Crock-y Thanksgiving!

This is what happens when you only roast ONE turkey per year: yesterday when I went to brine my bird, I took the neck out of the cavity and thought "wow, is that really all the giblets?" and went on my merry way.  Well...after 24 hours of brining and 3 hrs in the oven, guess what I discovered stealthily hidden away in the OPPOSITE end of this gigantic bird?  You guessed it.  A fully brined and thoroughly roasted packet of additional giblets.  Nice. 

But...we ate it anyway...the turkey, not the giblets.  And it was pretty good.  Most importantly, it's my gift to myself, after days of prep work, and gazillions of dishes...AHHHH!  No cooking for Mama tomorrow. :)  Or the next day...unless you count tossing all those leftovers into a wild rice and turkey soup...then maybe a nice shepherd's pie...and so on.  I'm gonna drag this thing out as long as humanly possible.

Last year I made myself a handy-dandy little Thanksgiving binder which includes: a "to-do" list (starting the first week in November with ordering fresh turkeys, but really picking up speed the 4 days before the big day, with everything from table decorations to linens, cleaning, dishes and silverware, and of course the food), shopping lists, all my Thanksgiving recipes and notes, and even a schedule for proper timing of the food on Thanksgiving day.  I can't tell you how useful this binder was!  Why did I not do this YEARS ago?!  I've been re-inventing the wheel on this thing every year, but no more!  I believe this was the most organized, and least stressful Thanksgiving I've ever hosted.

Here are some table decorations I made...little votive candles wrapped with scrapbooking paper, cardstock, and organdy ribbon.

Yesterday I did housecleaning in the morning, and in the afternoon I made homemade cinnamon-ginger-orange cranberry sauce, carrots cooked in garlic and chicken stock, baked gluten-free and GF/DF bread, and made the honey mustard vinaigrette for the spinach salad with craisins and pecans.

The carrots were fabulous.  I will do them like this from now on I think:

• About 20 carrots, peeled and sliced diagonally about 1/4" thick
• 1 1/2 c. chicken stock
• 1 clove of garlic, pressed

Cook in 6 qt crock pot on low 3 1/2 hrs til tender.
Remove to storage container.  Refrigerate.

The on the day of...2 hrs. before serving time:
Put the carrots into a crock pot, turn on "high", add:

• butter, salt and pepper to taste. 

Stir a few times.  They are the perfect temp and texture at serving time.

Mashed potatoes...I made them early today, then kept warm in crock pots until serving time.

Turkey...after it was roasted, rested, and sliced I put it in a 6 qt crock with some chicken stock to keep warm until serving time.

This year, instead of dirtying all those serving dishes and platters, I just set up a crock pot buffet and that worked SO well.  It took a lot less time than passing all those dishes and created a lot less chaos in my opinion.  Super organized and efficient.

Three out of the SEVEN crock pots that kept all of our food hot!

 



I learn new things every year.  Next year, the thing I hope to learn is how to remove the giblet bag PRIOR to cooking the turkey.

Turkey hangover.