I baked pumpkin rolls and cookies this week and so easy to clean up and wipe the mess off the granite and right into the under mounted sink. Then so nice to wash the cookie trays in my big sink.

I am refreshing my kitchen and it's not done yet. My counters were going to get installed tonight at 5pm, however, my friend/plummer couldn't come over to put in my new sink and faucet so I had to postpone the counters till next week. Couldn't cook Thanksgiving dinner with no sink. So I was very disappointed in that.

I am however looking forward to baking in my new GE double-oven range!!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

Me! This is the first big holiday for the new kitchen. Spent all day doing prep and anything else that I could get done ahead of time. The two ovens really get a workout on this holiday. I've had double ovens for about 15 years and double convection oven for five. I can't imagine doing this holiday with one oven. My new peninsula is a foot wider than the old one. Doesn't sound like much but it's a huge difference when there's a ton of prep going on.

Me!

Usually DH is more of the cook, but not for Thanksgiving. MIL is doing a lot with me and for me in my new kitchen. Today we (okay, mostly she) deboned the turkey and did some other prep. Tomorrow, full speed ahead.

The year we moved into our new house, it was mid-December, and the first big meal I cooked was Christmas dinner. I also had new pans for the induction cooktop. I about went crazy trying to remember where I'd put everything. It would have helped to allow extra prep time as I adjusted to everything.

Anne

We are hosting Thanksgiving at our beachhouse which we bought about a year ago, renovations were finished in June.

It was designed more for summer, so while we have two DW, which is nice, we only have one oven. That's why I'm up now ... trying to get things done in advance so the oven is freed up for Big Bird.

Otherwise, I love the kitchen and butler's pantry just as I have all summer. It's homey, roomy, old fashioned and has everything I could need. One of my favorite things is my big old double drainboard sink I got from GW'er Arlosmom (shout out to her and her lovely home and DH!). They are wonderful prep space. Sure am glad we kept the old fridge to keep in the basement, too. Glad too we kept the PO's old china (tons of it), it's just the right note for a snowy Thxgiving.

Enjoy, everyone!

This is my first Thanksgiving in the new kitchen but not my first big meal prep. That happened a few months ago when I hosted my fathers retirement party and I had all 3 ovens going at once. I can't even fathom how I actually did it on the past with only 1 oven.

Actually, I can and I remember it being a HUGE stress trying to adjust recipes cooking temp to fit what I already had the oven at or keeping food warm after its been pulled out so I can up the temp for the next dish.

With 3 ovens, it is an amazing godsend.

I have double 30 inch wall ovens and planned on a cook top but when I looked at the prices I said forget that and went with a standard 30 inch free standing range.

The double ovens get used all the time, the oven on the range only gets used for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter etc but it is nice to have it available.

cal_quail... I have to ask... Deboning the turkey? As in all the bones are out? How does that work/turn out? I am so curious...

I am envious of you all... I hope to join the new kitchen club next year, but this year my Thanksgiving is being brought to me by my big green egg, my Breville toaster oven, and my portable induction burner :) . At least my fridge and dishwasher work.
Happy Thanksgiving!

Sigh.
We were supposed to be in our new house by mid-november. Now we are desperately trying to get in by Christmas.

So instead I will be cooking in our tiny apartment kitchen.
I will still make mashed potatoes good enough to make grown men weep. ;-)

We are!!! Funny thing is, the turkey is going in the slow cooker. It isn't a whole turkey because there are only two of us.

Our kitchen isn't finished in time, so we're at a friend's for the holiday. Keep posting, everyone, I like living vicariously and dreaming about doing my next holiday meal in the new kitchen!

We're doing our first holiday meal; just DH and I at home but we love it. We don't have multiple ovens, just as before - one oven with one sink. The reason for our remodel was to increase efficiency and storage in a small space. Although still only a 1-butt kitchen, our new kitchen functions like a dream (to us) and allows us to work there together. Happy thanksgiving everyone!

This post was edited by Mags438 on Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 12:56

dup. Oops

This post was edited by Mags438 on Thu, Nov 27, 14 at 12:54

Reading this has me rethinking my kitchen remodel design. I may need to put in a second oven! Lol
This is our first Thanksgiving in our new house. I am thankful I found a gas range on CL and had it plumbed and put in a few months after we moved in.
:)

This is our first holiday with our new kitchen and cooking and cleaning is already hugely different. It's still a small space, but replacing 25 yo appliances means I don't have to worry about the oven conking out mid-turkey (true story, wound up trying to finish the turkey on the outdoor grill with a really unpleasant outcome.) The double-oven range let me do most of my cooking today, as opposed to staying up late last night. Huge sink meant it was easy to get the turkey brined and then to clean a zillion pots and pans.

On the downside, this is the first Thanksgiving we've spent with just our immediate family. This was my mother's holiday until she died 8 years ago, and after that my father usually spent the week with us. He was a foodie and hated eating alone as a widower, and I sometimes found it a bit of a hassle to live up to his expectations with a FT job and 2 young, crazy boys. This year he is not well enough to travel and probably won't be again (Alzheimers). Surprisingly he remembers I got a new kitchen, and keeps asking about it! I've cooked all my mother's recipes, meant for large crowds, so we'll be eating stuffing and incredibly high-fat mashed potatoes (with butter, sour cream and cream cheese) for the next week...

Me! And it was heaven. (We have already eaten and cleaned up.). I made the whole thing myself: turkey, stuffing, cranberry organge sauce, green beans, pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream, and apple crumble. I baked the pumpkin pie and brined and then air dried the turkey yesterday. Everything else I made this morning.
(Unfortunately, I also did all the cleaning up myself. But it went quickly, despite the myriad of mise en place bowls I use when I cook.)

My favorite unexpected difference was that I used the counter next to my range for raw meats and my peninsula for prep of anything non-meat. The granite, super deep undermount sink, and double oven made cooking and cleaning up so much easier.

I gave my new kitchen a workout. Now I should probably go do one myself. ;)

I'm about to do my big reveal, as soon as I get it written up and figure out how to post multiple photos.

So fun reading everyone's experiences. My last guest just left and now DH is at the sink washing wine glasses. Certainly went through a few of those! At the last minute my nephew and his family of 5 ended up coming as where they were suppose to go didn't have power. We had our first Nor'Easter of the season and many are without power. In our own 55+ development, 3 out of 5 streets do now have power. We're blessed that we never lost it, or cable or internet. Everyone was happy and I have to think my Mom was looking down on me.

robinlmorris, I can perhaps answer for cal_quail about the boned turkey as I cooked two today. I'm not adventurous enough to do them myself, but a good butcher can take those bones out in no time. You are then left with meat, both white and dark. I add some stuffing, roll and tie it. Both turkeys were 12 Lbs each and cooked side-by-side in one pan. Total cooking time was 2 1/2 hours. Turkey once per year is enough for me and I don't like dealing with the bones afterward, so this method works. I've linked the recipe I use below. I ended up with 17 adults and 5 kids at our house today. Everyone went home with leftovers.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Here is a link that might be useful: Todd English Boned Rolled Turkey

Last Thanksgiving was the very first meal prepared in the remodeled kitchen, as the last installation had taken place just 2 days before! It all went smoothly except that I discovered that my new oven was slow -- the turkey and pies took forever to finish -- after I trotted out the next day to pick up an oven thermometer I learned that it was off by nearly 50 degrees!

Even with that glitch, and not having everything in place, it was so nice. As others have mentioned, doubling the counter space, enlarging the sink, having a place for the trash out of the way, the so-easy-to-use pull-down faucet -- all made it seem so much easier. I don't have an island, only a range, MW and toaster oven, one sink -- and it is great!

I. am. so. stuffed.

On the turkey, all the bones out except for wing bones and drumstick bones. MIL did 90% of it, but I think I could do it again if I wanted to. If you have a really sharp knife and have cut up a chicken, you can do it. You make one 'package' with the breasts and wings trussed up. I didn't read all the way through the directions nhbaskets posted, but you could put stuffing into it if you wanted to (but we didn't). You have each drumstick/thigh combo tied up as well. You take out the thigh bone, but leave the drumstick. We cooked the two dark packages in a 9 x 13 pan and the breast package in a foil roaster.

MIL started deboning her turkey's using Julia Childs' book/directions 30+ years ago. They used to go to a mountain cabin with a very small kitchen, lots of family etc. She decided it was easier to do that ahead of time at home where she could clean up easily. Thanksgiving day it made cleanup no big deal.

That being said...the turkey was just okay. I think my oven is low. I had it calibrated after it was installed and they said it was fine, but I still think it's low. It took longer to cook than it should have and I think it could have cooked longer.

But overall it went well. At least well enough that my inlaws and DH's aunt and uncle let us know that now that the torch has been passed to this generation, we are having Thanksgiving from this point forward. And I look forward to starting to put my own stamp on it moving forward.

nhbaskets- That turkey on Martha Stewart's website looks great. I had never heard of making turkey that way.... I normally don't like turkey very much, so I am always curious about ways to prepare it that may make it better. Thanks!

Maybe someday I'll cook a turkey, but since Thanksgiving is normally small for us, I make what we like: crab and duck. I do feel a bit guilty breaking from tradition... at least until I am eating the duck :)

There were so many times today when my husband and I were tripping over each over in our kitchen.... I hope next year is a different story.

It is great that so many people enjoyed their new kitchens this year!

Our faucets got connected Tuesday and we did the oven burn in on Wedhesday, talk about just in time for Thanksgiving! The outlet covers are not on yet but the new kitchen was in full use Thursday with 3 cooks. The 2 faucets on the Stages 45 sink were in simultaneous use many times and it has actually become the main prep area as well due to the in-sink cutting boards and large sink bowl size. Steam oven got its workout with the vegetables, the Wolf convection with the turkey,and the gaggenau induction had all 5 burners being used for various concoctions. So happy with my Julia soapstone countertops since people were taking thing straight from the ovens to the countertop. The countertop was a mess and just about every ingredient we used was spilled on it but it cleaned up beautifully with no obvious scratches or chips. Thanks to gardenweb for all the advice and ideas!

I *wish* I was! I'm green with envy of all of you who got to cook in their new kitchen.

smalloldhouse, I can relate to your oven conking out scenario. Our oven died last summer and it's too old to repair and in a cab too narrow to replace. We've been making do with toaster oven, MW, electric roaster and slow cooker surprisingly well, much of the time but I was very thankful that we were invited to our friends' home for Thanksgiving this year.

I want to add my sympathy, too. My mom has been gone 9 yrs and my dad for 2 yrs. It was hard to adjust to holidays without them.

nhbaskets and cal_quail, thanks for the info about deboning a turkey. I may try this next year.

Cooking in our 'new' (refreshed) kitchen was great! Major improvements include:

(1) 9" deep single bowl sink has had a transformative effect on flow as now we can put our dirty dishes in the sink and leave the counters free for prep.

(2) Our Lacanche range is wonderful to cook on. Having a range where all my burners work and that is level (means I don't have to worry about anything sliding off the range and onto the floor) is a big improvement. It makes cooking so much more enjoyable! It also gives me ample hot food space for things coming out of the oven, moving from hot to cool zones etc (we have a 40" range).

(3) a truly functional small 2nd oven was wonderful for baking bread and doing other items while the turkey was cooking.

(4) I love our new undercabinet lighting and our tile, just installed, looks lovely. Both make me so happy!

It was the first one for us too. Really loved the many decisions we made during our reno.

1) The 36" wide deep zero radius sink with a low divider really came in handy. Its amazing how much stuff can fit in this thing with still room to wash/clean

2) The double convection wall oven worked all day. Everything turned out perfect. I have no idea what conspired to make the turkey perfect this year. I am sure I won't be able to reproduce the result next year if I tried

3) The 36" 6 burner bluestar Rangetop worked all day. All six burners were in use at times, but didn't leave anything to be desired. It slowly simmered a big pot of turkey stock all day while the other burners were used to do a variety of boiling, sautéing, and gravy making.

4) The biggest "wow what did we do without this" moment came from the touch activated Delta faucet. I wash my hands after every step, especially when processing raw meat. being able to wash every 15 seconds at times without having to fiddle with the control was awesome, and keeps everything sanitary

5) The quartz counters really helped. Never a worry about spilling or raw meat juices, or spices, or anything else sitting on the counters. They were pretty messy all day through a rotation of meats, and eggs and milk and flour and cleaned up without a hitch.

6) stone backsplash - Cant tell you how nice it is to not have to worry about splashes during the various activities. Everything wiped off easily, unlike last thanksgiving where I scrubbed the paint off my walls trying to wipe off some of the gravy splashes.

Things I wanted more of but just not possible in our size kitchen:

1) More counter space or a big island. Our kitchen and layout of spaces around the kitchen didn't allow for more. Its perfect for our every day, but would be nice at holidays like thanksgiving.

2) A separate prep sink - Day to day, its never one of the things I regret not having, but would have been very helpful at thanksgiving

3) A warming drawer. Maybe I will get one installed one day. Not a need day to day, but would be nice to put things once done when you are making several items. My oven has a keep warm function, but since both ovens were being actively users, a separate drawer would have been handy

We went to my Mom's for Thanksgiving, but I made the turkey at home the day before - first time I've cooked turkey in my new kitchen.

I have a cutting board that fits over one side of the sink, with a drip catcher. It made carving the 22-lb bird so much easier.

I was out of town for Thanksgiving, but plan to make the traditional meal this weekend since my DH missed out. I also can't resist putting my kitchen to the full test though I have done big meals.

Scrappy, your sink and soapstone are installed!! So anxious for a report and pics!!

So fun to read these posts. This is our 2nd thanksgiving in our kitchen