Thanksgiving Run Down

Thanksgiving in Wisconsin was a hit! I was a little bit daunted by all of the cooking and prepping that was necessary to make it all happen, but everything came together in the end.

First off, a few days before Thanksgiving I baked a quick apple crisp for us to enjoy leading up to the big day. For me, holidays and birthdays end up being more of week-long celebrations rather than just lasting the day. Spreading out the celebration never hurt anyone, in my humble opinion.

Next, on the morning before Thanksgiving I made a cherry pie. I figured getting that out of the way would be a relief and would free up oven space on the big day. I made the same crust that I'd made the previous week for the apple pie, and I used some cherry pie filling my parents had bought while on vacation recently. The pie crust did not turn out quite as perfectly as apple pie from last week, but I'm still happy I insisted on making it from scratch. Can't go wrong with all that butter, after all!

That evening I whipped up a dish of baked macaroni and cheese. We figured that, because our Thanksgiving dinner menu was already so massive for five people, we might as well spread out the goodness and enjoy a decadent preview of the main event. I used Alton Brown's Baked Macaroni and Cheese recipe and it didn't let us down. Ben and I always trust Alton's scientific approach to cooking; his recipes are our go-to.

On Wednesday, Ben started brining the turkey and then early Thanksgiving morning he rinsed and stuffed the turkey, again using Alton Brown's "Good Eats" Roast Turkey recipe. Once the turkey was in the oven that was my signal to start prepping.

Onions were chopped, potatoes were peeled, cheese was grated, seasonings were measured, garlic was minced, and lemons were zested. I put everything into little portion containers: ramekins, cereal bowls, measuring cups, shot glasses... whatever I could find! Mom and my brother helped with the more tedious preparation, and Mom made her traditional stuffing.

We set the table, plated the pre-made sides (olives, cranberries, etc), and I placed all of the ingredients by their recipe sheets, ready for the chaos of whipping all the sides together in the 30 mins.

These are the recipes we used:

Creamy Garlic Mashed Potatoes by Alton Brown

Homemade Gravy by Good Housekeeping

Green Beans Gremolata by Ina Garten (made this last year with Ben's family)

Sautéed Fresh Corn by Ina Garten (I souped this one up with bacon, onion, and cream)

Here's how I prepped the ingredients for each recipe (more for myself, for the future, each bulletpoint is its own container)

Mashed Potatoes

-Large pot: peeled/chopped potatoes, water, salt

-Medium pot: cream, milk, garlic

-Parmesan

Gravy

-Butter (will start first in pan)

-Chopped Onions

-Flour

-Salt and pepper

-Broth and brandy

-Cream

Green Beans Gremolata

-Trimmed green beans (use same bowl for ice bath and storage after blanched beans are dried)

-Toasted pine nuts (microwave in ramekin), lemon zest, Parmesan, garlic

-Salt and pepper

Sautéed Corn

-Butter

-Bacon and onion

-Corn

-Salt and pepper

-Heavy cream

The whole cooking process pivoted around taking the turkey out and popping Mom's stuffing in the oven for the last 30 minutes.

Here's the run down of what I ended up doing (again, mostly for me to remember for the future)

• 30 minutes before turkey's out: start boiling water for the green beans
• 20 minutes before turkey's out: start boiling the salted potato water
• 15 minutes before turkey's out: blanch green beans, drain, ice bath, and dry
• Turkey's out! Stuffing's in!
• 30 minutes before stuffing's out: start butter/onion mixture for gravy and start simmering cream/milk/garlic for mashed potatoes
• 20 minutes before stuffing's out: start bacon/onion for the corn, finish adding gravy ingredients, cream/milk/garlic for mash should be done
• 15 minutes before stuffing's out: begin sautéing green beans, gravy should be done, potatoes should be done, delegate potato mashing/mixing (hand mixer works so well) to sous chef
• 10 minutes before stuffing's out: drain excess bacon fat and begin sautéing corn
• 5 minutes before stuffing's out: stir up gremolata

Somehow it all came together on time. I had run through the sequence a few times in my head but wasn't sure how well all of the components would coordinate. I definitely used a TON of dishes, but I think it was worth it and not a bad attempt for my first go at it!

We feasted and all felt very fat and happy. We even had to take a brief recess between the main meal and dessert to give our stomachs a chance to rest. Overall a very successful and exciting Thanksgiving.