So initially, I was going to write my second A Week in Meals, but this week was Thanksgiving. And this year, I was tasked with shopping and cooking the majority of my family gluten and dairy side of our thanksgiving meal. (Part of my fam eats gluten/dairy-free, and they took on their menu.)
I spent two days prepping and three days cooking. Overall, I think I cooked/baked 15 dishes.
Needless to say, we did not run out of food. Also, needless to say, I didn’t do much other cooking than thanksgiving cooking last week. I ate takeout a few times — both for my sanity in the kitchen and so I wouldn’t be tempted to dip into the dishes I had already finished. (Thank you, Enzos Pizza and Great Wall Chinese.) So for the most part, the things I ate right up until the holiday weren’t that blog worthy. So instead, I’m focusing this blog post entirely on the prepping, baking, cooking, and eating of Thanksgiving.
Most of my family was out of town right up until Thanksgiving, which is why I was tasked with the job of cooking. But I didn’t take it lightly. Deep down inside, I have always wanted to cook Thanksgiving dinner.
I’m not a professional cook, despite the fact that I started this series and constantly post about food on Instagram to aspire to be like Drew Barrymore, Joy the Baker, or Alison Roman. However, I have seen Thanksgiving as the holiday that all the foodies and cooks have heart eyes over. It’s the holiday that is all about the cooking and the food and the eating until your hearts content. Cooking in my apartment kitchen, using all the tools and cookware I’ve compiled, just felt right. It felt exciting, fulling and brought me lots of joy overall.
Not pictured in these photos was the transportation of all the food from my apartment to the house where we had Thanksgiving, then from the house to another house with a fridge that had enough room to store all the food. It was a challenging feat, but we did it.
Over the half a week I cooked, I made my kitchen messy. I cooked leeks and greens gratin, apple tart, green bean bake, cranberry sauce, challah bread, deviled eggs, and pumpkin bread. Actually, I baked the pumpkin bread twice because the first time, the bread leaked all over the bottom of the oven and smoked up my entire apartment.
Note to self: always have a leak tray in case of these specific situations, especially when using a rented oven.
On Monday, I worked a really long day to take Tuesday off and use it as preparation day and baking day.
When Tuesday came along, I woke up early and took a grocery store run to get all the last minutes of ingredients I needed; then, I spent the day prepping and baking.
As soon as I was back and had everything squared away, I started cooking. I worked quickly to keep the butter in the pie dough cold. I baked the pumpkin bread. I chopped apples. I boiled the chicken stock. I gave delicate time and attention to the challah. On Wednesday, I had to work a half-day. But I also finished the rest of the pies. I prepped the leak and greens gratin and green bean baked. I whisked up the cherry whip my mom loves. I chopped, whipped, and ladled the delicate but firm yolks, mayo, and relished into egg whites to make deviled eggs. And then packed everything into my car and headed to my mom’s house.
On the actual day of Thanksgiving, all I had to do was bake the mac and cheese, top the gratin and green bean casserole with toppings and toast them in the oven, make gravy, and heat everything else up. Oh! And the charcuterie board! I can’t forget about curating the charcuterie board.
Several dishes made it to the table that I will try my hand at again. I didn’t have enough elbow noodles for my baked mac and cheese, so instead, I used penne. I thought this would work out just fine, but since they were bigger than an elbow noodle, they weren’t as soaked in the cheese cause and became a little too crispy. I used my homemade chicken stock in the gravy, but even with the thickener added, it was still too runny. I placed the sugar cookies a little too close together on my small baking sheet, and they ended up melding into one another in the oven, turning into square cookies instead of round ones.
There were a few places where I felt like I succeeded, though! The challah bread turned out sweet and exquisite. When I was cooking the chicken stock on the stove, I sat the bowl of rising dough near it, and it rose perfectly, the most perfect I’ve ever seen bread dough rise. And the braid turned out imperfectly beautiful. (I will always make chicken stock and bread together from here on out.)
The deviled eggs turned out a smash — I found this natural dill relish that, at first glance, looks bland but is packed with flavor. Then I topped them all with dill and smoked paprika.
I’m also rather proud of the pies and the second batch of pumpkin bread. These are a staple we have every Thanksgiving, but just making them in my kitchen from scratch using the techniques I’ve taught myself over the last year was fulfilling.
So I have some places I’ve improved, some areas I still need to work on. It might not have been a perfect Thanksgiving meal, but it was a satisfying one — and I think everyone’s stomachs were full by the end of it. Overall, I’m happy my family made it back home just in time for the holiday.
How was your Thanksgiving? What was your favorite thing to cook, bake, or eat?
P. S. — The Friday post Thanksgiving, my Love and I have made a tradition where we make and eat “Ross’s sandwich” with all our Thanksgiving leftovers. Although our recipes might differ slightly from Ross’s coveted sandwich, we make sure always to include the “moist maker,” a third piece of bread in the middle of the sandwich that is soaked in gravy. It’s always a win.
Megan Elaine 