A Plan for Thanksgiving when the Cook Has to be in Court

Middle son (he who shall not be named on the internet) called for tips on how to organize Thanksgiving when you're short on time - i.e. when the cook is on a big case. So being a great Mom, I wrote him a plan. Seeing as how all of you will someday be organizing your own Thanksgivings, I thought this would be a fun document to share.

Bon Appetit!

Menu

Decide exactly what you are responsible for and write it down. If you are supplying the turkey and the trimmings and your other guests are all bringing a dish, your list might look like this:

Turkey

Stuffing

Gravy

Cranberry Sauce

As long as you have those four things under control, you are in business. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that you need to buy a lot of booze. Dad likes to serve Beaujolais Nouveau because 1) it arrives around Thanksgiving, 2) its not too expensive and 3) its not too heavy.

List

Once you have a menu, you need to make a list. This is the most important step in the whole process and more time has been wasted running back and forth to the store because you forgot something than any thing else.

Once you have chosen your recipes, write down every ingredient (yes, every ingredient). It will be a long list. Now you can go through the kitchen and cross off anything you already have in sufficient quantities.

At the same time, think about what equipment you need to get the turkey to the table. You will need 1) a pan large enough to hold the turkey  2) carving board large enough 3) carving tools. If you don’t have these items, borrow or buy them.

Shopping

On Tuesday, take your list and go shopping. You might want to order your turkey ahead by phone to make sure they have the size you want. Rule of thumb, a pound per person. I wouldn’t leave the shopping any later because the stores become too crazy and things run out.

Prepare Ahead

You can make both the cranberry sauce and the stuffing ahead of time: the cranberry sauce whenever you want because it keeps in the fridge forever and the stuffing on Wednesday. Be sure to keep the stuffing in the fridge after it is made.

Another way to get ahead of the game is to set the table on Wednesday. This also helps you to see if you are missing things like chairs and knives and gives you time to acquire them.

On the Day

There are 1,000 ways to cook a turkey, each with different timings. Nevertheless, an 18 – 22 pound stuffed turkey should take about 5 hours at 350F. After the turkey comes out of the oven, it needs to rest for 30 minutes. A good way to know that your turkey is cooked is to pierce the thickest part of the leg with a thin skewer (or fork if you don’t have one). The juices that run out should be golden and clear. You can also give the leg a little tug to make sure there is some give in it.

The turkey can rest for longer (up to 50 minutes) if you want to slow things down. Just be sure to cover the turkey in tinfoil to keep it warm.

Once the turkey is out of the pan and resting, you can make the gravy.

So, calculating backwards, if you want to eat at 5:00, then the turkey should be in the oven by 11:30. If the stuffing is already made and you’ve already bought the turkey, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Turkey Tips

You don't have to do anything except keep the turkey in the frig until you cook it. Then do this:

1) Take the giblets out of the turkey. They are normally in a plastic bag. Just make sure the cavity of the turkey is empty

2) Stuff the turkey into the neck end, pushing it up between the flesh and the skin towards the breast - not too tightly because it will expand during cooking. Press it gently and then tuck the neck flap under the bird. If you have a small skewer you can secure it. If you don't, just forget it, it will work either way

3) Put the rest of the stuffing in the body cavity

4) Put the bird in the pre-heated oven

5) You can baste every half hour or so if you want. I never do because my turkey is too big and I'm just glad I got it into the oven. Basting is nice, not essential.

6) If the skin gets really dark looking, cover the bird with an aluminum foil tent, not too tight. Normally, you need to do this for the legs and wings which get the darkest the fastest.

Does that help?

Mom

Good luck.

A Recipe for the Perfect Thanksgiving

In 1990, when we were living in Frankfurt, I received the phone call that changed our Thanksgiving celebration forever. The call was from my friend, Pat, who had just won a turkey, which was the prize for a 5K road race. What am I going to do with this turkey, she asked? It’s enormous!

We quickly decided that the only thing to do with an enormous turkey was to cook it and invite everyone we knew to a real American Thanksgiving. As we had the much larger apartment, we held the event at our place. I should add that Pat and I knew a heck of a lot of people.

That first Thanksgiving was a “succes fou”. The food may have been traditional but the guests definitely were not. Instead of the Norman Rockwell family pictured above, we had an exotic assortment of international mutts: homesick Americans, international Germans and lots of other nationalities drawn to Frankfurt during that ‘moment’ in the 1990s when the city was vying to become the financial capital of Europe and the American military had an enormous presence. The meal was big fun and completely chaotic. We had invited so many people that we ran out of everything, chairs, knives, and plates but no one seemed to mind. That enormous turkey was the talk of the town.

The next year, we did it again. We invited more people. We gave people assignments and extended the menu. We developed traditions. Your father started reading Art Buchwald’s ‘Explaining Thanksgiving to the French’. For some reason that I can’t remember anymore, I started to wear an Austrian dirndl. Our Thanksgiving became like the baseball field in the movie  ‘Field of Dreams’.  We built it and they came. And then we moved to London – and still they came. And they keep coming. But of course, you know all of this. You were there.

This year, you will be holding your own Thanksgiving celebration in California. Of course, I will miss you, but that is not my point. I was going to write-up some recipes for you to use, but I realized - you don’t need them. You are sons of a grand Thanksgiving tradition. You already carry in your heads and your hearts everything you need to know about America’s best holiday. But I’m still your mother and I like to dispense advice so here it is.  For the perfect Thanksgiving what you need to do is:

Buy a big turkey. Invite everyone you know. Cook. Eat. Next year – repeat!

Good luck,

Mom

Eureka Chilli

I was talking to Mac recently. "Mom", he said, "it is soooo much cheaper to cook your own food". Eureka!
Yup, you can save a fortune if you cook at home. So this recipe is for Mac. It's super cheap, super easy and super delicious.

You will need:

1 pound of ground beef - you want ground beef with a high fat content which is normally the cheapest.

2 cans of kidney beans

1 spicy chorizo sausage (Spanish) - if you can't find this just skip it

1 onion and a clove or 2 of garlic

Oregano

Large spoonful of tomato paste (buy in toothpaste tubes and keep in fridge. It lasts forever)

1 can peeled tomatoes (Buy lots of these and keep in kitchen because they are very useful)

Worcester Sauce (this is good to have in your kitchen cabinet even if you will only use a little so don't worry about buying a bottle)

Grated cheese ( its cheaper if you grate it yourself but pre-grated is OK)

1) Slice a chorizo sausage into thinish slices.  If you can't find chorizo, just skip this step.

2) Chop an onion and if you like garlic, chop some of that too

3) Put a tablespoon of cooking oil in the pan. Add the onion, garlic and chorizo sausage and cook over very low heat until the onions are translucent. Keep heat low and stir often

4) Add the ground beef and stir

5) When it changes color from red to light brown, add the oregano, tomato paste, the can of tomatoes, four shakes of the Worcester sauce and some salt. Stir. Turn the heat down. Put a lid on it and cook for at least 30 minutes or longer if you can wait that long.

6) Right before you serve, add the grated cheese and let it melt

Dig in