Thanksgiving dinner to-go

Over a hot stove this Thanksgiving, we've got you covered. Alexandria Restaurant Partners is here to share more about their Thanksgiving to go dinners. We've got senior director of culinary Brandon Whitestone here with us this morning. Glad to have you here with us. Beautiful spread that you brought into our kitchen this morning. So tell us a little bit about what you all are offering this holiday season. So we actually have three different packages. Going from feeding a family of two all the way up to, you know, four to six, which is what this one is here. So this is $249, comes with everything you see here. You choose one of the pies, get a turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean, almondine. And sweet potatoes with a praline topping. And it comes with reheating instructions and everything ready to go. Oh, my goodness. It looks fantastic. Very fresh and delicious as well. And pretty hearty. It looks like you've got enough food to feed a lot of people. We did it kind of, you know, for leftovers so people can have that because that's an important part of the holiday tradition. Always, always. Got to go back for that second helping, third, fourth. Also, I love cranberry sauce. I know cranberry can be a little bit divisive for some folks. It is, yeah, yeah. But I love like an authentic cranberry like this, not the canned. Jelly stuff. Yeah. So walk us through your cranberry sauce. This looks fantastic. Yeah. So this definitely comes out a little bit different than a canned one, you know, that just kind of slides out and you slice it. Um, but this is super easy. A lot of people don't realize that you really just take cranberries, about a pound here, um, cup of brown sugar, three cinnamon sticks. You want to take an orange, um, cut a couple strips off the We got the peel, those go in there, a little bit of salt. And then you just take your orange after you've peeled it, squeeze the juice in there, and put it in a pot over low heat and just kind of cook it down, stirring it until it breaks down. You want to cook it about 20 or 30 minutes. Okay. And then you're good to go. Any secret? To make sure you get it right when it comes to the cranberry sauce? Definitely stir it, because as it breaks down, the sugar kind of turns into almost a caramel, if you're not careful, and it can scorch and stick. Like on the bottom of the pan. Okay, and then it turns out looking like this delicious cranberry sauce. Yes, it does. Oh my goodness, looks fantastic. It's a really great flavor, kind of. Cuts through all the richness. Let me ask you, when it comes to the cranberry sauce and things like this, can you freeze something like that, right? Like, say you order something of this nature. I mean, you've got a lot of different moving parts and pieces, and maybe you don't eat everything. Can you freeze certain dishes like the cranberry sauce? Yeah, yeah, cranberry sauce freezes really well. You kind of want to put it in, like, a jar or something to minimize the air contact you have. That'll keep it fresher. Gotcha, or if you want to make it ahead of time. That's what I usually do. Let's talk a little bit about the packages here that you are... We're offering as well. How much prep and time goes into what's next? Once you guys, you know, people pick it up, you've made it for us. But the prep at home, what does that look like? Almost nothing. We provide reheating instructions. It comes in pans like this, so you can reheat it. It's super easy. The turkey takes about three hours to warm up. Okay. Yeah, everything. You basically just take the tinfoil off the top, right? Exactly. And stick this big bird in the oven. Yep. So we're doing pickups the day before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving Day. Okay. Everything comes cold. So, you know, you don't have to worry about getting it home hot. And then we have packages starting at $69. Okay, I was going to ask, are they from different, I know you have a multiple restaurant group. So are they from different places, different price points? What does that look like? They are. So this one is kind of our ARP package. This is picked up at Vola's Dockside. We have one at the Royal, which is the dinner for two. So that's kind of what you see here, a little bit smaller, 69 bucks. So super easy. Yeah, that's awesome. And then we're doing a prime rib dinner from Ada's on the River. Ooh, prime rib also sounds delicious too. So you get a prime rib for four, comes with a thermometer and everything. Oh, awesome. Cooking instructions, yeah. Okay, well, it makes it a little easier and takes all the hassle out of Thanksgiving dinner for a lot of folks. Where can people order this? They can go on our website at alexandriarestaurantpartners.com. Actually, it might be alexrestpart.com. Okay, awesome. But, yeah. Well, thank you for giving us a little preview. It all looks delicious. Thanks so much. We appreciate it. All right, we'll be right back after a quick break with more Good Day, D.C.