Barbara Costello, 78, took to TikTok to share a little cooking advice because her daughter suggested it.
Now six years later, Costello — she goes by Babs, thank you — is everybody's grandma. And she's telling us the right way to host Thanksgiving.
She started her TikTok, @brunchwithbabs, sharing advice on keeping bugs out of your house with cinnamon
and how to cook barbecue. She now has 4.4 million TikTok followers and has released four cookbooks with her recipes and holiday cooking advice. Her latest, “Homemaking With Babs," is a USA TODAY best-selling guide.Babs taught us to add a splash of wine to turkey gravy to give it depth, and to boil potatoes in milk for creamy mashed potatoes. Without Babs, how would we know that putting candied ginger
in champagne makes it more bubbly?
This year, Babs is hosting Thanksgiving at her "Basket House" in Connecticut, and with almost two dozen people coming to the table, including four of her children and nine grandchildren,. She's not messing around.
Babs' unorthodox guide to hosting Thanksgiving
Here are Babs easy tricks to survive hosting Thanksgiving.
Set up a dish bin
Yes, you read that right. Babs doesn't want to do the dishes when the party is still going on, but with Thanksgiving, there will inevitably be dishes. So Babs has "the dish bin," where she puts all the dirty dishes in a bin and hides it. She said you can put it in the garage, outside or on the back deck.
"You can hide them in your bedroom, for Pete's sake. Just out of sight is the goal," said Babs.
Babs hides her dishes until later, so no one is doing the dishes while people are still in the house, and no one has to look at dirty dishes while they're eating dessert.
Employ the mise en place method
Babs swears by the mise en place method, a French phrase that means putting everything into place before cooking. Babs lays out a sheet pan and puts all the ingredients for a recipe on it, including her recipe card and anything from a half cup of milk to a stick of butter. Measure everything beforehand and put it on the pan, then when you're ready to cook, everything is prepared.
It's not only easier — Babs said it "will save your sanity."
Make a beverage cart away from the kitchen
Serving a signature punch or wine at the beverage bar is one of Babs hosting tips, but it's not just for the guests. It's another sanity-saver. Babs puts her beverage cart away from the kitchen so it doesn't get too crowded and so she can stay focused on the meal. She also puts out some appetizers away from the kitchen to keep people away from the area.
Make your gravy now
Thanksgiving is still weeks away, but Babs already has her gravy ready. Gravy is one of the more stressful dishes, because it needs to be made from the turkey drippings, which is only ready about an hour before it's time for Thanksgiving dinner. Instead, Babs makes her gravy weeks ahead.
This recipe, which is in her first cookbook, "Celebrate with Babs: Holiday Recipes & Family Traditions," boils turkey wings into turkey soup. She strains the turkey and puts the stock into the fridge overnight. The fat rises overnight, and Babs scrapes the fat off the top to make a roux. Then she slowly pours the strained stock into the roux to make the gravy. That recipe is sitting in her freezer, out of the way and ready for Thanksgiving.
Be sure to shop smart at the grocery
Babs could do an entire "Ted Talk" on how to grocery shop, but one of her biggest pieces of advice on shopping is simply how you write it down. Before Babs goes to the grocery store, she takes a piece of paper and folds it into eight squares. She then writes her ingredients by the department they're in. She puts produce in the first box, since she usually starts in that section, then she lists boxes for deli, meats and dairy.
"Just write every bit of produce that you need so you're not running back and forth around the grocery store like a chicken without a head," Babs said.
For Thanksgiving, Babs said to grocery shop at least five days out so you can make sure you have everything.
Just like most of us, Babs didn't start as a cook or a Thanksgiving expert. She learned cooking tips and hosting tricks through her Italian grandparents cooking for her family in Chicago. Throughout the years, she's picked up the rest of her cooking advice through trial and error and lessons from others.
Once Babs learns a trick, she shares it with her audience, even if that trick is hiding dirty dishes in your bedroom on Thanksgiving.
"It's a little bit of everything... You ask questions. You might read something in a magazine, see something on social media and say, 'You know what? I'm going to give that a try,'" said Babs. "I think with me, even though I'm a senior, right? I think my attitude is like, 'I'm never too old to try something new.'"
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: TikTok grandma Babs shares Thanksgiving tips (like hiding dirty dishes)
