Today is Thanksgiving. Normally I am up bright and early to start
cooking the festive food. Not this
morning. Instead, I woke with a bad
reaction to medicine that I’d taken the day before. My normally slightly wrinkled face was all
puffy and wrinkle free. My hands were
all swollen, and my stomach and head reacting badly too. One could say, “Dorothy stop, this does not sound
like a thankful person.” Believe it or not, it is a story about how thankful I
am today. My wonderful husband (the
bear) had to wake up much earlier than he expected to help me prepare my 25 lb
turkey. No matter how badly I felt, the
turkey had to start cooking, at the latest, 8:00. Brian once again proved to be the man of the
hour and rescued my meal. After the
turkey was in the roaster, I was able to take an hour and a half nap. By the time I woke up, the meds from the day
before were starting to leave my system.
I jumped in the tub to soak a bit and all of a sudden I heard Brian
talking to someone. My friend Linda decided
to show up to my home at 9:30 instead of an hour later, I was so thankful. Even with my body slowly recovering, I still
needed healthy hands to pull off the meal.
After getting dressed, we ran to the store to buy a couple of last
minute items, and were home by 10:30.
Believe it or not, Linda and I were able to prepare a complete
Thanksgiving dinner in three hours, not including the turkey that started at
8:00. My husband was so impressed with
how large the spread was and how few hours it took us that he told me I must
write down our menu.
Turkey with Clementine, Onion, and Rosemary
Cut in half 6 Clementines (or
ordinary Oranges)
Quarter 2 onions
6 large sprigs of fresh Rosemary
(at least 4 inches a piece)
Place 8 clementines facing up, all
the quarter onions and 3 of the sprigs of Rosemary (from my little Rosemary
tree), 3 carrots cut in 2 inch pieces into the roaster, put turkey on top of
the Clementine mixture. Add about 4 cups
of water to the roaster. Brush on olive
oil and salt all over the top of the turkey.
After taking out gizzards and heart, fill turkey with left over
Clementines and Rosemary. Cook in a 325
F covered roaster or oven. My turkey was
25 lb, so it took 5 hours to cook completely.
A couple of hours into the cooking I uncovered and basted the turkey
with the juice on the bottom of the pan, about an hour later cover the top with
melted butter.
Turkey gravy
Pour 4 cups of water in a pan, add
½ cup of flour and start heating whisking until the lumps of flour are
completely mixed in. Add 1 to 1 ½ cup of
the liquid from the bottom of the turkey pan and add salt and pepper to
taste. Cook until the liquid thickens
up. This is a light flavored gravy so
that the turkey and stuffing are not overpowered by gravy.
Yaya's Stuffing Recipes Plus
fruit (from my Grandmother's Book of Secrets)
1-2 Loaves cubed Stuffing Bread (cut up the night before if possible)
Salt & Pepper to taste
Add Poultry Seasoning (Maybe 1 teaspoon-Start light, taste and add)
Simmer:
Giblets (Salt & Pepper)
Chop when tender. Reserve broth for gravy
Sauté in butter:
Onion
Celery
Mushrooms (optional)
Apple diced
¾ cup of raisins
Combine:
Above bread mixture with chopped giblets and sautéed onion, celery mixture. If stuffing is much too dry, moisten with giblet broth--but be careful not to over-do or stuffing will be mushy.
Maple Bacon Green Beans
Clean and cut in half green beans
and cook them until desired amount.
Fry ½ lb Maple bacon cut into
little pieces, when bacon is almost done add onions slices and sauté. Drain grease; add 2 tablespoons of butter and
¼ cup of brown sugar to bacon and onions.
Slowly add cooked green beans stirring in the bacon mixture. Place in a serving bowl and cover until it's
time to eat.
Sweet Potatoes
Peal sweet potatoes and cut into
small pieces so that they will cook quickly.
Place them in a pot of water and boil until tender, so you can mush them
with a fork. Drain the water. Mash the sweet potatoes. Add: 3 tablespoons of butter, ½ cup brown
sugar, ¼ cup of maple sugar, 2/3 cup of ground walnuts and salt to taste. Place in a serving dish that can go in the
oven. Cook in a 350 F oven for 1 hour
and serve.
Parsnips
Peal 8 (carrot
size) parsnips. Cut them down the center lengthwise, cut them once again
lengthwise. Cut 3 inch pieces out of
each piece. Put in a bowl. Add: 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 tablespoon
of olive oil and salt. Cover the bowl and
shake so that the butter covers all the pieces evenly. Place on a cookie sheet one layer deep. Cook in a 350 F oven until one side in golden
brown, then flip them letting they outside brown up. Place in a serving bowl
and cover until time to serve.
Rutabaga
Remove the skin
from the rutabaga and cut into small pieces to boil. Cook until soft enough to mash. Add: butter and salt while mashing. Place in
a serving bowl and cover to keep warm.
The most
important part about cooking a large meal is timing. Draw up a plan and figure which items cook
the longest, start there and work towards the shortest time recipe.
So, the remaining
items were brought by friends, who were in themselves the most important part
of the day. While we have typically
dedicated Christmas and Easter to family, Thanksgiving has taken on a varied
theme. Partly because plans change, the
weather at this time of year is sometimes driving prohibitive, and because we
spend almost seven years out of the country, Thanksgiving has, as often as not,
been a time for us to bring some of our friends into our family for a day. Today, Christine brought the potatoes and
Mary brought the wine, while Linda worked for hours in the kitchen and also
found the time to bake tarts and a cheesecake!
Interestingly, Linda does not do well with turkey, so she brought a
Cornish Game Hen and chucked it in the oven with salt a pepper for about ninety
minutes. Anyway, as Ted was with Rita's
family, and Amanda remains our daughter at large, Candace was representative of
our children. As Brian packed up the
leftovers and did the dishes, the rest of us crashed in front of a movie. (I suppose the Bear probably "helped
himself" a little too much while packing up the leftovers, but it more or
less balances with him doing all the clearing and all the washing.) So, on the whole, it was a very successful
day, having forgotten only the Brussels sprouts and Cauliflower; but no matter,
they are there in the refrigerator for later.
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