Adventures In Thanksgiving Menus

My mother recently pointed out to me how convenient it would be if all my Thanksgiving recipes on the blog were in one place.   A compilation frankly hadn’t occurred to me, so I thanked her for the idea.  She then added that it would also be quite nice if I didn’t wait until the week before Thanksgiving to publish such a compilation; doing it earlier and giving people time to plan for the big holiday feast would be much more useful.  So here we are.  Happy Halloween, and here’s a collection of my Thanksgiving dinner recipes.

First up, let’s talk about the star of the show, the turkey.  My sister-in-law, who does most of the cooking and all of the hostessing for Thanksgiving, really likes to cook a whole bird.  I haven’t been able to sell her on my method.  But maybe you, dear reader, will be more amenable to a different way.  I recommend doing a dry brine of the bird 2-3 days before it’s going to be cooked, and then cutting the turkey up (like you would cut up a chicken…same method, just on a bigger bird) and baking the pieces on a foil-lined baking sheet.  This allows the cook to take out each piece as it’s finished, rather than than letting some parts overcook and dry out while waiting for thicker pieces to finish.

I love this method.  I even like doing the cooking the day before Thanksgiving, doing all the carving, and then reheating the slices of meat on the big day.  The only drawback to this method is that you can’t make the gravy in the same pan that you used to cook the bird.  However, you can pour off the drippings into a big pot on the stove and make it that way.  All the flavor and just one extra pan to wash.  No big deal.  Perfectly acceptable tradeoff, in my mind.

You can read the whole blog post here, with the details on the dry brine and the general methodology.  Try it!  I really think it’s a better way…

Next up is an epic cranberry sauce recipe.  Honestly, I think it’s the best sauce I’ve ever had.  It’s a quick and easy combo of fresh cranberries, orange juice, orange zest, sugar, water, and the two secret ingredients…crystalized ginger and dried apricots.  It comes together in a jiffy and is best made the day before, so that the flavors blend and develop in the fridge for at least a day before serving.

Not only is this sauce lovely on the big fest day, but it’s also great on leftover turkey sandwiches, and as a critical ingredient in my CranApple Pie recipe, which I will get to shortly.  You can find the blog post and recipe here.

Next up is a kale salad that’s excellent any time of the year, but which my family really enjoys eating for Thanksgiving.  The salad can be made with dried cranberries, but around the holidays, fresh pomegranates are in season and they are much superior to dried cranberries.  The secret to making the daunting kale delicious is the dressing, which is applied to the kale 30 minutes before the salad is served.  The dressing transforms the potentially tough and bitter green into something tender and rich in flavor.  The little bright pops of the pomegranate arils heighten the whole experience.  You can find the blog post and recipe here.

Thanksgiving dinner isn’t really right without biscuits, so my Cream Biscuits recipe is here to help out.  They are just as delicious as any other biscuit, but without the need to cut butter into your flour.  A word of warning…the only leavening agent in these is baking power, so make sure yours is fresh.  Trust me when I tell you that hocky-puck-shaped biscuits, while still delicious, are rather embarrassing to have to serve to your family and friends.  Blog post and recipe here.

And finally dessert.  Which is traditionally pumpkin pie.  I have a recipe that is so quick and easy that it takes longer for the pie to cool off than it does to mix it up and bake it.  It’s quite easy to make multiple pies in one go, so I usually bring at least two to Thanksgiving dinner. Blog post and recipe here.

And finally, a glorious CranApple Pie recipe.  It took a lot of experimenting before I finally got the flavor balance right, but I have it now, and it’s a fabulous pie!  You cook up a sort of syrup for the apples, and set it aside.  Then smear a layer of cranberry sauce over the pie crust in its baking dish, mix your sliced apples with the syrup and some craisins (sweetened, dried cranberries), pile that into the crust, and put a lattice crust over the top.  As the pie bakes, the juice released by the apples is absorbed by the craisins, making them plump and soft and delicious.  I think this year for our family celebration, we will probably have both pumpkin and cranapple pie.  Blog post and recipe here.

There you have it…lots of options for Thanksgiving dinner.  I can highly recommend all of them, and my family loves them too.