I know most people post their Thanksgiving recipes BEFORE the day… but I am posting after. Mostly because I will make a list of things I want to make, and then tweak, change, and edit as I go.

This year, I wanted to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen on Thanksgiving day so I could enjoy time with my family, so I started cooking on Tuesday. I chose dishes that would be easily baked and pre-assembled before Thanksgiving and still reheat beautifully. For vegetable dishes, I pre-blanched all of the vegetables so they would have to spend less time in the oven. I realize it is quite time consuming, but for a less stressful Thanksgiving day… this is absolutely the way to go. Each year I revise my approach to Thanksgiving… and I get a bit more organized each year. This year was quite well organized, and with my awesome parents and older sister clean up was quick.

My menu? (Dessert was provided by my wonderful guests)

Appetizers

1. Spinach and Artichoke Dip
2. Salmon Mousse

Mains

1. Oregano and Thyme Roasted Turkey
2. Potatoes Gratin
3. Honey Roasted Root Vegetables
4. Soy and Garlic Green Beens
5. Parmesan Brussel Sprouts
6. Orange Sweet Potatoes and Coconut
7. Roasted Corn
8. Apple Fig Wheatberry Salad
9. Spinach Salad with Balsamic Vinegar Glaze and Pomegranate Arils
10. Pumpkin Stuffed Mushrooms
11. Apple Cider Spiced Cranberry Sauce
12. Giblet and Caramelized Onion Gravy

I’ll post the recipes in a series of separate posts since my menu was pretty long. However, I will give you details on how I went about arranging my pre-Thanksgiving Day cooking.

Sunday – I chose my menu. I went through and selected dishes that would be easy to preassemble and in some cases prebake. I also selected an even distribution of dishes. Ones that would be heated on the stove and others than would be in the oven. My parents only have a single oven, so everything that needed to be heated or cooked in the oven would have to be amiable to a 325F oven, or be able to be heated last minute while the turkey rested. I wrote a list of every single ingredient that would be needed

Monday – I checked the baking dishes and pans… I made sure that I had enough bakeware and other tools to pull of the dinner. I also ran through my list of ingredients and checked off the ones that I already had at home.

Tuesday – I shopped and purchased all of the food that I would need for dinner. I also was mindful to include a couple extra things to throw together breakfast and lunch on Thanksgiving day. I also washed and trimmed all of the vegetables for my dishes. In the case of the brussel sprouts, I preblanched them, sealed the sprouts in a bag and packed them away for Thursday. I also made the components for the wheatberry salad, allowing the fruit and berries to meld together.

Wednesday – I started putting together all of the oven dishes. I baked them late at night, let them cool and refrigerated them.

Thursday – I put everything together. I put the turkey in the oven. And ate a ton!!

🙂

Recipes to follow over the next few days!

xoxo

-H

I noticed, scrolled through, that I’ve been posting a lot about my feelings. Surprising considering I’m normally taciturn when it comes to those gooey feeling things. Anyway. I got my brooding ass out of bed this morning and went to a new market to purchase things to make.

I read recipes for a couple hours every single day… I’m not kidding. I read blogs with all sorts of kinds of food, and then I read some articles, and sometimes I’ll pull out my giant pile of cookbooks and read those. I read about food a lot. And not even how to make food… but about the food itself. How is it grown? Where? What makes it taste like that? Anything… I read it.

Anyway, I was reading Eggs on Sunday this morning (do you know her? She’s awesome. She lives in Ithaca and makes all sorts of delicious things… you should read her) when I was reading her recipe for biscuits… with squash. They are orange. And fluffy. And… I needed to make them. I made a few tweaks… like I added more yogurt and I used pumpkin instead of squash. I also baked mine just a tad bit longer… and I also scaled back on some of the leavening ingredients because I always find them a bit metallic tasting.

The point is, I ate 4 of these slathered with artisanal butter (from France and the name escapes me) and some really good apricot jam. I imagine these biscuits would be good savory with a bit of cracked pepper, cheese, and rosemary added in. I also imagine them delightful in a sweeter context with a cheesecake swirl in between layers with caramel drizzled over them. And… of course these biscuits are just perfect simply so with butter.

I will consider adding these in a checkered napkin basket for my Thanksgiving table… I’m almost positive they will make the cut.

Pumpkin Biscuits (original inspiration here)

• 2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1 scant teaspoon of salt
• 1 scant tablespoon of baking powder (you know, I hate the word “scant”… seriously wtf is that supposed to mean? Anyway, this is how I do it. I measure the normal amount and then level with a curved spoon edge instead of a knife.)
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 4 tablespoons of butter, frozen
• 1 cup of pureed pumpkin (I got mine in a can)
• 1/4 cup of greek yogurt

1. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit
2. In a bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients
3. Using a grater with medium sized holes (your microplane will NOT work for this), grate the frozen butter into the dry ingredients. (Now here are my nitpicking suggestions for grating butter… first dip the butter into the dry mixture to coat, this will help the butter grate smoothly and not clump. It also prevents it from sticking to your hands.)
4. Once the butter is grated, break up large clumps with your fingers until it resembles coarse crumbs.
5. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and add the pumpkin puree and yogurt at once. Using a circular motion, incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet until a cohesive ball of dough forms. It should be just a bit sticky.
6. Pat the dough onto a floured surface and stamp into biscuits. (I hate the texture of twice rolled biscuits so I just pat mine into a rectangle-ish shape and cut into semi-equal pieces)
7. Bake at 450 F for 10 minutes. I like my biscuits to have a certain crunch on the outside so I bake just a bit longer.