Cooking or Traveling? We’ll help!

During the days leading up to Thanksgiving, most moms fall into one of two categories: 1) traveling to somebody else’s house for the holiday; 2) staying home and cooking for the holiday.

So that means you either need to figure out how to keep your kids entertained during a long car trip or you need all the help you can get in the kitchen. Either way, we’re going to try to be here for you. We mamas gotta stick together.

If you’re in the very lucky, very rare third category of people who don’t have to travel long distances OR cook much for Thanksgiving, just know that we’re insanely jealous and we hope you enjoy your good fortune.

ON THE ROAD:

If you’re traveling, you’ll want to CLICK HERE to read some of the handy tips we collected from Northwest Arkansas moms about how to keep kids entertained and happy during a long car ride.

Be sure to check out the tip from Stacy about giving each kid a roll of quarters before the trip begins. If someone misbehaves during the trip, he or she has to hand over one quarter without complaining. At the end of the trip, each kid gets to keep the leftover quarters to use how they like. I tried using the “car coins” during my last trip and it worked GREAT to help keep my kids mindful of their behavior on the road.

IN THE KITCHEN:

If you’re cooking this week, we’re going to help by publishing a few cooking tips and recipes that might come in handy. Here are a few tips we found recently in a booklet from our local Williams-Sonoma store:

Basting tips: Baste the turkey with panh drippings, stock or melted butter about every 30 minutes during roasting. This helps ensure moist, juicy meat and a crisp, golden-brown skin., A bulb baster is the best tool for the task.

To prevent overbrowning, drape the turkey with buttered cheesecloth before putting the bird in the oven. Alternatively, tent the turkey with alumiinum foil if the skin begins to brown too quickly.

Roasting tips for an unstuffed turkey: Some cooks roast the turkey breast-side down for the first one-third of the cooking time. This increases the rate at which the thighs cook, so they will be done at aboout the same time as the breast.

Roasting tips for a stuffed turkey: Loosely cover the breast with a double-thick piece of aluminum foil for the first two-thirds of the cooking time. This slows the rate at which the breast cooks, so it will be done at about the same time as the thighs.

For more tips on cooking the “mother” of all holiday meals, check out the Williams Sonoma website’s section on thanksgiving by clicking HERE.