Preparing for Thanksgiving Day

It’s just nine days now until Thanksgiving Day, the American Holiday. Next day then is Victoria’s b-day. It’s always something like this, her’s just before, on, or just after. I do want to get her stuff wrapped up and totally planned out today or tomorrow, and then plot out Thanksgiving fully.

For me the Thanksgiving holiday is about food foremost. I’m a traditionalist in this and this is my tradition:

Turkey (natural never frozen, if at all possible, a free-range turkey if possible)

Stuffing roasted inside turkey: Bread cubes, sage, onions, walnuts, apples, raisins, chicken stock, butter, sea salt –at the least.

Turkey gravy, made from turkey drippings

Mashed potatoes: potatoes, cream, butter, sea salt, potatoes cooked in water then drained (save liquid for gravy) fork broken up, good stuff added then all mixed in Kitchen Aid Pro-6, on 6-with paddle, then on 10-with whip. Three minutes each.

Candied Sweet Potatoes, or Mashed Sweet Potatoe Casserole

Cauliflower gently cooked, whole, with Cheddar Cheese sauce poured over before serving.

Green Bean Casserole

Homemade Dinner Rolls

Ocean Spray Jellied Cranberry, sliced via the cans groove marks, this is the stuff that’s just particularly flavorful and the right texture to accompany the other stuff. It’s smooth and super tart, wonderful.

Last year I took the pressure off of myself, with V.’s b-day the same day, and made the turkey the day before, and sliced it up, made the gravy, stored it. Then just had to re-heat the portion we wanted for the meal. T-day I only had to make all the sides that remained. Much easier. I’m going to do this on purpose THIS year too.

I also make Pumpkin pies. I like the recipe in [acronym title=”cook book”]Nourishing Traditions[/acronym], it used a sour cream type product instead of the canned milk in most recipes.

I find it makes a wonderfully tangy pumpkin pie, very sweet and scrumptious, the pie does shrink from the pastry shell when it cools, but if I don’t care, I don’t care, the taste is better that way, and nice dollop of freshly whipped-up cream covers it up anyhow.

Most of the above things come from ideas from my childhood. The “stuffing” is morphed from that, we always had what is called “stuffing” from a bag, like pepperage farms brand is now, you add stuff to it and stuff the turkey with it. In my adulthood I make my own bread, and stuff it full of things that make it special, and use my own herbs and seasonings and amounts. I know that whomever has tasted my stuffing raves and raves over it. Usually it’s just us, sometimes another has been around, usually just us though. I insist of stuffing the turkey with it, you cannot get the same product from putting it in a separate pan. Adding stock doesn’t do it, it’s making a super moist intensely heavenly turkey stuffed stuffing, has to be from the turkey, it roasts along with the turkey, yum, yum, ring in the holiday season!

We then give thanks to our holy God, The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for all he’s done for us.