Happy Thanksgiving Eve Eve!
Most people here in the US don’t celebrate Thanksgiving Eve Eve, but I do! When I host Thanksgiving dinner, it means that I cook for three days. Yes, I said three whole days of cooking. Some people think that I’m crazy, but for me it is a lot of fun. That and well, I’m a perfectionist who takes pride in her food. Why wouldn’t I spend three days cooking it?
This year I am expecting the usual crowd plus one and minus three. Did I confuse you? Sorry. I meant that everyone I usually invite from Joe’s family and my family will be here except for Robin, Kris, and Aaron. As far as that “plus one,” my brother is also bringing his girlfriend this year. I haven’t met her yet, but I’m real excited about it!
Back to cooking, today is day one. Prep day. I get to go through each recipe, and peel, chop, bag, and label all the fruits and veggies. This way come thanksgiving morning when I’m ready to make stuffing or what have you I can just toss the right bag in the skillet (or a pot of boiling water or whatever else I’m supposed to do with it). Because I use fresh green beans for my green bean casserole, I also need to pick through them, run them through the french bean slicer (nothing fancy, just a little do-dad at the end of my peeler handle) and then cook them. So that will take some time. Also in my prepping to do list, I need to put in the fridge some frozen homemade chicken broth to thaw, and chop up the bread so (hopefully) it will go stale by Thanksgiving.
Yes, thats right, I use homemade chicken broth, my own stale bread for stuffing, and fresh green beans for the casserole. Everything is fresh and homemade here! Well, thats a lie. I don’t do gravy, cranberry sauce, or pies. I buy the jarred kind for both, because well, for me gravy is a crap shoot. Sometimes it is nice and think and flavorful, sometimes it is runny and bland. It is easier to not take chances and just buy the best jarred kind I can find. As far as the cranberry sauce, well, I think I may actually be the only one who eats it. And I’m ok with the jarred kind, so why bother with anything else? Then there are the pies. I’ve thought about making my own, but when I use “baking day” (tomorrow) to make bread, that leaves little time for much else. So a couple of frozen pies works. Oh, and I forgot. Normally I make my own whip cream, but this year I bought the spray kind. So I’m skipping out on that too.
Hey, with everything I do make homemade, can you really fault me for taking short cuts here and there where nobody ever really notices anyway? Maybe I’m not as much of a perfectionist as I thought.
More posts like this:
- Thanksgiving – November 27, 2003
- Alex’s Singing/Thanksgiving. – November 11, 2004
- In the kitchen.. – November 24, 2004
- I love my stand mixer! – December 14, 2003
- Planning dinner. – January 29, 2004
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