Thanksgiving Planning

a good stuffing has a few basic ingredients:

dried wheat and white bread — stale and roughly crumbed

Fresh sage

diced and sweated onions, celery, garlic minced

chicken or turkey stock

1 or 2 eggs

Basically you sweat off the celery and onions, keep the stock hot, add in the breadcrumbs alternating with stock to desired texture, chop up fresh sage and add at end with egg. Put in a roasting dish and bake until crispy on top.

There’s loads of variations though, you can be as creative with it as you like. I like to add toasted pecans and dried apricots as well, but thats just me. Sorry the recipe’s rough. I don’t really use them after 25+ years of being a chef. GL!!
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Use Pepperage Farms croutons and one of the recipes on the side of the package. The one for the oysters is the best.
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What is a Thanksgiving without the extra cooking and eating. Thanksgiving is one of the festivals where you can let go of your inner inhibitions of not eating and let go in front of your family and friends.

Turkey is the centerpiece of the Thanksgiving dinner table and thus, needs to be prepared with utmost care and patience. Still only turkey is not the only food that you can or rather want to serve in front of your family. There are several other dishes that can be served like gravey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and gravy among others.

Here we are providing some dishes you can cook and enjoy on the occasion of Thanksgiving. Let the stuffed turkey and other dishes you prepare be the means of flaunting your culinary skills by following the simple steps that we have brought for you and make sure that it’s the turkey who looks like a turkey, not you.

THANKSGIVING TURKEY

Ingredients

For Turkey:

12 to 15 pound Turkey
1 tablespoon BBQ sauce
1 tablespoon Italian salad dressing
1 tablespoon Honey
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

For Gravy:

Turkey drippings
1 teaspoon Cornstarch
2 tablespoons Water
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

For Mashed Potatoes:

6 to 12 (preferably red ones) Potatoes
Water
Butter
Pepper to taste
Salt to taste
Milk
Steamed Vegetables (any that you may prefer)

For Stuffing:

1/2 to 1 cup or 1 to 2 sticks Butter
4 to 6 large sticks Chopped celery
1 large Chopped onion
1/2 cup Chopped parsley
1 or 2 Chopped 8-ounce can water chestnuts
3 to 5 Chopped green apples (in cubic shape)
Pepper to taste
Garlic to taste
Salt to taste
Italian seasoning such as oregano, basil, thyme
1 Small loaf Bread

For Sweet Potato:

1/2 or 1 per guest Sweet potato

Other Ingredients to Serve with Turkey:

Butter Green salad
Jello salad (serving lemon with cranberries)
Cornbread
Little bowl of olives
Pumpkin pie

Method:

For Stuffing:

Melt the butter in a large skillet pan.
Add the celery, onion, parsley, and seasonings to the butter and sauté until onions look transparent.
Add water chestnuts and apples and let them simmer on low heat.
Till then cut the bread into cubes and place the pieces on a cookie sheet.
Heat it in oven till it is crispy brown.
Put the toasted bread in a large bowl and then pour the mixture from the pan over the bread.
Mix well.
Set aside the leftover mixture in the pan to cool.

For Turkey:

Completely thaw the turkey.
Wash and clean it with water.
Pat it dry with a clean towel.
Now place your turkey on a turkey rack in a big roasting pan.
Stuff the dressing into the turkey cavity from both sides (front and back).
Skew the cavities to close the openings.
Put together BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, stuffing residue that you had set aside, honey, salt and pepper and sauté them to a liquid paste consistency. Rub the paste all over the turkey.
Heat the oven to 325 degrees and place the turkey in it for about 20 minutes per pound. (Place a cup of water in the bottom of the pan to avoid any dripping from the turkey from being burnt up; it will be used later in the gravy.)

For Gravy:

When you have removed the turkey from the oven, pour the drippings into a saucepan.
Mix cornstarch in lukewarm water and stir until it is all dissolved.
Boil the drippings and mix them well with cornstarch mixture.
Remove from heat as the gravy thickens to the desired consistency.
Once the burner cools down, simmer the gravy gently and add salt and pepper to taste.

For Mashed Potatoes:

Put the potatoes in a large pot and put enough water to cover all the potatoes.
Then boil them on a medium height for 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Check whether the potatoes are boiled or not by sticking a knife in them. If the knife sticks easily then the potatoes are boiled.
Allow them to cool down and then drain the water.
Peel the potatoes and mix them with butter, salt, pepper and just a little lukewarm milk and beat the mixture until it is smooth.
Add the milk very slowly and carefully while beating the mixture just for smoothness.

For Sweet Potato:

One can bake them plain or with brown sugar, according to one’s preference
References :

For YEARS, I made my Mom’s fantastic recipe — then one time, I had been given a couple of boxes of Stove Top (the person was supposed to ‘bring the stuffing’). So I sauteed lots of onion, garlic & mushrooms in butter and then added it to the Stove Top — my kids love it more than my homemade. You don’t have to worry about the seasonings, they are already there. Quick & Good!! And you can either plate it as is or stuff the bird.
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YES, AS A MATER OF A FACT IM IN TO COOKING THE BEST WHY IS TO ADD A LITTLE BITE OF SUAGER WITH A HINT OF FRESH SAGE
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