It's the day before Thanksgiving and so the "Holiday Season" has officially kicked off. The "ball" is in the air, so to speak. In my house, this means that the preparation for the "Feast" has begun.
The Turkey is in the fridge defrosting. It's early Wednesday morning and there is already a large bowl of bread dough rising in the kitchen. Today will really be the day we spend cooking. I have an assortment of disposable pans, purchased just for this occasion. We don't want to wash anything that we don't have to when the meal is over.
What do you like best in the Thanksgiving meal? I love the stuffing. Well, technically, I guess it's "dressing." I checked once. Stuffing is cooked in the bird. Dressing is cooked in a pan, outside the bird. So, we are dressing people.
There are thousands of ways to make your stuffing. (For the sake of consistency we will refer to this portion of the meal as "Stuffing" even though the purists may want to call it "Dressing"). A family's stuffing choice is almost as personal as their religious beliefs. I have been to Thanksgiving meals where the hostess has told me that her stuffing came from an old family recipe, handed down from her grandmother. Of course, when cleaning up we found out that Grandma used "Stove Top"! That's fine with me.
I like all sorts of stuffing. Corn bread, oyster, prepackaged. It doesn't really matter to me. The stuffing is my favorite part of the meal. We use a combination of things in ours. We use the usual assortment of breads, spices and veggies like celery , carrot and onion. Add in some herbs etc. as your taste requires and then we use Sweet Italian Sausage. Take the sausage out of the casings and add the meat directly to the bread mixture. Mix it well and bake it uncovered in the oven. Once it's cooked through, it will have a wonderful crust on top. It's great! We can't make enough stuffing in our house.
The other sides are pretty standard, except one. Okra Parmesan. Now, I know some of my friends out there will say "Ewww!" To you who do not like Okra in any form, skip over this section. I'll mark the page when I am finished talking about Okra.
I'm not asking you all to take fresh Okra and cut it up and bread it and then fry it. You've got enough work to do this Thanksgiving and after all, you really can't do this ahead of time. Fried foods are best served right away or they become soggy. I just buy regular frozen, breaded Okra. Fry it up. (It cooks fast.) Lay it in a small pan and put some mozzarella cheese on it and a few generous spoonfuls of tomato sauce. (I always have sauce in my house.) Put this in the oven so the cheese melts. Believe me, this tastes great. It goes well with the turkey. OK, for you Okra haters, I'm finished talking about Okra.
Of course, there will be the other usual side dishes, including: Green bean casserole, Mashed potatoes and anything else anyone wants.
I make my own mushroom gravy for the meal. Gravy is so easy to make and you have everything you need for wonderful gravy when you roast the turkey or any other meat. Why waste all that goodness? Maybe 15 years ago, we were invited to a friend's home for Thanksgiving. The food was pretty good and we enjoyed the company. It was nice to not have to do all the work for the holiday. But, there was one fatal flaw. Gravy. Our friend used jarred gravy. It's not like it was "doctored up." It was just out of the jar, into the microwave and on to the plate.
As I said, we appreciated the invitation and we were thankful for the meal. Jarred gravy is just not something I would use, personally. My youngest daughter was around 9 that year. She came to me and asked why the gravy tasted "funny". I told her not to worry about it and not to say anything about it either.
Home made gravy is much more flavorful than jarred and it is easy to make. You don't have to get fancy. If you don't know how to make it, email me and I will teach you! Trust me, home made gravy takes 4 minutes to make and is priceless in it's flavor.
Before the jarred gravy folks out there get angry with me and start calling me some kind of "Gravy snob," let me say this: If you like the taste of your jarred gravy, by all means, continue to use it. It's not my problem. It's not a problem at all. Eat what you like and enjoy. OK. Enough about gravy.
My daughter will be making the pies this year. Pumpkin and Apple. I prefer raisins in my apple pie but will happily eat it without. I do love my Pumpkin pie. I just love everything about it. The smell makes the whole house smell wonderful. the texture is like a custard but a little more dense and add a touch of whipped cream to this and you have one of the premier deserts of the world. The food snobs of the world may want something more fancy but for my money, you can't go wrong with a good pumping pie.
My youngest son also thinks that the pumpkin pie is the best part of the meal. He also loves sandwiches. He said that if he could figure a way to make a Pumpkin pie sandwich, he would. A couple of years ago, he achieved his goal. He took two slices of Pumpkin pie turned them so the crust was on the outside, and put them together; filling on the inside. A pumpkin pie sandwich! He was so proud of himself. We all laughed. Marines will eat anything.
There will be no Sweet Potato pie made. I don't care what anyone says. Sweet Potato pie doesn't taste like Pumpkin pie to me.
There will not be any Pecan pie either. My oldest daughter is the only one who enjoys Pecan pie and the last time it was baked for her, she didn't have any. So, it's bye bye to the Pecan.
All the preparations will be done today. All the desserts will be made, as well as the side dishes and breads. Tomorrow's work will be only what has to be done at the last minute and the Turkey itself.
It's just the 5 of us this Thanksgiving. My daughter and her little family will come visit today or tomorrow. I'm not sure which. They usually stop by for dessert at some point. I know what it's like to be pulled in 5 directions at once by friends and family on holidays. I don't want to be one of the "Pullers", so I don't make a fuss.
Well, I'm starting to feel a little "sappy" now with all this talk of family so I will close with this: Enjoy the preparations for tomorrow's feast. Continue to be safe and remember that a good humor is the best food to eat when gearing up for the holiday celebration.
As always...
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