Thanksgiving Preparations

Step 1:  Ogle recipes.
Spend weeks and weeks reading cooking blogs and talking about cooking with friends, family and coworkers.  Recipes are emailed about, sites and recipes are bookmarked online and in actual books too.

Step 2: Serious planning.
Conversations with family about who wants what, who makes what, and who will bring what are had.  Limits and hard choices are faced.

Step 3: Shopping and early prep.
The weekend before make a thorough shopping list, hit up the favorite farm stand, Costco, the grocery store and TJ's to make sure everything needed, or wanted, is on hand.  Sourdough starter is checked up on and fed.

Step 4:  Anticipation.
Ensure this is a topic for any/all work meetings during the days leading up to Thanksgiving.  Tips, tricks & methods for pie crust, turkey brining and the roasting of brussel sprouts are given serious consideration.  Horrible food videos and revolting recipes are relished.

Step 5: The frenzy begins.
Wednesday morning make the dough for a sourdough take on challah bread.  Completely mess it up, throw it away and start over.  Get distracted by new posts from your favorite bloggers and add one two more dishes to your lineup.  Realize you don't actually have everything you need or want for the big day so go to the store again.  And then again.  Intend to make some of what that can be made ahead of time (pie crust, salad dressing, dip) but don't get around to it.  Make festive cranberry cornbread for a small family dinner instead.

Step 6: Heavy prep.
Weave the challah braid.  Grate a 1/4 cup of ginger for a fresh ginger molasses cake and think of the friend with the tip for peeling ginger with a spoon.  Cook the quinoa, wash, rib and chop the kale and then chop the cabbage too.  Make the lemon tahini dressing and think of the friend who gave the book containing the dressing recipe.  Defrost the homemade stock as well as the squash, sage, balsamic, maple syrup puree you made a month ago.

Step 7:  Rest.
Abandon plans for the late addition cranberry pie.  Watch as much football as needed.  Let the challah rise.  Take a shower.  Be sure you had a healthy breakfast and maybe some sort of lunch at some point.  Wine would not be unacceptable.

Step 8:  COOK!
Assemble the salad, bake the fresh ginger cake, make the polenta (without one key ingredient that turns out not to be on hand), whip up spicy lemon date spread, bake the challah.

Step 9: GO!
Pack the food, champagne, growler of Abominable Snowman and extra chairs into the car and let the festivities begin!

6 month old niece Logan - May baste a bit but do not cook