Just SIX Days to Get Ready for Thanksgiving!!!

It’s time to start planning for your Thanksgiving celebration and I hope you will keep an eye on my site for all the help you need. Seasonal recipes, cooking tips (search in Kitchen Shrink), and ingredient sources (search in Sara’s Picks) are available 24/7. Here are links to some of my favorite holiday recipes from Sara Moulton Cooks at Home and Sara's Secrets for Weeknight Meals to help you plan your menu.

Appetizers:
Crispy Zucchini Sticks with Olive Dip (recipe)
Oven-baked Rosemary Potato Chips (recipe)
Mini-Pumpkin Soup with Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, Shaved Parmesan, and Fried Sage (recipe)

Meat and Poultry:
Thanksgiving Hens (recipe follows)
Braised Short Ribs (recipe)
Crispy Roast Duck with Mustard and Green Peppercorn Sauce (recipe)

Vegetarian Entrees:
Green Bean Casserole Moderne (recipe)
Giant Stuffed Mushrooms (recipe)
Moroccan Vegetable Stew (recipe)

Sides:
Mashed Potatoes (recipe)
Butter-steamed Broccoli with Soy (recipe)
Homemade Pan Gravy (recipe)

Desserts:
Butterscotch Bread Pudding (recipe)
Dried Apple and Cheddar Strudel (recipe)
Pumpkin Flan (recipe)

Thanksgiving Hens

Rock Cornish Game Hens, a cross between a White Rock Hen and a Cornish Hen, are underrated. Maybe it is because ounce for ounce they are a little more expensive than chicken or perhaps it is because they are a little scary for people who are used to chicken in parts. But they are delicious, indeed, and their greatest attribute is that they are “mini.” Each person gets his or her own bird. I thought it would be nice to come up with a recipe that mimics the Thanksgiving bird but can be made in one tenth the time. So these birds are stuffed à la Thanksgiving and served with a good old fashioned pan gravy that you can whip up while the Cornish hens are resting.

Turkey Roasting Discoveries

On Thanksgiving day I will be on Good Morning America answering 11th hour questions as I have for the last 10 years or so (that is how I get out of traveling on the most traveled day of the year!) and for this year’s segment I decided to cover, among all the usual suspects (stuffing, gravy, carving, sides,  etc) -- tips on brining. The trouble is that this segment airs live on Thanksgiving morning so nobody has time to do a proper 12 to 24 hour brine. I was hoping to come up with a quick dry “brine” method and also to advise the viewers that next year, or the next time they cook a turkey and have a little extra time on their hands, they can brine the turkey even if they don’t have an extra fridge to hold a large bucket or a refrigerated large bathtub. Instead, they can use a brining bag and much less liquid. So, I cooked two 15-pound turkeys this weekend (and my family doesn’t even like turkey!) and explored these two methods. Click Here to see what I discovered.