Bay City Tribune

Thanksgiving is such a special time of year, but it can also be stressful if you are wearing the chef's hat.

We thought we'd lend a hand to anyone who feels a little overwhelmed with some Thanksgiving tips to help your holidays run smoothly and your meals taste sublime.

Amanda's Tips:

Take the time to make good gravy.

The first year after I moved off to college I started my own Thanksgiving tradition.

I would hold a big holiday feast for all my friends, cooking everything from scratch on my own.

I'd invite them all over and we'd get to celebrate together over a warm plate of turkey and dressing.

Every year the buffet was inviting and perfect, save for one desperate shortcoming: my gravy was clear.

I'm talking transparentlike thick water with gray giblet chunks floating in it.

Friends would pile their plates with the moist, falling-off-the-bone turkey and turn to a gravy boat of glop that knocked the smiles right off their faces.

My mother had given me her gravy rules several times: boil the giblets in broth and add cornstarch to thicken it.

It was not working out for me.

I always forgot about the gravy completely until everything else was ready and I was rushing to create this extraterrestrial-like gelatinous goo at the last minute (like someone was actually going to eat it).

After college I turned to the mix packages and jars of Heinz gravy, but I was never satisfied.

Determined to overcome this culinary challenge, I started taking online cooking lessons last year from rouxbe.com.

I learned a method from Canadian chefs and was able to watch them prepare the gravy in a web video that was less than five minutes long.

The new rules were simple:

Pour the grease and broth from the turkey pan into a mixing bowl.

Skim the grease off the top and put one cup in a saucepan with one cup of flour to create a roux.

(Any fat can be used in place of the turkey grease, including butter, or bacon grease for a slightly grainy version.)

Stir the roux continuously until it's golden brown, then add in broth until it reaches the desired consistency and never stop stirring.

Oh, and lose the cornstarch!

On Christmas day I put the new rules to the test.

I thought I'd died and gone to gravy heaven, and so did my husband.

What I'd created was the best gravy that either of us had ever tasted and I couldn't believe it had taken me so many years to learn how to make it. It seemed too easy to be good, but the proof was all over my plate.

So, my Thanksgiving advice to everyone regarding gravy is to take a little extra time stirring and preparing with these simple steps.

The end result will be a smooth and hearty condiment that brings your whole Thanksgiving meal together and keeps family and friends cleaning their plates.

Prepare a delicious breakfast for guests ahead of time so you don't have to do extra cooking.

My husband's great-aunt Pauline had a holiday tradition of serving quiche brunch on Christmas morning.

She wanted to visit with her children and grandchildren on their homecoming and enjoy the season instead of spending half of her day in the kitchen, so she hatched a plan that would let her do just that.

Aunt Pauline would prepare several of her famous bacon and cheese quiches so that she could simply heat and serve them to her family members at mealtime.

This is such a great idea that I've practiced it ever since I learned it.

You can use a ready-to-bake pie-crust with a disposable foil pan to cut down on clean up.

Quiches can be made the day before, or several days in advance of the gathering and refrigerated or frozen until you are ready to serve them.

By doing this you can give your family a home-cooked meal without the hassle.

Or if you are planning to be spending half of your day in the kitchen cooking up a Thanksgiving feast, prepare the quiche as an easy, nutritious breakfast that you don't have to worry about.

Who wants to be cooking when you can be laughing over a cup of coffee or watching the little ones open gifts?

Prepare quiches for your next family get-together and make memories outside of your kitchen.

Quiche Lorraine

1 ready-made-pie crust

4 eggs

1 cup half and half

½ cup shredded Swiss cheese

½ cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

10 slices of crispy cooked thick slice bacon (broken into chunks)

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground white pepper

Set oven at 375 degrees.

Bake pie crust alone for 12 minutes to set it.

Then mix everything else together and dump it in the crust.

Set the quiche to bake for 50-60 minutes until firm in middle.

Slice and enjoy.