Helping the Single Dad Make Christmas Dinner
It’s not easy being a man. It’s even harder being single father, especially on Christmas. If there’s one holiday the kids will remember forever, it’s Christmas.
It’s not uncommon for single fathers find themselves in a position where the time spent with the children on Christmas is limited for whatever reason but that doesn’t mean that it still can’t be a memorable holiday for the family.
It’s all about having a plan at Christmas. If you fail to plan, you’ve planned to fail. You can plan simple, fun activities that the kids will enjoy, like making gingerbread for example.
Everyone likes making gingerbread, it’s fun and you can eat the dough.
Here’s a simple recipe for gingerbread.
Gingerbread Recipe
1 (3.5 ounce) package cook and serve butterscotch pudding mix
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
You’ll want to separate your dry ingredients from the wet ones to start. So, In a medium bowl, cream together the dry 
butterscotch pudding mix, butter, and brown sugar until smooth then stir in the egg. Combine the flour, baking soda, ginger, and cinnamon and then stir that into the pudding mixture. Cover, and chill dough until firm, this should take about 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Have the kids grease up the baking sheets. Then, on a floured board, roll dough out to about 1/8 inch thickness and now the fun part begins. You can take a cookie cutter of any shape and start cutting, make small man shapes, half moons, ginger-machine-guns, let the kids go nuts.
Place cookies 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets and then bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the oven, until cookies are golden at the edges. Then cool those babies on wire racks, load up the milk and you’re good to go. Including prep time, the whole process shouldn’t take you more than 2 hrs, but it’s two hours of fun.
If you have plenty of time, you can buy some icing and start getting creative with the gingerbread.
Okay you’ve got the Christmas goodies out of the way, what about the main course? Christmas isn’t Christmas, where I’m from unless there’s a turkey. In other places and cultures, it’s different, it might be ham but where I’m from it’s a stuffed turkey. And to be honest, there’s a big difference between good turkey and dry cardboard turkey.
Gentlemen, aside from the prep work, turns out that making a good turkey boils down to science.
Roasting A Turkey
First remove the giblets, and those clumps of fat, you can save those for the gravy or stuffing. Next, rinse the bird inside and out and pat dry.
If you are stuffing the bird, you can use store bought stuffing, and stuff it loosely, allowing about ½ to ¾ cup stuffing per pound of turkey.
Brush the skin with melted butter or oil. And if you stuffed that bird, tie the drumsticks together with string.
Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the thigh. The thermometer should point towards the body, and should not touch the bone. Place the bird on a rack in a roasting pan, and into a preheated 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven.
As I said before, it’s all about science, generally speaking, a stuffed bird that weighs anywhere from 10 to 22 lbs, you’ll likely be cooking that bad boy anywhere from 3.5 to 5.5 hours.
Bake until the skin is a light golden color, and then cover that bird loosely with a foil tent. During the last 45 minutes of baking, remove the foil tent to brown the skin. You don’t have to baste it, but doing so promotes even browning.
The temperature of the meat will tell you when it’s done, you’re looking for the meat to reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees F at the thigh. And if your turkey has been stuffed, make sure the temperature of the dressing and the stuffing is also at 165 degrees F. When the turkey is ready, remove from the oven and allow to stand for 20 minutes.
Family Affair
Letting the kids help out with preparing the turkey and the stuffing and or the gravy is a great way to get everyone involved and working together during the holidays. What would have otherwise seemed like a daunting task, now can become a family activity that will likely produce lasting memories, hopefully they won’t be the “remember when Dad ruined the turkey” kind.
Finish Strong
Grab some eggnog, some Christmas movies like the Grinch or Shrek, or Harry Potter or whatever the kids like and you’ve pretty much put together an awesome Christmas. All that’s left is to make sure your gifts are second to none and you can expect that “# 1 Dad” t-shirt and baseball cap for Father’s day.
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