Gourmet Thanksgiving Dinner Made Easy Part One

The most important part of putting together a wonderful meal is planning.  Getting as much work done ahead of time as possible allows for a great deal less hair tearing on the actual day of the big meal.

Image from Cape Cod Curbed.com

For this Thanksgiving feast I will give you the directions for the basic, wonderful turkey dinner.

Roast Turkey

Stuffing

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Giblet Gravy with Mushrooms

Turnip and Carrot 

Green Peas

Fresh Cranberry Sauce with Orange

Dessert and Appetizers will not be covered, but check out my Pumpkin post for a super easy and delicious pumpkin pie.

First of all most of you shopping can be done this week.  Even the turkey will be the same age if you buy it from the store this week or next.  If you are into making everything from scratch, do your muffin, bread or bisquit doughs and put them in the freezer.  Have them preformed and ready to pop into the oven on T Day.  This can also be done with your pie crusts.  Put them into pie plates, wrap them tightly with saran and keep frozen until Thanksgiving morning.

Today we will go over your shopping list and preparing the gravy stock, the stuffing addins and the cranberry sauce.  This is a meal for 6-8 adults.

12-16 lb whole fresh turkey

2 8 oz packages prepared stuffing mix

4-5 lbs red potatoes

4-5 lbs carrots

3-4 lbs white turnips

3-4 lbs yellow onions

1 large bunch fresh parsley 

Fresh sage

Fresh thyme

1 bunch celery

1 lb unsalted butter

2 8 oz packages fresh cranberries

2 garlic bulbs

2-3 large naval oranges

16 oz fresh mushrooms (button, cremini, shitaki)

1 pint whole fresh cream

Port

1 bottle dry white wine (this is for cooking only, more will be needed to serve with the meal)

  

Make sure that you have in your pantry 

salt

peppercorns

sugar

olive oil

flour

milk

Stock For Giblet Gravy

remove giblets from the neck area and body cavity of your turkey

place giblets in large stock pot 

rinse and roughly chop

3-4 carrots

4-5 ribs of celery

3-4 medium onions

12 or more peppercorns

2 T salt

several sprigs each of the parsley, sage and thyme

add to the stockpot

cover with cold water - at least 2 quarts

bring to a boil and let simmer for 60-90 minutes.

Let stock cool.  Drain through a colander. Put the liquid into 

a sealed container and refrigerate. Dispose of the vegetables.

Take the meat off the bones and finely chop.  Save in a separate

container in the fridge.

Addins For The Stuffing

Finely chop 2-3 medium onions, 3-4 ribs celery,

8 oz of mushrooms.

Melt 2 sticks butter over medium low heat.

Saute the chopped veggies in the butter until

soft, about 15-25 minutes.  Allow to cool.  Package

in air tight container and store in fridge. 

Fresh Cranberry Sauce

Put cranberries in colander, rinse well and pick out any

stones or other foreign objects.

Wash the oranges thoroughly.

Grate the orange part of the zest off

the oranges only, not the white. 

Squeeze the juice from the oranges.

Put the cranberries in a heavy saucepan

and cook according to directions on the

package.  Add the orange juice and zest.

Add 1/3 cup Port wine.  Continue simmering

cranberries until all berries have popped.

Let cool and put in an air tight container.

Refigerate.

There you go.  Part I of a great Thanksgiving Day Dinner is complete!

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