This holiday season I've been absolutely not feeling the festive mood. It's been an exhausting couple of weeks and all that I really want to do is cuddle up at home and do nothing at all! But I'm persisting and putting in the effort to cook and actually leave the house for a potluck Thanksgiving. I'm also quite excited about figuring out how to make brie wrapped in puff pastry because nothing quite beats the blues like copious amounts of cheese.
What to Make for a Potluck Thanksgiving?
The only thing that I knew for certain was that I was absolutely going to make puff pastry wrapped brie. Really, this entire meal probably revolves around the desire for baked cheese. And, of course, probably bread. Because I have pretty much constantly been making bread over the last year.
Once the cheese and bread dishes were locked down. It wasn't too much of a stretch to think that I was making Guinness Curry again. I made it last week and was absolutely obsessed. It was kind of a cross between beer cheese soup and Thai-inspired curry.
I also almost always make at least one cheesecake during the holidays. I've been cooking with a lot of different types of squash lately. Which, are slightly more difficult to find sometimes. But, if I can get them in rural Wisconsin where the general opinion of everything involves Miller Lite and Kraft cheese? You can probably find something better than a pie pumpkin! Although, if anyone asked, I did just call it "pumpkin cheesecake" because that's easier than explaining the pumpkins versus squash debate.
The only wrench in most holidays where I actually plan on leaving the house is whether or not anyone else actually wants to eat my food. Most people generally like bread, cheese, and cheesecake, though. So, those are usually pretty good bets! And I'll probably just make the soup to snack on until dinner. Thanksgiving is often one of those food-heavy holidays where you need to eat something for breakfast and/or lunch or you'll never make it to dinner!, But you can't overdo it. Because you do still actually have to make it to dinner.
The Potluck Thanksgiving Menu
For this year's potluck Thanksgiving I have come up with the following menu:
Ordinarily I spend an inordinate amount of time during the holidays attempting to figure out how to get everything out of the oven in time for dinner! Although I've gotten more creative about the dishes over time and ordinarily try and space out make ahead of time dishes and coordinate things that can share an oven at roughly the same temperature. This year it was particularly easy to figure out the oven-sharing time, though.
Usually during the holidays it's a mad dash to try and determine what needs to go into the oven when and what can share oven space at the same temperature. And what needs to be broiled quickly at the end and what can be made without actually using the oven because there's more room on the stove!
But this year that was not the case! This year was more adeptly timed without having to share.
Dishes to Prepare Ahead of Time
Cheesecake needs time to set and should be made the night before. Or, at least, early morning the day of. It's one of my favorite dishes to make for dessert because of this. It doesn't need to be hot or perfectly timed with dinner. It's meant to be served chilled. And, even if fridge space is at a premium? It takes up a relatively small amount of space. If I do run out of room, (which, let's face it, does happen sometimes!) I'll place the cheesecake still in the pan on the bottom shelf and then place a large plate on top of it to use to stack other things.
Dishes to Cook on the Day Of
Curry is made on the stovetop over the course of the afternoon. Ideally, it takes about four and a half hours. I tend to get distracted while cooking and add in a little bit more buffer time for myself. But still, this will take most of the morning or afternoon without an oven. In a pinch, you could make it the day before.
That makes bread and baked brie the only oven items. I tend to make bread earlier in the day because it can easily be warmed up again and isn't time sensitive.
Consequently, baked brie is the only thing that needs to go into the oven and come out in time for dinner. There's 100 degree difference between the bread and the baked brie. So, while you could in theory time them out because they both need roughly 45 minutes in the oven? You'd have to crank up the oven to the temperature of the bread and try not to overcook the brie. Which is likely doable. I just don't particularly like opening the oven while making bread because the temperature drops every time that you and bread does not like this fluctuation. It's also just easier to make bread ahead of time! You could easily make it the day before.
Cooking Times
Cheesecake: 14 hours (1.5 hours in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit)
Curry: 4 hours, 20 minutes on the stove
Bread: 3 hours, 15 minutes (45 minutes in the oven 450 degrees Fahrenheit)
Baked Brie: 4 hours, 25 minutes (45 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit)
Conclusion About the Meal
I've never had a big family and we never did the get togethers growing up. So, it's nice to be adopted by another family for the holidays sometimes! This year I had the curry for a snack throughout the day and then brought Baked Brie, Bread, and Cheesecake to dinner. Although I tend live in the moment when I do that and do not take the excessive amounts of photos of my food! So, you'll have to bear with me there. The photos of the brie are from my practice round a few days before because it's sufficiently dark by dinner time. And I have no photos of the bread after slicing because it would be rude to bring freshly made, pre-sliced bread!
As much as that might be less ideal for blogging, the holidays are more about the food and the people who you eat it with. Overall the food was great and it was nice to have the company of friends again. It was the first holiday in years that I'd ventured out of the house! And a potluck Thanksgiving is a great way to do that.
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