How we spent Thanksgiving
Nov. 30th, 2024 08:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntr1. Drove down to Club Mud to start the kiln cooling. Open peeps, burner ports, damper out two inches.
2. Loaded up plastic wrapped pots into the car. Four 1x4-foot ware boards will fit in the back of a Toyota RAV with the seats folded down. Lids were in a plastic tote on the front seat.
2.5. Meanwhile, Denise is in the kitchen, peeling the sweet potatoes we roasted in their jackets the previous evening.
3. Transfer pots to the studio. Will have to finish them sometime this weekend. In the meantime, still plastic-wrapped.
4. Find the turkey roaster at the bottom of a kitchen cabinet. Wash off the dust.
5. Pull the thawed turkey from the fridge, unwrap and drain. Season liberally with kosher salt and Cavender's Greek Seasoning. Brush skin with melted butter. Put in pre-heated 325° oven and note the time, 10:45 am. (Best guess is 3 hours for an un-stuffed 18 lb. turkey.)
6. Mash sweet potatoes. Transfer to a small oval baker. Make praline topping: softened butter, dark brown sugar, pinch of salt, 3 T flour and a half cup of chopped pecans. Spread over top, set aside for later, filching a little of the butter/sugar/nut mixture. Tastes so good.
7. Split and seed a large-ish delicata squash and cut into one-inch cubes. Toss with olive oil, fish sauce, some walnuts. Transfer to greased 9x13" baking dish and slide into oven on bottom rack. Set a one hour timer
8. Dice up about 8 cups of bread cubes. Three slices equals about two cups. I'm using equal parts sourdough sandwich loaf and Dakota, a seedy whole wheat bread, both from Great Harvest. Transfer to my biggest mixing bowl and toss with black pepper and sage.
9. Melt a cup of butter in my biggest frying pan, add a bunch of diced onions and a little salt--last year my dressing was too salty, so I'm dialing it back. Sweat till transparent, add some chopped celery leaves, a little dried parsley, and a pathetic, wizened carrot from the vegetable drawer, diced fine. Add about eight or ten button mushrooms, sliced, and cook down until tender and the surplus water has evaporated.
10. Mix together two eggs, a cup of milk, teaspoon salt. Pour over bread cubes, mix in veggies and butter, transfer to a large, greased baking dish.
11. When timer goes off, pull squash and transfer to a covered bowl. Put sweet potatoes in oven on bottom rack. Try to put dressing in oven, discover baking dish is too high. Transfer to a small square baking dish. Put in oven. Set timer.
12. Wash dishes used so far today. Transfer cranberry sauce, cooked previous evening, to a serving dish and wash that pot too. Wipe down boil-over from top of stove.
13. Flop on the bed with a book while Denise peels potatoes.
14. Cube, rinse, season potatoes, add water and start cooking, 15 minute timer. Last year, the turkey got done before the potatoes were even started. Won't make that mistake again.
15. Slide out top rack of oven and baste turkey. Getting nicely brown.
16. Go help Denise clear off the table for dinner. So much stuff to recycle.
17. Timer goes off, pull and drain potatoes, saving some water for gravy. Turkey timer has popped too, so pull turkey, transfer to serving platter, and put pan drippings into gravy pan, deglazing with a little potato water. Turn off oven, leaving dressing and sweet potatoes to keep warm.
18. Defat drippings. Add a little thyme and chicken bouillon, bring to boil on stove top. It always takes forever to get turkey gravy thickened, so this year, I commit: half a cup of flour in three quarter cups water, shaken vigorously. Thickens perfectly first try, but with lumps. That's okay, what are strainers for, after all?
19. Reheat squash in microwave. Set table. Contain cats to bedroom. Bring out food, crack open the Martinellis.
20. Thanksgiving dinner, y'all.
21. Go out to pottery shed with list of missing inventory. Fill what holes I can in the restock boxes and reload the van. Two hours gone.
22. Drive to Club Mud to unload the kiln, just enough to get my remaining needs for Market, pie plates, mostly. Denise comes along to record patterns for inventory. We wind up unloading the whole kiln, another two hours. Go home and transfer boxes to van.
23. Realize I've forgotten to send Holiday Market reminders to my email customer list. While I'm on the computer, also email special order clients, catch up on my ledger.
24. Make lunch for the morning. Big salad with lettuce, spinach, diced turkey, apples, cranberry balsamic vinaigrette, Irish gouda cheese.
25. Pause to be thankful for a lovely day.
And so to bed.
2. Loaded up plastic wrapped pots into the car. Four 1x4-foot ware boards will fit in the back of a Toyota RAV with the seats folded down. Lids were in a plastic tote on the front seat.
2.5. Meanwhile, Denise is in the kitchen, peeling the sweet potatoes we roasted in their jackets the previous evening.
3. Transfer pots to the studio. Will have to finish them sometime this weekend. In the meantime, still plastic-wrapped.
4. Find the turkey roaster at the bottom of a kitchen cabinet. Wash off the dust.
5. Pull the thawed turkey from the fridge, unwrap and drain. Season liberally with kosher salt and Cavender's Greek Seasoning. Brush skin with melted butter. Put in pre-heated 325° oven and note the time, 10:45 am. (Best guess is 3 hours for an un-stuffed 18 lb. turkey.)
6. Mash sweet potatoes. Transfer to a small oval baker. Make praline topping: softened butter, dark brown sugar, pinch of salt, 3 T flour and a half cup of chopped pecans. Spread over top, set aside for later, filching a little of the butter/sugar/nut mixture. Tastes so good.
7. Split and seed a large-ish delicata squash and cut into one-inch cubes. Toss with olive oil, fish sauce, some walnuts. Transfer to greased 9x13" baking dish and slide into oven on bottom rack. Set a one hour timer
8. Dice up about 8 cups of bread cubes. Three slices equals about two cups. I'm using equal parts sourdough sandwich loaf and Dakota, a seedy whole wheat bread, both from Great Harvest. Transfer to my biggest mixing bowl and toss with black pepper and sage.
9. Melt a cup of butter in my biggest frying pan, add a bunch of diced onions and a little salt--last year my dressing was too salty, so I'm dialing it back. Sweat till transparent, add some chopped celery leaves, a little dried parsley, and a pathetic, wizened carrot from the vegetable drawer, diced fine. Add about eight or ten button mushrooms, sliced, and cook down until tender and the surplus water has evaporated.
10. Mix together two eggs, a cup of milk, teaspoon salt. Pour over bread cubes, mix in veggies and butter, transfer to a large, greased baking dish.
11. When timer goes off, pull squash and transfer to a covered bowl. Put sweet potatoes in oven on bottom rack. Try to put dressing in oven, discover baking dish is too high. Transfer to a small square baking dish. Put in oven. Set timer.
12. Wash dishes used so far today. Transfer cranberry sauce, cooked previous evening, to a serving dish and wash that pot too. Wipe down boil-over from top of stove.
13. Flop on the bed with a book while Denise peels potatoes.
14. Cube, rinse, season potatoes, add water and start cooking, 15 minute timer. Last year, the turkey got done before the potatoes were even started. Won't make that mistake again.
15. Slide out top rack of oven and baste turkey. Getting nicely brown.
16. Go help Denise clear off the table for dinner. So much stuff to recycle.
17. Timer goes off, pull and drain potatoes, saving some water for gravy. Turkey timer has popped too, so pull turkey, transfer to serving platter, and put pan drippings into gravy pan, deglazing with a little potato water. Turn off oven, leaving dressing and sweet potatoes to keep warm.
18. Defat drippings. Add a little thyme and chicken bouillon, bring to boil on stove top. It always takes forever to get turkey gravy thickened, so this year, I commit: half a cup of flour in three quarter cups water, shaken vigorously. Thickens perfectly first try, but with lumps. That's okay, what are strainers for, after all?
19. Reheat squash in microwave. Set table. Contain cats to bedroom. Bring out food, crack open the Martinellis.
20. Thanksgiving dinner, y'all.
21. Go out to pottery shed with list of missing inventory. Fill what holes I can in the restock boxes and reload the van. Two hours gone.
22. Drive to Club Mud to unload the kiln, just enough to get my remaining needs for Market, pie plates, mostly. Denise comes along to record patterns for inventory. We wind up unloading the whole kiln, another two hours. Go home and transfer boxes to van.
23. Realize I've forgotten to send Holiday Market reminders to my email customer list. While I'm on the computer, also email special order clients, catch up on my ledger.
24. Make lunch for the morning. Big salad with lettuce, spinach, diced turkey, apples, cranberry balsamic vinaigrette, Irish gouda cheese.
25. Pause to be thankful for a lovely day.
And so to bed.
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Date: 2024-11-30 05:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-11-30 05:40 pm (UTC)