Cooking my first Thanksgiving meal during Pandemic!
By: Aarav Pant
Tags: Cooking, Thanksgiving

By Aarav,11

This year has been a rough year because of the coronavirus. I really like to cook, eat food and meet my friends. Since this pandemic requires a social distance of 6 feet, I can’t hang out with my friends or go to school. Also, I couldn’t go for our annual Thanksgiving dinner to celebrate with my parent’s friends and their children. So this year, I wanted to prepare my own Thanksgiving meal for my family. I asked my mom if I could and she said it would take a lot of work to make the turkey and other Thanksgiving recipes. She finally agreed to my continuous requests. On Sunday before Thanksgiving we were looking at which turkey to buy.

Since this was our first time , my mom and I had no idea how to buy a turkey. We researched on the internet . We decided we wanted a turkey less than 12 pounds. The next step came as a shocker — A turkey had something called giblets , that need to be cleaned from the turkey before cooking it. Giblets comprise of the turkey’s neck and gizzards which is the digestive tract of an animal to store food.

We both were shocked especially my mom :) I was ready to clean the inside of the turkey with my hands. My mom really wanted me to reconsider, but I had made up my mind that I would have turkey this year.

Our menu contained turkey, a stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, salad, and mashed potatoes.

Due to pandemic, we ordered our ingredients online. of course — we did not find the raw turkey :( Only frozen turkey was available. Anyway , we got that.

It was one day till Thanksgiving and we would have to wake up to thaw the turkey for 5 hours! This was a fastest method of thawing — we got the turkey last minute , it would take 2 days to thaw in the fridge and we did not have time. The reason the turkey needed to be thawed was because it would get bacteria sticking on it if we left it at room temperature.

We started at 10:30 AM on Thanksgiving day — we were in for a cold and wet experience. I filled a cooler with 6 pans of water and slid the turkey in the cooler. Every 30 minutes, I would change the water for the turkey because it needed fresh water.

Turkey journey !

At 1:00 p.m after thawing for 6 times, we started making the cranberry sauce. I learnt that we cannot leave the turkey to thaw on the counter overnight.[I will put all the recipes for the dishes below. ]

My mom and I tasted the cranberry sauce — it tasted great! I am not that fond of cranberry sauce. I made it mainly for my my mom. Since I am a kid who loves to try foods and adventure, I did try it! — it was my first time eating cranberry sauce. We emptied it in a bowl and put it to refrigerate.

Finally after changing water 8 times, at about 3:00 p.m, the turkey finished thawing and I was ready to smell it. I took the scissors and started to cut open the package. I wasn’t able to get it off fully so my brother helped me get the rest of. Woah!- A lot of turkey drippings came out with the turkey. This was a pre-cooked turkey and it had a a caramel color. I took a breath in, it actually didn’t smell bad. This was because it had been pre-cooked and not a raw turkey. The next step was to to butter the turkey. I melted 2 sticks of unsalted butter. Once cooled, dug my hand in the bowl of melted butter and started rubbing all over the turkey. It was like putting soap on a dog. We were ready to put it in the oven. but then we realized it couldn’t fit. At first we panicked thinking we wasted $35.53, but then we thought of removing the top rack. Since it was already pre-heated, my mom removed it with a glove and the turkey fit. I put 2 timers. One for 40 minutes and the other for 1 and a half hours. The turkey was cooking!

Next we started working on the stuffing. The stuffing was a combination of cornbread mix , shredded carrot , onions, and garlic cloves. I grated the carrots while my mom minced the garlic cloves and chopped the onions. After that we put the cornbread mix in a 9x13 baking pan. We first put a layer of cornbread, then the carrot shreds, chopped onions, and minced garlic. We put another layer of cornbread on top. Finally we covered it with some chicken stock. We mixed it all up and put it in the oven next to the turkey.

20 minutes later, we took out the turkey and put a meat thermometer in it. This way, we could see if the turkey was cooked or not. It showed 165 F degrees — It was cooked!

We carefully transferred the turkey from the pan to a white platter. It was big! I decorated it with cilantro, lime, and orange. It looked amazing!

After that, I had made a gravy. I used a Mccormick gravy packet, butter and water. I put some of the gravy mixture and mixed it with water. Then I used some butter and put it over a stove. This way, it would melt the butter.

Then, I made the mashed potatoes. I had got a mashed potato mixture and poured some cold water in it. Then I heated in the cup of the mixture itself. Once it was done, I poured it in a bowl and put it on the table. The salad we used was an American Express package of salad with Olive Garden dressing that we bought. Thank you brother :) (He made the salad)

Ready to carve