My daughter, Cheryl, was with us this week from California. So nice to have her here. She helped a lot in the shop – doing a couple of deliveries, but mostly getting her mother motivated to get some cleaning done for our upcoming Soiree on Dec 2. Cher is a cleaner, so she reorganized the stuff in the back room this week (I hope I can find things again when she’s gone). She’s announced that this weekend we’re going to address the piles of papers I have lying around. Not looking forward to that project.
Thanksgiving was actually one of the nicest we’ve had. Due to my lower energy levels, the dinner menu was a much scaled-down affair. No “from scratch” pies or side dishes. We focused on the simple basics: 11 lb turkey (not the 23 pounders we’ve been known to get in the past because we love leftovers), Stovetop stuffing (with a twist; see below), steamed mixed vegetables (from a pre-packed bag), mashed potatoes and gravy, canned whole cranberry sauce, bread rack brown n serve rolls, Jell-O chocolate pudding pie and two frozen pies – Mrs. Smith’s pumpkin and Edward’s Lemon Maringue. And not only was there more than enough food, it was very flavorful with little extra effort.
SOME RECIPES & TIPS HERE
Turkey. I made my turkey the way I always do – brining it overnight being the most important step to any roast turkey. Yes, it’s an extra step, but it’s really very little effort (the hardest part being remembering to do it) and makes a 1000% difference in the moistness and tenderness of the turkey (I also do this with chicken breasts prior to barbecuing). Here’s how: put the thawed (or nearly-thawed; it will complete thawing in the brine) turkey in a clean puncture-proof kitchen trash bag, then put that into something that will contain it, when it’s filled with brine, in your refrigerator. I use a plastic office-size waste basket. Mix brine at a ratio of 1 cup of salt to 1 gallon of water and pour it over the turkey in the trash bag. How much brine you need depends on the size of your turkey, but it must be completely covered in brine. 2 gallons covered my 11 lb turkey. Tie up the trash bag and refrigerate overnight (ideal), or at least 4 hours.
Before preparing the turkey for the oven, remove it from the brine, rinse it and pat it dry with paper towel. My tried and true method for roasting a turkey is as follows: Slice up one or two medium onions and lay them on the bottom of the roasting pan so that the turkey will cover them completely (if they’re exposed, they’re likely to burn and ruin your gravy). Place the turkey on the onions, breast side up and wings tucked in. Cut an onion, a couple of carrots and a couple stalks of celery into chunks and insert them (with some fresh herbs, like rosemary or thyme) into the cavity of the turkey. (We always make our stuffing separately and do not put it in the turkey. But the vegetables keep the turkey from drying out, and have a dual purpose later.) Once the turkey is stuffed with vegetables, I salt and pepper the outside, and coat it with a thin layer flour. Then I butter the outside. Yes, just like you’re buttering bread, I spread butter all over the outside of the turkey with a butter knife. Finally, I dust the entire turkey with paprika. Then it’s into the oven. See? That’s not a lot of effort to prepare a turkey for roasting.
Gravy. When the turkey is done, I remove it from the roasting pan to a platter and cover it with aluminum foil. I remove the onions with a slotted spoon (you can add these back to your gravy if you like) and pour all the juices into a large separator. Once the fat settles to the top, I pour the de-fatted drippings back into the roasting pan, reserving ¼ cup of the fat for my roux. I add about 3-4 cups of chicken broth to the drippings in the roasting pan and bring that to a boil, scraping the sides of the pan for all the browned bits. Once the drippings/broth comes to a boil, I pour it into a pan and set it aside on simmer to keep warm.
I take out my large saucepan, add the reserved fat, and get it sizzling hot. Then I whisk in ¼ cup of flour to make a paste (the roux). I continue cooking this for a minute or two, until it gets a nice golden brown. Then I slowly add the drippings/broth mixture, whisking constantly while it’s added. (This takes some help from Al to do – he adds the stock while I whisk.) Whisking constantly, add all the drippings/broth. Bring to a boil. Now, here’s the real shocker! At this point, I add an envelope of dry turkey gravy mix, which I have first mixed in a cup with a little water, to get all the lumps out. It thickens the gravy, adds some darker color, and brings out the flavor of the drippings.
Stuffing. OK, I already said I used Stovetop stuffing, with a twist. Here’s the twist. All of those vegetables I put in the turkey cavity? Why waste them? I took them all out and, in a couple of batches, chopped them up on a cutting board. Once the Stovetop was done, I stirred in the cooked chopped vegetables. The stuffing was delicious!!
So … the moral of this post is: a chemo patient can still make a fabulous Thanksgiving spread. Just don’t be afraid to use pre-packaged, boxed or frozen ingredients! If the entire family hadn’t been standing in the kitchen watching me and looking for ways to help, no one would have known that the entire meal wasn’t “from scratch.”
