Side Dishes 2010

Turkey Day

I’ll be preparing a lot of the side dish items in advance also. Especially the gravy. We love this gravy and although it is a little more work than what my Mom used to do the work is well worth the result. And, I love the compliments…..

As soon as I see packages of turkey necks in the store I’ll get them and whip up the John's Gravy. When done, it will go into little freezer baggies and wait quietly until we’re ready for them. When we’re ready, I’ll put the sealed baggies in hot water for a while to defrost them slowly and then into a Dutch oven or other oven safe pot to heat up without burning. (I almost always burn something when I heat it on the stove…)

We will not stuff the bird but Dressing will also be in the freezer in baggies. Larger ones than the gravy. We found that dressing left over from Thanksgiving was good a few months later. This past Summer I made up some gravy and dressing and relish and leftovers were good last month. So, Dressing will also be put together as soon as I see the croutons in the store.

Kay’s Mom’s Cranberry Relish is almost exactly like my moms and Thanksgiving Dinner wouldn’t be the same without it. The sight of it and the flavor brings back memories of good times and a great table with all the families and grandparents gathered ‘round.

I’ll maker the Cranberry Relish up on Saturday or (more likely) Sunday before T-Day. It wants at least two days, but three or four are better, to get all it’s flavors together and ready to give you a mouth full of joy when you take your first bite.

  Kay's Green Beanswill be easy. Throughout the year I get onions, sauté and freeze them so they are always available. We used to have a case or two of sweet Walla Walla Onions sent to us from Umatilla, Oregon when we were on our way home from Hope, Idaho on Lake Pend Oreille but now will get some from Costco or a local store or use regular onions. If you don’t have any onions in your freezer,  get some and prepare them any time. I also buy four to eight pounds of bacon at a time and fry it all up in a morning when it's cool. I take the electric grill outside and put it on the BBQ  and do the frying outside so it doesn't smell up the house. Then we have bacon anytime we want it and it's ready in just moments.  The day before T-Day I’ll put the dish together and have it in the outside refrigerator. On Thanksgiving morning I’ll take it out, bring it in to come up to room temperature and then into an oven to heat for dinner.

There is so much to eat we usually don’t have a large leafy salad but we do like a bite of something different and this year it will be a Bavarian Jell-O Salad. Don’t know what flavor, yet, but probably a berry.  I'll put it together on Tuesday.  It will keep a few days just fine.

Other snacks for the table will be little finger size sweet and dill pickles, and both green and black olives. We haven’t put up pickles or cured olives for years so these will all be store-bought. Not ever as good but that’s the way things change. In Carmichael we lived on about three acres of an old olive orchard and it had a little stream running through it. We’d cure the olives. Boy would I love to have some good home cured olives and home made pickles again.      Maybe a good project for next summer.  Hmmmmm...I think that's what I said last year when I thought about it. Well, a good memory, anyway.