Corn-free Thanksgiving with turkey can be done with a little planning and creativity.

Cranberry Sauce

I prepared the cranberry sauce around 4 PM Wednesday night. Just a simple concoction.

Cranberry Sauce

• 3 cups cranberries
• 1 cup of orange juice
• 3/4 (more or less, I do this by sight) cups sugar

Bring to a boil and puree. Let it get thick, then throw it into a container and refrigerated until it is time to serve.

The Turkey, Part 1

Now to tackle the 19 pound turkey I found in my freezer. Corn-free, free range, co-op bought turkey. I cooked all night – mostly because I had a 19 pound turkey – yes, I said 19 pounds. I slept on the couch waiting to hear the electronic thermometer to go off and tell me that the thigh temperature had reached 170 degrees F.

As way of background, I had put the turkey in the oven at 4:30 Wednesday at 225 degrees F for a very slow roasting. At 3:00 AM I wondered why it still hadn’t gotten past 145 degrees F. I turned the oven up to 450 degrees to get it to heat up so I could get the meat off the carcass and start turkey soup. Well, when the temperature probe had still not budged from 145 degrees F after 25 minutes cooking I decided to take a look at the battery in the probe.

Sure enough, the new battery caused the temperature probe to shoot up to 200 degree F. I immediately pulled the turkey out and let it start cooling. At this point I decided to take a look outside my kitchen door wall (4 AM) and saw snow.

The snow was expected – but not enough to actually stick. It is still snowing at 6:00 PM.

The Pie

While the turkey was cooling, I took the giblet broth I had been making in my slow cooker since the time I started the turkey and basted the bird in it. Then, I decided to make sweet potato pie. I cheated and used the Whole Foods Sweet Potato Puree. Here is the recipe:

Sweet Potato Pie

• 1 can sweet potato pie puree
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cups beet sugar
• 1 cup orange juice (fresh squeezed – beeswax covered)
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ginger

Puree and pour into prepared crust. Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes. Turn down to 350 F and bake for another 35 to 40 minutes. (I’m also milk allergic.)

The crust? I used a graham cracker crust made with Honey Grahams (plain), 3 tablespoons oil, and 3 tablespoons real maple syrup.

The Stuffing

Well, I got the pie into the oven and noticed the breadmaker had finished making the bread I needed for the stuffing. I make my stuffing a little differently. I brought 3 cups of water with a ton of sage and salt to a boil and cooked up a box of couscous that I had. While those were cooking, I tore up a loaf of homemade (breadmaker) French bread and covered it with some of the giblet broth I had made.

I poured the cooked couscous on top of bread and stirred in more broth. I let it sit while I got the pans. It was about 5:30 or so and I realized that the stuffing wasn’t quite right. Eggs! Yes, I added 2 eggs to my stuffing to make it stick together. With the stuffing sitting and saturating the giblet broth I searched for pans to put it in. Finding them I plopped the stuffing into the pans and the pans into the fridge to be heated later in the day. (450 F degrees for 30 minutes.)

The Turkey, Part 2

I promptly started to carve up my turkey and put it in containers to keep in the fridge until it was time to heat it up and serve. I admit that it was a little dry still, so I made sure to keep all the drippings – and at 19 lbs., slow roasted, there were a lot of drippings. This came in handy to heat up the turkey! Plus, none of us like giblet gravy, and for Thanksgiving, we do the whole cholesterol, artery clogging, fatty gravy!

The Turkey Soup

Now, I took out my biggest stock pot and put the mostly meatless carcass into it. I added a carrot and an onion to the mixture. Some salt and pepper and covered it all in a ton of water. Then, put it on the stove to simmer for today and part of tomorrow! It smells wonderful!

Now, if DH would only stop asking if it is ready yet…  (I’ll give an update on the ways you can use this wonderful broth / soup.)

The Nap

About this time my husband woke up and looked at me askance.

DH: “Have you slept at all?”

Me: “Yes, on the couch.”

DH: “Right.”

There was a bit more to the conversation – but some things aren’t right for a public blog. DH asked if there was any cooking left. I was telling him yes as I was loading the second load of dishes into the dishwasher.

When the pie came out of the oven, he sent me up to bed (at about 8:30 AM).  He didn’t wake me till 12:30 PM. I only had to the baked apples, spinach, mashed potatoes, and gravy.

Baked Apples

This is a really, really easy recipe that even has a bit of healthy about it. Michigan is the number two or three in apples grown in the USA and I had made quite a haul from the farmers market a while back. Some of these apples keep really well, and are just plain delicious. Now, I can’t remember what kinds I got, but I took a bit of each and peeled them.

Using one of those neat apple slicers (Amazon.com has several, here is an inexpensive example, RSVP Jumbo Apple Corer & Slicer), I sliced them up really quickly and put them in a covered casserole with just a bit of cinnamon mixed in.

Baked the covered apple and cinnamon (you can use ginger, too) at 450 F degrees for 1 hour. It is so delicious – and went really well with the cranberry sauce.

The Turkey, Part 3

It was time to put the stuffing (cook) and half of the turkey (reheat) in the oven. I figured the best way to get some moisture back into the turkey was to place it right into the fat and let it seep some of it in while it was heating up. This proved to do the trick in bringing back moisture to some of the drier dark meat cuts. I pulled the turkey out and carved it up on the serving platter.

I put the roasting pan in with the turkey and let it heat up while the stuffing cooked.

My guests (friend and in-laws) started arriving.

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

The mashed potatoes are just boiled up.

Since I used an awesome roaster (the Cameron Cookware Multi Roaster is as similar as I can find), I could make my gravy right in the roaster. I love this style of roaster and got mine at a kitchen place that was going out of business over 10 years ago. It is one of the best investments I have ever made and have often considered getting a second one!

Now, I put my father-in-law to work mixing the salt, pepper, and flour into the gravy. I then took about 1 cup of potato water and added it. (I learned this from my Great Aunt – an awesome cook.) While he was making the gravy, I got about 1/4 cup of the giblet broth and added it to the now waterless potatoes and mashed them up sans butter and milk.

The only thing left …

The Spinach

I saute my spinach with a little garlic – no oil – and serve. It is always popular.

And now, the table …

and of course, the obligatory pekingese investigator picture …

To those of you who are celebrating, Smokey, my friends, family, and I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving – with or without corn.

And to those having a hard time, my many blessings find you by next Thanksgiving.