Thanksgiving Preparations

Early this morning, Len started making apple bread for Thanksgiving Dinner.
We plan to eat some for dinner, and give some to friends. Earlier this week, he made rye-raisin bread for friends.

The loaves are now rising, and will be baked later this morning.

A turkey would be too large: we will be roasting this chicken, 
which is currently dry-brining in the refrigerator.

Stock for gravy is simmering: using up the meat trimmings
and vegetable trimmings is one of our annual Thanksgiving chores.

Despite being alone, we are preparing a pretty traditional Thanksgiving dinner, and as I often have done, I'm writing blog posts about our cooking progress. We miss all the usual people with whom we normally cook and share our Thanksgiving dinner, but we will meet with them later on e-chats. We've sent and received Thanksgiving greetings with a few friends all around the country.

Our usual co-cooks are busy in their own kitchens, making food for just their own families. Evelyn has already made candied pecans, making them on the stovetop rather than in the oven as we usually do. Elaine writes that she's saving candied pecans for another day: "We'll just have cranberry bread and apple pie and cranberry chutney (already made) as sweets. I'm stuffing a chicken and mashing sweet potatoes (omitting the cilantro, which we like OK but not enough to have a whole bunch minus a bit rot in the refrigerator."

Also, a friend wrote me this interesting note: "We had a dinner with just two for our first Thanksgiving in 1961. Back then I was able to find a five pound turkey! I made a chestnut stuffing using chestnuts in the shell. That was a lot of work. I soon learned to buy dry chestnuts without the shells. Today I will use a turkey breast as there is no such thing as a small turkey."

Blog post and photos © 2020 mae sander.