Delicious Thanksgiving Side Dishes

Is there a solution for that?

Yeah, so I have some therapy for sides, dealing with sides. I've been guilty of that too, but bring it on.

Okay, well, first thing I'm gonna do is I want to get some potatoes started, sweet potatoes started, because— and I did peel these ahead of time because I want to make some whipped sweet potatoes.

Cool, did you make me a co-host?

Oh, thank you very much.

You're welcome. Oh, that looks so good. They go— oh yeah, good, good, good. That looks so good. The colors and it just looks like Thanksgiving. And I think I see brown sugar there.

Oh yeah, there's brown sugar, there is honey, there is maple syrup. I've got a variety of spices we're going to use. We're going to do a little different thing. And right now I'm just going to cut these up because these are going to go into some water and we're going to make some mashed sweet potatoes is one of the things we're going to do. So we have to cook these up and then we're also going to do some roasted sweet potatoes. But I like to have a little bit of variety and I do love mashed sweets. Lisa's not real fond of the sweet potato at all.

I have made a sweet potato dish for 30 years at least. It's the same one every year because it's demanded and it has orange juice and it has, you know, the spices, cinnamon and nutmeg and maple syrup. And yeah, that's what you can do with sweet potatoes, right?

Yeah, they're just wonderful, you know, and it's— but it is an acquired taste. Some people just don't really like them. But, you know, the funny thing is, like, Lisa loves pumpkin pie. This isn't that far off, you know, sweet potato pie. She probably would not be able to tell the difference. But anyway, I started my water boiling. Normally I would start it from cold, but I wanted to get a jump start. Just threw a little salt in here with them, and I'm going to put this back on the stove and let it start boiling.

Okay, let me ask you a question. Does it make a difference, cold or warm water?

I don't know. It just sometimes I seem like I don't overcook them.

Okay.

If I start from cold.. And that's something I do because of regular potatoes. When I cook regular potatoes, it's the same thing. So good enough. That could have something to do with it, or it could just be in my mind, which is entirely possible too. All right. So the other thing we're going to do is we're going to do some sweets. And I actually just threw some green beans in a pot too, because I want to blanch them a little before we cook them. Alright, so we're going to start and I have some Brussels sprouts here today.

Oh nice, so much. You know, Brussels sprouts have gotten so much more popular in the past few years, don't you think?

Oh, absolutely. And there's a bunch of ways you can make them. And I have to pull some bacon out of there. I do have some bacon in there, but we have some Brussels sprouts. I have a butternut squash and I have a variety of other vegetables and we're just going to see how it goes, how much time we have. King just asked, what are we making? But Fine Art Food, we're making side dishes. Vegetables today is all pretty much straight vegetables, and we're doing them for— and they can— they don't have to be Thanksgiving Day side dishes, but these are some great side dishes you can make for your Thanksgiving table if you're looking for something different. And so let's move on. And from here, while I have the sweet potato out, let's finish cutting this up. I'm gonna make another sweet potato dish and get it in the oven because it's gonna take a little awhile, might not be done.

Hey, you know what I was looking at? I was spending hours last night, you know, late at night, it's a good time to just Google away. So I had my mind set on like chopping tools, for example, like a mandolin, which I don't have, I never had, or they have these new chopping things. You put the thing down and it goes, the food goes into a little box. Yeah. So, you know, what do you ever use? I never see you use a mandolin.

Well, you know, a mandolin is a lot of work and you gotta really be— I don't, you know, the only time I would use a mandolin is if I was making some julienne strips of vegetables. If I wanted to julienne some zucchinis, some carrots, something, or if I wanted to make a crinkle cut, then I would pull a mandolin out. But honestly, I don't own one because I cut— my hands are not really in that good a shape anymore to really handle something without cutting myself. And the blades on a mandolin can be really, really sharp.

Yes, that's what I have read. All the reviews I've read, you have to be really careful.

Really careful.

Yeah.

So let me put this— we've got sweet potatoes. I'm going to grab an apple. I'm going to cut up an apple. I'm just going to get rid of that little core in the middle. I'm going to leave it, leave the skin on it. And I like to just throw an apple in this sweet potato mixture because it's just a nice little change.

It is. It's a great flavor. It's perfect, perfect combination.

All right, so I'm just going to slice these up, skin on, like I said. Let's get rid of that label. We don't want the label in there. Didn't wash everything first, so that's all done. So these I'm just going to leave sliced and throw them in there. You'll be able to tell that they're apples. And I'm also going to add in a leek. I have some beautiful leeks that I got.

Yeah, they do look great. And you know what, too, by the time you put all those tools together and everything, you could be done chopping 5 vegetables.

Well, you know, that's kind kind of how I feel. You know, it's not always the case. Like, if I'm doing a lot, like if I'm in a, um, some of these are dirty in the inside and I'm just pulling them out. You can always see how far the dirt goes on, on these, even if you do wash them. So I'm just kind of getting them out and I'm going to put these in here and add them too. But you want to watch. Yeah, you can't always, unless you're doing mass volume of stuff, you know, that's when you pull out. Some of these kitchen tools are really meant, I mean, they're for, for serious gourmets and or home cooks, but they're really meant for a professional kitchen because it's something that we're going to do— use a lot. So I've broken all these little nice little pieces up, and you could also use an onion if you do not have, um, leeks. You know, it's not a, not a deal breaker. In fact, most of the time I will use onion. And now I'm going to put in some brown sugar, some black pepper, some salt, a little bit of olive oil, a little bit of cinnamon.

Nice!

Forgot my cinnamon.

Yeah, nice.

And I'm just gonna mix these up, get them coated really, really well, everything spread around on them. All right, let me rinse the tray. All right, so we have a pan here. These are all going in here, and you could line this first if you wanted to and just come back maybe and just hit it with a little bit more salt and pepper, a little bit more sprinkle of brown sugar. And you can always squeeze a lemon over it if you wanted to, a little bit. But this is good.

Oh, that's so easy. That is so fast and easy, and it'll just be beautifully roasted.

And then we're going in the oven. I've got it set at about 400 degrees, and it's probably going to take a good 20 minutes to half an hour, somewhere in that range.

Okay, what do you think about— would you add, say, some walnut halves to that?

You could put nuts in there. You could coat it with a little— if you don't want to use brown sugar, if you want to use some honey. I mean, you can make— you want to think fall, you want to think fall flavors, and you want to start adding in different aspects. And when I think of orange vegetables, when I think of sweet potatoes, carrots, butternut squash. I think orange juice. I think honey. I think cinnamon. I think vanilla. I think nutmeg. Yes. Okay, so these are flavors that'll all take almost the same kind of presentation. So if you're making them, you want to try and go in a direction here where you want to add a little bit of difference to each one that you're making.

Now, did I, or did I, did I miss you putting brown sugar in?

Oh no, there was brown sugar when I tossed them.

Okay, okay.

I put the apples, the leeks in, and you could add more leeks to it if you want to add, like you said, maybe some pecans in there. Again, think about where each other side dish, you know, when you sit down and decide what your side dishes are, think about where you're going to put in other side dishes. Like if I'm going to do green beans, maybe I want my nuts to go in the green beans. I want them to go in Brussels sprouts. You know, so you want to— you don't want them all to be similar. You want to have a little bit of difference in it. So that being said, right now we're going to go over to some carrots, and I'm going to put a little bit of butter in the pan, a little bit of olive oil in the pan. I'm going to cut it. So turn this on.

Any particular type? Baby carrots?

I'm using baby carrots simply because time is not on our side too much today. So I've got some nice baby carrots, and I tell you, if you're ever able to find the ones with the little green stems on them— yeah, okay, roast those, get those. But instead of doing this, and just how I seasoned up the, uh, the sweet potatoes, you could season it that way, or you could take it in a whole different direction. You could just olive oil, salt, and pepper or we're actually going to make these a little bit of a Moroccan spice. Something else about Morocco. Yeah, it started me thinking. So we're going to make a little bit of a Moroccan spice. So I'm going to dump these carrots in here. And again, this is something you can do ahead of time, par-cook them, and then after they're par-cooked, you can and put them in the refrigerator and finish them in the oven in like a casserole later.

Love it.

So this is something, you know, so you're not just going insane. So at this point, they're going to cook a while and like I said, they're not going to finish cook, but I'm going to put some salt on them, some pepper on them. I have a little bit of curry powder.

Oh nice.

Okay, yeah, curry. On them. Put a little bit of cumin, or cumin as the Mexican in me calls it. A little bit of onion powder. And again, this is your dish. Season it like you want. I'm just giving you some ideas. All right, and I am going to put a little bit of honey in this. I'm not going to go overboard. I kind of want to stay makes me think of honey more than— yeah, than brown sugar.

Because I don't know, I love honey and butter together.

Oh, yeah. So at this point, I'm just going to mix them up real good. I'm going to let them coat, and I'm going to try and— I'm going to turn this up a little because I want to see if I can get this to caramelize just a little bit more and see if we can get a little— even a little color into it would be nice.

Yeah, yeah, no, that looks great. You don't— what else do you need?

You know, really, if I was going to add some fresh herbs into it, the fresh herbs want to come right before you serve them because they're going to be mostly like— maybe you want to put some chopped cilantro in it or some mint in it. Okay, you can cook it with it, but it's going to kind of get ugly at that point and the flavors won't do a whole lot. But on your presentation now, when you serve it that's when we want to bring out some of your fresh herbs.

Well, you know what, I mean, mint is perfect for Moroccan, you know, for Moroccan type of dish. Perfect.

And again, you can chop your herbs ahead of time. They'll stay fresh a day at a time. Just put them in a little bowl, wrap them in plastic, have your parsley, have your mint, have some cilantro, have, you know, anything green that you want to use to decorate to make the plate look prettier later. And put them on the side, wrap them up, and then when it's time, bring them all out, set up your mise en place for anything you're going to finish with, and just start putting them together. Now these are, you know, these are pretty good like this. I do want to try and let them cook a little, so while they're cooking, let's clean some Brussels sprouts.

Okay.

All right, now you can buy frozen, you know, don't be intimidated. I'm just going to cut the little end off of these. These are pretty good-sized Brussels sprouts.

Now Brussels sprouts have always had the reputation of, oh, you know, kids don't— kids hate them and even adults don't like them. But, but you know what, there's so— I think they've just come into fashion with more creative cooking. You know, people just love them more than ever.

Well, you know, it's like a forgotten vegetable. You know, now we're discovering it. And, you know, they do cause a little gaseous problem from time to time in some people.

Chef, take a look at the mentions. We have a picture of a dancing Brussels sprout.

And please, while you're in here, if you can tell a little bird, I'd really appreciate it. You're watching around the kitchen. Table for those of you that may have just joined us, and this is Susan, Sarah, and myself, and we do this every Tuesday and Wednesday. And right now we're working on Thanksgiving prep for the next few shows.

Yes, that's right, and we've been doing these shows for well over a year, year and a half, and Chef is a very, very, very accomplished chef over many, many years. I was going to say decades, but I won't make you seem too old.

It is, unfortunately.

That's right, and I'm a kitchen designer. I had my own kitchen design studio for many, many years, so I come at the kitchen from a design functional and aesthetic point of view. And so between the both of us, we really give a holistic view of the kitchen. So that's the little blurb about us.

That's us. And I'm cutting these in half right now because they are big ones. Sometimes you get those little baby Brussels sprouts. Yes, yes, they actually did have them, but they were so outrageously expensive that, you know, if I was trying to impress someone, you know, at a dinner, I might get them. The same thing with those little carrots with the greens. Those are definitely a special occasion. Oh, you should smell these.

Oh, I bet. Honey and, and curry and savory. Love it.

Get some bacon out.

I forgot to get Lots of good things. It's all about sides today, all about Thanksgiving sides.

All right, so I have some nice applewood smoked bacon that I picked up. I was hoping bacon was included in the Brussels sprouts one way or the other.

I was hoping, and it's not a deal breaker if you don't want bacon.

Okay, that's not—

who doesn't love bacon?

Something that's gonna make this not good. So if you're not a bacon person, don't worry about it. Right now I'm gonna pull off my green beans.

I was hoping for that bacon. Who else was hoping for that bacon? And everyone, please add your thoughts about what your favorite sides are.

Oh, please.

Add them in the message, you know, so we can all kind of share the kind of sides we like.

Okay, we're doing good. I'm doing good here. My green beans are perfectly cooked. They're nice and par-cooked. It's just going to take a little bit of time. And while my carrots are— all right, you can start to see a little color. Let's move this back so you can see a little color. You can start to see a little color on them, and that's what I wanted, just a little bit of color. Now I'm just going to hit this with just a dab of water.

But now that takes some time too, because carrots are so dense. So how long, how long do you expect that to take? About 20 minutes?

Yeah, well, you could parboil them and soften them up a little. Or what I'm going to do at this point is I'm going to take them and I'm just going to taste one. A little more seasoning. More cumin. Cumin.

Curry. Oh, nice.

Yeah, pepper. That in. All right, so now I'm basically done. I'm gonna take these.

All right, beautiful, beautiful paired with a white dish. Love it.

Gonna put a little bit of water in the bottom of the pan, and then these would go in the oven. And like I said, you can sprinkle them with a little fresh herb when they come out and let them finish in the oven for, you know, 10-15 minutes. When you get all your vegetables together, if you want to do a casserole like this, you can pop them in there and they'll be great. Let me pull this off and rinse it.

Now look at, look, look at this comment. TT Kevin, however you say it, I'm sorry, I apologize. We put bacon under the skin of the turkey.

Oh yeah.

I never heard of that.

I've seen that.

Wow.

Wrap just about anything with bacon too.

That's true. That's true.

We're gonna put some bacon in here.

Yeah, please tell us your favorite sides, what you, what you love. I hear, I see a green bean casserole, always a hit.

Oh my goodness, always a hit. And hit this with just a little bit of oil. I know there's bacon, there's going to be oil, but you still need it. And then I'm going to cut up, I know I have an onion here. No, I don't have an onion.

Let me grab it.

All right, so let's get these.

Well, you know, speaking of the onion, could you have used the leek?

Oh, absolutely.

If you're out of onions, okay.

Scallions, but I just want to add, you know, and if you're using scallions, put them in at the end. They're a little more delicate.

And Pete George says corn casserole. Tell us what's in that corn casserole, George.

Good. Absolutely. I've done a creamed corn casserole from time to time.

Nice. Oh, and pearl onions. What about creamed pearl onions?

Oh, absolutely.

I've actually never made it. I've had it, but I haven't made it for Thanksgiving, but it's— love it.

Well, you know, if you were doing a, like, a creamed corn casserole, I would, I would make— if you you want to use fresh corn and make your own cream corn out of it, but you don't have to. If you want to make it, make yourself easy, just use your cream corn and then kind of doctor it up with some different flavors. Maybe put some bits of color in it. You throw a few carrots in it just for color if you wanted to.

Or you know what, Trader Joe's has that roasted corn.

Oh, there you go. That would, see, that would make a good— I'd rather make my own kind of cream corn. So now in the pan with the bacon, I've got some onions. I'm gonna throw in some Brussels sprouts. Now these are, like I said, this would be a good item that could use some pecans, some walnuts. Hit it with a little dab of butter. Yeah, I use both oil and butter. That way, you know, it helps. The butter doesn't burn as quickly because you're using some oil.

Oh, so you just put some butter in there too?

I just threw a little bit of butter.

So you have butter, bacon fat, and oil.

Wow. God, I know, I feel my arteries hardening. Black pepper and more black pepper and probably a little more salt than you think. I think too, because Brussels sprouts are kind of a— it's got a unique flavor, but it's a little bland at the same time. So these are going to cook, you know, let's— and I always tell you, sauté your vegetables a little bit. I mean, roasting them in the oven is fine, you don't need a lot else, but you always want to sauté to get some of that flavor, that natural caramelized sugar flavor in there.

Now I'm wondering, do you want —so often you see Brussels sprouts with a brown kind of crust, you know. Do you want to try to do that? Is that part of this?

You can caramelize them and you can get them nice and dark. Yeah, right. You could take these in a whole other direction. I mean, I have some balsamic vinegar on the table here. You could add a little bit of balsamic to it. That's a nice, elegant Touch.

I like that.

Okay, we got bacon. What goes with bacon? You want to add a little sweetness to it, you can add a little maple syrup. Yeah, a little bourbon to it too. Bourbon. Oh, great idea. I like to say bourbon too. Bourbon's a wonderful thing. So now I'm just going to let these try and cook a little bit.

Crack this up a little bit. They look, they look so great. They look so great. Now let me ask you this though. You put the bacon in, will the bacon get crispy or will it just get kind of, you know, render the fat and get done?

But again, I'm going to finish these in the oven, so it will get a little bit more crisp in the oven, but you can't expect it. Now if you want If you want that— I do. Okay, if you want that, then you want to cook your bacon really crispy. What you want to do is leave some of the fat in here from the rendering, pull your bacon out of there, and then either put it in the oven and let it get crisp. That would be my best bet. Put it on a sheet pan and cook this in the rest of the bacon fat, and then add the really crispy bacon to it. So that's what you're looking for. Board. That's not hard to do. And like I said, just, uh, render it, get some of the fat out of it. And at that point, I might not even chop it up yet, cook it whole so you don't have a hard time pulling it out.

Yeah, right.

Oh, good idea. Pull it out after it's rendered and you've got the fat out of it, and, and then put it on your chopping board and cut it up and let it— I would cut it up before I put it in the oven at that point, because you want all the edges to crisp. So that'll crisp faster that way. All right, so here we've got a beautiful— smells great. Got that little balsamic vinegar, got a little maple, you got some salt and pepper.

Every single dish— I mean, I love that word savory, but because it says so much, but it's true. Every dish you're making is— it's just that quality of being savory. It's— I love that quality.

This is like hot pack too. I know I had some breadcrumbs in here somewhere.

See, we need to be organized.

Don't you wish? All right, so now just a little crunch on top. Or even a little cheese. All right, so there is—

oh, cheese is always good.

There's our Brussels sprouts. So now we have Brussels sprouts, we have our carrots. These are going to go in the oven, so these are going to finish for 15 minutes just like the carrots did. So now we're set with 2 vegetables that I don't have to scramble for when it's time to serve the turkey.

I can't believe you just did 3 major side dishes in 20 minutes.

Well, thank you.

That's a good job. That's really impressive.

And that's, and that's with my kitchen being like a bomb site right now.

Yeah, that's okay. That's okay.

All right. So now what I've done is I've cooked my sweet potatoes. All right. And let me just let them drain just a minute while I get my other stuff ready here. And my green beans cooked a little bit too much. But that's okay. I'm going to eat them for lunch. All right, so I've drained my sweet potatoes.

I can't keep track. I can't even keep track of what you'll be doing with the green beans.

Well, I was gonna put them in with some nuts because I always think of like almonds or pecans when I do green. But anyway, here's my sweet potatoes for my whip. Butter.

Oh, come on, you need more butter than that. Pepper. Come on. There we go. Vanilla. That's a secret ingredient I haven't used before with sweet potatoes.

A little bit of vanilla.

Yeah.

Nice. And you know, I'm not a fan of nutmeg, but if you like nutmeg, this is something you could put it in. Cinnamon. A little more salt. A little bit of brown sugar. Okay.

So, so what now? What about eggs? Is this something that doesn't need egg?

If I was gonna make a pie out of it, yes. Okay. But I'm just gonna whip it. Do it back here because I ran out of room on my countertop. That's gonna go in. And this is something that you can season after it whips up. You can taste it and then you can season from there. All right, so we've got roasted— uh, I almost lost track— roasted sweet potatoes with leeks and apples in the oven. We've got our Moroccan-style carrots that just need a little mint to dress them up. We've got our Brussels sprouts with bacon and a savory vinaigrette. I've got whipped sweet And again, you don't ever want to over-whip anything because what happens when you over-whip is it'll start to bring more of the starch out and you get that kind of gummy flavor.

Okay, so there's a— it, it gets gummy. Does it get more dense than just It's not fluffy. It's like the opposite of fluffy.

Well, if you want to get them fluffy, by all means, whip them up a little bit more. Oh, okay. But I would just be careful over-whipping.

Wow, that looks amazing.

Sweet potato is just going to have a little bit of a different consistency. Wow. But here, you know, all right, so you got people that don't eat sweet potatoes. But this is going to give them a little bit of a different flavor.

That looks fantastic. And I know I put brown sugar and it's not overly sweet. Good. That's great. That looks great.

That's really good. Good job.

Wow.

And you know what? I can have it. I taste that little hint of vanilla in it. So it's— I would defy anyone to not like these. These are just really good. Wow. All right, so that's done. All right, almost ready. Got one more thing here to do, I think. Definitely have to order myself another sauté pan that works on this.

You're running out, huh? You need too many at one time.

Well, this is pretty good. Okay, so now a little bit of oil on. Let's let that heat up a little bit. And green beans, everybody likes green beans, and green beans are always kind of a default vegetable because if you don't like anything else—

That's right, the picky eaters, they're good for the picky eaters.

So you always want to have a vegetable for the picky eaters because they got to eat a vegetable. You know, you can't let them get away with not eating anything. So these are probably, you know, there's a lovely green bean casserole that's a, that is a definitely Thanksgiving tradition with those little canned onions. I think they use the crispy ones that everybody makes. So at this point, these are cooked, cooled in the refrigerator, and this might be one of the only vegetables you want to do on stovetop, or if you make sure they're just blanched, don't let them cook very long, you can finish them in the oven just the same way. You just want to, just want to get them blanched to get some color, let them change from that off-green to a nice green. Mm-hmm.

And then salt, pepper, You know, that's a very good point because you could almost tell by the color because when they get to be that dull green, forget it.

So, you know, put them in boiling water, parboil them, get them that nice good green, pull them out, season them, oil, salt, pepper, whatever else you want to put in, put them in your baking dish and then let them bake. I would cover, you gotta be careful careful covering vegetables. You're going to change the color on them when you cover them. So this might be something you want to finish right on stovetop. Worst comes to worst, you put it in just for a little while and let them finish cooking in the oven. Just watch they don't turn. So these were a little still cooked— or hot, I mean. And this is how I do for dinner generally, is I'll boil them real quick. And then I just put them in. And now we're served.

Wow, okay, that looks great. Easy, easy.

You know what, I don't have enough room here, so let me Ah, good idea.

Oh yeah, that is beautiful. Wow. I can't believe you did. It takes me hours to do my side dishes.

Well, you also do them for how many people too? You're cooking a lot more than me. All right, so these were 4 that we just did.

And the colors are beautiful. Let's see how my roasted ones going. Yep. That's right, this, and then we have the stuffing that we made yesterday. Yesterday, you should look up our blab from yesterday. It's all about stuffing.

So these are okay. Nice. These are not quite ready. Uh-huh. See the possibilities of these. These need maybe another 10 minutes and everything's cooking nicely. Smells divine.

I bet, I bet those apples give it such a good, good fragrance too. This looks great. Love the colors, love the textures, and they look delicious.

All right. So these— yeah, these are some ideas. You saw how I did the sweet potatoes. You know, a regular potato, you want to cook it somewhat the same way. Just no brown sugar when you season it. No vanilla, you know, but it's the same basic cooking technique. Put your butter, put your milk in the pan, whip them up, and just— you can whip those a little fluffier, but you know, I kind of like to have a little chunk from time to time. Mm-hmm. People know they're real potatoes. That's true. I usually do too.

Yep.

I don't like to over-whip them, and I found sometimes when you're trying to hit that sweet spot with whipping them, you take them just a little bit too much and that starch really kind of builds up.

Yeah, although I have to say, my mother being a European woman growing up in, you know, Denmark and strict cooking rules, her mashed potatoes had— I don't know how she did it, I've never been able to achieve it— had zero lumps in them, just like her gravy.

Did she rice them? Maybe she did.

I don't remember.

A ricer. I mean, I know in the old days people used to rice potatoes and oh, they were though.

I just have mashed potato guilt. Yeah. I don't know how she did it. How about a little bit of kitchen therapy now?

Let's do some therapy.

Just for a couple of minutes. I have some tips together for kitchen therapy. So, you know, when we talk about side dishes, how many do you really need? I mean, we can go crazy. And, you know, all the years I've done Thanksgiving, sometimes I just say, oh, let's do this and let's do that. So be careful. It's all about planning. You know, how many can you really logistically, you know, make? So think about how many side dishes you really need. What are the timing logistics? You know, how much oven space do you have versus how much time do you have to spend at the stovetop, you know, cooking one or the other? That's so tricky. I'll tell you this. And you can think about this in regards to remodeling your kitchen, if anyone's thinking about remodeling your kitchen. For many, many years, I had double ovens. Now, the second oven I used once a year. And that once a year was Thanksgiving. When it was Thanksgiving Day, I was happy I had it. So, you know, it's okay to rarely use your double oven, but think about the oven logistics, the spaces you need for things, right, Chef?

Oh, absolutely. You really have to, and that's where a lot of people fail. Yeah. They don't think about putting everything out and getting everything out hot. And, you know, don't be so ambitious that the whole meal is just okay. Yeah, that's right.

Well, that's part of the therapy. Now, can you reconfigure the kitchen, you know, if you're thinking of remodeling to accommodate or in your existing kitchen to accommodate assistant chefs. You know, can you bring in a kitchen cart? Kitchen carts are great for this. You know, reconfigure your countertops to allow for other people helping you. You know, so if you have 4 to 5 sides, you know, it requires planning for cooking equipment, for your workspace, for timing. What can you do ahead? You know, and also how can you make it enjoyable for yourself? You know, I don't know about you, but so often after Thanksgiving, I seem to crash for about 2 days. And it's like you have this adrenaline and then you completely crash. At least that's my experience. But, you know, let's not add to the stress. Let's take it. So let's plan in advance. What tasks can you delegate? How can you make it enjoyable? You know, what items can you prep, can you buy prepped? For example, I see chefs, sometimes you have garlic already peeled in a jar. What about chestnuts? Chef, I used to buy a ton of chestnuts and I used to score them with an X, put them in the oven, this is for my stuffing, take them out and then what happens by the time I get to the last third, they're cold and they're hard to peel. So buy the chestnuts in the jar.

You know, there are so many products and don't ever feel bad for taking a few shortcuts here and there because, you know, these products are there to help you and help you survive the holidays and still get a good meal out. I mean, there's nothing wrong with the way produce has been. Most precuts are done so well and they're vacuum sealed or they're really packed nicely. They had some really nice crinkle-cut carrots. That'll add a different shape to your table if you're looking for something different. And especially with kids, you know, kids and adults like crinkle-cut anything. I mean, the worst French fry I ever served was the crinkle-cut. People went bananas for them just because of the shape. But I mean, it's not a real potato. It's processed and made into that shape. They don't cut the potatoes crinkle-cut, they form them, you know. So yeah, yeah. People love those shapes. So look at the store, look, I mean, there's these products I think called Love Me Beets or something that are precooked beets if you want beets and don't want to go through all the hassle. So yeah, don't be afraid to take a few little shortcuts here.

Yep. And a few more tips, you know, like I said, this is the therapy part, be aware of your anxiety level, get adequate rest, and organize by, you know, use a Google Calendar. And as things come to your mind, you know, jot things down, what you need to buy or have an ongoing list, have an ongoing Amazon list, you know, what you want to prepare when, things like that, what you can freeze ahead. You know, I'll be making stuffing and I think I'm going to try to freeze it this year because for me stuffing is a big deal thing. Every single thing is from scratch. Freeze it.

I was thinking about that and I used to do that, but freeze it uncooked. Okay, don't, don't freeze it cooked. So make it, put it in your pans or, and freeze it and then take it out, let it thaw and bake it. So if you do it that way, it'll be fine.

Good, good idea. A couple of things to look up our blab from yesterday on stuffing. And also, I will probably make the scones that we did a few blabs ago and freeze those so they are ready to come out. Tupperware. Do you have adequate cleanup? Sometimes when you have all the dishes, you have all the side dishes, you know, the serveware that came in after the meal. Do you have adequate Tupperware to put them away and to put them away in an organized way in the refrigerator? So, you know, that's important too. And we think we plan, We think we plan for these logistics, but do we really? And how well do we do it? So let's, you know, take it down a notch and plan little bits at a time when we can and then, you know, have a stress-free Zen experience.

Oh, absolutely. Again, and you'll enjoy the holiday more. And although I don't advocate the use of alcohol, a glass of wine from time to time does do wonders for the spirit.

Or two. Yep. So beautiful, beautiful sides. I mean, so what did you sprinkle on the carrots? I just put—

I don't have mint, but I put some parsley on it just to give you an idea of what the green would be. Or, you know, I would probably put mint or maybe a combination of mint and, oh my goodness, cilantro, because those flavors are nice. But mint definitely would go well on that. And then with the Sweet potatoes, when you go to serve it, sometimes getting the little chives, chop up the green ends and sprinkle some on there to make it look pretty when you serve. So think about your presentation. People eat with their eyes. All right. So think about your presentation and how you're doing something and keep those little herbs and do them by all means. Sit down and do them the day before. Wrap them up in little plastic containers. With plastic wrap and then pull them out and put them over by the stove. Not too hot, but put them over there. So when you start pulling things out and start plating them up, they're within hand's reach and you can start garnishing. Good tip. You know, if you want to garnish with nuts, do your— take some pecans or walnuts and put them in a pan on the stove with a little bit of brown sugar and butter and just kind of get them crispy and sweet. You can put some hot in there too if you want to put some chili or some cayenne in some of them. And then again, that's your garnish. Make up your garnishes. Think a little bit ahead of time what other kind of garnishes you can use. Have them done, have them on the side, so when things come out, when things are done, you can finish them. They look pretty when they come to the table. And that's it. Great tips. So, you know, there was more, but I'm tired. I think— Oh, you had more sides? I have a butternut squash here looking at me. And some beets and turnips and stuff, but you know, I didn't know how far it would go or how, how much energy I'd have. And this is what I would do at work. People had always said, I've never seen someone make so much food in such a short period of time. It's true. So, so, but you should see the kitchen.

See, see, I was right. And then you crash. Yeah, and then I crash.

I'm ready. I have a bottle. I have a bottle of tangerine tangerine juice here just in case I crashed while I was on. So, you know, so go ahead. This is my single size of tangerine juice. Noble Juice, we have this down here. It's a Seminole Indians, uh, work with this family, fourth generation of Floridians, and they make these tangerine juices that are just wonderful.

So tangerine juice, that sounds fantastic. That sounds great. Well, these are so inspiring. I mean, I'm totally inspired, and I, I'm just gonna you know, look at this a week from now when I start putting my menu together.

Sounds good. And then next week we're doing Tuesday, we're doing gravy and cranberry sauce. Wednesday we're doing pies. And then the following week, the week before Thanksgiving, on Tuesday we're going to be brining a turkey. And then on Wednesday we're going to be roasting the turkey. And then later in the day we're going to be carving it. Getting there ready. So wow, this is—

this— we're going up to the, uh, the mountaintop.

I know, I see Nazim's in the house. Happy birthday, Nazim! Oh, happy birthday! I saw a picture of him when he was just a young pup and I went, oh my God, that is Nazim! Look at him, such a good-looking boy he was.

I have to look at that picture.

Yeah, and it's his birthday and he's gonna have a birthday bash at 1 o'clock. So if you guys have time, jump over, say hi to Nazim. He is a great guy, and Betty, his wife, should be there too. So stop and see them. And anyway, thanks for coming around the kitchen table. We had fun today. Now I have some stuff to clean up.

Oh yeah, I'm glad I don't— I'm not involved. No, you're—

you got lucky on that. And I'm back at 2 o'clock today. I actually am introducing another blogger to to blab. It's a super, super glue mom, and I can't remember her real name, but she'll be on with me at 2 o'clock and we'll be talking about food blogging.

Oh cool, take a look. Okay, bye everyone.

See you later. Bye-bye.