Thanksgiving Menu

Thanksgiving has been another demarcation day for me over many years.  In school it was not only a long weekend, but an appetizer for the much longer school break to follow, though perhaps also in college that needed reminder that finals needed some intense study after the long weekend.  In my medical years, since I covered everyone else for Christmas, I could count on Thanksgiving off.  As a homeowner, leaf raking took place at maximum intensity that weekend, time shared with kitchen chores.  And it was my turn to plan and execute one of my two annual elaborate dinners, using the inspirations of my growing cookbook collection, later the skills from Food TV.

Now in my later years, an empty nester, guests are fewer.  Somebody else deals with the leaves in the form of mulching with the weekly mowing.   It is a long weekend from OLLI Classes, and maybe still a prelude to a longer university hiatus where I manage to take a short trip most years.  But dinner, its planning and execution, keep it one of my annual calendar landmarks.

My guest list numbers six, a number to match my dining room chairs.  I might even add a leaf to the dining room table, something I've not had to do for many years.

Menu planning started by cookbook browsing, but will become more focused.  The format is largely set.

1. Motzi
2. Appetizer
3. Soup
4. Salad
5. Dressing
6. Turkey
7. Stuffing
8. Cranberry Sauce
9. Sweet Potatoes
10. Vegetable
11. Dessert
12. Beverage

Since it is not shabbos, the bread need not be a challah.  I have my favorite, but I also do not like to repeat individual dishes, unlike many families who have their classics.  I've always made loaf bread for Thanksgiving, but there's no reason I couldn't make bialys or rolls instead.  The appetizer offers some leeway.  I've stuffed vegetables, made samosas.  Imagination prevails here.  Soup tends to be chicken based, a chance to clear my freezer of carcasses.  Add something easy like noodles or rice.  Could make harira, something not suitable for Seder.  Or a fish soup.  Salad has greens most years.  This needs a vinaigrette, homemade.  Or Israeli or Eastern European salads go well, with the dressing part of the recipe.  For six diners I get a whole turkey.  Simple preparation, carved with electric knife.  The stuffing is baked separately, always bread based.  Cranberries are obtained as a fresh package, then boiled with sugar.  Some years I create a flavored additive.  Sweet potatoes also allow me to surf through recipes.  There are a lot of ways to make these.  In November Shop-Rite usually offers a five pound package at a significant discount.  For the vegetable, I like to use one that is green but can be influenced by what is on sale.  Carrots are for Rosh Hashanah.  And dessert tends to have apples, though not always.  Apple cakes can be made pareve.  Or a honey cake with more additives than the no frills variety I typically make for the Holy Days.  And wine.  And a bottle of the evil soda.

Cleanup takes two days, also part of the challenge.  In addition to creating the menu, Thanksgiving is also the time when the kitchen becomes mine.  I have everything I need, cooking utensils, oven, crock pot, knives, mandolin with nearby first aid kit.  Appliances with mixers, choppers, processors.  Workspace.  A sink prepped as fleishig before I begin.  Gratitude, which is the essence of the celebration, includes appreciation for a fully working fleishig kitchen capable of creating something that guests would have difficulty duplicating on their own.  And some gratitude for my own physical capacity to do this and for the ability to have some fun creating the menu, devising what could be a complex game plan for preparation, and relaxation as I clean up and ease into shabbos the following day.

But now, some kitchen organizing and some recipe exploration.