Thanksgiving Planning

Buy a cooking book.
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Remember that the turkey is the hardest thing to prepare and will leave the biggest impression… so listen closely okay:

2 days before turkey day you need to place turkey in 5 gallon bucket and fill with water. Add Kosher salt (2 cups) and let sit for 12hrs. If it is cold where you live just add ice and put in the garage or something. Needs to be kept below 40 degrees.
This process is called brining, what it does is use osmosis to bring the flavor of the salt into the turkey and also add moisture, no way in the world you are going to have a dry turkey! Also… when cooking the turkey, cook it upside down that way the breast meat stays extremely moist. They will ask how did you do that!
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There are lots of good recipes for a holiday dinner, it depends on how much time, money and effort you have. Also consider guests’ preferences – for example, I am the only one of my group who likes Mincemeat Pie – but I’m still going to make it from scratch for Thanksgiving.

I am listing here some of the recipies that I have used for many years, and are always popular:

Green Beans:
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 bag french cut frozen green beans
1 garlic clove
2 tbsp butter
corse sea salt

Method:
Chop the garlic clove fine, and saute in the butter until translucent. Add the almonds and saute until they get a little brown. Set aside. Steam the green beans and toss with the reserved almond mixture. Add salt to taste.

Sweet Potato Casserole:
1 can Sweet Potatos
1 bag Marshmellows
1 can chopped pinapple, drained
1/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 cup carmel candies

Method:
Unwrap the candies and set aside. Put the sweet potatoes in a casserole dish, add the pinapple, nuts and candies. Top with marshmellows. Bake in at 300 for 20 minutes or until the marshmellows have browned.

Oyster Cornbread Dressing
1 box Mrs Cubbisons’ Cornbread Dressing (accept no others!)
1 bunch celery
1 onion
1 stick unsalted butter
1 jar fresh oysters
1 can chicken broth (or fresh if you have it)

Method:
Remove the tops and root from the celery – reserve. Remove the skin from the onion and reserve. Chop the celery and onion into a small dice. Melt the butter in a pan, and saute the onions and celery until the onion is translucent. Chop the oyters into bite size bits. In a large bowl, combine the stuffing mix, vegetables and oyters. Gradually add the broth, stirring constantly until the bread has absorbed as much liquid as it can – do not add too much liquid! Put the dressing into casserole dish, cover, and bake for about 30 minutes at 300.

Perfect Turkey
1 Turkey
Celery Tops
Onion Tops and Skins
Foil or Nesco Roaster
1/2 stick Butter
Fresh herbs – thyme, margoram, sage
Sea salt

Method:
Melt butter slowly over low heat. Chop herbs finely and add to melted butter. Do not cook herbs. Set aside to cool. The celery tops and onion skins should be left over from preparing the stuffing. Clean the turkey inside and out, being sure to remove anything in the cavity that does not belong there (like the neck, etc.) – put those into a pot to make gravy. Salt the cavity slightly, then put half of the celery tops and onion skins in the cavity and the rest in the pot with the neck. Truss the bird so it is ready to put into the oven or Nesco. Check Hormel.com for instructions on how to truss a turkey.

Oven Method:
Prehea the oven to 400. Put the trussed bird into a roasting pan. Rub the bird with the reserved herb mixture. Cover the bird loosly with foil. Put in the bird in the oven with it’s foil hat and roast for 30 minutes at 400, then reduce heat to 300 and cook until done. Check online or on the turkey’s packaging to see how long you should roast your bird. In the last 30 minutes, remove the foil hat so your bird will brown nicely. Remove from the oven and let sit for at least 10 minutes before carving.

Nesco method:
Instead of covering the bird with foil, just put it into Nesco and roast as usual.
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Let this be your last catered affair, we all learned the hard way by wanting to do ourselves. We now do the thing were every one brings a dish and it all works out fine! Don’t bother making the bread, buy the rolls in bulk and put them in pretty baskets with nice cloths. You didn’t mention how many people were attending. We usually have a turkey a ham , two types of salads, mashed potatoes and gravy, lots of stuffing, two types of cranberry (one sauce and the other Jelly), one other potato dish usually augratin, and two other vegetables and about and a vegetable tray with dip for those who come early. Good Luck to you.
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