3 turkey breasts, all ready to go!
Carrots, celery, and onion in the bottom of the pans, oranges and apples stuffed in the cavities, rosemary butter under the skin, and melted butter, salt and pepper on the top.
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From the category archives:
Cooking
Here’s how I make chicken stock.
First, I save any chicken bones from roasted (or even fried) chicken. Don’t use anything that was grilled (at least if it was grilled over charcoal!). I just keep a Ziploc bag in the freezer and add to it whenever we have bones. Those rotisserie chickens from the grocery store are perfect for this too.
I also save any vegetable scraps from carrots, celery, onions, and sometimes garlic. When we peel carrots and trim off the ends of celery and onions, they all get tossed in a Ziploc bag in the freezer too. Save herbs scraps too – stems and leaves from parsley, rosemary, and/or any other herbs you like.
I have a big stock pot, that comes with a strainer insert. It’s perfect for making stock.
Toss the chicken bones into the pot.
Next, add in the frozen vegetable scraps.
I didn’t have enough scraps this time, so I added in some fresh vegetables too. First some garlic:
Next, some celery.
I just bought 2 fresh bunches, so I just chopped up all of this leftover bunch to put in the stock.
A couple of carrots and an onion cut in half.
Finally, the best part. Some fresh rosemary just cut off of my plant.
A handful of kosher salt.
A handful of pepercorns.
Then add water. It took 30 cups this time.
Just add enough to cover the bones and vegetables.
Bring it to a boil, then reduce the heat to low so it’s just simmering. The rosemary makes the house smell so good!
I let it simmer for a couple of hours. I give it a taste to know when it’s done. Then I let it reduce a bit to concentrate the flavors. Strain it and put into containers and freeze!
This time I’ll be using a lot of it for Thanksgiving, so I’m just going to keep it in the fridge.
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Potatoes were not in my plan for today.
But when I was reorganizing the pantry, I noticed that all of the potatoes in the 15-pound bag that we bought earlier in the week were starting to sprout.
Ugh.
So, cooking 15 pounds of potatoes became my plan for the day.
First I scrubbed them all. Then I picked out 4 to save to bake for dinner tonight.
The 10 or 12 biggest ones I put in the oven to bake.
While they baked, I peeled about half of what was left and boiled them.
While those boiled, I diced up the remaining potatoes.
The diced ones were roasted with olive oil, green peppers, onions, salt and pepper (2 9X13 pans).
The boiled ones were mashed.
The baked ones were cut in half, had their insides scooped out, and mashed, and then put back in the shells for twice baked potatoes.
Then they all got divided up, put in containers, and put in the freezer.
We are set on potato side dishes for quite awhile now!
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You’re thinking I’m almost a whole week off, right?
Nope. It’s “Get your Turkey out of the freezer day!”
Put it in the refrigerator on a tray of some sort (sometimes there might be a small hole in the bag and it will leak all over your fridge!). I use a cookie sheet lined with some paper towels or newspaper.
And then just leave it until you’re ready to cook it (get it out an hour or so before you’re ready to roast, so it can come to room temp). I sometimes flip mine over after a few days. It’s probably not necessary. But it doesn’t hurt.
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And also what I already have, so I don’t buy more!
For T-day, and stock:
Celery – 2 bunches
Onions (Have)
Apples (if the girls have eaten them all, which is very likely to happen)
Oranges
Cranberries (Unless Palma is seriously going to show up and bring cranberry sauce, which would be totally awesome!)
Orange Juice
Apple Cider?
Bread (I think at least 4 loaves)
Poultry Seasoning (check how much I have)
Butter (Have)
Green Beans (Have)
Ham (For in the green beans)
Flowers (For table decorations)
Napkins
Aluminum roasting pans (1 or 2 for turkeys, 2 for stuffing)
For day-after breakfast:
Sausage (Have)
Eggs (Have)
Crescent rolls
Shredded cheese (Have)
Coffee (Have, but check that we have enough)
Orange Juice (in prior list)
Also need to plan something for day-after-day-after breakfast. Maybe just bacon & eggs & toast for simplicity. Will need bacon. Have eggs & bread.
I’m sure I’m forgetting something.
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