Well, Thanksgiving is coming up. What are the various brinellers going to have? I'm making everything for Thanksgiving this year, and here are my recommendations for y'all:
Roasted Turkey. The secret is to put a dozen or two cloves of garlic under the skin, brush with vegetable oil, sprinkle all over with salt and sage, and put a whole large onion and/or a granny smith apple in the chest cavity. Don't bake with stuffing in, the turkey won't bake evenly, it will take longer, and the breast meat will dry out. Get at least at least a pound and half of turkey per guest, more for leftovers. And since you DO want leftovers, make that two pounds or even two and a half. Oh, and take the turky out about half an hour before serving, to let it rest. The cook and the cook ONLY is entitled to nibble bits of skin before serving. Get yer hands off that! Gravy. Take some rendered fat from the turkey and add flour and make a roux. Mix in the non-fat juices from the turkey, stirring all the time. Chopping up and adding the baked onion from the turkey cavity is good, but not essential. Add some milk if desired, reduce gravy over low heat until thickened enough for taste. Stuffing. Cube up some sourdough bread, or other interesting old bread. Saute onions, garlic, celery, water chestnuts, mushrooms, sage, rosemary, oregano. Mix with bread, add chicken stock or turkey drippings, bake in a pan with the giblets. If veg-heads are coming, use veg stock for one pan. You can also add chopped pecans, apples, raisens, prunes, or what have you for variety. Cornbread, sausage, or [shudder] oysters are RIGHT OUT and are not allowed. Mashed potatoes. Boil potatoes and mash them with milk and butter. Toss in some roasted garlic if desired. Oh, and make sure plenty of butter (from a cow, margarine is NOT BUTTER) is available. You'll need at least one butter dish for every four people. Sweet potatoes. Bake sweet potatoes until soft the night before. Remove skins, mix with crushed pineapple and brown sugar, and bake in a casserole dish. Vegetarian Entree: Baked Squash. Cut acorn sqash (the green ribbed kind) in half and scoop out seeds. Fill cavity with brown sugar, chopped apple, raisens, cinnamon and spice, butter, and a little flour. Bake for about an hour. Cranberry sauce. A bag of whole raw cranberries, a whole orange including skin cut up, and ~1/2 cup sugar to taste. Puree in food processor. Have a couple cans of jell-style cranberry sauce available too. Dilled Pickled Beans. You did make these last summer, didn't you? Pack green beans into pint* jars, add garlic cloves (lots of garlic cloves), fresh dill heads, and your favorite pickling spices (peppercorns, chile flakes, mustard seeds, whole cloves, bay leaf, etc), and add vinegar and salt brine leaving 1 cm head room. Treat cans in boiling water bath for 10 minutes. The vinegar makes this high acid, so you don't need a pressure cooker, just boiling water. The beans come out spicy and crunchy, and the pickled garlic is delicious too. Sweet Potato Cheesecake. Make up a graham cracker crust (optional, you don't really need a crust and no one cares anyway) in springform pan. Take about two of the sweet potatoes you baked the night before, mix with 3 8 ounce packages cream cheese. Add 1 cup sugar, mix. Add pumpkin pie type spices...cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice...and vanilla, lots of vanilla. Add one egg, mix. Add another egg, mix. Add another egg (that makes three), mix. Pour into springform pan and bake for an hour at 350F until set to desired firmness. Make this the day before for best flavor. Garnish with freshly made whipped cream made with vanilla and only a little sugar. This is basically pumpkin cheesecake, but I find that sweet potatoes taste more like pumpkin than pumpkin does. They are moister, sweeter, oranger, and more flavorful. If you suspect people will balk at yam cheesecake just tell them it's pumpkin cheesecake and they'll never know the difference. Hard Apple Cider: Pick up a six-pack or two of Spanish Peaks hard cider (the kind with the black dog on the label, and paw print on the cap), or a couple bottles of Blackthorn Dry. These are the essentials. Feel free to add vegetable trays, olives, pickles, cheese plate with crackers, dilled pickled green beans, deviled eggs, rolls, soft sparkling cider, wine, beer, fruit salad (use real whipped cream, for crying out loud), apple pie, coffee, tea, vanilla ice cream, various liqueur shots, etc, etc, etc as needed. Mmmmmm......Thanksgiving. I can't wait. *Pint jars are used since you can't get metric canning jars in the US. Substitute half-liter jars if available. For the other Traditional Thanksgiving Dishes, traditional measurements should be used. ===== Darryl Think Galactically -- Act Terrestrially __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Find the one for you at Yahoo! Personals http://personals.yahoo.com
