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 Thanksgiving planning is over, Now what? Do you take a break or start planning for the next holiday? What to do next?

Most home chefs will take a break from any kind of cooking and baking. Thanksgiving is always draining and it is nice to take a couple weeks off just to relax. This is the time to get out the crockpot or Insta pot ad start thiuking stews and chilis. They're easy to make and easy to store leftovers. You can also use leftover turkey for a white chili. This is cooking the turkey cooked with cannelini beans and Monterey Jack cheese. Onions and garlic are also added as are such spices as cumin, oregano and garlic along with cinnamon. It's a nice dish to come home to on a blustery cold night. This is also a good time to think about cooking other easy dishes like hamburgers and hot dogs .These are easy to grill and again are filling. if you're still tapped out from the holiday then order in. You can easily get a roasted chicken and sides at any grocery store or Wal-Mart. Also take advantage of the family sized meals from Marie Callender's and Stouffer's family style meals that can feed four  to five people.

What about those home chefs and bakers who are all set to tackle Christmas and Hanukkah? The last is later this year, starting December 18th and ending on the 26th. Both holidays require cooking and baking. It;s a good time to start stocking up especially if groceries are offering after Thanksgiving sales. Write down your plans. Are you planning a cookie exchange? Will there be family parties as well as a sit down dinner? Are you going to be on a budget? These are all factors to consider in the upcoming weeks. You can  easily pace yourself with both shopping, cooking and baking. It;s also a good time to assess all your baking equipment. is your cookie shooters up to par? Is the barrel that holds the dough cracked? Take advantage of sales to get a new one. Also check your cookie cutters. Do you feel like you need one or two new ones? Check your shapes. You don't want to have just snow flakes or reindeer. Get a new one like a sleigh or Santa to mix things up What about the latkes? Do you need a new peeler?  You can easily make them in an air fryer which is also on sale now.

what's up next is up to you. You can take it easy for th next couple of weeks. You could also start your holiday cooking and baking plans. It's your decision.

Turn Those Leftovers Into Gold

 Black Friday usally means shop til you drop. It also means dealing with yesterday's leftovers. What do you do with them or the overage from ingredients? Turn them into yummy dishes.

This had been nagging at me  all last night. I had extra Just Egg egg substitute and vegetable broth left over from yesterday's vegan French bread stuffing. It dawned one me what I can make with them  -. pompiest, that Piedmontese comfort food , breadcrumb soup.

I used these leftover ingredients with a cup and a half of breadctumbs, cooked and combined to create a soothing potage. It was a stomach calming  respite from yesterday's filling meal. It also made for a hot tasty lunch too.

Thanksgiving provides us with all sorts of leftover.  Melissa Clark wrote about using leftover  turkey in a number of ways in Wednesday's The New York Times Food section.  It's best in a soup where you can spice it and add pearled barley as Cristiana  N> de Carvalho did , using her native Brazilian mother's recipe. There are also turkey enchiladas and pot pies, the last made with left over veggies too. Keep in mind other leftovers can be totally transformed.I may turn those sweet potatoes into air fried wedges. Brussels sprouts can also be crisped up again in the air fryer. f course the best is just turkey reheated with stuffing and gravy to continue with the holiday.

Those leftovers are culinary gold. They can be turned into any savory lunch or dinner. Be creative with them to create a tasty meal.

A Good Thanksgiving And Stuffing Too

 For all my readers whether in the US or around the world Happiest of Thanksgivings. May it have been as nectic and delicious as my own vegan one.

This is the day's masterpiece - a vegan French bread stuffing with fresh thyme, made with Acme's Signature brand veggie broth and Just Eggs as the softener and binder. It was pretty good - even better reheated.

Do you have a favorite recipe you'd like to share? Let me know. It could be just as good as my stuffing.

Cranberry Facts

 what would the Thanksgiving table be without cranberry jelly? Its' rich ruby coloring and tart taste gives zing to an other wise bland table. This American classic is truly just that more American than apple pie<Its history is as old as the country and continent itself.

Regular contributor Christina Morales wrote about them in todays' New York Times Food section.It actually jellied cranberry which is the star and its' been around for 110 years.It was created in 1912 by Massachusetts farmer and lawyer Marcus L. Uran. Mr. Uraan wanted to support local cranberry famrers in his native Massachusetts. he also bought a bog as well. He had the idea to extend the usual two month cranberry season to all year round by pressing them into juice and prederving them into jellies. This became the famed Ocean Spray company in 1930, also created by John Makepeace of Massacusetts and Elizabeth Lee of New Jersey. They created one of the first farm cooperatives which is now owned by seven hundred farmers nationwide. The canned sauce was first served in 1941 and has been a classic ever since.  A phenomenon is that Gen Zers have disovered this as they take over holiday cooking from older relatives. Cranberry jelly is also becoming the star of Friendsgiving dinners too.

It is popular with a four percent rise in production despite the price being raised twenty per cent higher than last year fifteen billion cranberries were harvested during that time. About a thousand farms grow them according to Karen Cahill, marketing director of the Cranberry Marketing Committee. The fruits need a lot fo land. To just grow an acre of cranberries a farmer needs another five to seven acres of support land just for the water's reservoir system.Contrary to popular believe they do not grow in water  but rather in a moist well drained environment. These beds also called bogs are flooded with eighteen to thirty inches of water  when the berries are ready to be harvested in September and October. The cranberries rise to the top of the bog, thanks to each berry having four air pockets. Farmers uses rakes and tractors to detach them fron their vines. The harvested berries are then put into yellow containment booms, that also are used for corraling oil spills. They're cleaned a number of times before going off to the processing center to be frozen. Their skins and seeds are removed and they're mashed into a puree Corn syrup is added to this then they're filtered and pacled into cans. everything is then lableled and boxed ready to be shipped to groceries around the country.

Cranberries are one of the most American foods we can eat.It's pnly fitting that they're served at the most American of holidays. Enjoy a slice of it with your meal tomorrow.

Table Set

 Does anyone know how to set a table? Yes you put plates in a certain way along with cutlery and glasses. Many of us, though have been doing it wrong, There is a right   and elegant way of doing such.

A basic table setting just has the dinner plate flankled by one fork on the diner's left and a knife on the diner's right.next to the knife is the dessert spoon (or soup spoon if soup is being served.) The fork is placed on a napkin, although if you want to be traditional , then place the napkin on the diner's right hand side. A water glass is also placed on this side as well. If you're planning a more formal dinner then you'll have to add salad forks and dessert spoons and forks. The salad fork is place directly to the right of the dinner fork. The dessert spoon and fork are placed on the top section of the place setting. A smaller plate for your dinner roll is placed  on the left along with a smaller butter knife.On the right hand side there should be three glasses arranged in a triagular pattern. The bottom two should be the water on the left hand side while the glass for the white wine sits opposite it. In back of these is the red wine glass. If you want to be fancy add place tags. These are placed behind the dinner plate and sometimes flanked by small individual salt and pepper shakers.

What about a buffet table? Do the rules of etiquette apply to it as well? Not really. The integrity of the food is what matters here. Hot food should be on one end, while cooler dishes like salads and cold cuts should be on the other end. The two temps should not be mixed. You can add a wooden block to the middle of the table for the chafing dishes. This highlights the main sides like gravy and stuffing. Another idea is placing the hot dishes on another table for complete separation. Doing such will allow guests to choose what they want first. The first items on the buffet table should be plates and cutlery. It's up to you as the host to decide whether to use your good china if you have enough to suit a lot of guests or  elegant plastic ones. Many choose the last and luckily they're easy to get from Amazon. At the end of th e t able are the napkins (and wet wipes if there are sticky or messy finger foods).After dinner the tables are cleared and then the desserts are put out. Again follow the same protocol but add cups and saucers for coffee and tea. Put urns of coffee and hot water where the chafing dishes were along with a basket of assorted teas and sweeteners. You can also have creamers on the table or place them on individual tables along with sugar or honey. 

A well set table reflects on the host. It's showing a level of tastefulness that will add to the dinner. The perfect place setting is the key to the perfect meal. 

The Well Rounded Cranberry

 Cranberries are just for jellies or juices. They can be used in everything from stuffings to mocktails along with being the star of many a dessert. They're more well rounded than you think.

Cranberries should be a part of the Thanksgiving dinner. Ditch that slimy jelly though and rethink them. A great idea using them as a glaze for the bird itaelf. It's cooking two pounds of the fresh berries in a sweet savory mix of onions,butter sugar rosemary and the cranberries along with vinegar and orange zest.It;s cooked over a low flame until the cranberries burst.It's simmered and then strained (save the mash for a side).The glaze is then brushed over the turkey after two hours of roasting. This can also be used for chicken too. Cranberries can also zing up stuffing too.Used the dried ones or Craisins for a filling that;s also redolent with walnuts too.It's still perfect with gravy thanks to the the traditional sage and thyme added. For this tormbread or bread cubes can be used.Surprisingly these bright gems can also be highlight veggie dishes too. Try a kale and cranberry salad. It's even more tastier with the addition of almonds and goat cheese. A zingy Dijon -orange viniagrette dewesses it. Brussels sprouts can also benefit from it.Roast the two together with a maple glaze for a unique  side.

Keep in min that cranberries are also great in a dessert. They're perfect in a pie , in a mousse like form with the addition of gelatin , heavy cream and coconut milk. Another dessert that the kids would love are cranberry bars with cream cheese frosting.This is combining fresh berries with a cookie dough and then decorating it with a creamy topping. You could even add a sprinkle of Craisins on top for an even more festive look. Another fun cranberry dessert recipe is tartlets. This is mix of a buttery crust made just butter cream cheese and flour. The filing is a custardy mix of egg, cranberries, vanilla and sugar. You could add a glaze but a puff of whipped cream would really give it that gilded edge. What about those fun mocktails and cocktails? A fun mocktail is mixng cranberry juice with any flavored seltzer like Waterloo Seltzers. Try it mixed with  their cherry or blackberry lemonade flavors. There's the perfect amount of fizz and sparkle. Add a sprig of mint or a stick of mixed otange wedges and cherries.The most famous cranberry ccoktail is the Cape Codder.This is mixing vodka with cranberry juice. You could also make a cheery cranberry sangria with red wine and triple sec. Add some orange juice for a sweet citrus-y kick. 

It would be a shame to just have jellied cranberries. Try them in either savory or sweet dishes. Wnjoy them in any drink. They're an incredibly versatile fruit that's perfect in anything and everything.

Tweaking Tradition

 There;s nothing like time homored recipes. Yet they may be too time honored and may need to be updated,especially for the holidays. It's not completely disregarding the recipe.It's enhancing it with new flavors and new cooking methods.

Have you ever thought of using the sous vide method on your turkey. This is a different way of cooking a turkey but it provides the bird with juicy , flavorful meat. You do need a sous vide machine to do this. They're around $99 on Amazon if you want to get one overnighted. You will have to butterfly or spatchcock the bird along with giving it time in the oven for crisp skin.Then there's dry brining it instead of wet and cooking it in a hot water bath for six hours. Another tweaking idea is spatchcocking the bird for a more even roast.It's split open thanks to poultry scissors (which cna be bought at any grocery store) and the back bone is removed. This lets it sit flat on the roasting pan where it cooks for just two hours. Butterfying or spatchcocking also works for any other kind of poultry too like Cornish hens and chicken. Of course you'd never omit thhe turkey's must have - stuffing but you can tweak it.Instead of the usual bread crumbs, stale bread especially French or Italian works just as fine. It gives for  a more chewy and crunchy bite. You could also add some soft pretzels too for flavor and texture.

Sides always deserve a tweaking. Everyone makes the usual sweet potatoes with marshmallows. This may have been great decades ago but its time to update them. Try them as fries , crisped in the air fryer. These are definitely a fun change up everyone will like .in fact they'll be the first to go. Another idea is mashing them. This is the same as the traditional mashed potato recipe with boiling them first and then mashing with milk and a stick of butter or plant butter. Add a tiny drizzle of maple syrup and a pinch of cinnamon or nutmeg for more flavor. If you opt for potatoes then think smashed for something different. This is taking red or yellow potatoes and boiling until tender. It's then smashing them with a masher and baking them on a large baking sheet. You can drizzle olive oil on them, followed by a sprinkle of rosemary leaves. Theur crispy texture and meaty interiro are reminiscent of French fries  but they have more oomph. This cam be done to that other Thanksgiving staple Brussels sprouts. Again it;s just boiling until tender and then smashing them. They're then popped into the air fryer with just a salt and pepper seasoning . If you  want to be fancietr sprinkled htem with Parmesan cheese and some chili powder.

Traditional needs to be tweaked in onder to remain fresh and relevant. Start with family recipes. it will make for a more interesting and delicious Thanksgiving.