Thanksgiving Stress

This blog is from my “Best of” or Worst of” list as it is a repeat of a blog that is a few years old. Jenn is well past her “first holiday meal” jitters. Now she has to handle keeping an eye on Max (5) and Dylan (19 months) as well as last minute Kraft Mac & Cheese prep for the boys. Enjoy!

Cooking your first holiday meal for the family involves a lot of stress. The key to success is the same as preparing for a large supper club gathering. Get as much prepared in advance as possible. Or as a well-trained chef’s would say: “Have your Mise En Place ready”.

Check out the blog on Mise En Place

When my daughter cooked her first Thanksgiving meal for her in-laws Helene and Rick she was definitely stressed. She wanted it to be perfect. Jenn also wanted all traditional dishes she had grown up with. She had watched the meal made lots of times, but to it all herself was a different challenge.

The other key is to use an external read thermometer. The biggest challenge is to get the turkey (or other protein) cooked on time and not overcooked. My father claimed that my mother would intentionally keep the family waiting because by the time she served the holiday dinner everyone was so hungry even shoe leather would taste good.

The beauty of external read thermometers is that you can monitor the progress of your roast without opening the oven every 15 minutes. Opening the oven basically shuts down the cooking process as it lets the heat out of the oven. So if you are anxious for the roast to get cooked, by opening the oven to check a traditional thermometer you are delaying when you can serve your meal.

The most common failure for a holiday meal is to overcook the roast. The classic example of that is depicted perfectly in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. The scene where Clark slices the overcooked turkey is classic. Again the answer is an external read thermometer

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

The reality is that most of the holiday meal can be cooked in advance and just warmed up at the last minute. Our family has come up another way to insure that you are in no hurry for the main course to be served. We have a New England Clam Chowder as a first course. This chowder is fantastic. It is also fantastically filling. A serving of this and you are in no rush for the rest of the meal.

Jenn’s first holiday meal on her own was a big success. She got an “A” for Mise En Place (See her notes below) and use of an external read thermometer. She wowed Helene and Rick with her New England Clam chowder. Getting the gravy to thicken presented a bit if a challenge, but with Helene’s help and a few glasses of red wine even that turned out fine. And, besides after the chowder no one was going to starve to death.

These are Jenn’s notes posted on the refrigerator as a reminder. There is something about “apples and trees”, as this is something her father would do. I always make notes as it works like a security blanket. If I have it written down, I don’t need to worry about forgetting it.

If you enjoyed this blog and similar other stories/supper club lessons follow me on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to get future blogs at www.impromptufridaynights.com/blog and check out my book Impromptu Friday Nights a Guide to Supper Clubs. Published by Morgan James Publishing and available through most channels where books are sold.

Thanksgiving Is All About Heroes

That is, HERO recipes. Hero recipes are recipes that have driven consumption of a product for years. Baker’s “One Bowl Brownies” recipe has sold a lot of chocolate for Baker’s. The “New York Style Cheesecake” recipe has sold a lot of cream cheese for Philadelphia. The Velveeta and Ro-Tel Queso dip recipe has sold a lot of Velveeta for Kraft.

Every family has their traditional dishes. If those dishes are not served on the big day, it just seems that something is missing. It is amazing to me on how many of those recipes were developed by food manufacturers in the 1950’s and that they are still popular today.

There was a great article in the Wall Street Journal this week about Dorcas Reilly who developed the recipe for Green Bean And Mushroom Casserole for Campbell’s Soup Company back in 1955. Today Campbell says that 40% of its cream-of-mushroom-soup goes into green bean casserole and that a huge ramp up in sales always occur in the month before Thanksgiving. Just think of how much money Dorcas’s creation made for Campbell’s. Having worked in the food industry with many “home economists” (Now they are called food scientists) I would bet that Dorcas was lucky to have gotten a few hundred dollars for her creation that has made hundreds of millions of dollars for Campbell’s. I know for a fact that the team that developed the “Baker’s One Bowl Brownie” for Kraft didn’t get squat because I was part of the team.

The WSJ article supposes that the recipe might not have been original to Dorcas. Give me a break; there is nothing really original when it comes to recipes. The article explains that a similar dish was served on The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad that ran through New Jersey where poor Dorcas grew up. She probably got her inspiration from a train ride. Just think of how many cooks have become famous in the family for making green bean casserole.

My buddy Chip Colonna is famous in his family. The Kennys and Colonna’s have shared Thanksgivings for years and the Colonna kids insist on green bean casserole. Chip’s kids think he is a culinary genius. The truth is that he follow’s Dorcas’s recipe.

Another tradition of the Kenny/Colonna thanksgiving is New England Clam Chowder That we call “Speonk’s Clam Chowder” using my pet name for Chip’s daughter Meagan. The story goes that Chip’s dad used to make clam chowder that the kids loved. Dad figured out that Campbell’s Clam Chowder was better (and easier) than his home made version. That story led me to start making clam chowder for Thanksgiving. My recipe has evolved over the years and has become legendary in our family. I am not sure if it is legendary because it tastes great (which it does) or the fact that after a bowl of this filling chowder you can’t be hungry for the feast to come. Whatever the reason, Thanksgiving clam chowder, is a must for the Kenny/Colonna family.

Dorcas Reilly died last October at the age of 92. Her hero recipe built a brand for Campbell’s and have made culinary legends for many family cooks. But don’t tell my buddy Chip, as I always pass on his legendary green bean casserole

Fond Food Memories

Have you ever had a dish that surprisingly brought you back to a memory of your youth? I was once in Frankfurt Germany on business in the 1990’s. We arrived late at night and I hadn’t had dinner. I ordered a potato soup in my room and was amazed that it tasted just like the “Hot Dog Soup” that my next-door neighbor Eva Walters used to make in the 1960’s.

As kids we all loved the hot dogs, but what gave it the flavor and more importantly the fantastic texture were the potatoes. This soup reminded me of my youth and the fact that it was the potato that made the soup surprised me. This soup is also very easy to make and works great as a first course for a supper club dinner party. (See the recipe)

Our neighbors, the Walters, were German. Mr. Walter had been a U-Boat captain during the war. His submarine had got stranded on a sand bar and he spent most the war in a British prisoner of war camp. I will never forget spending a Christmas Eve with the Walters where when there was conversation about European travel and Mr. Walter went on at length about how we had to go to Norway because the people are so friendly there. That night walking home my dad said to me: “Of course he thinks that Norwegians are friendly, the last time he was there he had a sub machine gun around his neck”. Mr. Walter had been part of the German occupation stationed in Norway during the early part of the war.

Note: Pinterest pin From Fran Rita

As it turns out, my father who was Irish loved things German. Of course he loved my mother who was German, but he also loved German food, music and the language. His older brother was a Catholic priest and when my dad was young “Father Pat” was in a monastery in pre-war Germany. Dad learned German so he could converse with his brother. When I was a kid, my parents travelled to Germany and I heard constantly about how wonderful Germany was.

Fast-forward to the 1990’s and I spent a lot of time in Germany on business with Kraft Foods. I once called home to my mom complaining about the Germans. Contrary to what my father had said, the Germans were no fun. In business, it was their way or the highway. It was almost as if they had lost the war, but they were going to make Americans pay for their loss. My mom, ever the cool head, let me vent and then asked: “Where in Germany are you?” I told her Bremen and Hamburg. “Ahah” she said: “That explains it, you are in the north, our family is from the south. People are a lot friendlier in the south”. It is funny, but my friends in Memphis, love this story.

As we head into the colder months of the year, soup is a wonderful first course for your supper club dinner party. Try out this recipe for Potato, Leek and Broccoli Soup with Hot Dogs. Your guests will love it, even without any sub-machine guns.

Photo Credit: Rose & Ivy