It Has Begun!

First TG recipe complete: the cranberry sauce. A pound of fresh cranberries simmered in red wine and amped-up with Cointreau, half a blood orange, pecan pieces, cinnamon and cloves.

Plan for tomorrow includes the start of the gravy (from cut-up turkey wings) and the start of an ice cream (Mike Filigenzi's roasted cinnamon).

[Jenise]

We're sharing Turkey dinner with my brother and erstwhile BIL. My contributions will be the scratch pumpkin pie, a scratch rif on green bean casserole with shitake mushrooms, roasted batonnets of carrot and parsnip, and the dressing, which will be a sage, leek and pecan bread pudding. Oh, and wine. I'll bring the wines.

I'm more than half way with the following already done and in the freezer:
Turkey gravy
Collard greens with ham hocks and salt pork
4-cheese mac and cheese
cornbread, sausage and mushroom dressing
deep dish peach cobbler
received my two dozen 7" aluminum store and cook pans from Amazon; picked up the cutest 1/4 c containers for sauces and gravies from FM yesterday.
To do: brine then cook the turkey, make the black-eyed pea and green bean salad, bake the ham, make the peach, habanero and bourbon sauce for the ham, bake the chocolate chip cookies and caramel/pecan brownies.
On T-day, pack it, bag it and label it for my family to pick up and enjoy. WHEW, glad my sister is here to help!

Wow, Jo Ann, you are a regular family restaurant!

Wow, Jo Ann, you are a regular family restaurant!

And it's homemade.

Today I'm going out shopping for Thanksgiving Day's coq au vin. The chicken, of course, but also pork belly for the lardons, onions, mushrooms, red wine, and brandy for flambeeing.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

"Just put the fucking turkey in the oven."

Love this woman!

https://sfist.com/2011/11/23/pre-thanks ... fxZ82AF7Ho

That video is a hoot. Er, um, gobble.

Some years ago, I had a memorable Thanksgiving dinner at a friend's house. Upon arrival, I noticed a mangled, twisted, and completely destroyed oven door. Turns out the oven door somehow locked itself closed and the only way they could get it open was to pry it open with crowbars and hammers.

Needless to say, it was an expensive dinner for the host. Wish I had a picture.

[Jenise]

Ouch, Larry. I remember that we thought we'd never get that Martha Stewart turkey (swathed in butter-soaked cheesecloth) out of our old (prior house, new oven though) oven after the electronics decided too much smoke inside and it went into lockdown. Could have been us!

Speaking of Martha, here's what I'm going to do AFTER official Tday with the heritage bird I just bought.

https://www.marthastewart.com/243222/boneless-turkey

"Just put the fucking turkey in the oven."

Love this woman!

https://sfist.com/2011/11/23/pre-thanks ... fxZ82AF7Ho

Ha!

I know it's not nice because not everyone has the same hobbies/interests, but I have the same reaction to all the occasional cooks I see in the market (especially this time of year), when they ask me (or the farmers): "How do you cook that"? Some of these people are not even occasional cooks, I see them every week, yet they are still baffled by how to cook an oyster mushroom or fennel!? When I'm feeling snippy I say 'Introduce heat' but the farmers don't have the same luxury and have to give the same spiel over and over.

When I'm feeling snippy I say 'Introduce heat' but the farmers don't have the same luxury and have to give the same spiel over and over.

Be nice, doc! Those folks are showing curiosity, a good trait and one that should be encouraged. You, too, crawled before you walked.

On one memorable Thanksgiving at a friend's house, the turkey had been taken out of the oven and was resting on the kitchen counter while we were all busy in the dining room setting the table. We heard a large thump from the kitchen. When my host went to investigate, he found one of the cats trying to drag the turkey outside through the cat flap.

-Paul W.

A friend decided that he would clean the oven before the turkey got cooked, so when he got up for breakfast, he set the oven for self clean cycle. Sadly, his wife had been up before hi and had put the turkey in earlier but hadn't turned the oven on and he didn't check.

Fortunately they were smarter than Larry's friend and balanced the cost of an expensive oven against a cheap bird and made the right decision to let the bird burn.

I have to agree that white turkey meat on it's own is blah. You have to add something with flavour to it to make it palatable. Dark meat is much better, IMHO.

Jenise - hilarious video!

When I'm feeling snippy I say 'Introduce heat' but the farmers don't have the same luxury and have to give the same spiel over and over.

Be nice, doc! Those folks are showing curiosity, a good trait and one that should be encouraged. You, too, crawled before you walked.

Of course. I'm quite polite. And you're right, it's certainly better that they're in the market than buying fast food. And, I'll fully acknowledge there are many *simple* things in life that I don't know how to do! Like changing the oil in my car...

[Jenise]

I wish I'd taken before, after and after-after pictures of my pumpkin pie.

The before: raw dough in the pie dish with a neat edge perfectly crimped with two fingers and an iced tea spoon. Could have been any professional bakery's hand-made product. Very impressive.

After: just the crust after the blind-bake with pastry beads to hold everything in place supposedly wherein my beautiful crimped edges have melted and or sunk inward due in part to gravity and my failure to set the timer right (I spoke to Alexa, but she did not hear me). It is no longer a perfect circle. Not so impressive.

And after-after: I do this so rarely that I completely forgot what I'd learned years back about setting the crust onto the oven shelf and pouring in the custard there to prevent overspill instead of pouring the custard on the counter and then trying to move a pie full of liquid into the oven where inevitably it slops over the edge. Which burns onto your pie crust, which is going to be overdone anyway due to overcooking the blind bake. Totally unimpressive and inept.

I guess there's an after-after-after part where everybody says it's great anyway, but still. We know what should have been, don't we.

Been there, done that!

(I spoke to Alexa, but she did not hear me). It is no longer a perfect circle. Not so impressive.

Have treat Alexa like a spouse - if the don't acknowledge what you said (and sometimes even if they do) it never happened.

[Jenise]

(I spoke to Alexa, but she did not hear me). It is no longer a perfect circle. Not so impressive.

Have treat Alexa like a spouse - if the don't acknowledge what you said (and sometimes even if they do) it never happened.

Oh god I know--both! But sometimes I move on mentally after issuing the instruction and fail to wait for an acknowledgement.

The before: raw dough in the pie dish with a neat edge perfectly crimped with two fingers and an iced tea spoon. Could have been any professional bakery's hand-made product. Very impressive.

After: just the crust after the blind-bake with pastry beads to hold everything in place supposedly wherein my beautiful crimped edges have melted and or sunk inward due in part to gravity and my failure to set the timer right (I spoke to Alexa, but she did not hear me). It is no longer a perfect circle. Not so impressive.

My pie came out great -- of course, I used a commercial graham cracker crust.

But I did learn, from my 2016 experiences, a useful trick: after creaming the sugar and yolks together, keep beating! Get it good and frothy. You'll tame the froth later with additions of pumpkin and cream but that initial extra fluff means the center doesn't weep, crack, or sink when the pie cools.

And after-after: I do this so rarely that I completely forgot what I'd learned years back about setting the crust onto the oven shelf and pouring in the custard there to prevent overspill instead of pouring the custard on the counter and then trying to move a pie full of liquid into the oven where inevitably it slops over the edge.

Yes. My recipe makes more goo than fits in one pie shell so I always have a flotilla of little vessels also onboard the baking sheet.

(Alexa story)

Really? You trust Alexa to be your oven timer???