Today we started preparing for Thanksgiving. I laid out the buffet and found dishes for what we’ll be having: the turkey platter, bowls for the mashed potatoes, the yams, the green beans, then stuffing, and the gravy boat. I set up a side table for the salad and cranberry sauce. We will also have a table for drinks, sparkling water, ginger ale and sparkling cider.
Tomorrow we’re going to get up and put the turkey in the oven. It should cook for about 3 hours (it is 12 pounds, the smallest bird I could find), and we’re going to use Mom’s tried-and-true method of stuffing the bird with quartered oranges and using orange marmalade to glaze it.
Today I made the cranberry sauce myself. I used cranberries and a recipe from my grandmother’s 1967 Good Housekeeping Cookbook. It tastes quite good. We had a 1/2 pound of cranberries so I used one orange. You put them in the food processor with a cup of sugar and it comes out well mixed. It tastes great and has fantastic color (the camera did not do it justice).
Nick and Gavin helped make the stuffing. I found the recipe on SlashFood and it is Nick-safe, and Mike says not having stuffing at Thanksgiving is Communist (and we’d never want to be accused of that)! Gavin used the mandolin on onions while Nick double check the bread and gathered the spices. We also ran the stuffing through the food processor. That was fun! It also tastes great although it looks… special.
This evening for dinner we’re making a batch of Cousin Ann’s Chili. It is simmering happily away on the stove top now. If you’d like the recipe, please e-mail me.
There will be pictures of the Thanksgiving festivities posted shortly to Flickr. I’ll make a post to let everyone know when they’ve all been uploaded!
0 Responses to “Count down to Turkey gutting time…”