The day

First happy surprise – I had one bottle of cranberry wine from Valenzano! Post-pandemic I’ll have to stock back up on their red & white cranberry wine. And others as well. (Says the person who hasn’t been drinking wine in months.)

The first thing in the day wasn’t cooking. It was a chat with a friend, and then work.

(Not all of my internal clients are in the USA – for them it’s just a regular Thursday.)

After that, I debated what time to do Thanksgiving. To start in time for it to be a lunch meal, or later?

Meh, get started.

Rather than worry about a rack under the chicken, I put a layer of carrots, potatoes and onion. Then the chicken.

The chicken was stuffed with onion – for flavoring the meat, not for eating – and seasoned butter was rubbed on and under the skin.

The first 12 minutes at 450*F, then the rest at 350*F based on weight.

My baster had died. Sigh. Via spoon then.

While the chicken cooked, I brought the green bean casserole closer to room temperature, while I assembled the apple strudel and started the liquids for stuffing to boil.

Then when the chicken was done, I set that aside to rest, fished out the vegetables and started gravy & put the casserole into the oven.

After that, the strudel went into the oven. Which kind of fell apart in a way that makes me think I maybe miscounted the phylo dough layers. Oh well, it will still taste good.