Turkey Day, Three Weeks Early.

My family was in town for the weekend, so I decided, since the Boy and I aren't making it up to see them at Thanksgiving this year, that I would prepare a mini-turkey day meal on Friday night. Yes, because when you are looking forward to housing six adults and an 18-month-old in a 1200 square foot house with only one bathroom, cooking a big, labor-intensive meal is obviously the most logical choice. [insert self-directed eye roll here.]

It was a huge success, as you can see from the happy Bug photo at right. The cranberry sauce was her favorite, and it was super easy. I made it in the morning while I was eating breakfast. I sort of made it up as I went along, using the basic proportions for the cranberries, water and sugar from The New Best Recipe Basic Cranberry Sauce as the base. Proportions weren't exact, though, because the original recipe calls for 12 ounces of cranberries, and I had 16, so I multiplied a bit. In the recipe below, I'm sticking with the original recipe proportions to avoid confusion. Once you read past the cranberries line in the ingredient list, you can blame me for anything that goes wrong with your sauce.

Cranberry Sauce

makes enough to cover a 22-lb. baby from head-to-toe

3/4 c. water

1 c. sugar

1/4 t. salt

12 ounce bag of fresh or frozen cranberries, picked over to remove any that are bruised, bloated, soft or otherwise yucky. White ones can stay. Do not thaw if you use frozen; you'll just have to cook for a bit longer.

1/4 to 1/2 t. freshly grated nutmeg

1 cinnamon stick

7 or 8 allspice berries

1/2 t. whole cloves

2 T. brandy or cognac (I used extremely cheap stuff)

Put the allspice and cloves in a tea ball or tie them up in a pouch of cheesecloth. Bring the water, sugar and salt to a boil in a nonreactive saucepan over high heat, stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar. Stir in the cranberries, nutmeg and cinnamon stick, and dunk the sachet of allspice and cloves in too. Return to a boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer until saucy, slightly thickened and about two thirds of the berries have popped open. TNBR says this should take about 5 minutes, but in my experience, it's more like 10-15. Your mileage may vary. Transfer the sauce to a nonreactive bowl, remove the sachet and the cinnamon stick, stir in the brandy and cool to room temperature. You can make this up to a week ahead of time -- an excellent idea for actual turkey day! You could also replace the brandy with Grand Marnier or Triple Sec. The orange flavor works with cranberries too.

We started the meal with a curried sweet potato soup, recipe courtesy of la belle mangeuse. I changed it a bit because I was experiencing an onion shortage, and I forgot to put in 2 c. of milk that her recipe called for... I first tasted this recipe at our cabin extravanganza in early October. It's easy and a lovely blend of fall flavors. Everyone, including Bug, loved it and asked for the recipe. Okay, the kid didn't ask for the recipe, but her mama did.

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

serves 6 1/2 small servings, 4 normal servings

4 T. unsalted butter

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press

1/8 to 1/4 t. crushed red pepper

2 t. curry powder

1/2 t. ground coriander

2 1/2 lb. sweet potatoes, peeled, sliced, boiled and mashed

5 cups of vegetable broth

1/2 cup heavy cream

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add spices and stir for a minute more. Add potatoes and broth; blend well. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Transfer soup, in batches, to a blender or food processor OR blend with an immersion blender in the pot (much easier. I love my immersion blender!). Blend until smooth. Return soup to saucepan. With the soup on low heat, add cream. Adjust seasonings to taste. If a little too spicy, add more cream to cool it down. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The centerpiece of the meal was delectable, moist turkey. I brined and roasted an almost 5-lb. turkey breast using Alton Brown's fabulous recipe/how to from the 2003 Thanksgiving issue of Bon Appetit. I used his techniques last year and ended up with the best turkey I've ever eaten, bar none. It's good stuff, folks. I divided the recipe, of course, and the main deviations I made to accommodate the needs of the breast-only roast were to put 1 c. of water in the bottom of the roasting pan before I stuck dear Tommy in the oven and to cook for 30 minutes at 425 and then turned the oven down to 325 until my probe thermometer registered 161 degrees.

A probe thermometer with a wire that goes in the oven or a wireless set up is a godsend for preparing wonderful, perfectly done meats. I use mine all the time, and it was under $20 at Target. Now, you'll read that white-meat turkey needs to cook to 165, so isn't it dangerous to remove it at 161? NO. It's very important to the flavor and moistness of your turkey. As the bird rests out of the oven (for at least 30 minutes), it continues to cook with residual heat, and the juices redistribute throughout the meat. You can expect that your meat will rise in temperature at least 5 degrees -- sometimes as much as 10 -- so, if you wait to remove Tommy from the oven until his internal temperature hits the "safe" mark, you're going to be eating a dry, overcooked bird by the time it hits the table.

The roast took about 1.5 hours once it was in the oven. Definitely a great alternative to doing a whole bird if you're short on time and aren't expecting an army, and you don't have to deal with the challenge of the temperature-requirement differential between dark meat and white meat.

Our meal was rounded out with my mom's cornbread dressing (made with day-old fresh cornbread), green beans sauteed in olive oil, no knead bread and mashed potatoes with leeks. We served it with a lovely not-too-sweet German white wine and a needed-a-few-minutes-to-wake-up Zinfandel.

This early-bird Thanksgiving, I'm very grateful for my family, preparing and eating delicious food, and the abundance of joy in my life.