<p>For many students, Thanksgiving is a great chance to take a break from school and return home to spend time with family and friends. Sadly, this may not always be the case. </p>
<p>I came across an article that lists "10 cool ways colleges celebrate Thanksgiving for those students who can't make it home for the holiday:"</p>
<p>My school has a Thanksgiving dinner at a faculty in residence’s apartment for those students who remain on campus during the holiday. Last year the professor who hosted the dinner had never actually done Thanksgiving before (relatively recent immigrant), so he had no idea how to cook half the traditional items. Rather than serving burned turkey, he ordered pizza and quizzed us about Thanksgiving so he could learn more next year. It was still a fun dinner though.</p>
<p>I am aware of this thanksgiving dinner for freshmen only: (cut and paste from Internet):</p>
<p>“Picture this: a giant Harry Potter style dining hall, decorated with holiday lights, ice sculptures, and gingerbread houses. Now add eggnog, hot apple cider, prime rib, sole, roasted turkey and ham, golden potatoes, sushi, shrimp (in the shape of a “Y”), lobster, cupcakes, apple pie, cheesecake, fruit, chocolate covered strawberries, and a twelve-foot challah. Invite all 1,344 freshman and you have the best holiday dinner of all time.”</p>
Remove the neck and giblets; you can use them to make turkey stock (boil them in water for a while and then remove the meat) for use in the gravy. Put the liquid stock in the fridge until gravy time.
In a bowl, mix a stick of softened butter with some salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, garlic and (more) sage.
This part is gross but pays dividends: using your hands, spread the butter mixture underneath the skin of the bird (between the skin and the meat), all over.
On top of the skin, use your hands to spread some olive oil. Then, sprinkle paprika onto the skin.
Wash your hands with soap.
Follow the baking directions to cook the bird in the oven. Cook it a few minutes less long than the instructions suggest because the bird will continue cooking while it is still in the roasting pan but out of the oven. I suggest starting out with high heat (450) for 15 minutes to sear in the juices and then drop the temp and finish cooking it slowly to avoid drying it out.
Mashed potatoes:
Peel, chop and boil several potatoes.
Once cooked, drain them
Return them to the pan and add some milk, sour cream, butter, salt and pepper. Cheddar cheese and/or bacon and chives if you want to really kick them up a notch.
Mash them until smooth with a potato masher.
Dressing:
Saute some onions, celery and garlic in a pat of butter in a pan. (cook on Med about 10 minutes)
Add some croutons and some of the turkey stock you made. Also add some poultry seasoning, salt and pepper.
Once the croutons have absorbed the stock, transfer the mix to a baking dish, add some more stock and more butter, mix it up, and bake it in the oven (next to the turkey…) for 20 minutes.
Gravy:
In a pan, put some turkey stock, a pat of butter, salt and pepper, a little bit of milk, and a little bit of flour – the flour and butter need to be equal in volume (start with a tablespoon each).
Bring it to a simmer, stirring constantly. Once smooth and hot it will begin to thicken. Once you turn off the heat, it will thicken more.
Green Bean Casserole:
In a casserole dish, combine two cans of (drained) cut green beans, a can of cream of celery condensed soup, salt and pepper, and grated cheddar cheese. Mix them up well and top with French fried onions. Bake at 350 for 35 minutes.
Add cranberry relish (canned is ok…), rolls, and pumpkin pie for dessert, and you’ll have a full Thanksgiving spread.