Cooking Thanksgiving dinner in the tinest kitchen in America

Well, I don't know if ours is really the tiniest kitchen in America, but it sure felt like it on Thursday when I cooked our Thanksgiving meal. I do not exaggerate when I say that I deserve nothing short of a medal for cooking something as huge as a Thanksgiving dinner in a kitchen that measures all of 8 x 4 feet with a counter space that measures all of 10 x 12 inches (pretty much the size of my chopping board).

This is not by any means a step-by-step process with exact measurements and all, but this sort of gives you an idea of what went on in my tiny kitchen on Thanksgiving Day. I took a couple of short cuts here and there, basically to keep my sanity and stress level low. Mind you, I could have done a lot of preparation the day before, but I just wasn't up to it. Anyway, here you go!





The turkey:
We decided to go all out and get an organic turkey (not cheap), weighing a hefty 14 pounds to make sure we had lots of delicious leftovers. We bought it on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving so that I didn't have to deal with the hassle of thawing it out. I pulled the turkey out of the refrigerator very early Thanksgiving Day morning to marinade it. I pulled out the giblets, set them aside, and gave the bird a really good rinse, inside and out, with plain water. I marinaded it in the baking pan, inside and out, with sea salt (gray salt), black pepper and sofrito. I slipped many pats of unsalted butter under the breast, covered it with tin foil, and then put the turkey back into the refrigerator for a couple of hours. According to the experts, to avoid bacteria, it is not a good idea to marinade the turkey overnight, unless you are going to soak it in a brine (which is mostly made of salt). If you do decide to soak it in a brine, the turkey will be flavorful, but the drippings will be too salty and not a good base for the gravy.

I then put the turkey in a super hot oven 500F for about twenty minutes or so. Experts recommend this to kill any bacteria. They say turkeys are prone to bacteria if not handled correctly. Then I reduced the temperature to 375F (for x amount of hours, depending on the weight of the turkey).

Turkey stock:
I cooked the giblets with a couple of bay leaves and a bit of sofrito. I used this broth to "baste" the turkey. Actually, I poured a large amount of that broth on the bottom of the baking pan and then placed the turkey on a rack inside the baking pan. The bird never really gets a wet bottom. I do this because my oven is tiny and I have to set the shelf pretty low in order to fit the pan in the oven without the turkey touching the top of the oven. I don't want the turkey drippings to burn in the pan.
Uses:
- The leftover broth was refrigerated for turkey soup the next day.
- Some was used to thin out the drippings in the pan for gravy.
- I also use some of it to prepare the stuffing. I used it instead of the plain water that was called for in the instructions on the package.

The Side Dishes
Stuffing:
I cooked four sweet Italian sausages with a little bit of water. After about a half an hour or so, I took the lid off to let the water evaporate and let the sausages brown. When they cooked through, I sliced them and set them aside. I softened about a half a cup or more of chopped, pitted dates in a skillet with water (or turkey stock from the giblets I had cooked earlier) for about 2 minutes and then set them aside (including liquid). I prepared about a half a package of Arnold's seasoned stuffing per the instructions (you can use turkey stock instead of water). When done, I added in the sausages, softened dates, about a half a cup of golden raisins, and about a half a cup or more of chopped, previously roasted, chestuts (or toasted pecans, walnuts or pignoli nuts). Placed all ingredients in a covered baking dish and just reheated it after I pulled the turkey out of the oven. (According to most chefs on the cooking channel, you are supposed to lightly toast the nuts in a dry pan "to help them release their essential oils", though I can't really tell the difference when I skip that step entirely. Also, they say stuffing the turkey takes longer for the turkey to cook and then you end up with a dry breast.)

Spanish rice (of course):
On the menu was also "arroz con gandules" (i.e. rice with green pigeon peas which my mother made with brown rice this year instead of white). She warmed up the sofrito in some olive oil and ghee (clarified butter), optional. She then added the (white or brown) rice and the "gandules", gave it all a good stir until you started to hear a "sizzling" sound coming from the rice (less than a minute). She then poured the water, added salt to taste, and let it boil until water started to evaporate, reduced the heat and covered with lid.

Mashed potatoes:
I made some mashed potatoes in case Liam would want it, but he chose rice instead. Anyway, I am aware that everyone knows how to make mashed potatoes, but here is how I made them: I scrubbed and cut the Russet potatoes in quarters and cooked them in just enough chicken stock. (Sometimes I also throw a sweet potato in with the regular potatoes, but I totally forgot to do it this time.) When potatoes were cooked through, I poured the liquid out into a large measuring cup and set it aside. I transferred the potatoes to a large mixing bowl. I carefully pulled the potatoes out with a fork and peeled the skin off* with a paring knife. The skins surprisingly come off quite easily. I then transferred the potatoes back to the pot. I added a little bit of salt and pepper to taste, the liquid (chicken stock) that I had set aside, a couple of pats of unsalted butter, a splash of cream (optional), and then mashed it with a regular potato masher until nice and creamy.
*I cooked the potatoes with the skin and then peeled it off since most of the nutrients are found just under the skin. Sometimes I will just mash them up with the skins.

Green beans:
I kept them really simple. I just steamed the green beans until tender, added salt and pepper to taste, a dash of granulated garlic, and a pat of butter.

Salad:
A no brainer- it was just a prewashed salad mix that is sold in a bag which I topped with tomato and avocado slices with a fruity vinaigrette as a dressing (ideally) or in our case that day, your choice of three bottled salad dressings.

Gravy:
After the turkey was done, I pulled the pan out of the oven and let the turkey rest for about fifteen minutes or so. Experts recommend that you allow any roasted meat or fowl to rest before carving it to avoid losing all the juices. (At this point, since I do not have a double oven (ha!), I do not turn the oven off, but instead place the baking dish with the stuffing mixture to warm up.) Before transferring the uncarved turkey to the platter, I lightly brushed the nice brown skin with some of the pan drippings. Then, I went to work on the gravy. I thinned out the pan drippings with some turkey stock (from the giblets I had cooked earlier) and a splash of wine. I then poured the pan drippings through a sieve into a small sauce pot to wait for the thickening agent. In a glass measuring cup I placed some cornstarch in some water and stirred it well until any lumps were dissolved. Then, I poured the mixture into the saucepan and stirred it until the wine was cooked thoroughly and until it started thickening, and well, looking like gravy.

Cranberry sauce:
I hear this is very easy to make, but I opted to just buy a can from the organic supermarket.

Dessert:
Ideally the traditional pies and other baked goodies are prepared the day before, but since I can't bake to save my life, we decided to have my long overdue birthday cake from my favorite bakery (that did our wedding cake) as dessert with a scoop of ice cream. Yeah!

After dinner, of course, comes the daunting task of dealing with the leftovers (sigh). So, I grabbed the bull by the horns, as they say, and went to work. I pulled all the meat from the bones and froze some of it for soups. The remainder of the meat was placed in a glass food storage container in the refrigerator, and the bones were used to make stock for soup.

I am not sure that I will ever make a meal this large in a kitchen this small ever again, but you know what they say, "never say never." Besides, in the end, it doesn't matter what you serve up on Thanksgiving Day, whether it be a traditional turkey dinner or a quick pasta dish. It does matter in the end that you remember to give thanks for all your blessings, beginning with two of the most important- your family and your health. Wait a second, we do this every day anyway!

Liam? He was thankful that he could wear his Star Wars costume to dinner.