The Essentials to a Great Thanksgiving Meal

OK, boys and girls.  The big day is only 10 days away.  Time to start the prep right now.  Why?  Well, the grocery stores are starting all of their sales this week.  And trust me, it's much easier to shop the grocery stores for most of your supplies this week, as opposed to next.

Also, you need to make all of your food assignments.  You may think that you can do it all.  You're wrong.  Trust me, you're... Now don't argue with me!  I don't care how good of a cook you are or that you have the time management skills of the GM of Grand Central Station.  It's physically impossible to do everything yourself without causing yourself major mental trauma.  And the other side effect is the stress that will put you in one of THOSE moods that will turn the holiday into one you'll remember years from now for all the wrong reasons.

So let's plan out what you want to make.  Here's a list of our past Thanksgiving posts, along with our most recent editions, that can make your day that much easier on your psyche.

Brined and Roasted Turkey

The centerpiece of the meal and the one thing that can so horribly, horribly wrong.  Leave it in the oven too long, cut it too soon, or fail to treat it properly and your meat will turn out dry and spindly.  No amount of gravy will solve that problem.  So let's take out some insurance and infuse a little extra flavor into the bird by brining it.  You will need to start your preparations the day before, but believe you me... this bird will be the must succulent turkey you've ever had.  This works for any size bird, from the giant monstrosities down to a small turkey breast.

Crock Pot Turkey Breast with Vegetables

Sometimes you don't have an army coming for Thanksgiving.  So instead of going through the whole turkey ordeal, why not do a smaller, more efficient turkey preparation method?  All you have to do is thaw the turkey breast, place it and your veggies in the crock pot and then sit around and watch football for about four hours.  You'll have almost the entire meal done in one vessel.  Make a batch of the stuffing in the oven as listed below and serve a pie for dessert.  Thanksgiving done without a marathon in the kitchen.

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

This recipe was inspired by my grandmother's mashed potatoes.  She'd stand over the giant stockpot filled with strained potatoes and mash them into oblivion by hand.  Then she'd pour in whipped cream, drop a whole stick of butter and froth them up into fluffy clouds of oblivion.  This recipe follows her technique, but uses my giant stand mixer, so I can avoid the carpal tunnel. 

Sausage and Mushroom Stuffing / Dressing

This is the recipe handed down from my mother.  It's a beautiful conglomeration of all sorts of flavors.  The richness of the thyme and sage, the saltiness and depth of the sausage, the freshness of the onions and celery, it's all here.  I know a number of you are afraid of stuffing because you worry that it may not warm up enough inside the bird to prevent food illness.  That's OK.  We can just place it in a large casserole dish and allow it to cook next to the bird instead.

Turkey Gravy without the Lumps

There are all sorts of gravy making methods out there, and most leave islands of starchy lumps floating in the sauce.  The key to lumpless gravy is to coat the starch with fat so the flour or cornstarch doesn't have a chance to congeal into powder bombs.  And the preparation takes no more time than the bird's cool-down period. This will work with any type of meaty liquid, but since it's Thanksgiving, we're working with poultry broth.

Aunt Dianne's Parkerhouse Rolls

Another classic recipe that reminds me of my childhood.  You ever have a recipe where you're name ends up in the title?   Well my mom did.  This roll recipe is classic and the perfect accompaniment when you want to sop up any leftover juices.  And if you have leftovers, cut open a roll, load it up with some turkey and you have a perfect little lunch.

Raspberry Pretzel Jello Salad

Would you be surprised that this recipe is one of the most popular on the site?  It is!  Top 5.  If you're assigned a salad or a dessert, you can avoid the mundane options and go with this.  Salty and sweet, fruity and starchy all at the same time.  It pleases your tastebuds five ways to Sunday

Pumpkin Pie

It's the classic pumpkin pie recipe.  But Like many things in this world, it's just not what you put in the pie, but HOW you make the pie.  For it to taste it's best, we need to follow the instruction from my mother-in-law, the best pumpkin pie baker in the world.

And if Pumpkin Pie is not your thing, no worries.  The COMPLETE list of every pie posted on this site is coming on Monday, so watch for that post listing all of the pie recipes we've done so far.

Gravy Without the Lumps

When gravy is good, it's goooooooood.  It imparts the flavor of whatever you've just created into a great sauce for smothering potatoes, meat or veggies.  The scourge of gravy is the lumps.  If you add the thickening agent too quickly, or just in one big lump, it'll create islands of starch that'll speckle the gravy.  And of you've ever bitten into a large lump, you know how bland and lifeless it is... and how it'll hydrate in the back of your throat, causing you to devolve into a coughing fit.

There are a lot of different ways to incorporate either flour or cornstarch in a gravy.  Some people just slowly whisk small portions into the liquid and home for the best.  I've seen people use a special tupperware shaker where you add a little liquid and the flour and shake it until your arm is sore.  That works most of the time, but remember that I an inherently lazy and would rather do something much easier.

So let's look at why the flour or cornstarch sticks together.  If you pore water directly into a bowl of flour, everything becomes a clumpy, doughy mess.  That's because flour likes to absorb liquid and once it's wet, it also likes to stick.  The starches start bonding together and once that has happened, it takes a lot of whisking or mulching in the food processor to obliterate them. Now once the starch molecules reach a certain high temperature, the starch doesn't stick together.  They explode into extremely small bits and become the thickener we want.

SO the key is to keep the starch molecules separated until it gets hot enough to devolve into the thickening agent.  The best way to do that is to coat them with a fat that will block the liquid until it's hot enough to break through the fat and fluff up the starches.  That where a roux comes in.

A roux is a mixture of fat and starch that can thicken liquid at a high temperature.  To make a roux, all you need to do is mix equal parts of a fat and a starch in a saucepan and cook it over medium heat for about 5 minutes.  Then you can add your liquid whenever you're ready.  But add the liquid slowly and whisk it as you go.  When the sauce reaches a boiling point, the fat then frees up the starch to expand, thicken the sauce, and stay separated from each other so there's no way lumps can develop.

One tablespoon of fat (like butter) and one teaspoon of starch (either cornstarch or flour) will thicken about 4 ounces of liquid into gravy.  You can use any type of liquid you like.  I especially like to add the leftover liquid from cooking, such as broth from a crock pot recipe (like the Crock Pot Turkey Breast) or the drippings from a roast.  But if you don't have any, just use your favorite broth.  Feel free to size this up or down as you need, just keep the proportions of 1 tablespoon fat/1 tablespoons starch/4 ounces liquid the same.  I prefer the cornstarch because there's slightly less of a starchy taste, but my no means does flour overpower the other flavor.

Gravy Without the Lumps

4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons cornstarch or flour
About 16 ounces of broth, drippings from a roast or turkey, or other flavorful liquid
1/4 teaspoon thyme
Salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.  Add the flour and stir until completely combined and stir it for about 3-5 minutes.  Add the thyme and stir for 10 more seconds. Slowly add the broth in small portions, whisking for about 20-30 seconds after adding the liquid.  Add liquid until the consistency is a little thinner than you want it to be on the table.  Allow it to cook for 5 more minutes or until it reaches a light boil, then remove from the heat.  Salt and pepper to taste.   Pour the gravy into a serving vessel and allow to cool for about 3 minutes.  Serve on meat, potatoes or drink straight from the gravy boat.

Crock Pot Turkey Breast with Veggies

I've cooked enough Thanksgiving dinners to know the ordeal the turkey can be.  I love it, but it can be a little work.  As you can see in my Brined Turkey recipe, I have a way to keep it nice and moist, but we're talking some extra preparation and time spent occupying the limited space in my fridge.   '
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On top of that, if I'm only going to have 3-4 other people over, cooking a 14 pound bird just doesn't make sense.  If there's only going to be six people, that's almost 2 pounds of meat per person (once you factor out the bones) and unless you can eat like Joey on Friends and have a pair of eating pants, you just can't do it.

Now I am inherently lazy, and there are other ways to make a Thanksgiving dinner without going the full turkey route.  A turkey breast can give you just the amount of meat you need and the more compact size can give you a number of different options.  If you have a large crock pot (6 quarts), you can go that route and it has a number of advantages over just broiling it.

The method is simple and doesn't take much time at all.  Just thaw the turkey breast, pop it into the crock pot and 4-6 hours later, you have almost everything you'd need to for a basic Thanksgiving dinner except for the stuffing, which you can make with this recipe.  Since this a wet method of cooking, it will NOT have the chance to dry out. It cooks long and slow, and since it's surrounded with veggies and spices, it stews in its juices until it comes out perfectly cooked. And you're also cooking your potatoes and carrots along with it, so it's one less thing for you to prepare.  The leftover cooking liquid can be used to create a wonderful gravy as you let the turkey breast rest (recipe for this here).  You can also save the leftover cooking liquid for a great soup made from the leftovers, or freeze it to make a quick soup on a future freezing cold day.  Once again, make sure you use your handy, dandy digital thermometer to monitor the temperature as you go.  Once you reach 165 degrees, you're done.

Crock Pot Turkey Breast with Vegetables

4 14 oz cans of low sodium turkey or chicken broth
2 teaspoons thyme
1 1/2 teaspoon sage
4 whole cloves of garlic
6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
8 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
4 celery stalks, cut into chunks
1 large onion, cut into eighths
1 5-6 1/2 pound turkey breast, completely thawed

Pour two of the cans of broth into the crock pot, add the spices and garlic cloves.

Add a small layer of the vegetables on the bottom of the crock pot.  Then set the turkey breast on top of the veggies.  Stuff the remaining vegetables around the turkey breast until it is full, making sure the lid still makes a tight seal on the crock pot.  Pour the remaining broth into the crock pot until the broth level is 1/2 inch from the top edge.  Place the lid on the crock pot and set to high for one hour.  Then cook for 3 more hours on high or 5 more on low until the internal temperature of the breast reaches 165 degrees.

Remove the breast from the crock pot and cover with foil and towels for ten minutes, just long enough to evacuate the veggies to a bowl  Use the cooking liquid to make some gravy, then carve the breast and serve.

Appetizer Options for Opening Weekend

So the long national nightmare is over and we're back into Football Season.  My college team, the University of Utah Utes, won their first game.  I live in the real world... if they have a winning season this year with an inexperienced squad, I'll be happy.

Now on the professional side, I have much higher hopes.  It's been great watching the Seattle Seahawks grow into what they are today.  Some have picked them to go to the Super Bowl, and it's hard not to get too excited.  But we true Seahawk fans remember the last trip and how a few blown calls can dash your hopes.

So no matter how much our teams may suck, let's at least eat well while we're watching them.  I've gathered a number of the snack food recipes from the blog into one easy reference page.  Choose a couple for your next house party or tailgating and run with it.

Baked Buffalo Wings - These are the classic buffalo wings, but we're baking them instead of frying them.  Why?  Well, first I like the taste.  Second, I'm going to have so many other fatty foods during any game, I thought I would cut down on the grease by not frying.  And third, they can be cooked at the party, even if it's not at your house.  Just prep them and place them on some cookie sheets, arrive at the party a little early and pop these in the oven so they'll be ready a few minutes before kickoff.

Chicken Tenders - These tenders are GREAT!  The breading is tasty and depending on how much baking powder is added, they can be extremely crispy and craggy, perfect for collecting whatever dipping sauce you want to add.  You can also cut them into smaller bits and make then chicken nuggets instead.  I like frying them at the party, but if that's not an option, fry them ahead of time and then pop them in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes at the party to warm them up.

Cream Cheese Wontons - These Asian appetizers are very easy to make and can be made before leaving the house.  The recipe also gives you a few different folding options, so you can make them look any way you want.  If you want to add more flavor, add in some crab meat and use the dipping sauce recipe that's listed as well.

Buffalo Wontons - An extension of the Cream Cheese Wonton recipe.  Just prepare the filling, load it into the wontons, fry them up and you're ready to go.  You don't have to limit yourself to buffalo sauce.  You could sub out barbecue sauce, orange chicken sauce, or any other flavor you'd like.  Make a bunch of different flavored wontons and just fold them according to filling to differentiate between them all.

Jalapeno Poppers - Here's your customary appetizer.  They're pretty easy to build and fry.  Just make sure that the breading covers all of the pepper.  If you have breaks in the breading over the cheese, you could lose some of it during the frying process.

Egg Rolls - While this is great as a side dish for any of our Asian recipes, they also make a great appetizer at a party.  This is one I'd recommend making "day of" so they stay crispy.  Just make them before you go to the party, then pop them in a 400 degree oven for 6-8 minutes to warm them up just in time.

Southwest Egg Rolls - If you've been to Chili's, you're familiar to these little nuggets.  Well, these are better and they're great with a side of queso or salsa.  If you want a really nice kick, make a half batch of enchilada sauce from our Beef Enchilada recipe and serve that as a dipping sauce. They can be warmed up just like the other egg rolls, so they're toasty warm just in time.

Lettuce Wraps - If you're looking for something with a vegetable...  OK, it's not much of a vegetable, but it's delicious and something different than all of the other fare you'll find on the snack table.  It's a self-assemble item and some people really like tailoring it to their liking.   Just nuke the filling as you arrive to the party and you're ready to go

Fruit-Cupine - OK, if you really want a healthier option, this it it.  It's a pineapple with a few dozen skewers of fruit stabbed into it.  I added a face just so the kids would get a laugh, and it was the hit of the party.  Use any type of fruit you'd like or whatever you can find at Costco at a reasonable price.

Zucchini Cake/Bread or Beware the Oncoming Hordes!

I posted this comment this comment on Facebook the other day to demonstrate what's happening in our garden...

"The zucchini onslaught begins.... The first wave has been intercepted and dispatched. But there is evidence of another approaching, larger and more plentiful than the one before. We begin to stockpile olive oil, parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs to seal the fate of some of the oncoming onslaught,... flour, chocolate chips and a large hotbox to dispense of the others. But I fear that being overrun by the horde is inevitable. Send ranch dressing and pray for us..."

Yeah, I planted two zucchinis this year...  and I now have 5 giant zucchinis sitting on my kitchen counter.  Since I missed August 8th, which was National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor's Porch Day (A real thing, I swear, Google it!!!), I'm going to have to start cooking like a madman.

And it seems our Zucchini Parmesan recipe was REALLY popular.  Looks like many of you have an overload of squash in your backyards as well.

So let me give you all my favorite Zucchini Bread and Zucchini Cake recipe.  It's what I grew up eating, since we always had a few plants in the garden.  You leave them alone for three days and you have zucchinis the size of baseball bats.

My mom would make TONS of bread and cake and then try to hand out the rest, but since most everyone else had their own plants, she couldn't find homes for most.  You want a new horror movie, ignore Attach of the Killer Tomatoes, go with Attack of the 50 Foot Zucchini.

Anyway, this recipe is great.  Either creation comes out moist, tender and slightly crunchy on the outer crust. The excess can be frozen for up to 3 months, so you can enjoy it after the plants have wilted under the holiday snow.

And the cream cheese frosting you can use with the cake is to die for.  You owe yourself to make this at least once in your life.

Zucchini Bread and Zucchini Cake

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup oil
3 eggs
2 cups grated zucchini
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Beat the sugars, oil and eggs until they're foamy. Add the zucchini and vanilla and mix until combined. In a separate bowl, add the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon and stir until combined. SLOWLY add the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients until all of it is incorporated. Add the chocolate chips and the nuts (if you want) and just stir until they're evenly distributed.

If you want the cake, pour all of the mixture into a greased and floured 13x9 pan and bake at 325 degrees for 40 minutes. If you want bread, evenly distribute the batter between two greased and floured bread pans and cook at 325 degrees for 70 minutes.

Cream Cheese frosting for the cake....

2 3 ounce packages of cream cheese - softened
1/2 cup butter - softened
2+ cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Beat the cream cheese and butter until it's fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar until it's the consistency you want. Add the vanilla and mix for another 20 seconds. Then slather all over the cake. Sprinkle nuts over the top if you want.

Try it out, let me know what you think

Fry Up Some Zucchini Parmesan!

Normally, I have a rather large garden in the backyard.  We'll harvest all sorts of squash for grilling, small cucumbers for homemade kosher dill pickles, fresh beans for some great side dishes, and a bunch of different fresh herbs for the spaghetti sauces.   This year, well, the garden crashed and burned.  More like "consumed and burned" thanks to the combination of a vole infestation from the neighboring construction lots and a very hot summer that scorched anything green.  Even my lawn is suffering.

Luckily, it's also the time of year where canoe sized zucchinis start anonymously showing up on our doorstep like Dickensian orphans.  Just the other day, my parents dropped off a 15 inch monster of a zucchini.  Now, we all have a great zucchini bread recipe.  And I've tried all sorts of grilling and deep frying variations.  Few things are quite as good as a fried zucchini stick dipped in a homemade ranch dressing.

But I was cooking up a batch of spaghetti that night and thought, "why not make a version of Eggplant Parmesan, but use the zucchini instead?"  This zucchini was almost as fat as an average eggplant.  The meat inside both are rather firm.  And if I broke out my mandolin, I could slice them to that uniform width to make them fry evenly.   This worked just perfectly.  The flavorful and slightly salty Parmesan coating worked extremely well with the tender and moist zucchini to make the perfect main course.

And this dish is even a vegetarian dish!  Yes, the lifelong carnivore has created a veggie meal.  Yes, it's not vegan because of the milk and egg wash, don't send me letters.  But it is a great substitution for meat.  You won't miss it when these medallions are drizzled with the marinara sauce.

One tool I would highly recommend you purchase to make this and a number of other dishes easier to prepare is a mandoline.  Not the instrument, the kitchen tool.  This is a plane with different blades that are either be inserted or adjusted within it tool.  You slide your food down the plane and the blade cuts them to identical, uniform widths.  Some have julienne blades as well, so you can produce perfect little strips of carrots for egg rolls, potato lengths for the perfect french fries or tomato, radish or cucumber bits for your favorite salad.  Yes, you could spend $100's of dollars for one, but you DO NOT need to.  I bought a Sharper Image brand mandoline at Bed Bath and Beyond for all of $20.  It does 1/8, 1/4, and 3/8 slices, and 1/8 or 3/8 juliennes.  For most of your basic recipes, that's all you'll ever need.  If you are looking for something a little fancier, you can find a number of other mandolines that are both very functional and economically viable in my Amazon Store.

One last bit of advice when using a mandoline... use the hand guard whenever possible.  It's there for a reason.  The blade in the mandolin are VERY sharp so it can cut through anything, including your fingertips.  I cut my hand preparing food for the first time in a decade because I thought, "Hey, I can freehand this so I can get that last little slice of potato."  Yeah.. not a good idea to freehand...  I freed a little part of my fingertip from my hand in the process.  So when you're using a mandoline, do one of two things.  Either use the hand guard that's supplied with the mandoline, or spend $10 for a Kevlar cooking glove.  It's Kevlar weave protects your hand from an errant slice while dicing vegetables, or from your own stupidity if you decide to freehand on a mandoline.

Zucchini... or Eggplant Parmesan

One batch of the Quick and Easy Marinara sauce
2 large zucchinis or eggplants, enough to produce 20-24 rounds
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 tablespoon basil
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 teaspoon salt
Light or extra virgin olive oil, your choice


Mix up your marinara sauce and let it simmer while you work on the rest of the dish.

If you're using eggplant, peel off the outer skin.  With Zucchini, you can leave the skin on.  Slice the veggies into 3/8 inch rounds.  Mix the eggs and milk together in a bowl.  Pour the bread crumbs and all the spices into a large ziploc bag.

Dip the slices into the egg wash and then drop it into the bread crumbs and shake to coat.  Dip it back into the egg wash and back into the breadcrumbs for a second coating.  Lay the dipped slices on a cookie cooling rack while you coat the rest.

Place a large skillet over medium high heat and pour just enough olive oil into the pan to cover the bottom.  When the oil has heated up to around 300-325 degrees (should only take 2-3 minutes), place the rounds into the oil and allow them to brown for 1 1/2-2 minutes on one side.  Then flip them over and cook them for another 1 1/2-2 minutes.  Remove them from the oil and allow them to rest on another cooling rack with paper towels beneath to catch the excess oil.  Add a little more oil back into pan so the bottom is barely covered and bring the oil up to the proper heat again.  Repeat until all the rounds are fried.  Serve beside or on top of your favorite pasta with marinara sauce and grated Parmesan cheese on top.

So the next time a zucchini boat is delivered to your front door, turn it into a delicious Italian meal for the entire family.