What's your Thanksgiving timetable?

Thurs. afternoon: Probably microwave some soup, hope that my roommate comes home with leftovers.

So I've regrouped with a smaller bain marie, and hope for the best.

The turkey is oddly shaped (one of those organic heritage things) and doesn't fit in the pan for brining particularly. Why we got a 14 lb bird for two of us (new in town, no family here, etc)....the excuse is there were no geese to be had. Two weeks ahead of turkey pot pies, turkey sandwiches, turkey soup, and that turkey/broccoli/cheese sauce stuff.

They have some conflicting instructions about temps and cooking time - part of the article says 400 F for about 2 hours, but another section says 400 F for 45 min and 325 F for an hour. Neither seems quite enough time, based on my standard chicken roasting formula of 20 min/lb at 325 F after 10 min at 400 F. Right now I'm thankful it's just us to eat this, because it could be a minor mess.

The pumpkin turned out okay. It didn't unmold cleanly from the pan, but tastes great. I'm going to coat it with whipped cream lightly sweetened with maple syrup.

Time to boil up the taters for mashing and prep the stuffing casserole.

Don't have the patience myself but I'd love to know true (not magazine) resul;ts

type, depressedly, onto ILCooking.

I ended up having a little energy and making a pumpkin-ginger-molasses tart. (I didn't feel like making a pie crust and I had tart crusts in the freezer. I haven't tried it yet.) And then, since I had leftover pumpkin, I made the Pumpcran muffins that Archel linked to elsewhere. (I left out the walnuts. They're alright, it's a somewhat odd mix of flavors.)

I'm waiting for leftovers to hopefully come home. (Heh, I should call my roommate "leftovers" from now on.)

Jesus, here's everything we had on the table for 10 people:

20lb Turkey
Mashed potatoes
Mashed butternut squash
Stuffing (regular)
Stuffing (cornbread)
Brussels Sprouts
Roasted carrots & parsnips
Brushetta
Cornbread
Focaccia
Korean sushi rolls (Brought by Korean relatives)
Jap Chae (Brought by Korean relatives)

Pumpkin pie

I had a little too much turkey and white wine- I was fast asleep by 4pm. Woke around 6pm and endured a splitting headache for the rest of the night.

Can't wait for next year. Oh wait, yes I can. I'll be living off leftovers for the next two weeks...

The spread...
- apps
Cheese and crackers
Apples and caramel dip
Artichoke/Parmesan dip with baguette
Baked brie and apricot with baguette
Chicken wings, yep, hot spicy buffalo chicken wings
Mixed nuts
Sweet potato chips - thinly sliced, deep fried with salt and rosemary
Cranberry-Orange bread*
- dinner
Mixed green salad
Brocoli and cheese casserole
Mashed potatos
Stuffing
Green bean casserole
Steamed green beans
Oyster casserole
Baked yams
Grilled Turkey
- dessert
Pumpkin Cheesecake*
Apple Pie*
Chocolate Torte

sweet jesus did we go overboard.
* - items made by my wife and/or I

Flipping the turkey over wasn't as bad as I thought, and cooking at 400 F for 45 min, then finishing it at 325 F for 2.5 hours gave excellent results. I'd brined it overnight too, breast side down in a mix of salt, brown sugar, bay leaves, cloves, and thyme, which I think contributed to how juicy the breast meat came out.

We are going out for Christmas dinner.

The rest of the menu - pumpkin pudding, baked yams, Great-aunt Lena's presbyterian rolls, those roasted brussel sprouts with walnuts from another thread in here, canned cranberry sauce.

Maybe I should hop on the Empire Builder and crash the Jaq Family Thanksgiving.

I love me some canned cranberry sauce, the totally smooth kind that plops out of the can with the ringmarks.

We may be in Portland for a night or two around Christmas/New Years, in transit to Seattle, btw.

But of course I do want to see you guys when you come by Portland.

So, we are having duck.

Tomorrow: start the dough for the presbyterian rolls. Buy a green vegetable (brussel sprouts?).

I roasted some lightly coated with olive oil, mixed with some walnut halves and shaved parmesan, last year and they were amazing.

We've been having lots of green beans of late - sauted in a hot skillet in a bit of oil until a bit charred but still bright green, tossed with a touch of toasted sesame oil and a drop of chili oil. Sprinkle on some crushed red pepper flakes at the end. Very spicy good.

Breads are starting. A biga is slowly rising. Slowly.

It is rather a pain to skin pumpkin mind you (I just slice big chunks of skin off). Most of my punkin cooking is roast chunks of it, punkin soup (savoury and curried, not really that sweet), and veg curries.

I might be able to do it from memory though...

From memory, the standard pie recipe has 1 big can of pumpkin (28 oz maybe?), 4 well-beaten (foamy) large eggs, 1 can sweetened condensed milk, tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp mace, 1/2 tsp allspice. Mix together well, then stir in 1/2 cup flour, sifted.

A few years ago, Cooks Illustrated did some research on pumpkin pie, in which they dewatered the pumpkin on a thick layer of white paper towels spread on a baking sheet. Pumpkin has this great property of not sticking to the paper. I put down 5 or 6 layers of towels and spoon/smear the canned pumpkin over them. Lay a couple more thicknesses of towel on top and press. Change the top layer of towels several times. It doesn't have to be bone dry, but you want to take out a good quantity of moisture. When you're done sopping up the top layer, carefully lift one end of the bottom layer of toweling and flip that half of the pumpkin over on top of the other half, to make it easier to get into the bowl. When I make it this year, we'll do a photo session of the process :)

After nearly setting the cabinets on fire three years ago because my giant stainless bowl/bundt pan combo didn't actually fit in the oven, I switched to making the same amount of pudding divided into 2 4 cup ceramic ramekins and using my big oval roasting pan for the bain marie. The water needs to come all the way to the top of the mix in the mold, and I add more at the 1/2 way point of baking. I also start the baking/steaming with hot water in the bain marie, to speed things up a little bit. The 2 ramekins cook in 3 - 4 hours at 315 - 325 deg F. I don't bother greasing/flouring because I don't unmold it, just scoop it out instead.

Over the years I've tried straight baking vs. steaming - the results were not good. Higher heat/shorter time is also bad. Eating it hot is bad - the texture is all wrong until it has cooled. Warm is good, cold is better. It's not terribly sweet and it's delicious for breakfast.

I am looking forward to this! This technique sounds very interesting.

Oh, wait, now I remember last year! Holy crap, that was weird. I haven't seen any of the people I ate Thanksgiving with again.

Anyway I will be making breads and pies. My apple cranberry pie will make its turn. And maybe I'll try out Jaq's pumpkin madness. (Unless you want to come down for our Sunday-before-Tgiving orphan's Tgiving party/house show?)

so thanksgiving is friendsgiving and my peoples were too slow to get a "nice" turkey. it is from trader joe's and it is pre-brined. any idea how to deal w/ this, not that my orig brining idea is redundant?

you can sort-of-unbrine with distilled water. Mr Veg has done it, abt 5 gallons distilled water overnight will pull a fair bit of salt out.

-have started to incubate the turkey egg, hoping for good results

<3

Driving to my sister's house downstate, dinner at a lakeside resort, no cooking this year.

hi again -- it's more like, how do I additively work w/ the brining?

TJ's has some butter-under-the-skin thing it suggests, but that sounds Harder than it needs to be; also last year we did not baste or do any of that shit and it was DELICIOUS and TJs is suggesting we do that.

I'd leave the pre-brined bird alone and just stuff good things inside (either stuffing or at least some onion/celery/lemon slices/herbs) before roasting breast down for the first half of roasting, then flipping boobs up for the last part. I'm a big fan of the high-heat method of Barbara Kafka. I'm not a baster, and Alton Brown recently confirmed that it doesn't do squat except drop your oven temp.

I've never done this before. I'm a vegetarian and I've never cooked any poultry and now I'm making a turkey. What do I do!? If said turkey is purchased today do I just leave it out to thaw starting now. This is going to be a disaster. HELP.

It's going to be fine!!! Deep breaths! You can try leaving it in the fridge to thaw starting now - not advised to just leave it out. (I will admit to leaving out with no ill effects, also submerging in warm water in a panic.)

JtM - You could do some kind of dry rub? Or, just roast as is.

E - you just need a simple, easy method. here is a really simple recipe to roast a turkey. I've only done it once but it worked for me. (Make sure you have a thermometer)

http://www.chow.com/recipes/29040-basic-roasted-turkey

Uhh guess I'm going thermometer shopping tonight!

But thank you for the advice and link! :)

<3 good luck!

Thermometer's pretty U&K for meat cooking of all kinds. I got a digital one from a restaurant supply store that was ~$10 and works for making cheese and candy as well as meat.

Definitely get the thermometer, the rest is way easier than our moms/dads tried to make it out. Turkey is by far easier than mashed potatoes, green beans, pie, etc.

Is your turkey frozen? Not a problem if it is! Just pop it in the fridge and it will be fine for roastin on Thursday. Whether it is frozen or not at this point, a brine is U&K and also super easy. Just google Alton Brown Turkey Brining and you will be fine so long as you have salt, sugar, and water at your disposal.

TBH turkey itself is my least anticipated part of T'day; it is the stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and pie that really float my boat. I could easily be a vegetarian at T'day and be perfectly fine (except for the gravy part). As for stuffing, I recently learned that Hillary Clinton and I yearn for the same Pepperidge Farm stuffing that we both grew up with:

http://www.pepperidgefarm.com/RecipeDetail.aspx?recipeID=60428

we have a thermapen, they are great but a little $$
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B003P601S2

I am putting together a menu now. I may have more questions tomorrow! So far I have turkey, brussels sproouts with parm and pine nuts, and mashed potatoes on the list. There will be more but I also don't want to kill myself. I am totally buying the pies. Can't even deal with having to make dessert too.

Oth ppl supposed to bring dessert iirc?

Nobody else is coming just the guests who are visiting but they've offered to buy the desserts so that works for me.

Yeah keep yr sides simple, and try wherever you can to make or prep as much as you can ahead of time so you can breathe easier on the day.

Make lists, use timers. I usually have two or three different timers going at once, all measuring different things.

be sure to take the giblets out of the bird!

I would recommend reading a simple primer about general meat prep safety as well.

the CDC exists for a reason, after all
http://www.cdc.gov/features/turkeytime/

True dat--but I pull birds at a max of 155 in the thigh. They easily get to safe zone upon resting, and any more than 165 is getting you into profoundly overcooked territory.

thank you all -- I am considering doing the butter under the skin thing and just go HAM on sage thyme rosemary in the cavity + black pepper, like a chicken

I'll be right over

tonight:

assemble strata for breakfast
mash potatoes
make pumpkin pie

losses so far:
dropped (1) egg on the ground
spilled custard out of the side of the strata on its way into the fridge

i feel a milk shortage coming on, hope the convenience store is open tomorrow

zucchini casserole assemblage this afternoon, pumpkin pie tomorrow morn

zuch recipe calls for two (2) onions
I only have 2 left for the week
1 onion it is

rip egg (xpost)

pumpkin pie in the oven :D

every year, my plea is the same: my kingdom for a bigger kitchen. or one that doesn't ramp up to 'temperature of the sun' whenever I turn on the oven. :(

all that's left is sweet potato/apple gratin

I think this is the most relaxed I've been before thanksgiving yet! Changing up my pumpkin pie recipe to a simpler one really made a big difference in my timetable.

strata - in the oven (bacon, gruyere, some super stale bread)

still left:
butter rolls (i make these 1x a year only on thanksgiving but they are soooooooo good)
garlic herb butter (this is easy obvs)
oh and lunch and turkey + sauteed green beans with almonds and orange zest (green bean casserole is not edible imo)

lunch = crackers + cheese (4 kinds) + baby lettuce salad with pears, bacon, gorgonzola, and some kind of spiced nuts that i'm not sure i even have) + fancy beer

i guess i must enjoy spending all day cooking because i do this every year. i hope i can find the cheesecloth.

i haven't even started thinking about the turkey yet
breakfast and lunch are cooked, eaten, and cleaned up after

i think i hate the idea of eating everything at once, so i just spread it out as much as possible so it's a FULL DAY OF COOKINGEATINGDRINKING.

sweet potato/apple gratin in the oven which means my work here is done.

next: feasting :D

fridge full of leftover pie

best
thing
ever

PUMPKIN PIE FOR BREAKFAST

^

i made a bourbon maple whipped cream for the pumpkin pie. mr veg said it was strong enough that you could get drunk off a whole pie worth :D

bourbon goooooood

Thanksgiving leftovers will conclude today with a turkey/cranberry sauce/deshi chutney naanwich.

One of the weirder things I made with leftovers were these little potato pancakes with
mashed potatoes
1 egg
dal palak that i bought on the monday before thanksgiving to last me through the days leading up to Thurs

in other words, mashed potatoes + old leftovers, and it was really really good. not very appetizing to look at, unfortunately, but rather tasty considering the circumstances.

apparently i like to talk about leftovers.

it's that time again!

i refuse to make a boring turkey because that is not what i want to eat so i am making gumbo instead and it will be spicy and delicious. also making trad butter rolls, pumpkin pie, something with pears, and something with lavender because that's what i do every year. i have not shopped and have no timetable.

i have decided to make 3 pies and leave the sides and meat to my inlaws.

pumpkin pie
cheescake
peanut butter pie

my timetable is to see if Katz's Deli is open

We will be on the road in Texas for T'day and will likely seek out brisket in lieu of turkey.

Saw a recipe this morning for fried dressing balls with cranberry dipping sauce.

whaaaaat omg

i am going to my friend's house to watch football and smoke weed and eat a ham. no turkey.

Took the pork roast out of the freezer.