Holiday baking and other food prep

[ihop]

Haha my menu for Saturday has, of course, grown exponentially. Now I'm making a few more sides and some apps, too. I can't control myself when it comes to thanksgiving!!

My worst problem is that there are TOO MANY dishes that feel like a "must have" on thanksgiving for me...

I love Thanksgiving!

This year, we aren't celebrating - flying home that evening - but I am making a small Thanksgiving dinner for Friday!  And because there are only three of us - though DD's boyfriend might join us - it has been hard to pare it down.

[merigayle]

I love Thanksgiving!

This year, we aren't celebrating - flying home that evening - but I am making a small Thanksgiving dinner for Friday!  And because there are only three of us - though DD's boyfriend might join us - it has been hard to pare it down.

It is just three of us but making ALL THE THINGS

[BonitaApplebum]

Ok so I did a bunch of prep tonight for tomorrow.

Turkey is brining. I made the broth for the gravy. Creamed spinach is done, so is the cranberry sauce. Butternut is cubed and ready for roasting. Pumpkin pie is done, apple is in the oven.

Tomorrow I will need to make the bird, finish the gravy, and mash potatoes. And assemble the apps (baked Brie, antipasto, crudités). Oh, I guess I should make some sort of dip.

[BonitaApplebum]

So give it up already!

I am thinking I need to revisit my sea salt caramel recipe and make those again. They were damn good, and fairly easy. I just need some minions to cut up my wax paper and help me wrap them - that was the most tedious bit.

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fleur-de-Sel-Caramels-230778

ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 teaspoon fleur de sel*
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water

Special equipment: parchment paper; a deep-fat thermometer

Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, then lightly oil parchment.
Bring cream, butter, and fleur de sel to a boil in a small saucepan, then remove from heat and set aside.
Boil sugar, corn syrup, and water in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, without stirring but gently swirling pan, until mixture is a light golden caramel.
Carefully stir in cream mixture (mixture will bubble up) and simmer, stirring frequently, until caramel registers 248°F on thermometer, 10 to 15 minutes. Pour into baking pan and cool 2 hours. Cut into 1-inch pieces, then wrap each piece in a 4-inch square of wax paper, twisting 2 ends to close.

I'm going thru this thread and bumping things I want to make. Sorry if anyone got excited that cgraz posted.

[BonitaApplebum]

annual bump so we don't lose the thread

We are cooking the bon appetit cookies this year... have not yet got to the chocolate-tahini linzer cookies, but so far the big star are the double pecan thumbprints

Oh I want to make these!

[caribougrrl]

Oh I want to make these!

these are SO GOOD

[Noley]

This will be my first Thanksgiving meal that I have prepared in years, as I have always been with others.  It will be just my 20 year old son and I. 
Slow cooker bone in turkey breast (I really hope that it's good this way)
Stuffing
Corn casserole
Sweet potatoes (just baked...son's request)
Mashed potatoes
Roasted Brussel Sprouts (again, son's request)
Rolls
Cranberry salad

I look forward to having this in my new home. We will decorate my Xmas tree after dinner and start a new Xmas puzzle.

[CheryG]

Noley, what sort of cranberry salad will you be making? I bought some cranberries but haven't decided what I'm going to do with them yet.

Today I made two maple ice cream custards and some crystallized ginger streusel to stir into them and will make the ice cream tomorrow. One is for a neighbor.

[CheryG]

Woke up and made the first batch.

Deadly good. Such insanity.

[BonitaApplebum]

Today I made two maple ice cream custards and some crystallized ginger streusel to stir into them and will make the ice cream tomorrow. One is for a neighbor.

Hold up! Where are these recipes?

[CheryG]

Hold up! Where are these recipes?

First recipe, just the streusel, not the rest.  What I do is bake it on a cookie sheet till done and then make sure it doesn't clump as it cools.  The goal is to have bits to stir in.  Once cooled I freeze it so when I stir it in it doesn't melt the newly made ice cream. I might in the future add just a wee bit of lemon zest.  A very wee bit. It does work best to throw the ginger, flour, and 10x into a food processor.

https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/ginger-streusel-sour-cream-peach-pie-recipe

Then this for the maple custard base:
https://www.seriouseats.com/maple-ice-cream-recipe
Depending on your salt preference a touch less might be OK.

I used 1C of streusel bits for one batch of ice cream, but obviously this could vary to taste.  I was surprised as to how not potent the crystallized ginger became, which was good because I didn't want it to dominate the ice cream.  On its own the crystallized ginger was average in ginger taste.

[BonitaApplebum]

Yum!!!! I actually want to make that peach pie now, too. But I'm gonna give the ice cream a shot. My brother makes maple syrup so I'll use some of his.

[BonitaApplebum]

Tonight I'm prepping stuff. My general goal is to not have to actually cook anything on Thursday, just pop stuff in the oven... then I can loaf around and eat apps and watch football with everyone else.

[CheryG]

Smart plan. I'm feeling like I need to do something "special" for breakfast so I think I'll pick up some breakfast sausage today.  We don't get crazy over Thanksgiving, the dessert is fun for me to make and we both admit that the highlight of the day is being able to have Stove Top stuffing, which is a nostalgic sort of comfort food.

So yeah, I can make amazing bread but am excited for Stove Top.

[BonitaApplebum]

My mom was telling me yesterday how she already knew she was going to be running behind, because she had SO MUCH TO DO for thanksgiving.

What's on her list? Make stuffing. That's it!!

I am making like ten things and am more organized than she is.

[caribougrrl]

My mom was telling me yesterday how she already knew she was going to be running behind, because she had SO MUCH TO DO for thanksgiving.

What's on her list? Make stuffing. That's it!!

I am making like ten things and am more organized than she is.

hahahaha

that sounds like my MIL... she still talks about how much work it was to host Xmas for all her kids when they came out with their kids 9 years ago... we had 4 adults and 3 kids staying at our house for a week+, she had 2 adults for 4 days... everyone came to us for Xmas brunch (her job: show up, drink mimosas and eat breakfast, open gifts), everyone went to hers for Xmas dinner, which WE MADE and brought over (her job: ask one of her adult children to set the table, open some wine)

[radial]

My brother's MIL was a pro at this.  At family functions she would drift around from one feeding opportunity to the next all the while saying, "I'd love to help, but I would only get in the way."  Which was at least half true.

[BonitaApplebum]

Chery I made the maple custard! It's cooling now. I don't think I'm going to have time to make the ginger streusel, but I'm not sure this crowd would dig it anyway... I think I will probably just serve the maple ice cream with toasted walnuts on top. My dad was a huge fan of maple walnut ice cream, so that will be a nice nod to his memory.

I'm done with all me pre-day prep. Looks like I'm gonna have to get out the extra large cooler for this trip!

[witchypoo]

I started the anadama bread this morning and because I'm having a bad sniffer day it's possible I used oyster sauce instead of molasses. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

I really need to label the jars in the refrigerator

[diablita]

That's a sweet nod to your dad, Bonita.  And LOL at all our mothers who only got in the way.