Took me a while :)
This post is more of a MASTER SCHEDULE for Christmas dinner and the subsequent recipes for side dishes and left over meals. I am creating this post to refer back next year. Why figure out everything all over again?? And, if there is anyone out there who finds this useful for their Christmas or Thanksgiving meal... or heck, even a regular old Sunday family dinner of turkey and the fixings, all the better!
This Christmas, true to my increased awareness in food responsibility, we purchased a LOCAL, FRESH turkey. Here in PEI, that cost us $45 for a 20 lb turkey. This is about one and a half times the price of a frozen suppermarket turkey.
So, with hard-earned money spent, not to mention awareness of the sacrifice of this animal for our meals, I committed to making the most of the bird.
Here is what that 20 lb turkey yielded for our family:
- Christmas Dinner for 4 adults, plus children
- A number of Leftover Dinners that were repeats of the full Christmas meal in the following 2 days
- 3 Turkey Pot Pies (one was so large you could say 4 pies!)
- A large casserole dish of Sweet & Sour Turkey
- 1 Quart of Bone Broth
- 2 Quarts of Coconut Thai Soup
- A medium bag of frozen Shredded Turkey
- A large freezer bag of the bones for another round of Bone Broth later.
In the end, all that was discarded into the compost bin was some fat and skin. As a side note, our turkey did not come with the giblets or I would have had giblet gravy and liver pate to add to our cooking.
The Meal Planning segment of this post...
1) Make a list of what you want to serve for Christmas Dinner:
Turkey
Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Mashed Turnip
Carrot Coins
Cranberry Sauce
Mustard Pickles
Pickled Beets
Cranberry Juice
Pumpkin Pie
Whipped Cream
There it is, the traditional Island Christmas dinner. Side note: next year we will have some wine to serve with dinner. We are just keeping it out of the house this year because I love wine but am unable to drink it because I am nursing.
(When I got pregnant, my husband and I decided to leave wine out of the house for two years as we are both wine lovers and enjoy setting our own wine and thought a two year break for us would give us a renewed excitement for wine making when we could start up again.)
2) Make a list of what you want to make with leftover turkey:
Turkey Pot Pie
Sweet and Sour Turkey
Bone Broth
Coconut Thai Soup
These items were chosen because they didn't require any extra ingredients. For example the turkey pot pie used up leftover items only. The bone broth was mostly just bones and the Thai soup was mostly bone broth with a can of coconut milk. (There were a few extra ingredients in these recipes but they were all things I keep around the house anyway.)
Therefore, my grocery list focuses only on items needed for Christmas Dinner.
3) Gather all the recipes needed to make the dinner and make a grocery list.
4) Create a schedule of when you will make your Christmas dishes.
Below is my schedule with links to the recipes I used.
3 Days before Christmas
Buy all ingredients needed for cooking including fresh turkey, store in refrigerator.
2 Days before Christmas
Make 4 double Pie Crusts, refrigerate in disks wrapped in plastic wrap.
Make Cranberry Sauce.
Bring Mustard Pickles and Pickled Beets up from the basement/cold room, refrigerate.
1 Day before Christmas (Morning)
Make Turkey Brine, wash turkey and put into brine, refrigerate.
Bake two Pumpkin Pies (using 1 of the 4 disks in the fridge).
1 Day before Christmas (Evening)
Spread bread cubes out on pans to dry overnight for the stuffing.
Chop onion and celery, place in dish and refrigerate for the stuffing.
Take turkey out of brine before going to bed. Soak in cold water in the sink for 20 mins and transfer to dry pan. Leave it to "air dry" in the fridge overnight.
Christmas Day (Morning/Mid Day)
Make Stuffing.
Stuff Turkey and put it in the oven at noon.
Peel potatoes, turnip, carrots.
Christmas Day (Close to Supper Time)
Brush turkey with butter for 1/2 hour of cooking.
Cook potatoes, turnip, carrots.
Take turkey out of oven, put on plate covered with foil to keep warm.
Make Gravy.
Set the table.
Serve dinner!
Christmas Day (Evening)
Put on Coffee, Tea.
Make Whipped Cream.
Serve pumpkin pie and cream for dessert.
After Christmas
When Christmas dinner is all over enjoy leftovers until tired of turkey dinners!
Then make Turkey Pot Pie with all the leftovers to freeze. After pies are made, continue to remove and shred all the meat from the bone.
Use the meat for Sweet & Sour Turkey. Freeze any leftover turkey, if there is any at this point, in medium freezer bags for meals in future.
Dump the bones into the crock pot to make Bone Broth. This yielded 2 quarts of broth.
The first one I froze for later. The second, I used to make Coconut Thai Soup.
Finally, take the bones that were strained out of the broth and put in a large freezer bag to keep for another broth. (You can use the same bones for a number of broths).
Discard any skin and fat into compost.
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