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T-Day 2005: Side Dishes
For the month of November, CarldeCook will share his tips, tricks and tasty recipes for Thanksgiving preparation so we can all have a relaxing and wonderful day.
From www.carldecook.com
I'll be preparing a lot of the side dish items in advance -- especially the gravy. We love this gravy, and although it is a little more work than what my Mom used to do, the work is well worth the result. And I love the compliments!
As soon as I see packages of turkey necks in the store, I'll get them and whip up John's Gravy. When done, it will go into little freezer baggies and wait quietly until we're ready. When gravy time comes, I'll put the sealed baggies in hot water for a while to defrost them slowly and then put the contents into a Dutch oven or other oven-safe pot to heat it up without burning. (I almost always burn something when I heat it on the stove…)
We will not stuff the bird but dressing will also be in the freezer in baggies, larger ones than the gravy. We found that dressing leftover from Thanksgiving was good a few months later. This past summer I made up some gravy, dressing and relish, and the leftovers were still good last month. So the dressing will also be put together as soon as I see the croutons in the store.
Kay’s mom’s Cranberry Relish is almost exactly like my mom's, and Thanksgiving dinner wouldn't be the same without it. The sight of it and the flavor bring back memories of good times and a great table with all the families and grandparents gathered ‘round.
I'll make the Cranberry Relish up on the Saturday or (more likely) the Sunday before T-Day. It needs at least two days -- but three or four are better -- to getall its flavors together and give you a mouth full of joy when you take your first bite.
Kay's Green Beans will be easy. Throughout the year I get onions and saute and freeze them so they are always available. We used to have a case or two of sweet Wall Wall Onions sent to us from Mantilla, Oregon, when we were on our way home from Hope, Idaho. But now we'll get some from Costco or a local store or use regular onions. If you don't have any onions in your freezer, get some and prepare them anytime.
I also buy 4 to 8 pounds of bacon at a time and fry it all up in a morning when it's cool. I take the electric grill outside and put it on the BBQ and do the frying outside so it doesn't smell up the house. Then we have bacon anytime we want it, and it's ready in just moments.
The day before T-Day I'll put the dish together and have it in the outside refrigerator. On Thanksgiving morning I'll take it out, bring it in to come up to room temperature and then put it into an oven to heat for dinner.
There is so much to eat we usually don't have a large leafy saladd but we do like a bite of something different and this year it will be a Bavarian Jell-O Salad. Don't know what flavor yet, but probably a berry. I'll put it together on Tuesday. It will keep a few days just fine.
Other snacks for the table will be little finger-size sweet and dill pickles and both green and black olives. We haven't put up pickles or cured olives for years, so these will all be store-bought. Not ever as good, but that’s the way things change. In Carmichael we lived on about three acres of an old olive orchard and it had a little stream running through it. We'd cure the olives. Boy, would I love to have some good home-cured olives and homemade pickles again. Maybe a good project for next summer.
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There were some great tips on preparing ahead! Thanks.
Chris
http://journals.aol.com/swibirun/Inanethoughtsandinsaneramb lings
http://www.bigoven.com/~swibirun
11/5/05 11:55 AM