Weddingbee Blog

This will be only my 3rd year of hosting Thanksgiving, but both years prior, I would write out a detailed game plan for the week, and an hour by hour plan for Thursday, and each year I’ve lost the list or thrown it away. Here, I’m recording the game plan for posterity. I’m including recipes (some mashed up from recipes I’ve tried in the past, some tried and true) and a grocery list. Maybe if you’re taking on the task of hosting this year or next, you’ll benefit from this time breakdown. This post is broken down as follows:

1. Things you should consider registering for if you’re hosting Thanksgiving
2. Brief overview of dishes
3. Recipes
4. Grocery list
5. Schedule/Timeline for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Section 1: Things you should consider registering for if you’re hosting Thanksgiving

I don’t know why I chose to link to stuff from Sur La Table… it’s all very expensive! But it’s organized nicely in a Thanksgiving section, so it was easiest for me.

• Roasting pan with V rack
• Turkey baster
• If you stuff your turkey (I don’t), a reusable poultry lacer
• Meat thermometer (I like the digital kind that you don’t have to open the oven to read)
• Potato ricer
• Fat separator
• Gravy boat (I don’t have one!)
• Carving set
• Carving board
• A 2nd oven (HA! I wish!)

SECTION 2: Brief overview of dishes

My Thanksgivings are consistently for 4 people. We only have a very small table so can’t accommodate more people quite yet! I pre order the turkey to arrive on Tuesday and do all shopping on Tuesday, purchasing everything except bread. On Wednesday I send Mr. Pengy to Acme to pick up bread products.

Brined Turkey: there are 2 reasons why I’d rather host Thanksgiving than go to my parents’ house and have my mom host. The first is that my parents are huge cheapskates and never turn on the heat, so it’s freezing ass over there in Sacramento. Our 1100 square foot love shack here in Berkeley, however, takes very little heating to get cozy. The second and most important reason is that here in Berkeley, it’s very easy to get your hands on a relatively inexpensive (I didn’t say CHEAP, I said relatively inexpensive), yet really, really, realllllly delicious bird. Here in Berkeley I order a free range Willie Bird every year from the Berkeley Bowl, and they’re always beyond delicious. They cost around $3.69 a pound, which usually calculates to about just under $50 bird and I usually seek a 10-12 pounder for our small Thanksgiving for 4, which of course, leaves plenty of yummy leftovers. I didn’t grow up on brined turkey, but for the past 2 years have brined mine, which always yields the juiciest turkey I’ve ever tasted. It is a PITA, but very worth it. I also prefer a high heat method of cooking, where you turn the turkey, eventually on all 4 sides. If you’re a skin eater like I am, this yields the tastiest, crispiest skin. This also cuts your roasting time significantly over old in bag or slow roast methods, and provides the lowest risk of the turkey drying out.

Stuffing: I never stuff the bird. I like the crispy on the outside, soft on the inside stuffing, so as soon as I pull the turkey out of the oven, the stuffing goes in. This is the Bay Area, so of course, stuffing is made with sourdough bread.

Cranberries: Make ’em up to 2 days in advance! I actually prefer the canned Ocean Spray kind (yum) but my husband likes homemade cranberries, so I make them.

Mashed Potatoes: Russet or Yukon Gold has always been no fail for me. Yukon Gold has a more buttery taste, but I hear Russet is the king of mashing potatoes. A potato ricer is your best friend—avoid gluey mashed potatoes with one!

Gravy: Two words: Red Wine.

Dessert: Store bought. Oh… you thought this whole thing was going to be homemade? Are you effing kidding me? You expect me to bake a pie from scratch after I just cooked this whole meal?

SECTION 3: Recipes

Cranberries with Grand Marnier

Prepare 1-2 days ahead

• 1 12 oz bag of cranberries
• 1 c sugar
• 1 orange, zested
• 2-4 tbsp Grand Marnier

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Zest orange to produce 2 teaspoons zest, squeeze juice out of entire orange. Place berries in a glass baking dish and sprinkle with sugar, orange zest, and the juice of the orange. Cover tightly with foil, bake 1 hour. Uncover, mix in Grand Marnier, let cool to room temperature, and store in refrigerator until ready to eat.

Brined Turkey

Order your turkey to be picked up on Tuesday.

For the brine:

• 2 gallons water
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 c course sea salt (or 1.5 c table salt)

For the turkey:

• Turkey
• 2 onions, chopped coarsely
• 2 carrots, chopped coarsely
• 2 celery ribs, chopped coarsely
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 tbsp. melted butter
• 1 c water (plus more, later)

Special tools

• Brining bag, or a large food safe bag, or if your stockpot is large enough to accommodate your turkey, that works, too. If brining in stockpot, make sure you can weigh your turkey down with cans or something heavy so that it remains immersed at all times in brining solution.
• Roasting pan with V rack, like this
• Meat thermometer (I prefer the kind that you don’t have to open the oven to read)

On Tuesday, dissolve the salt with the bay leaves on the stove. Once salt is dissolved, cool pot to room temperature, add thyme, and put the pot in the refrigerator.

On Wednesday around 5PM, remove package of giblets and turkey pieces from cavity of the turkey. Add your turkey to the chilled brine (if your stockpot accommodates, or add brine and turkey to a brining bag). Place in refrigerator. Brine turkey for about 4 hours, and then remove from brine, rinse, and pat dry, inside and out. Place your turkey in the fridge to dry, uncovered, overnight (or for at least 8 hours). You can do this all on Thursday morning too but you probably have an ass-load of other things to do on Thursday.

On Thursday:

1. About 3.5 to 4 hours before dinnertime, adjust your rack to the lowest position in your oven and preheat to 400 degrees F. Take 1/3 of the onions, carrots, celery, and thyme, and toss it with 1/3 of the melted butter, and put it all in the cavity of the turkey. Truss your turkey, put the rest of the veggies and thyme in the roasting pan. Add 1c water to the bottom of the pan, then slather the turkey with the rest of the butter. There will be residual salt from the brining so resist the urge to salt your turkey AT ALL, but feel free to pepper it up if you want. Place turkey, breast side down, in the V rack.
2. Roast turkey for 45 mins. With some sort of hand protection, take turkey out of oven, turn the turkey, and give it a quarter turn so that one leg side is sticking up.
3. Baste the turkey with pan liquid, and if the liquid has evaporated, add a 1/2 cup or so. Return turkey to oven for 15 mins.
4. Remove from oven again, turn it so the other leg is sticking up, re-baste, return to oven for 15 mins.
5. Remove from oven, baste, turn the turkey breast side up, and roast until the breast comes up to 165 degrees (this takes about 30 mins but don’t go by time, GO BY TEMP!).
6. Remove turkey from oven and let rest 20 mins before carving. Reserve roasting pan full of drippings and shrively veggies for gravy.

Pan Dripping Gravy

• Roasting pan from turkey, filled with veggies and turkey fat
• 24 oz. low sodium chicken broth
• 1/2 c red wine
• 1/3 c all purpose flour
• Salt and pepper to taste

Special tools:

• Fat separator

1. Place the turkey’s roasting pan over medium heat. Add chicken broth and wine. Stir and scrape pan with a wooden spoon to incorporate all the drippings and bits into the broth. Reduce for a couple minutes, and then pour everything into a fat separator, straining out the veggies.
2. Let the fat separator sit so the fat can separate from the liquid. Keep about 3/4 c of fat, and discard the rest (reserve all the non fat juice, of course). Using the 3/4 c of fat, return it to the pan over medium high heat, and whisk with flour to combine. Never stop whisking at that point, and whisk until everything is smooth and thick.
3. Then, slowly add the liquid that remains in the fat separator, continuing to whisk. After about 5 mins, gravy should be somewhat thin, but will thicken up as it cools. Season with salt and pepper and keep in a warm place until serving.

Stuffing - Sourdough Stuffing with Porcinis and Pancetta
Serves 6-8

This is a hybrid of stuffing recipes I have loved in the past. Vegetarian recipes I find are elegant, but too… vegetarian. Sausage recipes I find are too… manly. This one is Mama Bear juuuust right. After all, everything is better with bacon!

• 1 lb loaf sourdough bread
• 4 c porcini or cremini mushrooms, thickly diced
• 3 stalks celery, thickly diced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 12 sage leaves, chopped
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme, chopped
• 1/3 lb (1/2 if you’re feisty) thick sliced pancetta, cut into cubes
• 3 1/2 c low sodium chicken broth
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 tbsp butter

Earlier in the day, prep/cut all veggies, toast bread cubes, assemble dressing and set aside at room temp. Once the turkey comes out of the oven, throw the stuffing in the oven.

Early Thursday prep:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Cut your bread into 1 inch cubes and spread evenly on 2 baking sheets. Bake until completely dry and brown, about 20 mins. Transfer to large bowl, set aside, uncovered.
2. Meanwhile, over medium high heat in a large pan or Dutch oven, render fat out of pancetta, but don’t over cook (halfway cook it until it just starts crisping up). Remove pancetta from pan, but NOT the fat, and dry on paper towels. You should have about 2 tbsp of fat, if not (if you’re using less pancetta), supplement the fat with enough butter to make 2 tbsp of fat in the pan. Add the mushrooms and saute for about 6 mins, then add celery, onion, and thyme. Stir until vegetables soften, 5 mins. Add sage and butter, stir until butter melts, then add chicken broth. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Set this aside at room temp.

Right before putting in oven (40 mins to dinnertime):

1. Add broth/veggie mixture to the toasted bread cubes. Toss to combine, add to greased baking dish. Bake at 350 degrees, about 40 mins (until top is crispy).

Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Serves 4-6

I’m a purist. I like them plain, but The Mister prefers garlic. Ricing is the only way to go if you like a super smooth, never gluey potato. Make potatoes as closely to mealtime as possible.

• 2 lbs Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes
• 1 stick butter
• 1 c whole milk (or Half and Half if you’re naughty)
• 1 head of garlic
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Special Tools:

• Potato ricer

1. As far ahead of time on the day of as you like, prep the garlic. Take apart the garlic cloves (but leave the skins on… just break the head apart) and toast them in a small skillet over very low heat, shake pan frequently. In about 20 mins the cloves should look brown and softened. Remove pan from heat and let stand, covered, until garlic is completely softened, about another 20 mins. Garlic should easily come out of the skins at this point. squeeze out of skins, and remove the little hard end of the garlic. Set aside mushy garlic cloves, peeled, until needed.
2. For the potatoes, place potatoes in a large saucepan completely covered with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, and then reduce to medium low once boiling. Cook until just tender, 20-30 mins. They should be easily pierced with a small knife.
3. Drain potatoes, then cut in half and roughly peel (you don’t have to do a perfect job, the ricer takes care of it). Rice BOTH the potatoes and garlic. Add melted butter and warmed milk or half and half and incorporate.

Dessert: Store bought apple pie, homemade vanilla bean ice cream (ice cream made 2 days ahead according to ice cream maker’s directions).

If you’d like to make your own homemade dessert after birthing this giant meal, more power to you.

SECTION 4: Grocery List

Shop on Tuesday for everything except for bread (buy fresh bread Wednesday)

• bread rolls
• 1 loaf sourdough bread

• 2c bulk sea salt
• Turkey
• Brining bag
• 3 onions
• 2 carrots
• celery
• garlic
• 1 bunch thyme
• 1 bunch sage
• 2 dry bay leaves
• 5c. porcini mushrooms (or trumpet or cremini)
• 1/2 lb thick cut pancetta
• 3 large boxes chicken broth
• 1 bag cranberries
• 1 orange
• 2 lbs russet potatoes or yukon gold
• 1 c half and half
• head of garlic
• 1 c red wine
• 4 sticks butter

SECTION 5: Schedule/Timeline for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

Tuesday:

Prepare brine (dissolve salt with spices in water on stove), refrigerate

Wednesday:

Make cranberries, refrigerate

5PM Brine turkey

9PM Rinse and pat dry turkey in and out, place uncovered in refrigerator and air dry overnight

Thursday:

A plan for a 6PM eat time

12PM Veggie prep everything, bread cubes

1PM Cook pancetta for stuffing, to render fat

1:30PM Toast bread cubes in oven, set cubes aside

2PM

2:30 Put turkey in oven

4PM Take cranberries out of refrigerator
Prep stuffing, set aside room temp

4:30 Boil potatoes

5PM Toast garlic

5:30 Turkey comes out
Stuffing in oven
Mrs. Pengy make pan drip gravy
Mr. Pengy rice potatoes and toasted garlic

5:50 Mr. Pengy carves turkey

6PM Thaw pie
Serve dinner

7PM Pie in oven

I’m sorry this was long, but I hope that if you’re looking to host Thanksgiving for the first time, that this helps! You’ve gotta put all your registry goodies to work, right?

Happy Turkey Day!

Have you hosted Thanksgiving yet? What was your first time like? Do you have any Thanksgiving hosting tips or yummy recipes for the hive?