gobble! gobble! gurrrrl!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because it's all about sharing food, drinking wine and spending time with family and friends.

For me it's never to early to plan for the Thanksgiving meal. We are now on our 4th year of spending the holiday in Wellville. To minimize 'emergency trips' to the Surf Supermarket in Gualala, it's important that the menu is finalized; shopping lists defined for each store; and shopping occur before we leave San Francisco.

Once we get up to Wellville, it time for me to get into chef mode. For the 48hrs leading up to Thanksgiving, my kitchen becomes ground zero. I'm on point for the entire meal except for desserts. Baking has never been my favorite, so I leave the pie baking to David A. (the expert baker in the bunch).

This years meal is full of our thanksgiving classics, plus a few new twists (corn + kale salad) to keep it interesting. To manage my time, I break the menu down into tasks for the day leading up to Thanksgiving day. Sounds crazy, but I think Mario Batali said having a timeline will help you manage time and avoid forgetting anything on the menu. He's right! Try it!

Breaking up the cooking into manageable daily tasks, allows me to make lots of dishes- I like variety (and leftovers) in my holiday meals. And with all most of the cooking completed by Thanksgiving day, all that's left is to roast the turkey. And while the turkey rests, the oven is free to heat up all the sides. Easy breezy.

2 tricks I learned to help make Thanksgiving carefree- make your mashed potatoes and gravy the night before. Seriously. I hate stovetop cooking on the big day.

Tips:

• With the mashers, make them as you normally would and place them in a baking dish. On the big day, add a little extra cream and a pat of butter on the top of the potatoes, cover with foil and reheat in the oven at 375 degrees 40 mins. Mix the potatoes before serving. They are perfect!

• As for the gravy, most of you who make homemade gravy are probably asking how can you do this without pan drippings? Here's the trick. Buy a turkey leg or wings. Roast them and make stock. Use this stock to make your gravy (stock, roux, etc.). Be sure not to season the gravy at this point!  On the big day, reheat the gravy on the stove top. Add any drippings and roasted gibblets from your turkey to the gravy. Season at this point.

Once all the items have been crossed off, it's time to spend time with my guests. Enjoy some (more) wine and the bounty I've lovingly prepared in the last 48hrs.

...now what to do with all the leftovers?