Catfish Out of Water

I am a big fan of holidays. I start getting excited about Christmas in July when there are officially less than 6 months to go! This year has been a little bit different with the pandemic and all. No one is supposed to go home to friends and family. But I am a firm believer in making the most out of the holidays and will be damned if I'm not going to cook an entire meal! I've been looking forward to the holiday season all year. I'm doing a pandemic Thanksgiving whether there's anyone else to eat it or not!

This might sound silly. The entire world has been turned upside down. It can be easy to say, "What's the point?" And give up. But I am absolutely determined to spread a little cheer! When the world is so bleak and gloomy, we all need some light. Plus I absolutely adore making a big meal! And rain, shine, or global pandemic, I'm having Thanksgiving!

What to Make for a Pandemic Thanksgiving?

The first thing that I knew that I was going to make was fondue. I've been eyeing my fondue pot for weeks. I haven't made it in ages, but it's relatively simple to do and well worth it! I've also been eyeing some Welsh Swiss cheese at the grocery store. It's not that there aren't any other uses for Swiss cheese, but I do tend to exclusively buy it for making fondue.

The next thing that I've been craving is cheesecake. Although we're doing Thanksgiving during a pandemic this year! So liquor is a must. I usually make a traditional New York style cheesecake. But there is a Bailey's Irish Cream cheesecake that I like to make that is absolutely phenomenal.

What else do you make for Thanksgiving? I feel like no holiday is complete without rolls and mashed potatoes. I could even dip the rolls in the fondue with some apples.

That only leaves the main course. I've been scouring my Pinterest board and recipes for weeks and I'm still not sure. Fondue can count as a main course. But when you don't do meat, I feel like you need a to ramp up your menu! I'll sometimes do wild caught seafood or enchiladas.

I've been debating over maybe a chowder. Although fondue and soup are almost too similar in consistency.

The next contender is a savory pie. This I'm kind of excited about! I already have dessert planned out, so there's no in maybe a pumpkin pie (although pumpkin fondue does sound good...). I don't particularly like making pie, dough, though. It's not that it's out of my wheelhouse, but it requires chilled vodka and extra cold butter and I really just don't want to!

How do you make pie without pie dough? Spinach Pie with phyllo dough.

The Pandemic Thanksgiving Menu

For this year's pandemic Thanksgiving I have come up with the following menu:

• Spinach Pie w/ Feta & Parmesan
• Fondue w/ Roasted Pumpkin
• Pumpkin-shaped Dinner Rolls
• Mashed Potatoes
• Baked Brie w/ Phyllo Dough & Cranberry Sauce
• Cranberry Sauce w/ Honey & Blood Orange
• Irish Cream Cheesecake

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How to Get All of the Dishes Out at the Same Time

The most difficult part of cooking a feast is making sure that everything comes out at roughly the same time. There's a particular order that you have to start, prepare, and bake things in.

Dishes to Prepare Ahead of Time

I made the cranberry sauce several days beforehand. I didn't want to use copious amounts of sugar and was experimenting with honey, instead. In case it didn't work, I wanted a couple of extra days to try it out! It did work, though, so that was simple enough.

I roasted and pureed the pumpkin for the fondue the day before. Anything to get some of the leg work out of the way and clear up time on the day of!

Cheesecakes also are best made the night before. They need to set in the oven for 12 hours. So either you get up at the crack of dawn or you get it out of the way before you go to bed! Unfortunately I had to do this after work and was up until about midnight. But it still got done!

Dishes to Cook on the Day Of

On the day of, the rolls are essential to make first. They have to proof and take almost 3 hours total. I started them with more than 3 hours to go knowing that it was a chilly day and they could probably proof a little bit longer without fear. I'd rather have them ready than scrambling at the end!

Second on the docket was to make the spinach pie. I'd never made this before, but casseroles tend to hold up well making ahead of time and cooking later on. And what is a spinach pie if not a casserole with a crust? I also always have kind of a tedious time with phyllo dough, though. You should butter each side as you layer. Not wanting to fill up on that much butter, though, I decided to spritz them with olive oil. Both to speed up this process and make the pie a little lighter!

After already having the phyllo dough out, I followed with the brie. I'd never wrapped brie in phyllo dough and just kind of winged it. But all of that seemed doable! (And was just as easy and delicious as I had anticipated).

After that, I got the potatoes ready for the mashed potatoes. You don't need to boil them until later on, but getting the potatoes peeled and quartered does help! If you do them too early, they'll start to discolor. But you're still boiling and mashing, so this really doesn't make much of a difference!

Lastly, was the fondue. Fondue is best not made ahead of time at all. While I was in between other things, I got the ingredients measured out, but that's about all that you can do! Cheese sauces tend not to reheat well. The oil in them often separates and, when that happens, there unfortunately aren't a lot of options to fix it! So, it's best to just make this as you need it. Although it can be made slightly ahead of time and kept warm.

Cooking Times

Once I had prepared everything, the next thing was to determine the temperature of the oven and when to put everything in!

• Rolls: 25 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit
• Spinach Pie: 1 hour, 15 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit
• Brie: 40 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit
• Mashed Potatoes: 30 minutes on stove
• Fondue: 25 minutes on stove

Everything cooked between 350 and 400 degrees Fahrenheit, so I split the difference and cooked at 375 degrees. This doesn't always work out that well, but barring getting a second oven! You make the best that you can out of it. And this worked remarkably well.

• 1 hour and 15 minutes until dinner (or at least when you set the table!): Put pie in the oven on the bottom rack and begin shaping rolls
• 30 minutes later, with 45 minutes until dinner: Start boiling potatoes and add brie to the top rack of the oven
• 20 minutes later, with 25 minutes until dinner: Add the rolls to the top rack of the oven, start cooking the fondue, and let the potatoes cool enough to mash

Maybe add 15 minutes at the end of this to set the table, let everything cool slightly, and remove the twine from the rolls. Although if this was a traditional Thanksgiving, you would need that much time to wrangle everyone to the table, anyway.

So voila! Thanksgiving dinner is served!

Conclusion About the Meal

This meal was everything that I could have hoped for in a pandemic Thanksgiving! I'd never made a spinach pie before, attempted to flavor a fondue, or baked brie before. So there are a lot of things that could have gone wrong.

The cooking went incredibly smoothly, though. At one point I almost caught myself thinking that I was ahead of schedule. I'm not ordinarily a superstitious person, but if anything is going to jinx it!

Everything came out on time, hot and delicious. I was able to eat before dusk and watch every Bob's Burgers Thanksgiving episode. Which I don't think that I've ever accomplished before!

Honestly, I don't think that I've ever had a big holiday meal ever go so smoothly. Perhaps it's the pressure of not having hoards of people around to eat it. But it's still nice to class up the place, just for fun. And, even if we can't get together in person, we can get together in spirit. And we can all cook delectable meals!