Thanksgiving 20111

Even I liked everything this year: turkey from the Amish market, dressing with sausage, apple & prunes, good gravy, mashed potatoes, spinach gratin, roast butternut, caramelized Brussels sprouts, fresh cranberry relish with kumquats & dates. Pumpkin & pecan pies. Whipped cream. Best part: lots of help from my family.

Turkey: 20-lb. room-temperature turkey in dark lasagna pan was fully cooked after four hours @ mostly 325F (350F for first 45 min.)--therefore 12 min/lb! First hour breast up, then 1.5 hours turned on its side (cut-up onions in bottom of pan may have helped with skin not sticking during the flip); last 1.5 hours of cooking breast up, covered with foil. Very simple preparation: turkey rubbed all over with salt and pepper the day before and brushed once with butter before the flip.

Apple-Sausage Dressing: bake a loaf of cubed French bread (about 6 cups) until brown. Saute in 1/2 cup of butter: 1/2 cup chopped shallot, 2 c. chopped celery, 2-3 cups chopped onion. Add shallot mixture to toasted bread cubes along with 4 cups diced apple, a splash of dry vermouth, 1 lb. cooked crumbled Amish sausage, ~3 c. turkey stock, 1-2 c. diced prunes, 1 tbsp. thyme leaves & 2 tbsp. chopped fresh sage. Mix well. Bake in souffle dish at 350F until brown and slightly crispy on top--about 40 minutes.

Gravy: pre-turkey cooked last week in order to have lots of good stock on hand. Made gravy in advance: 1 tbps. each flour & butter (the roux) for each cup of stock. Gravy Master added for color. (Charred onion works, but is more complicated, and I can't tell the difference.) De-fatted drippings from the real Thanksgiving turkey added for flavor boost.

Spinach Gratin: steam big Costco bag of fresh spinach, drain & stop cooking with cold-water rinse, squeeze out moisture. Combine in shallow gratin dish with equal volume (~3 cups) of bechamel (white sauce) made with shallot or leek-infused* milk/cream and same roux proportions as for gravy above. Stir in grated Gruyere if desired.  Top generously with fresh breadcrumb mixture made in food processor with 3 slices white bread, small garlic clove, 3 tbsp. butter, salt.  Bake at 350F until brown and hot--about 45 minutes. ( I made one of these to freeze for later. It wasn't as good as the freshly made one.)
*Heat milk/cream, add sliced shallot, let stand at least 10 minutes, strain

Cranberry-Kumquat-Date Relish: 1 12-oz. bag of cranberries; 1 cup kumquats, quartered; 3/4 cup sugar; 1/2 cup chopped dates. Combine first three ingredients in food processor; pulse ten times or until coarsely chopped. Add dates; pulse 5 times or until blended. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour. Refrigerate.  This was a sub for usual fresh cranberry sauce without dates from recipe on cranberry bag, which I think I like better.

Advance preparation: turkey stock up to 14 days ahead (bring to a boil for 5 minutes every three days--or freeze); fresh bread crumbs in food processor a week ahead & freeze; cranberry relish & sauce up to 5 days ahead; blanch spinach 3-4 days in advance; make gravy and bechamel up to 3 days ahead; make pie pastry up to three days ahead (but roll out and bake same day, ideally); stuffing can be made up to 3 days in advance; peel potatoes and keep them in a pot of water 1 day ahead.