Thanksgiving is often a challenge because of limitations on ovens, but I have finally gotten to a menu that works well with only one large oven and a counter top smart oven.
Turkey in roasting pan in oven.
Potatoes boiling on stove top in big pot. Potatoes riced over a bowl using a tamis and finished with crema agria.
Green beans blanched, tossed with olive oil, minced shallot, torn bits of baguette, and grated Parmigiana in their baking dish. Blanching uses a large saucepan, a colander, and a bowl full of ice water.
Rolls on a sheet baked along with the beans while the turkey is out resting.
Dressing made in a bowl and cooked in the counter top oven. Celery and onion are sweated in a skillet. Vegetable stock is in its Pyrex container, thawing as I write.
Mushroom (fake giblet) and butter roux gravy made in a saucepan.
Cranberries prepared in advance.
So both ovens in use and three sauce pans and one skillet on the stove top, manageable, barely. Thanksgiving also has a few specialized things called into action. My daughter is making a cheesecake in the springform pan and a pecan pie, in a pie dish (we do not make a lot of desserts). Chipotle mayonnaise was made (for turkey sandwiches on rolls), using the FP. The microplane gets plenty of use grating orange zest for the cranberries and cheese for the beans. The table will have both red wine glasses for PN and water glasses. The bubbles will be drunk in white wine glasses while we consume the charcuterie board the daughter is making.
Of course the new (several months) DW is not working, but pretty much everything other than the plates gets hand washed anyway. We use everyday plates but great grandmother’s silver. It is shaping up to be an exhausting day. Maybe next year we just steam a bunch of tamales and drink beer out of the bottles.
I have a friend who has only 1 oven, no countertop or toaster oven, and (on purpose) no microwave. She does holiday dinners for 8 to 10. It’s terrifying.
Baked cornbread Tuesday to dry out for dressing. Baked a pecan pie last night and mixed crumbled cornbread with chopped celery, onion, a little apple, sage, s&p to sit in the fridge overnight along with Rhodes frozen dinner rolls on a foil lined cookie sheet. I also have officially retired my large roasting pan with rack. So I put a 9 lb. turkey breast in a heavy duty foil lined 9x13 metal pan, rubbed with butter, s&p and stuck it in the fridge last night. Breast side down. Today fixed up GBC, corn casserole, sweet potatoes in disposable foil pans.and took the turkey out 1/2 hour before done and poured the drippings into the dressing bowl to be mixed with a couple beaten eggs. TB back in the oven. Along with the dressing and casseroles. TB back out to rest while everything else finished cooking. Then the rolls went in. Cold Ocean Spray whole berry cranberry sauce completed the meal. Paper plates and napkins. Just the two of us this year with our two grandkids. TV trays and The Fellowship of The Ring. Good food, good company, good movie. All told I might have had a full sink of of dirty dishes. It’s all about the easy clean up nowadays for me.
Beat you this year. Son called to report that d-i-l tested positive for covid. Stop the presses! So he came by and picked up ham, yams, rolls, cranberry sauce, chicken broth (for dressing), a chocolate cream pie, this year’s departure. When he called to announce that he was here, I answered, “St. Anthony’s dining room…”. Husband and I raided the fridge and called it good. Tamales and beer would have been sublime.
Thanksgiving 2023’s in the bag, as is the L-tryptophan nappage and pecan pie hangover.
We did it at the Beach house, which lacks a fullsize oven. Smaller turkey was done on the gas grill, which was interesting. Indirect heat. Pan of stock underneath, bacon/cheesecloth shroud of Turin atop the rubbed bird.
What made it especially interesting to me is that the cook mysteriously stalled like a brisket. Took about an extra hour at 325F to budge the thigh above 140F. Weird.
Also weird was that the white:dark doneness was 'way more close to perfect than my usual. Dark was done and breasts were still moist.
Stuffing also on the grill, with the top Searz-All’d to a nice brown crust. Battered Brussel sprouts were air-fried in the Breville T/O. Cranberries, gravy, and riced spuds done on the stovetop.
Gravy wound up a little bitter because flowing Prosecco let the water pan dry up once or thrice. Boxed stock made it right.
