Thanksgiving prep

Today is the big push for making Thanksgiving recipes. Tomorrow I’ll roast the turkey, of course, but I’m going to try to get a lot done today.

So I thought it would be fun to have a ever-growing post about cooking for Thanksgiving. Kind of like “live tweeting” the event, but less prone to losing me my few twitter followers and a larger character limit.

The goal for today:

# The mashed potatoes
# One pumpkin pie

# One apple pie

The maybes for today:

# Cranberry sauce
# A second pumpkin pie

Tomorrow we’re looking at turkey, brussels sprouts with garlic, roasted sweet potatoes and celeriac (and onions?), and rolls.

I wonder what I’m missing.So, what have I learned so far?

# Allspice berries and peppercorns float but crystalized ginger doesn’t.
# The great outdoors is nicely cold right now.

# My windows can fog pretty impressively.

# Grace wants to help make pies.

# I’m on an adventure.

# Even farmers can’t be totally sure what size their turkeys will grow to.

# Lifting 22lbs is hard enough. Doing it with some concern for turkey juice not going flying is harder.

# My fridge is too full.

# Oh, man, am I thankful for today’s cold weather.

# I maybe should have doubled the brine recipe.

# Dishes.

# I didn’t plan for my lunch today. D’oh!

# I need to follow my instincts while rolling out pie crust, and not try to make it easier on someone else while teaching.

# I kind of regret not making pumpkin cheesecake instead.

# To say I’m not making “homemade dulce de leche”:http://www.recipegirl.com/2007/03/27/homemade-dulce-de-leche/ again would be a total lie, but I’m totally lying to myself right now.

# I own a pie shield but not pie weights. This should change.

# I’m not inherently good at weighing down pie crust.

# Rum is really easy to set ablaze.

# Twice.

# Be more organized next time.

So, it looks like my goals for today will be met, but there’s little to no chance the maybes will be met. (This is as of the 4:30 pm edit.)

Maybe we’ll get ‘taters done, maybe not. Cranberry sauce and two pies are done, though. (11:04 pm)