Thanksgiving-Style Seder

I picked up a 12 pound turkey after Thanksgiving and sank it in the bottom corner of the chest freezer to camp out until now.  Turkey is a common choice for Seder, and I decided to go a little farther with a Thanksgiving theme.  Minus the pumpkin pie, which I couldn't figure out how to make without gelatin.  Also, I still had a Passover cake taking up an unfortunate amount of space in the chest freezer since last year.  Those things are good at room temperature for six months, so I knew freezing it for a year wouldn't be a big deal.  It actually defrosted wonderfully soft and moist; even I wouldn't have known the difference.

I haven't roasted a turkey in a very long time.  I can't even remember the last time I made a whole chicken.  I forgot where I put the roasting pan and panicked that I may have gotten rid of it.  It has been that long.  What I decided to do was cook the turkey in the morning, carve it, and refrigerate it until we were starting Seder.  That way, the oven would be free the hour before to make all the casseroles at the same temperature.  It worked perfectly.  I will do that from now on whenever a meat requires resting and carving.  Why stress yourself doing it after the guests arrive, when the taste is not affected.

With turkey, you need stuffing, in this case a savory farfel kugel.  The gravy was all the pan drippings boiled with a potato starch slurry for thickener.  It turned out to be cheaper to buy kosher chicken trimmings and make my own broth, as klp boxed broth is way overpriced and basically a chicken-flavored salt lick.  I have a personal rule not to serve my homemade pressure-canned food to guests, but cranberry sauce is high acid water-bathed and safe.  I would have loved to make the sweet potato casserole with the canned potatoes; commercially canned is the safer option.  At some point, I will trust my skills and the process enough, but I'm still new at this.

I'm from the school that you don't have green beans during Passover.  I've loosened up on some of the kitnyot to follow modern trends, but that's a biggie.  Instead, I came up with an asparagus dish that I couldn't find online, so maybe I actually invented it.

I forgot how many casserole dishes you end up using when you make a Thanksgiving dinner.  No wonder I have so many of them.  I keep thinking I'll get rid of a couple, then something like this happens.

What really surprised me was how little I spent at the grocery store on a dinner party for eight and specialty items.  Some of the klp was leftover from last year with a sufficient expiration date.  Some things I had been picking up gradually along the way as part of my pantry stock.  All together, I probably spent a lot for the week's food, but over the course of an entire year.  The fresh items and what I didn't already have were $40 for Seder and $80 to fill out the other 23 meals of the holiday, plus snacks and treats.  Darn eggs.  As usual, I bought more than I'll eat in a week, but I'd rather that than scramble for meal ideas.

*Roast turkey & gravy

*Cranberry Sauce

*Farfel Stuffing with Red Chard

*Sweet potato casserole

Asparagus with Orange-Date Vinaigrette 

*Passover cake with sliced strawberries and whipped cream