I asked a few of my favorite chefs for their advise on preparing the biggest meal of the year for most of us and put together this Top ? list to help make your holiday a little easier.

You can also check out my article called Let’s Talk Turkey or my blog post, Turkey Basics or head over to my new RG Cooking Community and check out some of the posts on Thanksgiving Day Dinner Tips. If you have some of our own, please sign up and post them.

Chef Introduction

First I would like to introduce the chef’s who offered up their professional advice and thank them. If you click on their links, you can read all about them in my Novice2Pro interviews with them.

Chef David Nelson, co-founder of Chef4Students.org

Chef Leslie Bilderback, Certified Master Baker & Cookbook Author

Chef Jennifer Field, creator of PastryChefOnline

Chef Mark Vogel, Newspaper columnist

Here’s are some of their very helpful suggestions:

PREPARING YOUR MENU

Chef Field - “Make a chart listing all the dishes you plan to serve, prep time for each, whether it can be made ahead or not, etc.  Then, you can plan to get some things done on Tuesday or Wednesday (or even the weekend before, depending on what you’re making).  Spread out over a few days, Thanksgiving is much less daunting. 

Oh, and set your table completely the day before, and according to your list. (If you’re passing 4 sides at the table, you’ll want to make sure you have the right serving pieces).

 It seems like such a small thing, but it’ll save you from having to run around like a crazy person trying to find a pickle fork at the last second!”

HOW MUCH TURKEY SHOULD YOU BUY?

Chef Nelson - “ 3/4 of a pound will get the job done, but he recommends, “one pound of uncooked turkey per person, to ensure lots of choice and some leftovers.”

WHAT KIND OF TURKEY SHOULD YOU BUY?

Chef Vogel - “Wild turkeys are a little tougher, (although more flavorful), than commercial turkeys since they get considerably more exercise.  But that also means less fat and ergo, less succulence. Younger turkeys will be more tender than their older counterparts.  For the most tender, juiciest turkey, pick a young one that’s been cooped up in a pen.”

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A New Cooking & Recipe Forum for Home Cooks

If you are looking for another fun and informative place to discuss cooking, food, recipes, techniques, check out my new Cooking Community Forum. It’s brand new and will need some design tweaking, but it’s there for you to start contributing to.

“You Have To Eat, So Learn To Cook & Eat Well”

The goal of the forum is to bring the thousands of visitors to the Reluctant Gourmet web site each day together to share stories, recipes and cooking information. I’ve had the good fortune of learning a lot of what I know about cooking from some great home cooks and some friends who are professional chefs.  Many of them I have met online.

Many of you have sent me emails with tips, techniques and recipes that all have helped me be a more resourceful cook. Now I’ve created a space where you can interact and share your thoughts and ideas with other “foodies”.

There are not many categories and individual forums up there yet but enough to get started. Just go to http://reluctantgourmet.com/forum and click on the Register check box at the top of the page.

How To Register

When you click on the link at the top of the page that says, “Register”, a page will come up that says “Registration Agreement Terms”. At the bottom of the page you will find three choices:

I Agree to these terms and am over or exactly 13 years of age
I Agree to these terms and am under 13 years of age
I do not agree to these terms

You have to be 13 or over and agree to the terms to join and you will be taken to a registration information page. Fill in your information, especially the boxes that have an (*) next to them. They are mandatory.

Important - The username and password are case sensitive as well as the Confirmation Code they ask you to supply.

Post your personal profile preferences and click “Submit”. You are now an active member of The Reluctant Gourmet Cooking Community. Yeah.

You will now see a message that says, “Thank you for registering. Your account has been created. You may now log in with your username and password. Click “Here” to return to the Index.”

Be sure to click on the Click “Here” because you are not logged in yet. You need to go to the main index page and log in.

What Will You Find There Now?

Say Hello to the Group – Here’s where you can introduce yourself to the community. Let them know a little about yourself.

Cooking Discussions - Have a question? Need help with a recipe or cooking technique? Want a suggestion on tonight’s meal? Here’s where you can ask questions, request help, offer help or discuss anything you like about cooking.

Share Your Recipes - Do you have the perfect recipe? Is there one out there? Are you looking for a recipe you enjoyed at your favorite restaurant? Here’s where you can share a favorite recipe or request a most wanted one.

Cheese Talk - What’s your favorite cheese? What cheese & wine go together? How to cook with cheese? Ask your cheese question or tell us about your favorite cheeses here. I get a lot of email asking about cheese or telling me a story about cheese someone has tried. Here you can post some of those questions and comments.

Culinary Job Postings -  If you are a restaurant, catering company or any food service business and would like to post a position, here’s where to do it.  I also receive a lot of email from restaurants and other food businesses asking if I have a job post for culinary students looking for a job when they graduate. Here is a good place to post some of those job postings.

Future Forums

As the community grows and more of you get involved we can expand the subjects to cover a lot more topics. I am very interested in learning more about my visitors and hear about what they have to say and learn from their culinary experiences.

So please take a visit to the Cooking Community Forum, sign up and start sharing. And don’t forget to tell all your friends who enjoy discussing cooking, sharing recipes and ideas to have a visit.

Thanks again for your support and look forward to seeing you at the  Community Center.

RG

How to Make Incredible Molten Chocolate Cake at Home

Sorry for the delay in posts but I’m on vacation with my family at the Jersey shore. I’m trying to find time to write about some of the delicious meals we are having but between the beach, meals and taking the kids to different night entertainment, I’m not finding time to get much writing done.

Here’s the receipe for the Molten Chocolate Cake that I promised to post in my Humbled But What a Great Night of Cooking blog. If you didn’t read it, this recipe came from a cooking class my wife and I attended at a great BYOB restaurant called Blackfish. Not only did we have a fun night of cooking and a great meal, I learned a lot from Chef Jeff Power and Chef Ashley Hess.

Molten Chocolate Cake
Makes 20 cakes

Important Tip –I learned from Chef Jeff while preparing this recipe it is critical to not to get any water in the melted chocolate. He made it clear that even a drop of water would ruin the chocolate.

Ingredients

1 lb. chocolate (we used those chocolate chips you buy for cookies)
1 lb. butter
5 oz sugar
4 oz sifted flour
10 eggs
10 egg yolks
20 aluminum tins (butter & floured)*
Powdered sugar for dusting at the end

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