Reply to Help! Hosting Thanksgiving for the first time, where to start, and... I cannot cook!

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[quote=Anonymous]Canned cranberry, ew! You can make an AMAZING cranberry relish the day before, and you will never go back to the packaged stuff. Just take a bag of cranberries, wash and sort. Throw in the food processor with some OJ, some fresh orange zest, and one-half to one cup sugar. Add a little grated fresh ginger for fun. (You have to taste it til you get the sweetness right. Don't over do the sugar!!) Blend well. Stick in the fridge until needed, best overnight. No cooking.

Ditto stuffing. DON'T buy the bagged crouton stuff-- all you'll taste is the preservatives. Stuffing is so easy: sautee onions and celery and whatever else you like in olive oil. Mix with dry bread cut in to chunks. I like to add a cup of cooked wild rice; makes for an interesting texture, and keeps the bread from getting soggy/lumpy/sticky. Add herb mix of choice and moisten well with chicken or turkey broth (which you'll buy in a carton-- if there's any left over, throw it in the mashed potatoes). Definitely cook it IN the bird. If it wasn't cooked in the bird, why the hell bother??

Mashed potatoes: Do not over-mash. Lumps are good. Do add sour cream and butter.

Equipment: You can buy a tin turkey pan for $5. Do this, then throw it away. Get a cheap tater masher, too. You CAN do it with a sturdy spatula, but it's hard on the wrist. The one place where you'll want to spend some money is on the thermometer. I like the remote one, where the readout sits on the counter and the probe stays in the bird. It's a $30 item, but worth it. Watch a few youtube videos on how to place the probe, because there is nothing worse than pulling a "done" turkey out of the oven only to find that the probe was poking out the other side a giving a wildly inaccurate reading.

Fun! Wish I were cooking this year...[/quote]

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