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Related: Culture Forums, Support ForumsThe Atlantic Daily: Our Guide to Cooking in Isolation
Cooks and non-cooks alike from around our newsroom share their best tips for navigating this strange Thanksgiving.https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2020/11/cooking-for-thanksgiving-during-a-pandemic-atlantic-daily/617202/
By now its a well-worn cliché to say that 2020 has been rough, and that the holiday season will be no different. Indeed, many Americans will likely (and should certainly) not be celebrating this Thanksgiving, that fraught annual feast, in the traditional manner. There arent any mashed-potato recipes good enough to fully distract us from how difficult and isolating the coming months will be, or to make up for not seeing loved ones (especially those weve lost). Without the ability to gather en masse, and against the backdrop of a still-worsening pandemic and crushing economic crisis, the search for a sufficiently comforting dish can feel almost existential.
But as we barrel toward the end of the year, Ive thought a lot about something Ina Garten told my colleague Sophie Gilbert just a few weeks into the norm upheaval of quarantine. Theres something about a grilled-cheese sandwich, the Barefoot Contessa noted, thats not just physically satisfying; its somehow soul satisfying. While scanning a slew of food magazines, blogs, and cookbooks in search of the perfect recipes for my own pared-down Thanksgiving, I kept coming back to the simple pleasure Garten described months ago. And though I probably wont be serving up cheddar on sourdough, this year Im hoping to find some comfort in the mundane repetition and small revelations of cooking itself. Below, cooks and non-cooks alike from around our newsroom share their best tips for navigating this strange Thanksgiving.
Dont make a traditional meal.
As far as Im concerned, the best part of Thanksgiving isnt turkey and gravyits spending all day in the kitchen, doing the kind of cooking we have time for only once a year. So dispense with tradition (this is the year!) and make whatever special, project-y meal your heart desires. In my house, itll be Julia Childs coq au vin, crusty bread, and lots of wine, but in yours it could be bo ssam, carnitas, sabzi polo, or homemade gnocchi. Or, for that matter, boxed mac and cheese and a really indulgent, baroque dessert, such as baked Alaska. The only rule is that there are no rules.
Or make the whole feast anyway.
Hear me out: Thanksgiving is so well loved because of the food, so whats the point if youre not going to have the turkey and the gravy and the mashed potatoes and the sweet potatoes and the green beans and the cranberry sauce and the rolls and the pie? Ive done Thanksgiving with just my mom for several years now, and we still cook the whole shebang, just on a smaller scale. Buy only your favorite piece of the turkey (we do the breast), use fewer potatoes, just bake your one must-have pie. Regardless, still make more than you need, because we all know that the best part is really the leftovers.
Compromise: Focus on the sides...............
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The Atlantic Daily: Our Guide to Cooking in Isolation (Original Post)
Celerity
Nov 2020
OP
tanyev
(42,358 posts)1. Oh, wow. The best thing about it just being hubby and me is NOT spending all day in the kitchen.
We're having pizza. Pizza leftover from what I made tonight. If it weren't for the pandemic, we'd go see a movie. Because of the pandemic, we'll probably binge watch something on Netflix, and I will be truly thankful for a nice lazy day.
procon
(15,805 posts)2. I'm going to cook a small turkey breast in the
Instant Pot - about 14 minutes. We mainly want lots of sandwiches. I'm also going to make our family heirloom cranberry relish because it goes perfectly on those big sammies.
I'll make carcass stock to freeze for Turkey noodle soup, and Turkey rice and veggie soup later on. I will portion out and freeze Turkey pieces for green enchiladas.