dcbc

I ignore the 1 day per four pounds instructions. I buy mine about 8 days in advance and go straight to the refrigerator. I have a "stick it in a cold water bath on my Wednesday morning checklist just to be sure.

You ain't lying on this score. I made it again this year, and it takes far longer than the forecasted 45 minutes. Also, if you like your gravy a bit gloopier, some cornstarch slurry is in order.

I did get the reference. But I couldn't resist. Great looking pup!

https://www.surlyhorns.com/board/topic/6160-time-to-talk-dressing/?do=findComment&comment=750560

I'm happy to hand off the cooking duties if the person offering is certain to bring a reputable A-game. Thanksgiving basically is the Super Bowl of cooking, and there's nothing worse than a middling Thanksgiving meal.

We are hosting this year. Originally, it was only supposed to be our family of four plus my mom, sister, and niece. My mom has late stage Parkinsons; so for the last few years, we have reserved the clubhouse at her assisted living facility (we refer to it as "Green Grove"). It's nice, spacious, and ten minutes away. So I cook everything, and then we just drive it over. Makes clean up a breeze. Well, my wife invited her family, but we figured they wouldn't come (it's a long drive), but other circumstances have resulted in her dad and his wife, as well as her sister (family of 5) joining us. Great by me. I cook the same amount each year regardless of numbers. I upped the size of the turkey, and stuck to the plan. My sister usually brings a few items. Last year, I trusted her with mashed potatoes, which I figured she'd whip up on site. But she decided to cook the potatoes the night before and try to reheat them and mash them on site. They sucked, and she's been relegated to green bean and toasted pecans duty. This whole group is pretty well-mannered. So there won't be much overt drama. The SIL's family has rented a house about 45 minutes from us (in between us and her dad). About a week ago, she floated an idea that we should come out to their rental the night of Thanksgiving, whereupon they would prepare another Thanksgiving meal. My wife squashed that out before I ever caught wind of it. They are good cooks and generous hosts, but who wants a second Thanksgiving meal the same day (sorry to the young kids of divorced parents who, in fact, do this each year). When I did hear about it, I was a bit offended (what, my cooking isn't good enough), but I decided to just up the butter in a few dishes to ensure that no one in her family would be moving quickly, much less want to eat anything for the rest of the day. It will all be fine. We tend to enjoy each other's company, and I appreciate the fact that everyone gets their own space after the big event.

Stay strong and come out stronger on the other side of this ROFLBOX.

Quinn spent a year at Ohio State though. So he has some cesspool experience.

The kid is home from UT and asked for steaks.

And . . . thread! Good work everyone!

If you make the roux a day in advance and store in the fridge, chop the veggies, shred up the chicken, and put your spices in a container ready to go, the next day, you can get the roux hot, dump the veggies in, cook for about 10 minutes, and add the stock and simmer for a couple of hours. About half the time it takes to make gumbo is prep work and the roux. This is what I do for Turkey gumbo for the post-Thanksgiving cook. I guess what I'm saying is that doing the veggies and adding 1/4 of the stock the day before doesn't seem like it's saving a lot of time. But it probably would be fine if you wanted to knock off another 10 minutes of work the next day.

Username checks out.

What if the issue was like that Simpsons Halloween special where the Krusty doll was accidentilly set to "Evil." Has anyone checked the switch on Quinn's back?

The fact that "Cledus-Earl" isn't your username is unfortunate.

Ideally, you resume the day after you completely finish the cook. 24 hours in the fridge is the best part of the prep.

Hot red center.

No sooner had I posted than my wife and son brought home a pizza. 3 slices and 2 garlic cheese bites. Oink, oink, my good man!

The thing about reverse sear is that it's easy to get right and you get a good rest in between pulling the steaks off the grill (or oven) while your grill or pan comes up to blazing hot temp. I used to try to combine my sear with a butter braise, but the butter braise is actually the last step for me. My method (as if anyone asked): 1. Dry brine the steak for at least an hour with kosher salt. Season further with fine-ground, black pepper and garlic powder (maybe some Lawry's) and cook on grill offset from coals and wood until internal hits 119F (flip half way through). Rest while I get the grill roaring hot. On a Weber Kettle, this involves opening the vents all the way and cracking the lid. This will peg the lid thermometer. Coat the steak with oil (I use either Avocado oil, Grapeseed oil or beef tallow; the latter is preferred). 2. Sear for 1:15 per side (adjust up or down). This is probably based on a 1" thick steak. Not that it matters because I'm not trying to cook it more at this point, just adding maillard reaction on the surface. The internal temp dropped during the rest and it won't show much more than surface color/caramelization on the surface. after all is said and done I have the lid on, but cracked while the steak is on. 3. In a cast iron or carbon steel pan (or stainless at this point), on medium-low temp, melt butter. Add whole garlic and rosemary if it suits you. When the butter melts, add the steak to the pan and spoon the butter over both side. 4. Add coarse-ground, black pepper to the buttery steak and serve. I've never salted before plating (see post above) and have never felt like it was under-salted, but I might try this because salt. I definitely hit it with pepper at the end because doing the coarse pepper before the cook just left me with less pepper and burnt pepper at that. You still get the crust-effect. You never were going to get a bark. Anyway, . . .

No, but everyone should have a rice cooker. They just make life easy and do it perfectly each time, even the inexpensive ones. Grab an Aroma brand one for $30. It doesn't take up much space and just gets it right. You need a rice cooker. /If you have an Instant-Pot, just use that, especially if you're cooking brown rice. Nothing does brown rice better than a pressure cooker.

It is a convection oven. The benefit is that it heats up quickly and allows excess oil to drain off. We have one and use it regularly. I couldn't tell you the brand if I thought really hard about it, and you wouldn't recognize it if I did. But it has worked well for eyars. You could probably get a broiler chicken to fit in it. I overload it and shake the shit out of the basket halfway through the cook with vegetables, etc. Works pretty well.

Under, but if I gave up on life, I could go over easily. My younger son is a sporadic eater and is pretty thin, but will regularly put away an entire pizza for dinner.

We got it squared. Our son had several scholarships that were trickling in, so we pulled a small loan just to let those pan out. After we repaid it in early October, they had some sort of system-wide glitch. UT sent back the loan money to the lender (not sure how that works), then pulled a lesser amount available for us, then claim we owed the balance. We straightened it out, paid the balance, which we now are owed by the lender. It's ridiculous, but it's handled and we, ultimately, didn't owe anything. So dumb.