Thanksgiving Cheat Sheet

This post is basically for myself. I want to remember what I did this year at our first Thanksgiving at home so that I have a chance to do it all again. Oh, and I better throw in here a huge THANK YOU to my Mom for making my first Thanksgiving at our own home a success - she really made half the food and helped me with some of my half. And I should add that "washing dishes" includes drying them and putting them away. So here goes.

TWO DAYS BEFORE

1. Clean the house, including the kitchen floor.

2. Wash and dry your dishcloths and dish-drying towels. All of them.

THE DAY BEFORE

1. Yams can be cooked the day before. To make candied yams, peel and slice (1-1.5" slices) a bunch of yams into a Corningware-type dish (oven dish with a lid). Slice up 1/2 cube or more of butter and place on the yams. Spread brown sugar over the top of the yams. You can also layer the butter & brown sugar in the middle of the yams if you wish. The brown sugar made a complete layer over the yams, but it was not piled high or more than 1/2 inch thick. Bake at ? until you can stab through the yams easily - check after 30 or 45 minutes. I'll have to ask Mom what the temperature was. Store in the fridge.

1.5. Wash dishes.

2. Cranberry sauce can be cooked the day before. It just takes a bag or two of cranberries and some sugar. The recipe is on the bag, and it is really simple. Basically you boil the berries in sugar water. Store in the fridge.

2.5. Wash dishes.

3. Jello salad of any type should be made the day before. Mom's salad involves ground up cranberries and walnuts, marshmallows, and possibly Cool Whip. Store in the fridge.

3.5. Wash dishes.

4. Pies are easy to make ahead of time. Pumpkin pie needs one can of pumpkin and one can of evaporated milk. I didn't double-check the recipe this year, but luckily I had a can of milk anyway. Sour cream lemon pie is Steven's favorite - one year I'll get brave and try making that with a meringue. Blackberry pie is fun, but I want to try variations of recipes - like making a crumb-topping on blackberry pie to see if it works. Apple pie is classic and good. Whipped cream is a must for lemon or pumpkin pie, and it goes well with the rest of them too. Store in the fridge.

4.5. Wash dishes.

5. At this point the fridge is getting pretty full, so it's time to stop stocking it up ahead of time. If using a frozen turkey, take it out of the freezer and place it in a (cleaned) sink of cold water overnight. If the turkey is more than 15 pounds, make sure overnight is longer than 8 hours - this year 8 hours barely thawed the 15 pound bird.

5.5. Wash dishes.

6. If you want to make stuffing from scratch, take out a loaf of bread and spread it out to dry out overnight.

6.5. Wash dishes.

ON THANKSGIVING

1. Prepare the stuffing, starting about 1/2 hour before you start preparing the turkey. Saute an onion and a half dozen or so stalks of celery (all sliced up) in 2 cubes of butter. Yeah - 2 cubes, no kidding. While that is cooking up, put the bread crumbs in a bowl. This can be the bread crumbs in a bag from the store, or it can mean tearing up the loaf of bread into the bowl - I remember doing this when we were kids. It always seemed like a lot of fun, and it kept us out of Mom's hair for at least 15 minutes. Add a good amount of sage (maybe even as much sage as I would add taco spice to a batch of ground beef), and then add maybe a teaspoon of rosemary, thyme, marjoram, and poultry seasoning. All the measuring is pretty rough - just put a bit of stuff in the palm of your hand and dump it in the bowl. Give the bread crumbs and spices a stir and then pour the butter/celery/onion mix over the top. Stir this around until it seems like everything is well mixed. Then add 1-2 cans of chicken broth - until it seems that all the bread crumbs are fairly moist, and some of them are sticking together in clumps.

1.5. Wash dishes.

2. Start preparing the bird about 4-5 hours before you want to eat. Four hours for the 15 pound bird, longer for a larger one. Unwrap and wash the bird in the sink. I tried using paper towels underneath the bird, but they slide around a lot. At least I cleaned the sink before I started defrosting that turkey. Remove the turkey legs from the wire or plastic holding them together. Find the package of giblets and the neck of the bird. Make sure all of the cavities are cleared out and check to be sure there aren't any little bits of feathers that didn't get completely plucked. Place the bird with the breast meat up and the legs and wings down in the roasting pan. Stuff both ends with the stuffing. It works best to use a clean spoon to put stuffing in a new bowl, and then use a separate spoon to move the stuffing into the bird. That way any stuffing that doesn't fit in the bird doesn't have raw turkey all over it. Start with the smaller end of the turkey. Use a skewer to (somehow) hold the flap of skin in place over the stuffed cavity. The end of the turkey with the legs can be a bit overstuffed - the stuffing doesn't spill out much here. Use the wire or plastic to put the legs back into place. Wrap the turkey with heavy duty tin foil, shiny side down, and place in a 450 degree oven when you're ready for it to start cooking. After 30-45 minutes turn the temperature to 425 degrees. The 15 pound turkey cooked in about three and a half hours, but it's good to start checking at three hours. Turkey is done when numerous tests with a meat thermometer measure 185 degrees internally, and the skin is golden and brown, with the legs almost falling off.

2.5. Wash dishes.

3. We didn't make homemade rolls this year because we had some amazing cardamom bread. Rolls would have to be mixed up and timed to be risen and ready to bake as the turkey comes out of the oven. Maybe next year.

3.5. Wash dishes.

4. There are several versions of the green bean casserole recipe that can be found online. Mix up the green beans and soup, possibly adding french friend onions, and these are ready to cook when the turkey is out.

5. Mashed potatoes can be started as the turkey is cooking. The potatoes can be peeled and chopped up and placed in a pot of salted water. When the turkey is getting close to done (or right after you test the turkey and decide it is done) then you start the water boiling. Whenever the potatos are nice and soft, drain the potatoes and mix in butter and cream/milk with the hand mixer. While the water is heating up, go on to items 5.5, 6, and 7.

5.5. Wash dishes.

6. Also when the turkey comes out, turn the temperature to the one you need for rolls. If you can fit rolls and the extra stuffing and the yams and the green bean casserole all in the oven at once, then it is a miracle. Otherwise they will have to take turns and play nicely. If you don't need the extra stuffing for Thanksgiving day, you can just save it to cook it another day.

7. Setting the table includes laying out the tablecloth, plates, glasses, napkins, silverware, butter, jam, salt and pepper. The cranberry sauce and cranberry salad were set out, followed by the rolls, yams, and green bean casserole. Keep lids or tin foil over all the "hot" dishes.

8. Unhook the turkey's legs again and scoop out the stuffing with a spoon. Remove the skewer from the other end of the bird and scoop out the stuffing there too. Put the stuffing on the table, covered in tin foil.

9. Carving the turkey is a lot simpler if you wait for it to cool a little bit (I have burn blisters on my fingers this year). It might be easier to pull of a whole leg so that it can cool down a little bit. The dark meat is easiest to pull off in chunks - this way you can check it carefully for bones too. The white meat is sliced horizontally - I make a vertical slice where the meat connects to the bones and then I cut off 8-10 horizontal slices and laid them on the platter. I love the electric carving knife. I need to remember that I keep it with the cake decorating supplies so that I don't panic at the last minute when I can't find it.

9.5. Wash up well after carving the turkey - it's a messy job! Then put the turkey on the table.

10. Pour drinks, light the candles, pray, and eat.

10.5. Let someone else do the dishes.

11. Eat pie later ... much later ... but don't wait until you actually feel hungry again because that may not be until the day after Thanksgiving.

11.5. Dishes.

THIS YEAR'S ACTUAL TIMELINE

(begins the day before Thanksgiving)

10:00 PM Make pie crust
10:20 PM Bake sour cream lemon pie crust
10:30 PM Mix and bake pumpkin pie
11:30 PM Make cranberry sauce
11:30 PM Also make lemon pie filling
12:00 AM Now that the pumpkin pie has cooled, cover and put it in fridge
1:00 AM Now that cranberry sauce and lemon pie filling have cooled to room temperature ... put cranberry sauce in fridge and mix sour cream into lemon pie filling. Put pie filling into baked crust and put the pie in the fridge.
1:15 AM Wash a lot of dishes
1:30 AM Pick up around the house for a while
2:00 AM Finally the laundry is finished so I can fold it and go to bed
9:50 AM Wake up
10:00 AM Chop onion and celery
10:20 AM Start butter, onion, and celery sauteing
10:30 AM Wash turkey and place in roasting pan
10:45 AM Start mixing bread crumbs, spices, sauteed stuff, and chicken broth
11:00 AM Stuff turkey
11:15 AM Remember to preheat the oven. Don't put the turkey in until it's preheated so the bottom doesn't heat too much.
11:30 AM Chat with Mom and wash dishes (of COURSE she came and helped me with all the turkey prep)
12:00 PM Clean house with the spouse (Thank You!)
2:30 PM Get myself ready
2:45 PM Mom and my brother show up, we check the bird, and it's perfect
2:47 PM Panic - oops I forgot to get the potatoes ready
2:50 PM Peel potatoes and chop them up into the pot
3:00 PM Put yams into the oven to reheat
3:00 PM Start setting the table
3:15 PM Carve the turkey
3:15 PM Start the gravy (from a mix - I know, not adventurous at all)
3:30 PM Mash the potatoes
3:45 PM Sit down to eat


5:00 PM Wash more dishes
6:50 PM Whip cream
7:00 PM Eat pie
7:30 PM Wash dishes
8:00 PM Play games
9:30 PM Guests leave
10:00 PM Turkey coma