How to Keep Your Cool While Cooking Thanksgiving
Dinner
When you’re responsible for the
holiday feast, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. Keep calm and baste on with
recipes for turkey and all the fixings, plus a ‘Countdown to
By Gail Monaghan in the Wall Street Journal
THE PROSPECT OF preparing Thanksgiving dinner can be enough to provoke
dreams of defection to a faraway land. It seems almost punitive that the feast
should fall on the fourth Thursday of November—mid-workweek, in an
already-way-too-busy season. How to get through it without feeling the opposite
of thankful?
First off, make use of your loved ones.
I cook the turkey, gravy, stuffing and a couple of sides and encourage (or
assign) guests to bring the rest: appetizers, salads, more sides, the requisite
profusion of desserts.
Beyond that, it’s all about timing.
Simply stick to the game plan laid out here, and you’ll produce a grand spread
right on schedule, even if you have to spend Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday at
the office.
The menu that follows is largely
traditional, with a few smart tweaks: cornbread stuffing run
through with ribbons of chard, chorizo and smoked paprika; cauliflower steaks scattered
with crisped capers; a cardamom-spiced sweet potato gratin that will
forever banish candied yams from your table.
When it comes to the turkey, a dry brine of salt
and herbs rubbed all over the bird a couple of days in advance will produce
succulent, flavorful results. And basting with Madeira butter makes for
perfectly crisp, golden skin.
We’ve even built in breaks for a
glass of wine here, a little football watching there. Because isn’t this
supposed to be a holiday for you, too?
Poster's comment:
1) I once enjoyed a meal hosted by a Japanese gal in Oklahoma of all places. She was even using an electric wok, to boot.
2) Her presence and style made the whole experience rather enjoyable to me.
3) I assumed, but don't really know for sure, that she had been taught well at home.
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