Confession Time

I was fully planning to show you how I break apart a turkey and get it ready for Thanksgiving, but the pictures didn't turn out well.  So I will just have to show you with a chicken in a post further down the road (a chicken is way easier anyway). I did make the promised posts for the sage garlic butter I put under the skin of my turkey  (I just gently pick up the skin at the neck of the turkey, and using your hand separate the skin from the turkey breast without removing the skin, add a large scoop of butter into the whole then on the out side of the skin gently press and move the butter until it is even and you have a nice butter layer. The food network has at least 3 shows that do this at Thanksgiving) and how I make stock from my leftover bones.  I even wrote a post about what I am doing to keep me out of the kitchen as much as possible tomorrow.  I linked them all here so that they will be easier to find if you are interested in them.

Thank you for be patient and understanding that life tends to make the best made plans fail.  And if I don't see you tomorrow, Happy Thanksgiving.

How I Plan To Stay Out Of The Kitchen Tomorrow

As I have stated in a previous post, I decided to  simplify Thanksgiving dinner this year. I reduced my normal 11 items and 4 desserts down to 6 items and 2 desserts (it was going to be 3 but I want stuffing and my kids want cranberry sauce).  This may seem like a lot still, but it really isn't see I have a plan.

I have worked in restaurants too long to not have learned the importance of prep. Everything, yes everything, for my dinner can be started or even finished today so tomorrow it is relatively painless and I can spend my day playing with my kids instead of listening to them have fun while I work.  Here is my menu and how I am making tomorrow easier.

Sage Garlic Butter Turkey: Because my family is only a family of five and the turkey was 16 lbs, last night I cut out turkey in parts. Now I have boneless turkey breasts and boneless thighs (the wings and drumsticks will be used for other meals) instead of a full bird.  Last night, I also made my compound butter that I like to use with my turkey.  I put it under the skin of my turkey.  I was planning on tying them into roasts last night but my twine wasn't butcher's twine like I though it was, so I will be doing that today after my husband brings some home.  Then I they will be already to be cooked (one breast and thigh will actually be frozen for Christmas Dinner.  Yep, I am ahead of the game).

Since I don't have a whole turkey to cook, the cooking time drops almost in half freeing up oven time for anything else I may need to put in there.  My only problem is, I don't want the bottom of my turkey roasts to get crispy (my beef roast, yes, my turkey, no).  So I cook my turkey roasts on a bed of Mirepoix (carrots, onions, celery, and garlic cloves).  Not only will the vegetables create steam which will help my turkey from drying out, they will also impart flavor.  Besides any juice that comes from the turkey mix from the juices from the vegetables and makes the best jus for gravy.  So today I am cutting up celery, onions, celery and garlic into chunks and putting them in a Ziploc, all ready for me.  Tomorrow, all i need to do is place my vegetables in a pan, dip my roasts in garlic butter (I know, yum) hit them with kosher salt and bake.

Carrot Mashed Potatoes: Instead of doing sweet potatoes, which we don't really like, I am going to cook carrots in with my potatoes then I will whip them together with a little butter and cream (yep more butter).  Today I will peel and chunk my potatoes and carrots.  I will them put them in a container in the fridge covered in water.  Tomorrow, I will just drain them before cooking and giving them fresh water.

Green Beans With Bacon: This is my families green bean casserole.  It is whole green beans that have been cooked in bacon fat and served with bacon pieces.  Today I am slicing and cooking my bacon and cleaning and blanching my green beans (cooking them for 2 minutes in boiling water, before putting in ice water to stop the cooking.  Tomorrow, I will heat up the bacon fat and slightly caramelize my green beans in them, add in the bacon, cook until it is hot and serve.  Really about 5 minutes of work.

Sausage Apple and Pecan Bread Stuffing: My mom would make this every year, except she would never bake it.  I am going to make the stuffing today, add in the eggs then place it in a casserole dish for tomorrow.  When I put in my turkey in will go the stuffing.

Fresh Cranberry Sauce: I wasn't planning on making this but my kids are in love with cranberries right now.  Since this is best cold anyway,  I will make it today for tomorrow.

Gravy: Okay, I can't do much about this today since I need the cooking liquid from my turkey, but I did make turkey stock overnight to add to the drippings instead of adding water or chicken stock.

Pies: Since my son is gluten free, I am making all of our pies without a crust.  How?  Well that is easy.  I am turning my pumpkin custard into creme brulees and I am making chocolate cream and banana pudding cups.  The creme brulees must be cooked today to set up for tomorrow. The same with the Chocolate and Vanilla Puddings for my cups.  In fact I can even build them tonight.  

Although it seems like a lot it will actually go pretty fast, on both days.  Especially with three kids wanting to be in the kitchen.  Tomorrow will be a piece of cake (hmm, maybe I should make cake, too.  No, Julie!!! Simplify, don't add).

Making Butter Better

I know it is not good for me, but I love butter.  I freely admit that, but did you know you can actually make butter better?

There is this awesome thing in the culinary world called compound butter.  It is simply butter that you add herbs, spices, and flavorings to.  You have probably had it before and not even realized, like lemon tarragon butter on top of a grilled piece of salmon or that steak that was dripping in garlicky herb butter heaven.  Even a good garlic butter is a compound butter.

They often seem like they would be difficult to make, but they aren't.  You don't even need a machine to make it.  All you need is softened butter and what ever you want to flavor it with.  My favorite is a garlic sage butter that I put under the skin of my turkey.

Here is how I make the sage garlic butter.  No matter what flavor you are making the  process is the same.  Add all ingredients to a bowl and mix together.  If you want to add lemon, use the zest and slowly add a small amount of lemon juice. You do not want the butter to break.  A machine makes adding the lemon juice (or any liquid ingredient MUCH easier.

To make the sage butter, I need 1 cup of softened butter, 3 garlic cloves, 10 sage leaves, and a teaspoon of kosher salt. Also I need a medium size bowl and either a whisk or a fork.

The sage needs to be a chiffonade, or cut into ribbons.  To do this I stack my leaves on top of each other, then slice them about 1/8 " thick or finer.

I minced the garlic then added it to the bowl along with my softened butter, kosher salt, and my sage chiffonade (about 1 1/2 Tbsp).

Mix it together with a whisk or a fork until smooth. 

To store it, I put it on a piece of plastic wrap and (using the plastic wrap to help you) roll it into a log and keep in your refrigerator.  When you are ready to use it just slice it.  This would be good on vegetables or even placed on top of a boneless chicken breast before or after baking (if you are grilling, only put on afterwards.

Sage Garlic Butter The Food Nerd Way

1 cup soft butter

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 1/2 Tbsp. sage chiffonade (see how to make it above)

1 tsp. Kosher salt.

Mix together. Use immediately or wrap in plastic wrap to store.  May be frozen.  This can also be put in a piping bag with a large star tip and piped onto parchment paper, freeze, then remove from paper and store in a ziploc bag.

So What Do You Do With Leftover Bones? Make Stock of Course

Stock, or broth, is simply made with bones and vegetables that are cooked in water for hours.  The bones and vegetable leech their flavors and nutrients into the liquid giving you this lovely liquid gold.  You can buy it of course (just watch for the salt because some of them have quite a lot in them) but it is easy to make and fairly inexpensive.

This is a picture of my turkey stock that I am making for Thanksgiving.
In my crock pot is the turkey bones leftover from when I took the legs, wings, thighs, and breasts off my turkey, the drumsticks (because we don't like them unless they are in soup), a red onion, 8 stems and leaves of sage, 4 garlic cloves, ground black pepper, because that is what I had and enough water to cover.   Now to let in cook on low for 12 hours or so.

First you need bones any flavor will do, as long as they are the same kind.  And it doesn't matter if the bones have been cooked or not.  Bones can also be roasted before putting in a stock to add flavor and color (as in a roasted chicken stock or a beef stock). If the bones are roasted ahead of time it is considered a dark stock.  If they are not, it is considered a white stock.  You can also make a vegetable stock, just skip this part.

Next you will need vegetables. Traditionally, most stocks have mire poix, or onions, carrots, and celery, in them.  (Mushroom stock, for example, is one of those that does not.) The proportions of the onions, carrots, and celery are 50% onion, 25% celery, 25% carrot. Other vegetables can be added to give flavor and dimension to a stock (or to get rid of old scraps).  The vegetables to avoid adding are cabbages, broccoli, cauliflower, bell peppers, or any thing that will take over the flavor.  I generally stick to celery, carrots, mushrooms, onions, tomato scraps, asparagus, leeks, or parsnips.  Sometimes I don't add any.  It really depends on how much room I have in pot, actually.  Sometimes there are just so many bones that I can barely add water.

Stocks usually have what is called a Bouquet Garni, which is just a fancy way of saying bag of spices.  Usually the spices are tied into cheese cloth, added to the bones, veggies, and water, then the bag is removed at the end.  I never have cheese cloth at home and if I did my kids would just play with it, so I just add it to the pot itself and just strain it out.  Here at home I don't care how clear and perfect it is, I just want stock. The spices in a Bouquet Garnet are pretty simple: garlic, peppercorns, parsley stems. There are more but this is generally what I use.  Sometimes I will add different spices depending on what my stock is for.  I may add dried peppers and cumin to a Mexican style stock or sage for one for Thanksgiving. 

The most important thing about stock is water.  And there are two things that you need to consider about the water that you use.  First, would you drink it, if you won't drink it don't use it.  Second, it has to be cold so that it can properly leech out the flavors and nutrients from your ingredients.

Stock generally takes about 12 hours to cook.  I usually don't have the time to babysit it. This is where the crock pot comes in handy. I put everything in before bed and in the morning, I strain it.  You are more then welcome to cook it on the stove, just make sure you have a pot large enough for all your ingredients and water to cover it.  Also once it comes to a boil, turn it down to a simmer and let it go.  I would cook at least 6 hours on the stove, and remember the water will evaporate as it cooks so you do not want the heat to high.  

I know that you are supposed to skim the impurities (or foam) off the top as it cooks but truthfully I am usually asleep while my stock is cooking.  Feel free to do as you wish.  Just remember your stock won't be clear I am okay with this.

Stocks are fully customizable depending the person making them, the ingredients on hand, and the people you are cooking for.  If someone can only eat red onions, only use red onions.  If someone who will be eating with you is allergic to parsley, don't use it.  If your pot is only big enough for your chicken bones and water, you only have dried parsley and ground black pepper, and you really want to add white wine to it, do it.  That sounds like a good stock to me.

*note: beef stocks generally have charred onions, roasted bones, red wine, and tomato paste.  So if that is the kind you want to make, I would read up on those beef stock recipes before starting

It's All About The Baste

This beautiful picture is not mine but rather it is courtesy of  pixabay, a public domain.

Recently, on YouTube, I saw a parody of Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass" about cooking the perfect turkey called appropriately, "All About That Baste".  I laughed while watching it as I was silently applauding the fact that I don't have to babysit a turkey for 3-4 hours trying to get the perfect lacquered bird without drying it out.  Nope, I don't baste my turkey, I don't have to.  Not when I can get the turkey to do it for me.

There is a technique in cooking called barding which in essence is wrapping your food in fat before roasting (or braising, but usually roasting).  You know that picture of that turkey covered in weaved bacon that has been circling the social sites recently? That is barding.  I do a similar thing except I put a layer of compound butter under the skin (after deboning my turkey of course) then use the skin to wrap around my roast the best I can before I put it in the pan (or tie it with butcher's twine) keeping all that butter under the skin. So, as juice escape the meat the butter is pulled in, viola self-basting. (I know a little confusing but now you want to know how I do it, don't you? Next couple of posts I promise).

So I guess while for some people in is "All About That Baste" for me it is all about the bard. At least we can all agree on the "'more butter" part.

(Oh, as I start my Thanksgiving prep I will add it on here so that it will be up before Thanksgiving to give you guys tips and ideas.  That being said I may be posting a lot over the next couple days.  Sorry.)

Simplify Thanksgiving Dinner

Be honest, we make too much food at Thanksgiving. We spend all day Wednesday making pies or desserts and all day Thursday cooking for family to come over and spend time with us.  The problem is, you don't get to spend time with anyone unless they are in the kitchen helping you cook.  Why? Because we have allowed our turkey dinner to become so large that it HAS to take all day to cook.

You don't believe me well let me break it down for you. Here is a meal you would make on a normal night: Chicken (or Pork or Steak, whatever just stay with me here), some type of starchy side like rice or potatoes, a vegetable, and possibly a salad.  Maybe dessert, maybe.

Now let me break down Thanksgiving Dinner for you: roasted turkey or ham or prime rib roast, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes (either straight up or in casserole form), green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, some type of vegetable in case people don't like green bean casserole (often this is brussel sprouts, but can be corn, peas, or even a salad), rolls, butter, gravy, and pies for dessert (yep, dessert is mandatory on big holidays).

Yes I know, all Thanksgivings are not this big, but many are.  And in case you are counting, that is a difference of 6-8 more items you are shopping, prepping, cooking, and later putting away.  No wonder we ask for people to bring dishes and don't have time to mingle unless they too are up to their elbows in some sort of food.

Why do we do this? Because we love our families and we want to make them happy. However, how about you? Are you happy during the day or just when it is over?

I say we should simplify our Thanksgiving dinners.  Cut out a dish or four and spend more of the day with those you are thankful for. We don't really need that much food in a single meal anyway. Besides think of how much easier it will be to put it away.