Thanksgiving Eve

Dad's finished with his baking: two rum cakes, two pumpkin pies, and two pecan pies. Quite an achievement for a guy who still claims he's not able to cook. Bravo, Dad!

We're eating small tonight in preparation for the morrow, and I'll be doing a good bit of prep this evening and tonight. I checked the turkey, which is, alas, still pretty hard. The outer quarter-inch of the turkey has softened up nicely, but the deeper layer feels like Rambo's biceps.

Although it's not recommended, I'll be switching to a quick-thaw method to thaw the obstreperous bird the rest of the way. The method involves cold water, changed every 30 minutes, and as with other quick-thaw methods, this potentially invites microorganisms into the picture. I plan to minimize the danger by brining the turkey immediately after thawing. The salt (1 cup kosher salt per gallon of liquid) ought to take care of any beasties.

My other prep involves the cornbread stuffing. Tonight, I'll be making the bread, then setting it out to dry overnight. Meanwhile, I'll be cooking up the sausage, slicing the celery, and getting the other stuffing elements ready to throw together tomorrow.

I imagine David and Sean are doing their own share of food prep; David's bringing over ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and two varieties of homemade ice cream, and Sean is bringing over broccoli casserole, green beans, and biscuits. Dad's done with dessert prep, so that leaves me to take care of the turkey, stuffing, peas, carrots, cranberry sauce, and the strawberry sauce that will go atop the rum cake and ice cream.

So the food for our family's Thanksgiving is currently spread all around the DC-Metro area, but I expect that everything will gel tomorrow when everyone comes together. We plan to eat around 4:30 or 5PM-- just us five. Just our family.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.


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