Time for Turkey

Watching Food Network can definitely be addictive. Just as I was about to turn off the idiot box (after an hour of HGTV, of course) and head to my office to write this blog, who should appear in front of my wondering eyes but Ina Garten touting a stress-free Thanksgiving dinner. Needless to say, I spent another 30 minutes on the couch enthralled by the prospect of having a holiday meal planned for me.

For the main event she prepared an herb-rubbed turkey breast. (As luck would have I recently purchased one on sale for our own feast.) The secret, she said, was to put half the herb mixture under the skin and half on top before returning it to the refrigerator the night before. Next, she made some basic vegetables like French green beans, roasted carrots, and acorn squash with maple syrup. These seemed easy enough to fix ahead of time and simply reheat. She chose one vegetable dish to be the star creating a puree from celery root and apples. While I'm not sure this dish is one I would choose, the idea of having a single stand-out side dish coupled with one or two basics is great. (I always struggle to make every dish spectacular, when that isn't really necessary.) She also made the gravy ahead of time and added a little brandy to it for some extra flavor.

Perhaps the most interesting dish she made was sausage and apple stuffing. She started by cooking chunks of apple, onion, and celery in butter. Meanwhile she toasted a brioche loaf (which she had cut into cubes) until it was just golden brown. When the bread chunks (They were pretty large, actually.) came out of the oven, she poured the apple mixture over the top and put a mixture of sweet and spicy Italian sausage into the skillet. This was then added to rest of the stuffing along with some seasonings and a cup of chicken stock. Once the whole conglomeration went into a large casserole, it too found its way to the refrigerator for overnight storage. To make matters even more helpful, she added a countdown clock for Thanksgiving day to roast the bird, cook the stuffing, and reheat everything else so it all went on the table at the same time.

I realize it seems strange to make such a big deal out of watching the Barefoot Contessa. (Jeff says I'm the only person he knows who talks back to the cooking show hostess with comments like, "Oh, that has to smell good," or "I never thought of that.") However, I think everyone who cooks worries about making holiday meals special. Some of us slave for hours and days ahead of time to make sure our families and guests experience the best of everything, yet in the end we deny ourselves the same pleasure. So this year, I'm taking a cue (and several recipes) from Ina Garten. I'm going to couple some simple basics like my favorite roasted vegetables and deluxe mashed potatoes with a succulent bird and some fabulous stuffing. I'll probably throw in a caramel apple pie for good measure, but this seems pretty low-key to previous years when I spent so much time and energy planning and preparing the food that I didn't really enjoy it. I think there is a breaking point where so much time is invested that no matter how good the food is, it can't be worth the exhaustion of creating it. This is one lesson I've only recently realized: every return has to be weighed carefully against the investment of time and energy.

Here's the link to the episode and recipe information http://www.foodnetwork.com/barefoot-contessa/thanksgiving-countdown/index.html. While you're on foodnetwork.com, check out the 50 variations on basic stuffing as well http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/50-stuffings/index.html. Happy eating!