French Toast (Using leftover Challah)
The Challah was a bit dense, so didn’t absorb the liquid as much as it probably should have. Even so this was an interesting preparation method.
Ham Steak and Scrambled Eggs
Free Ham, eggs already obtained. Good things.
Brats
Good as Always.
Thanksgiving
I swapped out the gravy, I didn’t do the Crispy Skin, I did end up adding cranberry sauce. We ended up with 6 guests and ourselves. I didn’t find lefse, but I also didn’t look that hard for it. I didn’t have to wake up extraordinarily early for any day of the week, and the day of work, was pretty much finishing mashed potatoes (peeled and stored the day before), and baking or reheating things. And the bread pudding. So it was a pretty easy day, as thanksgivings go.
Saturday: Cut into cubes and dried the challah.
Sunday: Whipped Honey butter. Grocery shopping for the week.
Monday: Make cornbread, cube cornbread, dry cornbread.
Tuesday: Cranberry sauce, prep carrots, prep celery, Thanksgiving grocery shopping, breakdown bird. This is where I put away the thighs and drumsticks for the purpose of making the confit turkey later, since I wouldn’t have enough time. I need new kitchen shears, or sharpen the ones I have, or my hands just can’t take the kind of effort needed to break through bones anymore. Any of these are possible.
I trussed the turkey breasts, after using salt and pepper on the inside, and Momofuku Savory Salt not he outside. Then put them in a bag, with a pat or two or three of butter, sucked the air out and tossed them in the fridge.
We bought extra turkey breasts (probably not the most humanely treated), just in case, I got the last two at the Fareway near me. I ended up just dropping one into the freezer and prepared the other a bit differently. I used a combo of the Momofuku Spicy salt and some Soy Sauce. I’m not quite sure if it was the meat or the combination of the brine and something else, but this kept out gassing. No leaks found, but I re-bagged it and then had to drain air out of it a couple of times (cut, reseal). It was kind of annoying.
This also had a trip out to Grade A to pick up the Turkey and veggie box, which I was running a bit behind, but did get to pet Rupert, and that’s a good time.
Wednesday: This was a big prep day. After doing some googling on potatoes and confirming it with my Brother, I was convinced it was ok to store potatoes in water and move forward. I spent a bit of time at the Cheese Shop, after I picked up some rolls at La Mie. I eventually spent too much money and made my way out of there. Picked up some tarts and spent the rest of the day prepping, and making dishes. I had everything in a good place and called it a day.
Thursday: I moved some things around in the kitchen, got the sous vide tub setup, off the main counters, and got the turkey in and then went through my morning routine of coffee, exercise, shower, then started to get things ready for Finishing.
Potatoes, already sliced and peeled, I just poured from their two containers (6 pounds couldn’t fit into one) into the pot, added a bit more water and started to slowly cook them.
I brought the sweet potatoes and dressing out to warm up.
I got the dried challah bread setup and started their soaking.
So I did some calculations on when things would need to be done, and then figured out when they needed to go into the oven and went from there.
I got the gravy out at some point, panned it and starting to bring it up to temp. Got the gravy serving dishes (one a gravy boat, the other a cream dispenser) and got them warmed up with hot water.
Sliced the turkey breasts (via Grade A).
Called for dinner at 1:01, just a bit late, though I was waiting for a pause in the conversation.
Friday afternoon, I pulled out the turkey carcass and with some onions, leftover diced up carrots and celery, and them simmered them slowly overnight and around 3 on Saturday I combined the stocks into one pot, had entirely to much, so took out quite a bit to save for a bit later in the week. I added some celery, carrot, onions, sweet potato, and potatoes and then a bunch of turkey. Seasoned it up a bit and called it a dinner.
As we have repaired our dishwasher a few times over the years, it may be time to get a new one. It used to be very quiet, now, not so much. I normally would have ran a load of two while the family was at thanksgiving, but didn’t want to, cause at certain points it’s a bit loud.