Pre-Thanksgiving Ideas

Well, Erma, here we are at Thanksgiving Week. That wonderful holiday when all we have to do is cook. NO presents to buy or wrap, not a lot of decorating the house, no cards or thank you notes, no butchered favorite Christmas carols on the radio. Just food, food food!!

As always, the women’s magazines are full of advice for cooking that Perfect Turkey. Eeee gads. Could anything be easier? The only trick to a huge Thanksgiving dinner is timing–especially if you don’t have 2 ovens.

And don’t you just love it when the magazine writers suggest a small turkey breast so, “You don’t have leftovers.” Leftovers is what that huge turkey meal is all about.

Maybe Food Editors don’t want any leftovers, but I certainly do.

My friend Martha always gives away everything that is not eaten for dinner. What a dodo!

Fix enough for Thanksgiving Day, and you don’t have to cook for at least the rest of the weekend. How much better does it get? In fact the rule at my house is, all that I will do is reheat things until at least Monday, and then we get turkey sandwiches for the lunchboxes.

To me it isn’t Thanksgiving without that faithful Leftover Turkey Pie recipe you shared with me a lifetime ago. And what could be easier? Take a pottery pie plate or casserole, line it with leftover mashed potatoes, put down a layer of dry dressing, top with an inch or so of turkey bits left from stripping down the carcass, and pour over some leftover gravy. Top with foil or a lid and bake for about 25 minutes .Slice and serve with cranberry relish and reheated rolls. Divine!! And Easy!!

All good cooks have a Basic Casserole recipe that they pull out around Thanksgiving. Here is mine. Note that the amounts and ingredients are just general. As they say in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie about the rules for parley, “They’re not exactly rules, they are more like guidelines.” And Guidelines is what this dependable recipe is all about. You can use chicken, turkey, crab, imitation crab and two cups is just a guideline. The crumb topping can be anything you like, including crushed potato chips, chow mein noodles, or canned French Fried Onions.

I like to use some green onion tops and some chopped red pepper (Remember that if you are as thrifty as we are dear, you have frozen some onion tops and red pepper back when we were trying to give it away?) Mostly they just add a bit of color. Like any casserole, here is the chance to use up those bits of dried out cheese.

I usually halve this and it makes 3 dinner servings and 3 smaller homemade TV dinners for the next day. So, yep, it reheats in the microwave well.

The BASIC Casserole:

2 cups chopped Meat (Turkey, Chicken, Crab)
1 can (10 ounces) cream of chicken soup, undiluted
1 cup sour cream
¾ cup mayonnaise
3 hard-cooked eggs, chopped
1 can (4 ounces) mushroom stems and pieces, drained
1 tablespoon finely chopped onion
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 cup shredded cheese (any kind, but cheddar gives a yellow tint to the casserole)
½ cup crushed cornflakes (buttered cracker crumbs, dry bread crumbs, even dry dressing)
2 tablespoons melted butter
Paprika
Choose From the following:
2 celery ribs, chopped
8 ounce can drained and chopped water chestnuts
Half a red pepper, chopped
Tops of several green onions chopped
Sliced almonds

Mix the meat, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, mayonnaise, eggs, mushrooms, onions, lemon juice. Select some items from the Choose From Section depending on your taste and what you have in the kitchen. Stir all together and place in a greased 13 x 9 inch casserole. I make half of this and use a 9 x 9 or 10 x 10 inch casserole. Sprinkle on the cheese.

Melt the butter and mix with the topping of cornflakes, cracker crumbs, or dry bread crumbs. Dust on some paprika. Bake, uncovered at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes until bubbley.

Serves 8 generously. More like 12 to 14 unless you are feeding fieldhands.