Thanksgiving Menu

The Bird Itself
Mashed sweet potatoes
Asparagus with lemon-butter sauce
Tossed green salad with pomegranate seeds
Cherry-pecan stuffing
Cranberry apricot relish
Sausages*
Gravy
Pumpkin pie
Freshly whipped cream

*My mother's family are the only ones I know who do this. We think when my great-grandmother was first in this country, she was following another woman in the market to figure out what Americans ate for Thanksgiving. When the woman picked up some sausage, presumably for stuffing, my great-grandmother evidently got the impression that the sausage itself was a Traditional American Thanksgiving Side Dish. To which I can only say THANKS GREAT-GRAMMIE! Believe it or not, the slightly sweet, slightly spicy sausage makes a perfect complement to everything else on the plate. Plus it is yummy with the gravy. But what is not yummy with the gravy? No thing, that is what.

I went to the store last night at 10:30, because someone was too busy to go during the day, ergo I had to make the trip after choir rehearsal. It was actually a perfect time to go, as the store was not too crowded at all and the stock boys (can I still say that? is that nonPC or something?) were stocking up fresh and delicious vegetables. The majority of the vegetable mass I purchased last night were aromatics, and therefore did not need to be of great quality. I mean, when you're chopping up an apple and a carrot to stuff in the nether regions of a turkey, you're not really caring about the quality and perkiness of said produce, as one will eventually discard said produce before human consumption. So it was mostly a successful trip, with one glaring exception.

The store did not have a single container of low-sodium chicken broth. Not one. I checked three different places.

Sigh.

So I grabbed a pack of chicken thighs and will spend tomorrow constructing a stock. It's not that I'm upset about the work, because nothing could be simpler than a stock. But it will tie me down to the house for the whole afternoon. Thank god the office is letting us all go at noon tomorrow, otherwise I'd be up late into the night. And I really cannot take one more late night before I start screaming and throwing things.*

*Probably just laundry and maybe a pillow or two. I am not nearly as dramatic as I'd like to believe.

All in all, I'm looking forward to cooking my second big Thanksgiving meal. Due to my husband's complaints about the saltiness of last year's bird and my own inherent laziness, I will not be brining the turkey this year, meaning I do not have to rise at 5 am to get that started. So I think this year will be considerably more relaxing than last year's gourmet-fest.

Still, if I have to clean up the kitchen on Thursday night after spending two days cooking, heads will fucking roll.

Comments

[Nicole :)]

When I have to make stock, I use the pressure cooker. Very fast and then you just strain your broth out. Of course, this only works if you have a pressure cooker. :)