Fall means a lot of crummy things in this town, but on the brighter side, it does mean Thanksgiving. Who among us doesn’t look forward to the blessed mid-season holiday where we throw all our calorie cares, workplace woes and family feuds, if only for one or two days?
While Thanksgiving may be cheerful, the preparations are not. We understand, so we’ve rounded up a few classes focused on tackling the more intricate and challenging elements of a Thanksgiving meal: cooking for celiacs and vegans, crafting autumnal wreaths, getting everybody glogg-tipsy, and carving a turkey, naturally.
Remember, signing up for these classes through us keeps the Brokeshow in town, so if you like what you read on our site, give one of these courses a try.
Nothing kills a Thanksgiving purist’s buzz like the vegan who arrives demanding Tofurky™. But now you can surprise them with vegan-friendly fare, courtesy this Salt Studios course on vegan Thanksgiving dishes such as beet hummus, roasted acorn squash and figgy brussel sprouts. Heck, you might even become a convert yourself once you taste all that veg-heavy goodness. $125 includes a welcome cocktail—but they say BYOB, if you want—and 5 digitally shared recipes.
Do yourself a favor and learn how to cook gluten-free Thanksgiving dishes that’ll stay far away from the stuffing, too, so anyone with celiac or a severe gluten intolerance can still come to the table. A mere $30 at Court Tree Collective scores you recipes for pumpkin cornbread, sweet potato dumplings, apple pie & pumpkin mousse jars, and a crowd-pleasing spiced cider. There’ll be a tasting party afterwards, so come hungry-ish.
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Adorn your halls with festive wreaths and other flowery hanging things that say, “I have my shit together, what about you, Diane?”, courtesy of this cool wreath and topiary-making workshop with the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens! You’ll harvest leaves, grapevine, pods and other dried plant materials and fashion them into coffee table pieces and wall hangers. $138 includes the materials fee. Bring a bag so you can schlep all your creations home!
Hot toddies are so passé: warm your guests with exotic cocktails that you learned to sling in this worldly hot drink-making workshop. Pioneerworks will impart the secret recipes of German fire-tongs punch, a pagan wassail bowl from South England, a Scandinavian glogg and even NoLA’s mystical café brûlot diabolique. For $45, your warm buzz will never be the same.
Rounding out the Thanksgiving lineup, we’d be bereft not to include a course on expert turkey-carving with Fleisher’s Pasture-Raised Meats in Red Hook. You’ll learn the best way to safely handle knives, cutting techniques, how to break down a raw bird, and then carve it once it’s all cooked up. $100 gets you hands-on experience with all of it. And you might a little meaty, so Fleisher’s asks that you wear closed-toe shoes, a head covering and some clothes you wouldn’t mind staining.