Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It's literally a holiday where you surround yourselves with family or friends, eat a ton of food, and not have to worry about present buying. What's not to love?
It's been about four years since I cooked the last thanksgiving... and I found myself having to search the internet for all the recipes I used last time (and some new ones). So below is my whole thanksgiving dinner plan, so that strangers on the internet can re-create it if wanted, but mostly because I'll probably be needing this next year again.
Menu
My dad grew a lot of pumpkins this year so the appetizers will be Butternut Squash Toast. This will allow guests to have something to snack on while I finish the main of Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Spinach & Beans, Orange Carrots, House Rolls. Then when you think you haven't had enough: two desserts. Apple Cobbler, because I am trying to re-create the heavenly experience from St. John's and Poached Pear with ice-cream, because we got a lot of pears this year in the garden, and mom wants to use them up.
Gameplan
Thanksgiving is all about planning. Most kitchen's only have one oven. And the star will be the turkey, so everything else needs to go around the turkey's schedule. So the below is set up in a backwards timetable.
The links to the recipes are at the bottom.
Saturday
Start defrosting turkey, if a frozen one is being used.
Monday
Refresh sourdough starter if making a loaf from home. If a sourdough bread schedule is not the only thing keeping you sane this corona season, skip this step.
Tuesday
Bake sourdough bread if relevant.
Anytime - Poach the pears.
Wednesday
Anytime - Make caramelized onions for butternut squash.
Anytime - Make apple filling for the cobbler.
4:00 - Brine the turkey.
Thursday
9:45 - Make the rolls dough and then allow for the first rise.
12:30 - Make the rolls.
12:45 - Rolls do their second rise.
1:30 - Put rolls into oven.
2:00 - Break.
3:00 - Take butter out of the fridge to come to room temp for the turkey & prepare butternut squash for oven.
3:30 - Put Butternut squash into oven (keep an eye on this, rather than using a timer).
4:00 - Start buttering and preparing turkey.
4:45 - Put turkey into oven, and take out the butternut squash if not done earlier.
5:15 - (while the turkey is in the oven) Prepare the glazed carrots dish, boil and make the mashed potatoes, make spinach & beans.
6:15 - Prepare batter for the apple cobbler.
6:30 - Toast the bread & re-warm butternut squash with the caramelized onions.
6:45 - Take turkey out of the oven to rest & change the oven setting to broil and put orange carrots into oven. Start making the gravy.
7:00 - Guests arrive, serve butternut squash on toast.
7:05 - Orange carrots should be done. Turn oven off. Using the residual heat re-warm the greens if they need it, rolls, mashed potatoes.
7:15 - Carve turkey.
7:30 - Serve dinner.
7:45 - Put apple cobbler into oven.
8:20 - If you need longer for dinner turn the oven off now, and let the residual heat finish cooking the cobbler and skip the next step. Put poached pears in oven to warm up slightly.
8:30 - Desserts comes out of the oven to cool slightly.
8:45 - Serve desserts.
Recipes
Not sure why I decided to test so many new recipes out and risk dishes, but here we are. Notes in italics under the recipe where relevant.
Squash on toast - https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/12944-jean-georges-vongerichtens-squash-on-toast
Unconventional way to cook turkey, but works really well, results in a juicy bird, and is the same recipe I used 4 years ago.
Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes - https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015335-olive-oil-mashed-potatoes?action=click&module=Collection%20Page%20Recipe%20Card®ion=Mashed%20Potato%20Recipes&pgType=collection&rank=3
My favorite recipe find from the night are these mashed potatoes, will defiantly be making again.
Everyone loved the orange carrots.
No Knead Dinner Rolls - https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019859-no-knead-dinner-rolls?action=click&module=RecipeBox&pgType=recipebox-page®ion=all&rank=17
Spinach & Beans - I don't have a recipe, I just did what felt right in the moment, which was steaming them.
Apple Cobbler - https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021577-apple-cobbler?action=click&module=RecipeBox&pgType=recipebox-page®ion=all&rank=10
I tried this half way through making the filling and found it very sweet, so reduced the granulated sugar from 100g to 60g.
Poached Pears - https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1017783-edna-lewiss-spiced-pears?action=click&module=RecipeBox&pgType=recipebox-page®ion=all&rank=3
Don't make the mistake I did and only put 1 1/2 cups sugar instead of 1 1/2 pounds...
In hindsight maybe I did go a bit crazy on the NYTimes Cooking app.
Need a dinner for my first holiday this year. Such a planner