As I’ve been going through my month of NaBloPoMo, I’ve been reminded of one of the major reasons I started blogging in the first place. And that is because it is a way to look back and remember things gone by. A sort of journaling, only better, because I can add photos and I can share with family. This is huge, because as I sat down to reflect on Thanksgivings gone by, I’ve noticed that my postings the last few years have been rather sparse, and that’s a shame, because there’s just too much I don’t remember.
One note I need to get into virtual space is that a brined turkey cooks so much faster than a straight up turkey. Of particular interest, it seems to me that it doesn’t matter what size turkey I prepare either- it takes three hours. In fact, I think last night’s turkey went a little over, and could have stood coming out of the oven just a bit earlier. It’s still delicious though, and while we certainly be enjoying the leftovers for a few days, I’ve got to think about making this turkey more than once a year. It’s that good.
The stock made from that turkey is equally amazing. I barely had to reduce the stock at all. I let it simmer gently overnight, and it is incredibly flavorful. It’s cooling now, and then I’ll need to decide if I’m going to make soup in the next day or so, or simply freeze all the stock for future use.
One thing I’ve been thinking about is the fact that I lost a day this week with a bought of food poisoning. Because of that, I didn’t make anything ahead of time. My entire Thanksgiving dinner was made fresh the day of our feast. In the past, I ‘ve spread it out over the week prior, making ahead what I could, but do you know what? Making ahead drastically reduces leftover quality. Cranberry sauce can certainly be made three days before the turkey dinner, but then do you really want to be eating it four or five days after the celebration. Um, no. At least not in our house. By making everything on the day of our Thanksgiving celebration, we now have maximum leftover enjoyment at our fingertips. And honestly? It wasn’t really that much work preparing everything the day we needed it. I had almost everything prepped and ready to go before our first guests arrived for pie hour.
Something else I’m really digging for Thanksgiving dinner is serving dinner buffet style. What we did this year was set the table for sitting at, and then everyone sat, we said Grace, and then we all filed up and down the line, filling our plates. This way, we aren’t all tasked with having to pass a dish every few seconds, and sitting just so to avoid having several little ones in a row who can’t handle the hot and heavy dishes. There were a few things on the table for passing, but doing the meal buffet style is really a nice way to be able to put what you want on your plate, and not feel obligated to take a bit of every single dish that passes. One year we set up the buffet on the table and then just ate casually in the living room… that was nice, but it felt much more celebratory to be gathered around the table with a nice bottle of wine to pass.
So Thanksgiving 2011 was a huge success. Zander and I are still not up to normal eating, but we were at least able to taste and enjoy what we wanted to. I’m incredibly thankful for that. Right now, as I write this, Andy is in the basement digging out the Christmas decorations and the kids are in the dining room unwrapping and unpacking them. Their smiles and happiness are contagious, and we’ll have a nice, relaxing day of doing dishes, eating a few leftovers, and putting up a few Christmas decorations. It’s going to a be a great family day.