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I am in a festive baking mood! How about you? Cooking from scratch or enjoying a restaurant or catered meal this year?
This year we are traveling (just an hour and a half) to spend Thanksgiving with Tom’s family at the Eldredge Farm, only instead of being there for just the day as we have the past couple years, we’re leaving mid-week and staying through the weekend, which means I have more food prep and planning ahead to consider.
We’ll stay at our home at the family farm, while the current occupants (dear family) are traveling, so that means I will have a kitchen to use and space to be messy and also perhaps lazy (Friday morning and pumpkin pie, I’m looking at you).
The actual Thanksgiving day meal is held in my mother-in-law’s home, and each family brings their favorite contributions to the big feast on Thursday. We have the main meal around 1pm and then all the desserts are saved for dessert dinner in the evening. This is the Way of the Eldredge’s, a long tradition dating back decades. I wear comfortable clothing.
Many years ago after one Thanksgiving when I realized our little family had no delicious leftovers, I started making ahead Thanksgiving foods to freeze and have on hand, so we could have next-day turkey and orange cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie, instead of staring forlornly into the empty fridge because the sweet potato souffle and salads I’d taken to the family dinner were either all gone or sad all by themselves. (what is a sweet potato souffle without its companion green beans or fluffy roll, anyway?)
Some years we’ve either had a Friendsgiving or our own separate Thanksgiving meal, but on years neither of those are happening I like to make favorite foods ahead of time so that we don’t have to cook right after the holiday or stare at an empty fridge. Maybe this is a foodie thing, or only makes sense to people who really love with all their heart Thanksgiving dishes but I. am. one. of. those. people. *claps in between words for strong effect*
Have I done a lot of prep so far? No. But the cornerstone is done-the turkey! Here is the thing. Whether or not you’re hosting Thanksgiving, roasting the turkey ahead of time, deboning, and freezing it to rewarm later is such a time-saver and really frees up your oven for more important things, like pie. I’ve done this for years and my turkey is never dry! It’s all in how you cook it. Covering the meat with pan juices keeps it tender during the re-warming process.
So that’s the one thing I did yesterday afternoon, and it was nice to not be trying to make 10 dishes at once, with an oven groaning with dishes and the counters completely covered in chaos. It was just me and the turkey and clear kitchen counters and my neighbor’s baster.
I’m going to share with you the only recipe I use for roasting turkey or chickens (just multiply the ingredients according to the weight of your bird) and the other dishes I plan on throwing together over the next couple of days. Am I a domestic over-achiever sometimes? Yes. However, I am so preferential to the taste of from-scratch Thanksgiving foods that I’ve created a monster out of myself, but a monster who loves doing it. So I’m consciously approaching this week with an attitude of “what gets done, gets done, and what doesn’t doesn’t matter” and loving the process. What doesn’t get done is really not that important. There are always sandwiches and salads to fall back on. I hear frozen pizza or takeout is also a thing. What’s important to me is not being stressed and enjoying hanging out with all my fam! While I eat pie. With a cup of coffee in the other hand.
I love you, Thanksgiving!
∇ Slow-Roasted Garlic Chicken (or Turkey!)
Note: I usually use avocado oil instead of olive oil to rub the poultry with, and it calls for A LOT of garlic which isn’t necessary for the complete success of the recipe. I love garlic but often use less than the recipe calls for. The real magic is the slow, covered steam cooking to tenderizer and then the roasting at the end to seal it all in.
Here are other Thanksgiving-themed foods I (and the children) will be making this week, either to take to family Thanksgiving or to keep the fridge stocked for my own hungry horde:
∇ Pioneer Woman Mashed Potatoes ~truly the best recipe on the internet
Most of the time I’m quadrupling this recipe! I make it only once or twice a year. It’s that dangerous. If you want someone to fall in love with you this Thanksgiving, this is the recipe to make. Just don’t be weird and spoon feed it to them across the table.
I tweak this recipe to make it gluten and dairy-free. It’s very good, just slightly less decadent than the souffle. (I also reduce the sugar or use an alternative like monk fruit and erythritol. )
∇ Broccoli Salad
If you look at Pinterest there are a million variations of this; ours will include turkey bacon, craisins, and cashews.
∇ Orange Pineapple Salad from Grandma’s church lady cookbook (contains cottage cheese, jello, whipped cream, fruit! if you’ve ever been to a church potluck in the midwest you know what I’m talking about)
∇ Roasted Garlic Mashed Cauliflower from Danielle Walker’s Celebrations cookbook
∇ Orange Cranberry Sauce, either from the Celebrations book or a similar easy recipe from The Whole Cook
∇ Green-Bean Casserole with Crispy Shallots from Celebrations
∇ Apple Sausage Stuffing from Celebrations
∇ Toll House Pie (I will use an old favorite recipe from a friend and tweak it to be gluten & dairy-free)
∇ Pecan Pie from Paleo Sweets
∇ S’mores Bars (with golden grahams, marshmallows, & chocolate: every kid’s dream, right?)
∇ Pumpkin Pie from Celebrations
I’d love to hear about your favorites or something you’re trying new this year. Happy Thanksgiving week!
xo
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Photos by Priscilla Du Preez, Alison Marras, and Dilyara Garifullina on Unsplash
