This Thanksgiving, it will the second time that my wife and I will do together. Previous years, we have spent it at one of our parents homes, merely showing up to help with the mash potatoes and set the table before eating. Last year we decided at the last minute to do Thanksgiving alone as visiting a parent was not an option. Last year was fun but not without incident. We learned some lessons and we will not repeat the same mistakes this year, but in an effort to make the holiday dinner a bit more seamless I am going to plan ahead with pre-measuring and sorting my dry goods before the day.
The idea is, come cooking time all we have to do is grab the respective bag or jar with our pre-measured spices, sugar, flour, etc, and pour. No bags of flour or spice jars on the counter. No scrambling to wash the random measuring cup or spoon while the gravy burns. To take it one step further, as many of the ingredients as possible will be sorted into the vessel they will be cooked in. That means my flour, herbs, spices, and salt are going to be sitting in my saucier ready to go come gravy time. In my head this seems like a brilliant idea, kind of like cooking on TV, all I have to do is use the pre-measured spice in front of me. Will it work? I’ll let you know if a few days.
Update: The pre-measured spices were a HUGE help while cooking. Being able to follow a recipe without the measuring spoons, cups, and random spices littering the counter made working in a small kitchen much more enjoyable. The practice of pre-measuring dry good will be the status quo in my kitchen when it comes to meal planning.
Killer wild turkey post thumbnail is property of South Park Studios.
