Writing, Running, & Reheating Leftovers

* When is the best time to prep for Thanksgiving? NOW. But really, if you like food, then anytime is a good time. Are you hosting for the first time? Are you thinking of making something new? Are you still bothered by something you did not cook 100% right last year? Well now, post Veteran’s Day, is your last chance to take a practice run.  

* A practice run can be big or small, it can be public or private, it can be what you need it to be to work on the skill or recipe that you want to work on. Invite someone over for dinner to see if you can do more things. Have the kids invite friends over to see if a dish can scale up. Drop something on the dinner table in front of your family that will make them wonder, but don’t mention anything. Make yourself a small scale turkey day dinner! Whatever the tactic, or defense, cook the thing(s)! 

* For noobs, the best place to start is cooking a whole chicken. They are cheap, small, and hard to mess up. They serve as a great analog for a turkey. You get a sense of preparation, time commitment, basting, dark meat cooking at a different speed, etc. Everyone has that Thanksgiving story where the host forgot to take the gizzards out and properly defrost the bird. Guess what? Whole chickens allow you to learn these lessons with lower stakes. Many of the challenges and hurdles that a turkey gives you can we seen on a small scale by cooking a whole chicken.  

* The upsides are there too! You can practice with different stuffing recopies and cook times. Sometimes cooking the stuffing inside is worth it, sometimes it isn’t. Where is that line for you? Grab a chicken and find out. You can save the gizzards, necks, and bones to make a broth afterward. Managing leftovers is part of thanksgiving planning. And whole chickens can start your experiments in that direction too. You can cook two or three if you want to test different seasonings, brines or rubs. You can also try different cooking methods. We’ve tried the air fryer method and might need to give that a second try. My sister in law, a doctor with wicked knife skills, spatchcocked a turkey one year and it was impressive watching her work. Plus it did make the Turkey cook faster. Testing that in a low stakes environment is one of those things that can make cooking fun. Be sure to practice your adventures and experiments. No need to risk the big day on untested ideas.

* Be careful, cooking a whole chicken can become habit forming. They can be cheap to buy, hard to screw up, and give you a lot to work with. And once you’ve done a few of them, the prep work becomes less of an issue. Get it prepped, toss it in the oven and go watch the game. I hate repeating myself, but it is easy to get two in the oven at the same time. Which also means more gravy. Or more drippings with which to practice making gravy.  

* New recipes take more planning. If you aren’t ready to tackle that today, then be sure to take notes for next year. That’s the wonderful thing about annual events, you can plan for next year before this year's event has even happened. The internet will be flooded with ideas and suggestions. From food related to just organizational ideas about this holiday. So just take notes. Take notes, make bookmarks of web pages. Email yourself IG and Pinterest links. This is an iterative process, a living thing. It’s ok to start thinking about 2025 before 2024 even happens. Doing so takes some of the stress and pressure off yourself.  

* If you are ready, then let’s go! Pull up the recipe, look back at blogs/IGs from November of last year and go to town. It is a test run so making mistakes is 100% fine! This is a pre-season game, it doesn’t count. If it comes out bad, order a pizza then remember what you did wrong and fix it for next time. If you pull it off, great! Winning always feels good, and oh no! you accidentally made something tasty! END. OF. THE. WORLD. It is as close to a win-win situation as it gets. 

* I keep not getting mashed potatoes right. They are tasty and I enjoy them, but they aren’t “damn I nailed it.” This is due to a lack of repetitions. My ex-wife used her grandmother’s recipe, and I never fully paid attention. They always came out really good and I made sure the potatoes were cut and ready for her to do what she needed. It was a messy split, so I am not going to reach out and get the recipe. Instead, I bought a pound or two of potatoes to practice with. I know the basics, salt the hell out of the water before boiling and treat butter like garlic, go overboard. But it is not plugged into my brain as intuitively as I’d like. Mainly because I do them once a year and always get annoyed that they are good but not great. This year, there will be at least one practice run. Starting now means I can try again in a week or two. This makes Turkey Day my second or third shot at them in a short period of time. That should be enough for my quality level to improve.  

* Go make your mistakes now! Just be sure to take notes and get feedback from trusted people. Put yourself in a position of familiarity. NFL payers practice, Broadway actors practice, you can practice too. Some say pressure is a gift, some say it is a nightmare, but our best and brightest all train before the big day. You should too, you are only human. Ease the pressure off and practice what you need to or want to for thanksgiving, because a random extra pie out of nowhere never hurt anyone.