serve. Warm the gravy in a microwave to a temperature of 165°. Place in a small crockpot to keep warm.
Remove cranberry sauce from refrigerator and put in serving dish. Set on table with a serving spoon. Heat the sweet potatoes in the microwave, put in the serving dish and set on table with a serving spoon. Mashed potatoes and stuffing can be served in the same baking dishes that they were baked in, or in chafing dishes. Gravy is being kept warm in the crockpot. Carve turkey, place on serving platter. For tips on carving and serving a turkey use this visit thekitch.com.
Enjoy!