I’m doing the dinner on Saturday. I’ve done a couple of big roast dinners now but this will be the first turkey. Slightly nervous about it. As usual we have a large group of 10-12 people coming, which I know is slightly nuts. What is even more nuts is that I make so much food 10-12 people can’t eat it all.
My Late Thanksgiving Day Menu
Olives
Crudités
Dip of some sortTurkey
Veggie Main Dish (Prob a nut loaf which will be brought by one of the veggie guests)
Gravy
Bisto Veggie Gravy
Stuffing with sausage
Stuffing with mushrooms
Heart Attack Inducing Mashed Potatoes
Baked Onions (from Nigel Slater’s The Kitchen Diaries)
Parsnips
Roasted Red Bell Peppers
Marinated Mozzarella
Cranberry Sauce
Braised Red Cabbage
Roasted Squash (maybe. not sure. also from Mr. Slater)
Green Beans
Broccoli with garlic and red pepper
Green SaladChocolate Mousse
Baked Apples
Can you tell I am scared to bake a pie? I need to try it one of these days without the pressure of other people.
Made the cranberry sauce last night from a recipe that I got from Meredith and it is rather tasty although has a slightly bitter aftertaste, but is that just the cranberries? Worried that I got some pith in with the zest. I’ve only just started to like cranberries as they were on my list of yuck food when I was a kid- I think because we often had the cranberry jelly in a can and the congealed blob always grossed me out.
Whole Orange Ginger Cranberries
16 oz of whole cranberries (fresh)
2 cups sugar
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 tbsp orange zest
1 tbsp peeled finely minced fresh gingerCombine ingredients in saucepan. Cook over medium heat until berries pop open, about 10 min. Skim any “foam” from top & discard. Cool. Refrigerate, covered. Keeps for up to 2 MONTHS (refrigerated)!
From my POV keeping it in the fridge for two months kinda scores high on the ewww scale.
Turkey: I took it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge Wednesday night. This morning it still feels rock solid so I’ve taken it out of the fridge altogether since our kitchen is cool enough. Which means I can make the stuffing, marinated mozzarella salad and the roasted red peppers today because I have room in my little stupid English fridge.
It better be defrosted by tomorrow. . .
Yesterday for Thanksgiving proper Stuart and I went out for Indian and then got in a big fight. All is well now and I suppose it is good as we were following tradition.
It just isn’t Thanksgiving if there isn’t a gineourmous argument with divorce and/or death with a large knife threatened.
November 23rd, 2007 at 12:17 pm
dang girl, that’s a lot of food!!
The turkey will be fine - when you unwrap it tomorrow, if it’s still frozen, just put it in a sink full of tepid water for a couple of hours, (or if really desperate, run hot water through it). If you’re worried about it, the easiest way to make sure it comes out really moist is to cook it breast-side down and flip it half way through cooking. Basting frequently with melted butter gives the beautiful golden colour. A few garlic slivers and some butter under the skin is yummy as well.
But nobody will care about anything else as long as the mashed potatoes are slammin’