Put The Pope’s Nose to the Grindstone: Thanksgiving Prep 101

The countdown for Thanksgiving begins now. Hopefully you have all your orders in for pies and such if you are planning to outsource them or have made your Thanksgiving dinner reservations.  This year, we are not hosting or attending any Thanksgiving, but I will be making all the things we need for Thanksgiving sandwiches to enjoy. Usually by now the house is kind of, sort of organized and clean.  I have a good idea of who is coming when and plans would have been made for an early dinner out with the first set of family arriving.  In the past, we had plans to take out Bon Me sandwiches and Pizza for Wednesday evening.  I would know who is coming in when, and where everyone is staying.  So, right about now I could focus on the lists.  The grocery list is one list.  The timeline is the other list .

For now, I am going to make cranberry sauce because that is quick and easy and will keep for when I’m ready to do the sandwiches. I will also make a batch of a classic herb and onion stuffing, which I will probably freeze. I like to use 1/2 for sandwiches and 1/2 to make some stuffing waffles which are a combination of 1/2 Liege waffle recipe 1/2 stuffing cooked in the waffle iron and they make a delicious lunch or savory snack. Here are some recipes we have made in the past.

Menu:

• Cranberry Sauce
• Cider Gravy
• Mashed Potatoes
• Green Beans with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette and Parmesan Breadcrumbs
• Brussels Sprouts a recipe from Jody Adams’ or Rialto and Trade
• Roasted Potatoes (Dairy free – just the potatoes here not the lamb too!)
• Sweet Potatoes (from my friend Myndi’s Mee Maw – is that how you spell it?)
• Bourbon Glazed Carrots
• Fried Turkey with Duck fat, and truffle purée and cider gravy (Since my husband doesn’t eat dairy instead of truffle butter I take duck fat and add truffle purée to it and slide that under the skin.
• It turns out that my husband doesn’t really want the Herb and Onion Stuffing (Bon Appetit Nov. 2008) or
  Rustic Bread Stuffing with Dried Cranberries & Oyster Mushrooms
  (Fine Cooking Nov. 2008) this year.  So, I’m going to make a
• Cornbread and apricot stuffing (Heavily modifying this to include no dairy, no meat and to not be cooked in a chicken)

Sources

• Green Beans with Meyer Lemon Vinaigrette & Parmesan Breadcrumbs
  (Fine Cooking Nov. 2008)
• Cranberry Sauce (Classic Canadian Cooking, Elizabeth Baird)
• Sugar & Spice Pumpkin Pie with Brandied Ginger Cream
  (Fine Cooking Nov. 2008)