She sure is a lucky dog. Spoiled rotten and a very loving creature.
How many are you feeding?! That's a lot of food! I know how much you enjoy putting feasts on tables, and I wish you effusively grateful guests.
Do you have any gravy tips? Mine is always a last minute let's-see-if-this-works kind of thing. And Cook's magazine? I've got their annual compilations in hardback copies for about a dozen years. Never open them.
I'll only have four at table, and here is all the hardcopy planning I have done:
I made the crust dough today - will roll it out tomorrow, the pickled beets are ready to eat with some chevre added, the ingredients have been procured (gonna need celery if I decide to make stuffing), broth is made and frozen, the bread has been made and frozen. Tomorrow is spatchcock-and-brine-the-turkey day (always dramatic, that spatchcocking), and everything else will be done Thursday. I hope my guests don't expect cranberry sauce, but there will be cranberries in the kale salad. Keeping it simple!
Take me back to when life made more sense in the world
You caught the Cooks reference!
I have one year bound (1999) and many magazines. I keep a stack of Nov/Dec’s aside and peruse them throughout the holidays. Best recipe ever for chocolate roulade log. For me, cranberry sauce is too easy to ignore, and I love the color:)
Now pickled beets is something, and I love that color too, so maybe next year, if I live on as home cook (I’m always planning our getaway). The trick for me is bringing food hot to the table. Turkey comes out, and everything else in immediately with parker house rolls. I literally stack dishes in the oven.
Then it all gets piled on a plate and the gluttons finish up in minutes. No TV. So I’ll make them play a game:)
This is why I don't cook much anymore. Several days of work, and in minutes it's all gone. Especially with the desserts.
My oven is itty bitty. (I like my kitchens small) I'm actually worried my 15 pound bird won't fit in it spatchcocked.
Do you dream about cooking? You are so passionate about it! I used to be. Owning a business took care of that.
There was a very exciting decade in my 30's and 40's when I was ready to open a restaurant, but chose to raise daughters sanely and pipe dream on my free time. I would sit in the local bakery alternately creative writing in my journal and figuring food costs for a nonexistent kitchen. Today I have anxiety dreams about the line, but no more planning for the chef’s practice.
We made it through. Every one got full and had plenty to take home:)
P.S. I’m feeding 9 small people. Lots of leftovers, which I like. Frees me for the weekend.