T minus 3 hours

Realistically, it's more like 2 hours before the hordes arrive. But all is well so far. The turkey is actually done and resting. Which means we'll have to reheat it a bit before serving but I think that'll be ok. I can make the gravy before there are guests to evict from my kitchen. Potatoes are boiling. Apple crisp is ready to assemble. Casseroles can now go into the oven. And I've even added some appetizers to put out before guests arrive (shrimp ring, chips and dip, etc). I'm feeling pretty good about today. But I'll feel even better once I've gotten a shower...

t minus 6 hours and 45 minutes

The turkey has landed!

The bird is brined, stuffed w/ aromatics and herb butter, trussed and in the oven...

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Now to see about some breakfast and then it's on to potato peeling...

T minus 14 hours and 30 minutes

Twas the night before Thanksgiving and all through the house, every creature was stirring, chopping, and cleaning, both mom and spouse...

At this point, I think I'm in pretty good shape for tomorrow

Menu:
Butternut squash soup - simmering away in the crockpot where it will live until serving time
Brined roasted turkey - brining under ice on the porch, herb butter and aromatics ready to use, needs to go in oven at 8am
Gravy - can't do anything w/ this until the turkey is done.
Roasted garlic mashed potatoes - garlic roasted, lots of potatoes to peel tomorrow
Green bean casserole - just needs topping and bake tomorrow
Corn - open the cans and heat up
Peas - open freezer pouches and heat up
Glazed carrots - cooked and just need reheating
Cranberry sauce - open the can, husband and his family want the jellied sauce, can stripes and all.
Stuffing - will be brought by an aunt
Candied sweet potatoes - will be brought by an aunt
Cucumber salad - will be brought by a cousin

Desserts:
Pumpkin pie - gave in this year and bought from costco
Apple crisp - will prepare tomorrow and bake while we're eating dinner. At least it's a really easy dessert. The topping is just butter, flour brown sugar and cinnamon mixed together to form crumbs. The apples are sliced, and sprinkled w/ a little cinnamon. I don't bother peeling the apples, especially if pressed for time. Layer them in a baking dish and sprinkle streusel crumb over it. Bake at 350 until apples are soft and bubbly, and topping is golden brown and crisp.

Thanksgiving game plan

Basically I did the things that need to cook for quite a while, whether or stove top or oven early. I also gave in this year and bought my pumpkin pie instead of baking one.
Monday - roasted the butternut squash, cleaned out fridge.
Tuesday - braised the honey glazed carrots, did last minute shopping
Wednesday - made the butternut squash soup, assemble greenbean casserole minus onion topping, roasted garlic, prep aromatics for bird, brine bird.

The soup is going to sit overnight in the crock pot. The bird is going to go into a 5 gallon bucket w/ ice and a lid and go out on the back porch.

So hopefully tomorrow, all I have left is to roast the turkey, make mashed potatoes, heat up the veggies, and make gravy once the bird is done.

T minus 5 days

The countdown begins...5 days until Thanksgiving. This year, not only am I hosting 20 or so in-laws, I'm going to try to prepare the full dinner w/ all the trimmings while caring for an 8 month old baby who has an ear infection. So here's the menu, game plan to follow...
Menu:
Butternut squash soup
Brined roasted turkey
Stuffing
Roasted garlic mashed potatoes
Candied sweet potatoes
Green bean casserole
Corn
Peas
Glazed carrots
Cranberry sauce
Cucumber salad

Desserts:
Pumpkin pie
Apple crisp

annual vat of sauce...

I do this every fall. Normally I would pull out the 12 qt stock pot or larger (I think we have a 30 qt that I've used before...), and basically simmer crushed tomatoes w/ a few pounds of italian sausage and meatballs for the better part of a weekend afternoon. It's always been a good meal for cool weather, and then provides a few quarts of homemade sauce to freeze for later. This year, in order to manage it as a weeknight meal for a crowd, I tried out the sauce in the crockpots instead. Overall, except for a little overflowing sauce in one of my pots (or more accurately OUT one of my pots) it went pretty well. I was worried about whether or not the sauce would thicken properly since usually I rely on evaporation out of the stock pot for that so I added tomato paste. One step I wanted to try that I completely forgot about though was to add the tomato paste to the pan I used to brown the sausage. America's test kitchen use this technique to deepen the tomato flavor. They use the tomato paste to deglaze the pan after browning the meet and veggies, and "toast" the paste till it starts caramelizing. Oh well, that's what happens when prepping this late at night to be ready to cook the next morning. I used sweet italian sausage since we're heat wimps but sweet, hot or a combo would be fine. For convenience this time, I also used store-bought frozen meatballs but I usually make my own in huge batches to freeze as well.

This recipe needed 2 crocks for the volume. I used a 6 qt and a 3.5 qt.
3 lbs of italian sausage
3 lbs of meatballs (thawed if frozen)
6 28 oz cans of crushed tomatoes
1 6oz can tomato paste
1 onion
1 head of garlic, peeled
handful each of dried parsley, basil, oregano
2 bay leaves
1-2 tbsp of sugar and/or salt (optional)
2 slow cooker bags

Brown the sausage before adding to the crock pot. Divide between 2 bags.
Add the meatballs, onion, garlic, and herbs. At this point, if you are prepping in advance, tie off the bags and refrigerate until ready to cook.
Divide the tomato paste and crushed tomatoes between the 2 bags.
Cook on low for 8-10 hrs stirring occasionally.

Notes: I left the onion whole to fish out later since hubby doesn't like having onion chunks, but you can chop it if you prefer. Same with the garlic cloves. The salt and sugar really depend on the tomatoes you use. I like a slightly sweeter sauce so I'll add the sugar to balance out stronger acidity. Most of the canned tomatoes I get are already salty enough so I rarely need more. And if you like your sauce w/ a kick, crushed red pepper and hot italian sausage would be a welcome addition.

Just a few thoughts on slow cooker bags - they are usually about $2 for a package and for the time saved in cleaning for us are worth every cent! I think they are the same material as the oven bags used for roasting turkeys so if you have a larger crock, you can probably do the same w/ an oven bag. We find them really convenient because I can pack the ingredients into the bag the night before, leave the crock set up on the counter, not have lots of fridge space occupied by an entire crock, and in the morning just drop the bag into the cooker. And nothing crusts to the crock so clean up is nice and easy - a quick soap and rinse by hand or dropping it into the dishwasher, no scrubbing needed.

a little belated...

It got a little (more) hairy in the last couple weeks so I'm behind on posting. I'm now working again and that has added a nice heap to the chaos in our household. So let's see, what I have I been up to in the kitchen....

1. Freezing baby purees - I don't know about the peas since I haven't thawed them yet but the squash got a little weird when thawed - the water and the squash bits separated so it was really runny. I'm not sure how to recover it. Probably reprocess it in the blender. I'll find out how the peas look this weekend once thawed.

2. Winter squash soup - I get a lot of requests for this recipe so I'll post this one. I actually made it about a week ago lacking apples, and with an attempt to keep it vegetarian for my mother-in-law. However, I didn't have veg broth, so I used water and I think it came out kinda weak flavor-wise. As with most of my cooking, the quantities used aren't really exact. I tend to eyeball amounts or add to taste/correct consistency/etc.

2 winter squashes (butternut or other), halved, roasted, flesh scooped out (alternatively use canned pumpkin puree, or frozen squash puree for shortcut)
1 apple diced
1 onion chopped
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
~1 tbsp olive oil or butter
~3 cans broth (chicken or vegetable)
salt, pepper, cinnamon, and curry powder to taste
half and half or cream (optional)

Saute the apple and onion in oil/butter until softened.
Add garlic and ginger, saute until fragrant.
Add squash, broth and seasonings. Simmer for ~20-30 minutes.
Puree in batches in a blender or using an immersion blender.
Serve in bowls w/ a little cream poured over top.
Note: the soup freezes very well as well as reheats well so long as the cream has not been added. I usually make it w/o dairy for storage, and then add the cream to individual servings. It's also quite good without any dairy which is how I'll be enjoying it this fall...

Caught in the rain without an umbrella

Considering it was warm and sunny when I left to go to the lab this morning, it was rather disappointingly cold and rainy when I got out, especially considering I had a decent walk to the nearest campus bus stop and no umbrella. It was comforting though to know while soggy and shivering in the car that I had a big pot of soup waiting for me when I got home. It was quite good w/ a loaf of crusty bread on the side. Good thing too since we now have like 6 quarts of soup leftover. I hope it freezes well...

The original recipe from Wegmans uses a convenient bag of cleaned pre-cut veggies. The prep took longer for me as I found myself chopping vegetables this morning since I didn't have the convenient bag, and I did have a pile of veggies to try to use up. It needs a minimum of a 6 qt slow cooker. Ours was filled to the brim.

Beef Minestrone
2 lbs of beef chuck cut into 1" pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion diced
2 ribs of celery diced
3 carrots peeled and diced
1 bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 leek chopped
1 zucchini diced
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
1 15 oz can kidney beans, drained
1 8 oz can garbanzo beans, drained
1 qt beef broth
1/2 cup dried ditalini pasta

In a large preheated pan, brown the in olive oil and set aside. Add veggies to the pan and sweat until softened and lightly browned, deglazing the bottom of the pan.

Add to the crock pot the meat, vegetables, beans, tomatoes, and broth. Cook on low for 8 hrs. Add the pasta and cook on low for another 45 minutes.

Old-fashioned sunday dinner minus dairy

Pot roast
2 lb of beef chuck roast
1 can condensed cream of mushroom
1/4 brown gravy mix (powder)
1 onion, sliced
Season the roast w/ salt and brown the roast on all sides. Mix the gravy mix and soup together. Put the onions and the roast into crock pot, and pour soup mix on top. Cook on low for 6 hours.

The sodium content of this roast is probably astronomical but it's fork tender, easy, and yummy!

Mashed potatoes
3 large yukon gold potatoes
3 russet potatoes
Rice milk
Margarine/spread

Peel the potatoes and dice in 1" chunks. Boil and simmer until soft. Drain. Add enough rice milk while mashing to desired consistency. Season w/ spread, salt and pepper.

This one was a bit of a challenge in trying to figure out the best combo of ingredients to achieve a creamy buttery mashed potato w/ neither cream nor butter. Rice milk was chosen as the dairy substitute since it was assumed to have a neutral flavor. As it turns out, it's slightly sweet, almost nutty in flavor but that was still a better choice than vanilla soy which is the only other milk sub I have in the house. Using the mix of potatoes was a good call since the yukon golds have a buttery texture in contrast to the fluffy but starchy russets. I think the lack of creamy dairy would have been more noticible in a russet-only mash.

And for the vegetables, baby got to try pureed real (frozen) peas tonight as opposed to the jarred babyfood variety. They were a rather bright green as opposed to the army green of gerber. He seemed to approve although in general he's getting a little upset w/ being spoonfed purees. I think I'm going to try a bit more baby-led foray into solids w/ some puree and choke-hazard-free finger food to see if he prefers that.

And as a final review from tonight's dinner, tofutti in a root beer float is vile. It doesn't actually blend w/ the root beer as it melts so you have a nasty foam of artificial vanilla flavor sitting atop the soda.

Sunday brunch

Quick French toast for 2
2 eggs
1/4 cup vanilla soy milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp sugar
sprinkle of cinnamon to taste
4 slices of bread
1/2 tsp margarine/spread of choice
Whisk together first 6 ingredients until well mixed to form a thin batter. Soak the bread in the egg mixture. Heat a nonstick griddle over medium heat and grease the griddle w/ margarine. Panfry the bread until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes/side. Serve w/ powdered sugar and maple syrup. Sliced fruit is a nice topping too.

Soy milk subbed pretty well here in terms of flavor - no off flavors, the vanilla soy was fine. The only thing I noticed texturally was that the batter got a little tough when cooked - the outside of the french toast has a bit of chew. Not sure if that's from overmixing the batter, or if it has something to do w/ the soymilk. I noticed similar results when I substituted soy milk in other baking so it may be something in how the soy mixes w/ flour. May have to check the protein content in soy vs regular milk. Will have to explore further.

Tonight, I try mashed potatoes w/o dairy....

taste test

Non-dairy frozen desserts -
So far, I have tried a few brands to try to quell the cravings for ice cream. It's not even that I normally want a lot of ice cream, but we discovered the dairy allergy in the middle of the summer shortly after stocking the house w/ heavily discounted ben and jerry's that I now couldn't eat. Well, technically I could eat it, but both my son and I would suffer for it - him by being itchy and uncomfortable, me because he would never let me forget that he's itchy and uncomfortable, especially at 3am.

Tofutti vanilla ice cream - thumbs down. The texture is actually ok but the vanilla flavor is very artificial and tastes more like chemicals than vanilla. Being a soy product, it doesn't have the tofu aftertaste, but that may be masked by the funky vanilla flavor.

So Delicious Chocolate Peanut butter - thumbs up. Overall, it was decent and I would eat it again. This product is soy-based which probably accounts for a number of its characteristics. It's texture is on par w/ light ice cream, though one complaint was that it freezes rock hard which is difficult to scoop, but then melts quickly once scooped. While frozen solid, I have to admit it visually resembles peanut butter playdoh. The flavors were decent though and the soy aftertaste wasn't strong.

Coconut bliss Cherry Amaretto - two thumbs up! Made w/ coconut milk, the texture and mouthfeel were much richer than their soy counterparts. Of course it was also calorically on par w/ the forbidden Ben and jerry's. The amaretto flavor was good but a little weak and there was a coconut undertone to the flavor but I happen to like coconut.

There are still more brands to try so I'll have to decide if I test out some others or stick to the Coconut Bliss.

Starting out

As the laws of Murphy are prevailing in my household and I have committed to a rather masochistic schedule for the next couple months, I realize I can't be the only person in this boat. I've got a few too many full-time jobs between looking for a job, hopefully eventually working at a new job, being in school w/ a full-time schedule this semester in the lab, and of course, being the mom of a 6 month old baby. After a fairly dry summer, now that I've committed to the lab for a while, the phone is finally ringing off the hook w/ job prospects. Feast or famine huh? Speaking of feast, how do I deal with all this stress? I eat. Here's the catch though, while all this is going on, I need to find time to cook. Just to make things even more complicated, I am nursing a baby w/ a cow's milk allergy so no cow's milk product for me. Despite a habit of eating when stressed, and usually craving deep fried goodies, I also would like to come out of this semester not looking like I'm still incubating my son and ready to deliver any day now nor should I find myself in dire need of a cardiologist. So if I can manage to keep the ship from sinking over the next few months, I'm hoping to log the stuff I've cooked, recipes I've tried/invented, convenience and non-dairy products I've tested, and maybe eventually throw in some restaurant reviews once we can graduate again from going to baby-friendly chain establishments. It'll be here down the road when I need to decide the answer to the age-old question - what's for dinner?