If you have waited until the last minute for your Thanksgiving meal…You need to get moving now! If you haven’t bought your turkey you need to get right away and get it thawing under cold running water. If you don’t have a big sink you can put the turkey in a cooler outside preferably on a table and run cold water from your garden hose.

A refrigerator thawed turkey takes approx 1 day for every 4lbs! So I hope you bought yours over the weekend! By water thawing you can cut that down to approx 30 min per lb.

So a 12lbs turkey will still take 6 hrs!

If you have waited this long make sure you get organized. Know your recipes of what you would like to make and have a shopping list! Get your shopping done all at once. If you want to cut time down you can fix up store bought items.

Mashed Potatoes

You can add some flair to store bought potatoes by adding ingredients

• Horseradish and Cheddar
• Bacon and your favorite cheese
• Roast garlic and Parmesan
• Sour cream and chives or other fresh chopped herbs

Cranberry Sauce

You can put your own spin on canned whole cranberry sauce by warming it with a few added ingredients.

• Orange juice, orange zest
• Ruby port wine and vanilla
• Dried Cherries and brandy
• Raspberry preserves

Gravy

I like to use turkey or chicken broth thickend with some roux made from flour and butter. Toss in some onion, celery, carrot, herbs etc. I let it cook on low in my crockpot overnight so it is ready. When my turkey is done I finish it with the pan juices.

Pumpkin Pie

An easy way to dress up a store bought pie is a quick drizzle of carmel sauce and some toasted nuts!

Rolls

If you are baking store bought rolls or brown and serve you can kick them up by brushing with some beaten egg and adding poppy seeds or Parmesan or asiago cheese. Even all ready cooked rolls can be given some spark by brushing with some melted butter with garlic and basil in it.

Side Dishes

Lots of side dishes can be mixed together ahead and baked in a casserole dish the next day so I recommend them to make things easy as possible.

Turkey So many different ways to do a turkey I am not going to attempt to cover all of them. If you want super moist pull apart breast meat roast your turkey breast side down in an oven bag. It won’t be the prettiest but the bag holds all the juices around the bird so the breast meat is always cooking in all that flavorful juice!

Enjoy your Thanksgiving with family and friends!

Regards,

Jake On Food

The flavor of Port marries so well with Cranberries and the addition of Vanilla bean gives it that warm comforting flavor and aroma.

• 12 oz bag fresh Cranberries
• 1 cup Ruby Port
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 Vanilla bean split
• Salt and White pepper

Super easy! Combine Cranberries, Sugar, Port, and Vanilla bean in a sauce pan and bring to a slow boil stirring occasionaly. Lower the heat to just a simmer and cook 20-30 minutes until it thickens to your likeness. Season with salt and white pepper and Enjoy!

  So you would like to make Turducken for Thanksgiving!  Here are a number of links for those of you having trouble finding out how to do one!

Self assembly

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/turducken-recipe/index.html

http://homecooking.about.com/od/turkeyrecipes/ss/turduckensbs.htm

Were to order one…but hurry time is running out!http://www.cajungrocer.com/fresh-foods-holiday-dishes-turducken-c-1_15_24.html

Maybe you can buy one locally?

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/navigate.do?dest=5&item=336961&pid=_Froogle&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=573348

Or how about a Bacon wrapped Turducken?

http://bacontoday.com/turbaconducken-turducken-wrapped-in-bacon/

Video of Paul Prudhomme on Turducken

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpnMHgGRJag&feature=related