Make a roux and cook to a nice shade of golden brown to help boost flavor. do you have mushrooms or canned stock?

Did you save the neck and giblets to help the flavor of canned stock? roast up some veg trimmings nice and brown to go in that stock?

No matter what, the fact that you are cooking this meal for yor people is the good news. whatever the outcome, sending little moments of joy amid the normal stuff :)

I have some roasted vegetable bouillon paste so I can use that instead of salt for depth of flavor. I may have some dried mushrooms too . . . maybe powder some of those along with the bouillon and flavor up the stock before I make the sauce. I also looked up the browning trick online. I knew about browning the flour but never thought about browning the butter. A splash of white wine would probably be good too . . .

My Dad will complain no matter what. I might enjoy the veloute sauce if I can finagle a good one though. I also am not a white meat fan although I eat it just fine. It's just not my favorite part. I learned long ago not to stress the Thanksgiving meal. Been there done that, it is a pointless exercise in the long run. I have dialed down my style of entertaining, even before the pandemic. Less is more. Too much stuff and folks aren't able to enjoy the individual elements.

We're not having any company for Thanksgiving, so it will be no different than many other Sunday dinners I have with my Dad. Except now he will have extra reasons to feel sorry for himself. But I always ignore him. It's not super fun though, but I have fun in other ways . . .

Coming back to report that while looking for my dried mushrooms, (I was hoping against hope that I had not thrown them out as I recalled, but I did, after them being in my pantry for over five years, unused), I found a bottle of WHITE TRUFFLE OIL!! It says on the bottle "perfect for meats of delicate flavor." Could not ask for anything better I think. I did not even know I had it, probably gifted to me at some point or I got it for a recipe I never made. Anyway, fantastic news, not only do I have an option, I get to play with a new ingredient. I am happy and thankful for that!!

Yum, that will be delicious in the sauce/ gravy that yo have planned.

we are just getting ready to throw the dogs into the car and drive 2 hr to my moms house. my contribution this year is a good bottle of red wine from a local va vineyard. easy easy.

Another quick option if you have the basics for a miropoix, celery, carrot, onion, cut diced and saute in a medium sauce pan with peppercorns and bay leaf. Add two cups of your chicken stock. A two hours simmer would be fine but three is better.

Make a quick medium dark roux with butter and flour. I think it is two tBsp butter and two tBsp flour?. Whisk constantly for 5-7 minutes, then add your strained stock whisking to thicken. Taste for salt or add your boullion paste to taste.

We have a petite 8lb turkey we are spatchoking over a bed of chopped onion and celery. A splash of white wine. We will get a bit of good pan drippings but have a pint of master stock on the back burner with some veg ends from prepping a tray of roasted root veg and our turkey came with the neck and have the backbone from spatchocking so another bit of goodies for the gravy stock.

We made our gravies last week but my sister canceled. Her husband had to work the ICU with the recent up-tick in covid/flu. (one gravy for them is vegetarian/gluten-free using rice flour). Both gravies frozen we will use Christmas.

Well, when I looked closer at the little bag that was inside the turkey, it was not giblets, it was GRAVY. I have no idea how they made it, it was just a little plastic bag full of half thawed gravy.

So I put that in the pan, and when it thawed all the way out, it seemed a little thin, so I thickened it with some toasted flour mixed with browned butter. Then added a little truffle oil. Oh, and before all that I heated the gravy up with a big bay leaf. Then thinned it with a little broth from the bottom of the turkey pan and some white wine, I think cabernet sauvignon. Talk about gilding the lily!

It was super delish, but way, way too salty for our taste. I have no idea how they made the base of the gravy, but I am going to make veloute sauce from now on with the browned flour and butter. I have always cooked the flour in butter, but browning both takes it to another level.

Browning the butter this time was no trouble as I was making some for green beans almondine.

True to form, Dad complained that he had just had chicken for lunch, although he did say it had been his choice. Just something for him to find that was a negative, in his mind at least. He did compliment me on the meal though, in between saying he was not hungry and I had done too much work. He sadly cannot help himself being negative, he is depressed with an anxiety disorder and ptsd and refuses any treatment. Many have tried, he sabotages every effort. He now resolutely refuses any treatment, although complains constantly of the symptoms. We just try to distract him, that's all we can do. He fights even that . . .

Hubs and I really enjoyed the dinner. Dad liked it as best he could. And it wasn't even that much work. Hubs made pumpkin cheesecake for dessert, that was the most work of anything I think. That and toasting the bread for the stuffing the night before, since I couldn't find any unflavored bread cubes in the store. The gravy ended up being easy too. The turkey was injected so it was moist and flavorful without any effort. The only downside was the salt levels, but we don't eat this way every day, so no big deal.

I'm glad everything turned out and that you had a great day with family. I'm sorry your father has so many troubles, but it sounds like he enjoyed his time with family.

I was commenting to DH that people always say that Turkey Day meals are so much trouble but really I find almost all the basic dishes can be pretty easy.

I feel the same way about T-day Gooster, if you give yourself a break from your own and other people in your family's food and holiday issues (see above for example) and stick to the easy, comforting tried and trues, it is an easy meal. Of course I learned all of those lessons the hard way!! I first came to CF because when I started hosting T-day at my house (I was in my 40's) having been vegetarian all my adult life, I had no idea how to cook a turkey, or any of the other traditional dishes. Over time I have finally gotten a set of recipes that are my t&t with a little pain for that gain, lol!

To me, the gravy was always the most difficult thing. No one in my family is a particular gravy lover so I rarely make it. I just don't do well with the scraping of the pan to get the brown bits, defatting the juices and thickening the gravy, not easy skills for me and all at the absolute last minute, in a tiny kitchen full of hot dishes, limited counter space and who knows what other things might need attention. This year is was tough string beans that took way longer to cook than usual. Now that I know how to make a good rich tasty veloute sauce, I can make it in advance, just relax and make it with broth and butter and at the end any pan stuff is just icing on the cake, not a necessity

My usual go-to is to have a jar of pre-made gravy on hand in case the situation calls for it, but I slipped up this time. I think it was because if I didn't use the gravy for this meal, it would end up sitting in the cupboard for eternity and being wasted at our mostly vegetarian house. My mom always used store bought gravy and there's no impetus for vegetarian-me to start being known for my fabulous home made gravy . . . but I do make it so the pan juices don't go to waste. Although I usually scrape them into the soup pot with the bird carcass to make soup, so there's that . . .