{"id":12469,"date":"2010-11-16T08:11:58","date_gmt":"2010-11-16T12:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/foodembrace.com\/?p=12469"},"modified":"2010-11-16T08:11:58","modified_gmt":"2010-11-16T12:11:58","slug":"ohcs-approach-to-thanksgiving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/2010\/11\/ohcs-approach-to-thanksgiving\/","title":{"rendered":"OHC’s Approach to Thanksgiving"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Thanksgiving Dinner<\/p><\/div>\n

OHC loves Thanksgiving!\u00a0 It means that I can spend all week cooking and Scott can spend all weekend eating good food.\u00a0 I realize that spending a week cooking can be most people’s worst nightmare but when you love cooking as much as I do, then Thanksgiving is a dream come true.<\/p>\n

The reason I spend all week cooking is because I plan out Thanksgiving<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you know anything about me, then you know I love Google web-products.\u00a0 GCal and Google Docs have saved my life time and time again.\u00a0 Google can be your best friend during the holidays.<\/p>\n

With GCal I plan out the week before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving week.\u00a0 Then I print this out and stick it to my fridge so I have in front of me and can stay on task.<\/p>\n

The week before I plan out my grocery list.\u00a0 I have my menu in front of me and I write down every ingredient I need for that recipe.\u00a0 Off of that I make a master list of things I’ll need from the grocery store.\u00a0 Then I do a walk-through, looking over each of my fridges (I have two) and my pantry to see what I already have on hand.<\/p>\n

Once that’s done, I have my grocery list ready to go.\u00a0 I keep it on the fridge as well because if I use up something during the week, I make sure to note that I’ll have to pick up more at the store.<\/p>\n

Friday before Thanksgiving (yes this means the weekend before Thanksgiving) I go to the grocery store and do my BIG shopping.\u00a0 Sales typically have already started by this point and the stores stay relatively empty.\u00a0 A lot of people wait till the last minute to buy stuff but not me!<\/p>\n

If you think about it, the staples will stay fresh and you will still be able to use them the following week.\u00a0 Carrots, onions, celery, and potatoes will all be fine the following week.\u00a0 Herbs, if treated properly will be fine too!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The week of Thanksgiving is when I start all the prep work.<\/p>\n

Monday<\/strong> I check over my menu and double check that I have all the necessary ingredients.<\/p>\n

Tuesday<\/strong> of that week is when I pick up my turkey from the butcher.\u00a0 I place the order for my turkey at the beginning of the month and then all I have to do is pick it up the week of Thanksgiving! This saves time and I’m not fighting people in the grocery store over turkeys.<\/p>\n

You can chop the veggies for stuffing, brining, and for the turkey ahead of time<\/a>.\u00a0 I do veggie prep either on Tuesday or on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Despite what the experts say, you CAN make pumpkin pie ahead of time.\u00a0 You CAN also freeze it and then thaw it out the day of.\u00a0 Yes it might pull away from the crust a bit but who cares?\u00a0 Slap some whipped cream over the edge and no one can see anything.\u00a0 Besides, most people just want\u00a0 eat, they aren’t really focusing on if your pie is perfect looking.\u00a0 I make my pies either on Tuesday or Wednesday.<\/p>\n

I also make the cranberry sauce <\/a>and try to keep Scott away from it till Thursday.<\/p>\n

Wednesday<\/strong> I prep the brine for the turkey.\u00a0 You know how I love brining!\u00a0 If I am doing a whole turkey, it goes in the brine Wednesday evening.\u00a0 If I’m doing just a breast, I put it in a brine super early in the morning.<\/p>\n

Sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole get made and assembled on Wednesday.\u00a0 This means on Thursday<\/strong> all I have to do is heat them up.<\/p>\n

Those can be heating up while I make the stuffing.\u00a0 I make mashed potatoes ahead of time on Thursday because they can be kept warm on the stove.\u00a0 You can use Ina’s<\/a> method of a double boiler to keep them warm or you can just keep them on the stove with a very low heat.\u00a0 Stirring occasionally so they don’t stick to the bottom.\u00a0 I start the potatoes when the turkey is about halfway through cooking.<\/p>\n

The gravy is the very last thing I make while the turkey is resting and the stuffing is finishing off in the oven.\u00a0 I use some of the roasting juices and some boxed stock that I jazzed up<\/a> for the gravy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Once the gravy is done then it’s time to eat!\u00a0 Scott slices the turkey and dishes it up on our plates.\u00a0 Then we get to down eating a fab meal that I didn’t stress over because it was all planned out.<\/p>\n

Sticking to a plan makes life easier and makes the idea of a huge Thanksgiving dinner seem approachable and not intimidating.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What’s Thanksgiving like at your place? Do you cook or do you travel?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OHC loves Thanksgiving!\u00a0 It means that I can spend all week cooking and Scott can spend all weekend eating good food.\u00a0 I realize that spending a week cooking can be most people’s worst nightmare but when you love cooking as much as I do, then Thanksgiving is a dream come true. The reason I spend […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[48,87,47],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4KYWa-3f7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12469"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foodembrace.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}