Watch Joanna Gaines Get Thanksgiving Cooking Lessons From Her Parents
What To Know
- Joanna Gaines shared Instagram videos of her learning to cook Thanksgiving turkey and cranberry sauce from her parents.
- Her father, Jerry Stevens, demonstrated his simple turkey recipe, while her mother, Nan Stevens, taught her a family cranberry sauce recipe passed down from Jerry’s parents.
- Gaines emphasized the importance of documenting her family’s recipes and traditions.
When it comes to cooking a Thanksgiving dinner, Joanna Gaines turns to her parents for help creating the perfect holiday meal.
The Fixer Upper star shared some of her family’s favorite Thanksgiving recipes with fans in a pair of new Instagram videos. In the first post, uploaded on Monday, November 24, Gaines stepped into the kitchen with her father, Jerry Stevens, to learn how he cooks a Thanksgiving turkey.
“I have, for years, wanted to record my dad making a turkey,” Gaines said. “I did want to document as much as I could with my parents on the family traditions and meals, because when I ask them, this is how they say they cook — ‘Oh, you sprinkle this. There’s no measurements. It’s all intuitive.'”
Stevens replied, “Mine is very simplistic. People are gonna look at it and say either ‘that’s simple’ or ‘that’s stupid.'”
Stevens starts his turkey prep by de-gutting it and taking “stuff out that you don’t like,” which is part of why Gaines said she’s “never” cooked a turkey. “It’s too close to home. You know, we’ve got chickens on the farm, and I just don’t like it,” she stated.
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Stevens proceeds to cover the turkey in olive oil and season it with a “slight dusting” of garlic powder, garlic salt, onion powder, and “a lot of pepper.” When asked how he learned to cook a turkey, Stevens told Gaines he learned by watching his own father.
To cook the turkey, Stevens places the bird and some flour-coated vegetables inside an oven-safe bag and bakes it at 350 degrees for one-and-a-half to two hours. “It’s so good. Good job, Dad,” Gaines said after trying the final result. “Thank you for helping,” Steven said, to which Gaines replied, “Thank you for teaching me.”
In her second cooking video, posted on Tuesday, November 25, Gaines learned to make cranberry sauce from her mother, Nan Stevens, using a recipe that came from Jerry’s parents. “What my mom does is she makes a huge batch during Thanksgiving, she freezes half of it, and then at Christmas time, she brings out the other half,” Gaines explained.
The recipe starts by chopping cranberries, apples, and pineapples in a food processor. In a bowl, pineapple juice is added to the mixture along with some chopped walnuts and a few cups of sugar.
“If you’re gonna do this for a dinner party, you would do it the day before?” Gaines asked her mother, who responded, “Yes. Then it marinates.”
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Upon eating a spoonful of the sweet side dish, Gaines gushed, “Holy cow, it’s so good!” As for how to serve it, Gaines said her dad likes to scoop the cranberry sauce into a small dish and top it with whipped cream and walnuts.
Gaines is the middle child of her parents’ three daughters, along with her older sister, Teresa, and younger sister, Mikey. Her parents met in South Korea, where her father was stationed while serving in the U.S. military, and have been married for over 50 years.
Joanna has built a family of her own with her husband, Chip Gaines. The Fixer Upper stars, who wed in 2003, share five kids — Drake, 20, Ella, 19, Duke, 17, Emmie, 15, and Crew, 7.
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