After several years of just the two of us, James and I had company for the holiday and I went back to cooking Thanksgiving dinner. I'm delighted. I've missed the cook's holiday and for my return engagement with turkey and trimmings I pulled out all the seasonal favorites.
For starters, Rogue River blue, a seasonal Oregon cheese wrapped in pear brandy soaked grape leaves only available from late October until Christmastime and one of my favorites. To showcase this really blue I made a batch of almond fig crackers (laced with port wine) and topped each crisp with fresh honeycomb.
Thanksgiving is a time for favorite dishes that are just a bit better than usual, mashed potatoes with plenty of butter and cream, green beans with chestnuts and bacon (no I just can't do the casserole), endive salad with home grown persimmons, pomegranates and toasted walnuts in a sherry vinaigrette, and . . .
of course the star of the show -- turkey with cornbread, sausage, pecan stuffing. I've been making the same basic recipe, vaguely adapted from 1979's classic The Silver Palette Cookbook for all of my turkey making years. I've dabbled with smoked turkeys or molé spiced or even gingersnap gravy doused but I always come back to the classic. I juice two oranges over the turkey inside and out then salt and pepper the exterior and the cavity liberally. After the bird is stuffed I truss it lightly, rub as much butter as humanely possible onto the skin, sprinkle with paprika and he's ready to cook. Some years I do a little sage, sometimes I flirt with Bell's seasoning but every time it is basically the same. The stuffing is a winning mix of white, wheat and corn breads, apples, breakfast sausage, pecans and spices. It's Norman Rockwell with a Southern drawl. Tradition and taste. Old fashioned and right on time all at once. In short, it's the perfect bird.
The best part of Thanksgiving may be the leftovers, especially this year. I had intended to serve oysters Rockefeller as a starter but at the last minute veered away. It just seemed too much for our little group of four and added a lot of last minute panic. So with our special "leftovers" James and I shared a day after oyster roast dinner and an after holiday breakfast with soft set scrambled eggs and luscious poached oysters. That might just be our new post holiday tradition.
Simple and plain alongside steamed peas and roasted carrots sprinkled with za'atar. Nothing fancy but a good entree for me now that I am back stateside and back to the diet. Not James' favorite but pretty low on the Weight watchers point scale.
The local slow food chapter near our new house has an annual turkey sale where they partner up with 4H kids who raised the birds. The checks are written directly to the future farmer. Naturally, in spite of the fact that most of my kitchen is still in boxes and we were doing the final move this same week, I went ahead and ordered a bird. How could I resist? This 9 pounder I'm pretty sure was the smallest bird I have ever cooked. I was worried it might be dry so I slathered it both under the skin and on top with a parsley thyme butter that gave a nice flavor to the red wine gravy I served on the side.
You wouldn't believe it from the picture but these biscuits are never fail magic. Based on a recipe by CookWise author Shirley Corriher, a tireless researcher and pursuer of cooking perfection, these biscuits are light and take no rolling. Instead the very wet dough is scooped out, rolled in a bit of flour and baked to fluffy perfection.
Maple glazed brussels sprouts and chestnuts. What could be bad about that? Slightly bitter vegetables with a slight sweet glaze tempered by a dash of cider vinegar. I love chestnuts and having a second excuse to serve them always makes me happy.
Thanksgiving has to have pie. Usually more than one. This year I just wasn't in the mood for pumpkin and I kept looking at the sweet potatoes on the counter and decided on a sweet potato pie with a pecan crust. Not quite as easy as opening that orange can, but flaky sweet and ready for ice cream just the same.
James is pretty supportive of my constant and vacillating efforts to lose weight. This time it's a try at Self Magazines Drop 10 Challenge. First diet dinner? A turkey and spinach meatloaf that I have to admit was pretty good (1 lb of turkey, 2 eggs, 1/4 cup whole wheat bread crumbs, 1/2 chopped onion, lots of minced garlic and several handfuls of chopped spinach made four servings after baking for 40 minutes at 350º). It's not pizza but it's not bad.
Pretty much anywhere you travel in the Spanish speaking world you'll find some version of the usually ground, but sometime chopped meat concoction known most often as Picadillo. The warm spices and gentle sweetness whisper of the Moors who most food historians believe brought these types of dishes with them to the European continent. From Spain these flavors traveled the globe and along the way melded with the local cuisine and now you can find Picadillos with olives, raisins, sweet onions, tomatoes, and even bits of ham. Eaten with rice or folded into dough, Picadillo is an easy disguise for leftovers and a quick weeknight super.
Nothing fancy. A little Sunday evening comfort food. Lately I've been feeling a little below par in the dinner category so I needed to stack the deck -- I dug out a never fail favorite.
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