Post Thanksgiving items

In addition to portioning out extra Thanksgiving sweet potatoes for baby food, the baby will also be trying a green thing very soon - shockingly green peas:


Meanwhile, back in adult food world, we were watching an episode of Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives and learned of a diner that makes fried Thanksgiving balls - blobs of mashed potato, stuffing, and turkey hunks that are floured and pan fried.


We served them in a small pool of turkey gravy with some lovely jellied cranberry sauce. Because what Thanksgiving plate is complete without perfectly circular circles of J.C.S.?

Thanksgiving

It was the food event of the year, 2009. Very traditional Thanksgiving meal - I ask family to bring appetizers and dessert, and I generally provide the rest. This year, it was turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing (both in and out of the bird), the ubiquitous green bean casserole, and dinner rolls. And gravy of course. There always has to be gravy.

The table setting....

Preparing the "bed" for the turkey

Stuffing - Pepperidge Farm bread cubes with onion and celery sauteed in butter. And chicken stock.

The sweet potatoes, with one set aside for the baby's dinner (well, one-quarter of one sweet potato - he may be a hungry baby, but he isn't that hungry). This was eventually topped with a butter/brown sugar/cinnamon/pecan mixture

The turkey, midway through - it got flipped at this point. This poor turkey was put through the wringer - brining, stuffing, roasting upside down....

And the buffet - thanks to my niece for adding a human touch

We can't forget dessert (and a little taste of the appetizers - a cheesy garlic roll) - spectacular pumpkin pie!

Thanksgiving part 7 - Cheesecake

I made a cheesecake for my contribution to dessert at R's request. I roundly enjoy a good cheesecake, but for whatever reason, I don't ever really enjoy my own. Everyone else seems to, but then again, they could just be acting polite. For this cheesecake, I relied on an Emeril recipe. I made the crust from cinnamon graham crackers, because that's what I had on hand. The filling was like most fillings (lotsa cream cheese, sour cream, eggs) and I may have under-sugared it, as I'm wont to do in desserts. It was a very VERY tall cheesecake - a half inch of crust and 4 inches of creamcheesiness. Also at R's request, I made a blueberry topping. I did not want to just buy a can of pie filling, so I mixed 1 package of frozen blueberries with sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, orange juice, cinnamon, a few tbsp of cornstarch, and some water in a pan on the stove and heated until most of the berries had burst, and the liquid had thickened. It seemed to be well-received. And I will say that it tasted quite good on some sugar cookies I'd made for my niece to decorate. So there you go.

Thanksgiving part 6 - giblets

Giblets. The word evokes pleasure to some - thinking of giblet gravy and hearth and home. The word brings about horror to others - sick, innards of a bird. I was rather firmly in the latter camp, but Elle and others persuaded me that perhaps they DID have a use. I took the innards and boiled them in water for about 15 hours (actually, more like 80 minutes) with some salt and peppercorns. I used the resulting stock in my Thanksgiving meal. Whatever happened to the giblets themselves? Why, Miss Daisy got a series of delicious additions to her Iams kibble over the weekend of course!

Thanksgiving part 5 - sweet potatoes

So, I discovered that my in-laws do not generally enjoy sweet potatoes. No problem, I'll skip them in the future. That being said, I'm still working on a large casserole of sweet potatoes, so I'm feeling a bit bitter. :)

For said sweet potato casserole, I relied on a Tyler Florence recipe. I roasted 6 medium sweet potatoes in a 375 deg oven for about 40 minutes. I then tossed in four bananas and continued to roast for another 15 minutes. I then put them in the ol' Kitchenaid and whipped them up with a stick of butter, about 2 tbsp of honey, a large handful of brown sugar, and some cinnamon, nutmeg, and some salt. Actually, a LOT of cinnamon and nutmeg because they smelled kinda bland. I smushed them into a large oval casserole dish then made a butter/brown sugar/pecan/cinnamon praline topping. They got baked (heehee) for about 35 minutes in a 375 deg oven.

They were pretty good, although I would probably not do them with the bananas again, it added a strange taste to some bites. And blackened bananas were a bit rude to look at on my countertop. R was a bit startled when he saw them.

Thanksgiving part 4 - Stuffing

My stuffing isn't really that spectacularly unique - Pepperidge Farm cubed herbed stuffing, chicken stock, onion, celery...mix...bake...or stuff into bird and bake....I like it a bit dry, so you can put gravy on it and moisten it up.

The problem with stuffing the bird is the cloud of food poisoning or destroying the turkey. You are supposed to get the stuffing temperature to 165 deg. in order to prevent food-borne illness. In order to avoid the whole "toxically undercooked stuffing" dilemna, once the turkey was done, I took out the stuffing and put it back in the oven for a good half hour. To date, no one got sick, so fingers crossed this works in the future too. Safe stuffing plus NOT overcooked bird = happy guests.

Thanksgiving part 3 - Gravy

As mentioned, the gravy was quite tasty. Some of this can be put down to homemade stock. There really IS a difference, although, it is a PIA if you don't have poultry carcasses lying around. I also contend that allowing the drippings to pool around lovely roasting onions/garlic/herbs helps a lot. After the turkey(s) were finished, I strained out the vegetables and flotsam, and put the roasting pan and its dripping back on the stove top on medium high. I added a large knob of butter, probably equally around 1 c of liquid drippings total. I tossed in probably a half cup of flour and made a lovely roux. After said roux had cooked adequately to erase raw flour tastes, R helped me add probably 3/4 of a gallon of the stock along with some wine, salt, and pepper. I cooked this until thickened and serve. We had a LOT of gravy obviously, but it was really good!

Thanksgiving part 2 - The turkey

So in addition to the turkey breast, we also had a 12 pound turkey. For the lovely turkey, I made a roasted shallot/garlic/thyme rub to put under the turkey skin. I roasted a half pound of shallots, about 6 garlic cloves, and several sprigs of thyme in a 375 deg. oven for an hour. I then pureed them with about a stick of butter and smeared it all under the breast skin and inside the turkey cavity. The turkey was stuffed (I live dangerously) and placed on a rack in a large roasting pan, hovering over 2 onions, quartered (skins on), several cloves of garlic, and sprigs of thyme, marjoram, rosemary, and sage. I liberally buttered the entire bird as well. I poured in about a cup of chicken stock and a hefty splash of Chardonnay and roasted it for about 3 3/4 hours at 325 degrees. I added new butter from time to time as it roasted. It was quite tasty, although, compared to the brined breast, wasn't quite as lovely. But the shallot rub did keep it moister than usual. And the gravy, more later, was ambrosial.

Thanksgiving part 1 - turkey breast

Holy schmoley, it's been a while since I posted. Sorry for that. It's been a weird month. Nonetheless, the mecca of holiday feasting, Thanksgiving, was recently upon us. In installments, I will (without pics, sadly) explain how it went down.

First off, we had a turkey breast (turkey will be discussed later). R and I decided to experiment a bit and brine the turkey before roasting it. Relying loosely on an Alton recipe, I heated about 2 qts of water with about a 1/2 c of kosher salt, 1/4 c of brown sugar, and a tbsp of peppercorns. I allowed that to cool and then poured it into a large stock pot in the sink, cushioned the pot with ice, and put the turkey breast in. I replaced the ice throughout the morning and let the turkey float in its brine for about 4 hours before thoroughly rinsing it, buttering it up, and putting it in its baking dish. Once at the Thanksgiving final destination of the brother-in-law, it got baked for about 2 1/2 hours and was LUSCIOUSLY moist and tender and perfectly seasoned. Would highly recommend doing, and will likely do it to an entire turkey next year. Thumbs up on brining.