Thanksgiving Checklist and Christmas Pudding
ooodles and ooodles of holiday cheer
If you’re in the US, you’re probably up to your elbows planning for Thanksgiving. Or, as we call it in food blogger circles, the Olympics of Food…..it’s one of our biggest events of the year, and we gleefully sharpen our knives, pull out all our pans, tie our aprons and dive right in! Personally, Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday. It’s purely about food and family and friends. That’s it. No presents, no wrapping, no trying to find elusive items on wish lists. Nope, that’s for next month……but for now, it’s all about Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving food.
This time of year is so chaotic and the pace of life gets even more frenetic than usual, so I’ve got a few things you can do to help stay organized and, hopefully, fairly stress free for Thanksgiving.
Here are 5 things you can do now, to save time on Thanksgiving:
If rolls, bread, muffins, scones, pie crusts, cranberry sauce or soup are on your menu, make them now and freeze them. Then defrost them the day before.
Set the table. Yes, I know it’s early, but if you start now, you can tweak your table in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. There’s nothing worse than setting the table the morning of Thanksgiving, only to discover you’re short a couple of chairs, your grandmother’s silver is missing 3 forks and you have no idea where your tablecloth went. If you start now, you’ll avoid all that!
Buy a digital thermometer. This is the absolute best way to determine if your turkey is cooked.
Polish your silver. I usually designate this job to one of my kids because it’s not the most fun job…..and I did plenty of silver polishing for my mom when I was their age. I now gladly pass the torch to my kids.
Test any new recipes. You know that tasty dish you saw in a Reel that you can’t wait to try? Don’t make it for the first time on Thanksgiving. Make it a few days before to test it out — you may want to adjust the seasonings, or play around with the ingredients and all that’s much easier (and less stressful) to do when it’s not actual Thanksgiving.
There are a million other tips I could give you, but that would make this Substack way too long. Instead, I’ve consolidated the important ones to help you stay super organized. This fantastic Thanksgiving Checklist has everything you need to do in the days leading up to Thanksgiving. And it also includes a step by step cooking schedule for the day of, so you know how to organized your cooking in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, and on Thanksgiving, too. Plus, I’m sharing how keep your delicious food warm. It’s the checklist I use every year for the past 20 years. I’ve modified and changed it up a bit since my early days of cooking for the holidays, and I highly recommend printing it and putting it on your fridge. That’s where I keep it, and I hope you find it really useful!
While Lisa and family are gearing up for Thanksgiving - we only seemed to be talking about last year’s Thanksgiving 5 minutes ago!!! Over here we are completely immersing ourselves in Christmas and yes it is getting earlier every year. Christmas films are on daily, shop windows are being unveiled and light displays are being switched on.
Possibly the best lights in the universe, Bromyard lights are being switched on this coming Saturday. If you have never seen them - I highly recommend them to get you into the spirit. All of the shop owners make a huge effort to dress their windows. It is magical, and the lantern parade is something else!
I have been trying to get one step ahead of the game, and plan the gifts that I will be making for friends, family and others. I still leave out a Christmas tip for binmen, posties etc and I think to add a personally made gift is a thoughtful addition.
One that I have made in the past is a Christmas Pudding, I think this is particularly special for people living on their own, who may not bother?
Although you can buy lidded plastic tubs (which do make life easier for steaming the pudding) of course I like to make life difficult and buy earthenware or ceramic pudding basins, and wrap them in muslin. They are really reasonable to buy and more friendly towards the environment.
In the UK we had a tradition of adding a silver sixpence or a silver charm into the pudding and of course, I did this! You can buy silver sixpences online, but make sure you clean them thoroughly and wrap them in parchment before hiding in the middle of your pudding. This will make the lucky recipient aware. You don’t want any broken teeth!
The other thing to bare in mind, is that “Stir up Sunday” is fast approaching. Traditionally 5 weeks before Christmas, this will fall on Sunday 26th November. Plan for this. Make your shopping list as the suet can disappear off the shelves. Make sure that all of your fruit has been soaked in your chosen boozy tipple and you have stocked up on string, bowls, greaseproof paper etc….
Christmas tunes ready and on the Sunday, everybody in the house needs to take their turns to stir the pudding and make their Christmas wish.
I included my recipe for my Christmas pudding in our first cookbook, “12 Menus of Christmas” and we have included it here for you.
Of course, while making the pudding, it makes life a lot easier to prepare your mincemeat for your mince pies. Always a lovely gift! Hint hint!
If you have our Christmas book, I am also a fan of the Preserved Garlic in Olive Oil and also the Gingerbread Marshmallows!!!
Our new book, The Foodies Table, also includes some inspirational recipes which will make great gifts, like the Myrtle’s Award winning Chilli Jam.
I can also recommend the recipe for Gourmet Sausage Rolls, make raw and freeze ahead ready for the big day. Voted the best ever sausage roll, by my Farmers Market customers!
Next newsletter: I have just created a mulled wine syrup, intense gooey and delicious! I can’t wait to share the recipe with you!
Jane’s Christmas Pudding
Ingredients
150 g raisins
150 g sultanas
150g currants
25g glace cherries cut up
25g chopped prunes or figs
200ml Brandy, Rum or your favoured tipple
1 lemon – finely grated zest
1 clementine – finely grated zest
125g plain flour
150g vegetarian suet
125g breadcrumbs
170g dark soft brown sugar
1 large Bramley apple peeled, cored and grated
3 x large eggs,
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
Butter for greasing
100ml whisky or brandy for flaming your pudding.
3 pint pudding basin or Christmas pudding sphere tin,
Baking parchment & foil
Directions
A couple of days before Stir It Up Sunday, put all of the dried fruit in a bowl with the alcohol, cover and leave to soak for a couple of days if possible. (The longer the better).
In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients and then add the fruit and all of the lovely juices.
Now is the time to make your wishes.
Put some water into a steamer and bring to a simmer. If you don’t have a steamer, use a large heavy based saucepan with an upturned saucer in the base.
Grease the pudding basin and lid and put all of the pudding mix into the basin. Make sure to scrape all of the goodness out of the mixing bowl. Place a round disk of parchment onto the top of the pudding mix and then make sure that the lid is firmly on. If you have no lid, use a triple layer of parchment and tie tightly with string. I use the string to make a handle as well. Then cover with foil.
Place in the steamer and steam slowly for 5 hours. Check regularly, that the water does not boil dry.
Take you pudding out and leave to cool. Re wrap with clean foil and parchment if used and set safely aside to mature.
On Christmas day, put the pudding in the steamer once again and steam for a further three hours.
Turn out onto a serving plate. If you are intending to flame your pudding, make sure that it is one with a lip, so that the liquid doesn’t run off.
Get your matches ready. Heat about 100ml brandy or whisky in a small saucepan. Do not boil or you will cook off the alcohol. When hot pour over the pudding and light.
Parade your pudding to the table.