My cooking schedule

Thanksgiving prep takes several days, even if you're only making three dishes the way I am. First you gotta go grocery shopping. In my neighborhood, this is a dicey situation. Safeways in DC have nicknames. Mine is the Not So Safeway because the neighborhood was not so safe. Gentrification has mostly taken care of that, but the produce still really sucks. Luckily the cranberries are fine and bagged, the sweet potatoes are fine and I can always find fresh ginger. Oranges are iffy. Luckily I don't have to get any onions. I have never found a perfect onion there. Usually the white onions aren't too bad, but yellow or red are just awful.

I also still have a bag of cranberries and some nuts frozen from last year. I had decided last minute to not make the tart so just stuck those ingredients in the freezer. I ate the almonds over the course of the year (okay, maybe one desperate week in the summer when I was trying to not have any snack foods in the house). But still - I don't have to buy quite as many nuts for the tart as I normally would.

There is the question of when to go. Weekday evenings are just ridiculous. The lines for the 15 or less aisles are so far back that I pick the one that has the magazines so I can start reading waaaay back there. Either that or I get frustrated and leave. I mean - wait 30 minutes in line to buy 3 frozen dinners? Not a fan.

Weekends are actually better since my neighborhood has so many young professionals. They're all off hiking and riding their bikes on the weekend so I can go to the grocery store. My favorite time to go is around 8pm on a Saturday night. No one is there. Of course, it's difficult to do this when I actually have plans. But I don't for this Saturday so maybe that will work out.

Then I can start on on Sunday with the cranberry sauce. It needs a few days for the ingredients to marry so I can make it early and forget about it. A good thing, too, since I hate washing my Cuisinart mini-prep. Love the thing to death, but cleaning it's a bitch. Especially when making this sauce because the sugar and the oranges and the cranberries make such a sticky residue.

I'm taking off on Wednesday so in the morning I'll make the sweet potatoes. Let them cool completely before refridgerating and then they'll be fine for reheating on Thursday. Before I've made them Thursday morning and then taken them only slightly cooled to Mommy's - but then they get put in the fridge anyway. And this way I won't have to worry about getting up extra-early on Thursday to have time to peel, slice and roast the suckers. I never realized how freaking hard raw sweet potatoes are. It's a chore to slice them up. And then I can wash all the dishes Wednesday or Thursday morning and not come home to dirty dishes. Love that.

Wednesday evening I'll make the tart. That's always fun. Although I remember the first time I made it. It says "cook 'till the berries start to pop" but not how long that will take. It felt like FOREVER and I even called Sister to see if she felt this was normal. Not that she'd ever cooked with cranberries either, but it's nice to talk to someone else in these situations. I do love making this dish. The crust is super easy - just mixing nuts with butter and smooshing it into the pan. No rolling out dough to 1/8" or whatever. Pie crusts intimidate me and I've never made one. And then the bright red berries are so pretty. The whole thing ends up like a goo which is also fun. I've tasted the crust and goo pre-baking, but have never actually had a piece of this tart. Isn't that weird? Maybe this year I'll actually try it. Everyone else always loves it. and I love making it so it works out.

Then I just need to figure out how to transport all of it to Maryland via metro. That's the part that will really suck. Because not only do I have to transport the potatoes, but also my pumpkin Le Crueset for serving them. And that thing weighs a ton. This sucks. Oh - you know, maybe I'll see if Mommy will go shopping this weekend for my Christmas sneakers. Then I can bring over the pumpkin this weekend and leave it there. Then for transporting all, I can put the potatoes in the large tupperware and balance the tart on top after wrapping it in plastic wrap and foil. Then the cranberry sauce can get tucked in the side. All should fit in my medium Boat and Tote. That would be the perfect solution. This is so one of the times I wish I had a car.