Well, the Detroit Lions lost horribly in their game against the Tennessee Titans. A disaster of a game. Worst loss on Thanksgiving day ever for the Lions.
Fortunately, my dinner was NOT a disaster. It was DELICIOUS. I declare this year's Thanksgiving feast a complete success! You can see before and after pictures of the Thanksgiving meal on my Flickr page.
Herb-Roasted Turkey Breast (recipe from Ina Garten)
This recipe was so easy. I bought a nice 7 pound turkey breast, bone in, and spread this delicious mix of herbs and garlic all over it and under the skin. I put it in a roasting pan, and I poured a cup of a nice pinot grigio into the bottom. Into the oven it went, and a little less than 2 hours later, it was done. It turned out juicy, was completely cooked (no undercooked poultry here!), and has an amazing flavor. I can't wait to make turkey sandwiches out of the leftovers!
As for the gravy, I used the defatted pan drippings, which had some of the delicious herbs in it, and combined them in a pan with some butter and flour. It thickened up nicely this year. I'm getting better at gravy (it takes practice just like my mom said).
Note: I don't own a roasting pan. Nor do I own a roasting rack. So I bought a small aluminum roasting pan at the grocery store, and made a snake out of some aluminum foil to create a makeshift rack on the bottom. It worked well.
Caramelized Onion and Cornbread Stuffing (recipe from Tyler Florence)
Since I was only making a turkey breast and didn't have anything to stuff, I used the option of cooking it in a baking dish instead, essentially turning stuffing into dressing. I took a hand from the store and used pre-made cornmeal muffins. The flavor of the sage was nice without being overpowering. Unfortunately, however, it turned out a bit dry. It may have baked for too long, or maybe the dish was too big so it was spread too thin. I'm not sure. With some gravy poured over it to make it moist, it tasted wonderful, so I think I'll try it again, but I'll play around with the size of the baking dish. And when I reheat it I think I'll add a touch of chicken stock.
Smashed Sweet Potatoes (recipe also from Ina Garten)
I was looking for something different this year to do with my sweet potatoes. Yes, there's something to be said for the candied ones with pecans and marshmallows. But I know I'll get those at Christmas, so I wanted something else for Thanksgiving. So I tried these.
They turned out a bit loose rather than the expected thick like mashed potatoes, but they are wonderfully spicy and not overly sweet. The orange juice in them adds some necessary acid to keep them from being sugary. Overall, I'll make these again, but next time I'll try adding an extra potato or two to give it a better consistency. These are definitely being added to my recipe file for future use.
Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Garlic
I made these last year. They are SO GOOD. And easy. I cooked them up while the turkey rested and just wow. Nice thick cut bacon, a couple of cloves of minced garlic and lots of fresh brussels sprouts all caramelized in the pan. Just perfect. I don't think I could improve on this one if I tried my hardest, but why would I want to?
Cranberry & Wine Sauce
I got this recipe from my friends AH and DS. Yes, we have our family tradition of orange-ginger-cranberry relish, but like the sweet potatoes, I'm making that for Christmas. I actually made this the night before, to give it time to chill and gel. Take two bags of fresh cranberries, 2 cups of port wine, 2 cups of sugar, and a bunch of spices and throw it all in a pot and boil until the cranberries pop. That's it. So easy. And it turned out fantastic. I'm looking forward to putting a spoonful over my oatmeal in the morning or warming a bit and pouring it over ice cream.
As for dessert, right now I'm too full. And tomorrow is my annual Pumpkin Roll baking extravaganza. But for tonight I'm going to do the dishes and collapse on the couch for awhile.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Post-Thanksgiving meal review
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
You can read all about my favorite holiday in last year's post. I have the same plan again this year, to stay home and make myself a feast and be grateful for a day to myself with my four legged fuzzy children. Oh, and there will be football, in keeping with the family tradition of watching the Lions as most of my family originates in Michigan. Again I'm trying a few new recipes, trying to expand my holiday dishes repertoire. And since it's just me, if they turn out terrible no one has to suffer. I'm definitely making enough to have leftovers. I'm all about the open faced turkey sandwiches.
My menu this year:
- Herb-roasted turkey breast (recipe from Ina Garten)
- Gravy (with giblets and a hard boiled egg...it's a Southern thing)
- Cornbread and caramelized onion dressing (recipe from Tyler Florence)
- Smashed sweet potatoes (recipe again from Ina Garten)
- Brussels sprouts sauteed with bacon and onion (did this last year - loved it!)
- Cranberry sauce (from my friends AH and DS - all spicy sweet)
Friday, November 23, 2007
Thanksgiving leftovers
Leftovers are my favorite part of the Thanksgiving meal. The open faced hot turkey sandwiches are perhaps one of my all time favorite things to eat. Seriously. A nice slice of bread, topped with turkey, some dressing/stuffing, possibly mashed potatoes, and then gravy. Warm it up (oven or microwave, your preference), and top with cranberry relish/sauce. OMG so good. Yes, a carb fest, but so delicious I really don't care.
Yesterday I made a Thanksgiving menu of experiments. Recipes I've been wanting to try, but I didn't want to make someone be a guinea pig. Here's a brief review of what I made and how it went.
Turkey breast, brined: I've never brined a turkey before. Alton Brown (food and science nerd GOD!) swears by this method and it's supposed to keep the turkey moist during roasting. The brine I made included water, white wine, orange juice, peppercorns, whole allspice, fresh ginger, brown sugar and salt. I actually put the turkey breast in the brine on Wednesday night, and stirred and flipped the breast over first thing Thursday morning. The total brine time in the fridge ended up being about 18 hours. Anything between 12 and 24 hours is good. I rinsed it, rolled it up and tied it with twine so the skin covered all the meat, rubbed it with a little bit of oil, salt and pepper, and thew it in a roasting pan with onion, celery and apple chunks (aromatics make for good roasts!). It certainly came out tender and moist, and the brine gave the meat a bit of flavor. You could definitely taste the salt, and I'd prefer to not taste it, so I need to figure out what I did or what I need to do to fix that. Maybe I need to rinse it more before roasting, or roll it up and tie it before brining to reduce the surface area exposed to the brine. But I could taste a hint of ginger and allspice, and I liked that very much. Overall, quite delicious.
Dressing: no stuffing, as I'm not roasting a whole bird. So instead I'm making my own dressing, with fresh bread cubes dried out in the oven. We've always used the bag of bread cubes in the past, but I wanted to make only a partial recipe (like only one-fourth of the usual size), so it was actually easier to make my own out of a small loaf of white bread. A little onion, celery, broth, butter and seasoning, and you have dressing. Mine turned out a bit dry, but it sure tasted good. I just need to add a bit more broth to keep it moist. But it did soak up the gravy quite nicely.
Gravy: of course. Made from the pan drippings, which have all this great turkey flavor plus the aromatics. Tasty stuff. No giblets, no hard boiled egg, just pan drippings, pepper, some broth and thickened up with a broth and cornstarch slurry. It didn't thicken up the way I wanted, but gravy is an art. I just need to practice more. As my mom said, "it's in the doing" that you master gravy. It did thicken a bit as it cooled, however, so I did something right.
Brussels sprouts: I love these. Love them. I love to roast them with other veggies, or even just steam them and top with some butter and a touch of vinegar. This year I decided to try another Food Network recipe, this one from Giada: Brussels sprouts with pancetta. OK, so I didn't have pancetta...but I did have BACON! Brussels sprouts, bacon and garlic sauteed together. How can you go wrong. Seriously. Because I used bacon rather than pancetta and it tends to be fattier, I did have to pour some of the rendered fat out of the pan before I added the garlic and sprouts. OMG so good. I could eat this all by itself for dinner!
Mashed sweet potato with ginger: I bought fresh ginger for my turkey brine, and had a bit leftover. My friend LC told me about these amazing mashed sweet potatoes with ginger that she had sampled from Whole Foods. So I decided to try and recreate it. I baked the sweet potato in it's jacket, and then peeled and mashed it up with milk, a touch of butter, shredded fresh ginger, a touch of brown sugar, and just a dash of salt and pepper. Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.
Cranberry-apple-orange relish: OK, so this one is a tradition. But as I said before, the holiday just doesn't feel right without it. I'll probably make it again for Christmas at Grandmother's this year. And I do love eating it. A full recipe gives me a weeks worth, but I honestly don't get sick of it. It also has some candied ginger in it, and I always throw in a bit extra to give it an extra little bite.
Mulled apple cider: another tradition. I bought a 1/2 gallon of fresh local apple cider at the farmers' market on Wednesday, and simmered it with whole allspice, whole cloves, cinnamon stick, a sliced orange and a touch of sugar. Between the cider and the turkey the house still smells incredible.
The menu verdict: I will definitely try this menu out again on guests. An excellent Thanksgiving meal. I even took a few pictures and put them up on Flickr, the turkey breast roast turned out that pretty and the Brussels sprouts that delicious looking. I'm actually kind of impressed with myself that it did turn out that well. I wasn't expecting it. A very satisfying plate of food. Aussie thoroughly enjoyed her plate as well [the dog gets just a bite of everything...it is a holiday after all].
The leftover sandwich today (and tomorrow, and Sunday, etc.) should be damn good. I realize there was no dessert listed, but I'm making Pumpkin Rolls today (yes, five of them), and I will have to sample one to make sure they turn out right. Cook's prerogative, you know (nudge nudge, wink wink).
Hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving leftovers as much as I am!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanksgiving has to be my favorite holiday. It's a combination of some of my favorite things: cooking, eating, and hanging out with friends and family you care about. And even better, there's no gift pressure. I know, I know, Thanksgiving is supposed to be about being grateful for everything in your life. Well, when I can't think of anything better than getting together a bunch of family and friends and just hanging out together and eating lots of good food. Not much makes me happier than that. And I see the purpose of the day as just that. I'm grateful for my friends and family, so I choose to spend the day with them. It makes sense to me.
Growing up Thanksgiving in our house was always a completely random gathering of people. Most of which were either unable to travel or had no place to travel to. So my family threw open its doors and welcomed everyone to our table. Most of our guests only had my family in common, and often had never met. You'd think that this would cause tension, but somehow it never did. And the group of people was different from year to year.
People would start arriving mid-day to hang out for a few hours before the feast. We had snacks out, hot mulled apple cider (non-alcoholic) simmering in a coffee carafe (specially designated as cider-only), a jigsaw puzzle out on the non-formal dining table, and music on in the background. The football game would be turned on, but with low volume so as not to intrude on conversation. My parents are both from Michigan, so the annual Detroit Lions-Dallas Cowboys game is very much a part of the Thanksgiving tradition in both families (yes, I will have the Lions game, this year versus Green Bay, on myself in the background today). But it certainly wasn't the center of attention at our house. Usually people gathered around the jigsaw puzzle with a mug of cider and a plate of snacks, and chatted while trying to fit pieces together.
There was no kid table in our house. We all sat at the big dining room table together, pulling in extra chairs from all over the house. The day before we'd put the extra leaves into the table, and put down the tablecloth and candles, and set the table with the china (which we used for all holiday and special occasion meals). And yes, even us kids got to use the china. One year the cat decided to "help" us. We had a sheet we would put under the tablecloth as an extra layer of protection for the table. She figured out that if she got a running start from the living room and jumped on one end of the table, she could slide all the way to the other end on the sheet! She'd then jump off and circle around to do it again. Mom and I just stood there and watched, laughing hysterically, spreading the sheet back out after each pass. Eventually she lost interest and we were able to set the table, but she took probably a dozen "rides" on the sheet first!
The big feast was usually mid to late afternoon. Everyone brought one dish to share, usually a dish considered traditional in their family. Our Thanksgiving feast varied from year to year depending on the guests. Yes, we had central elements (turkey!), but it was so cool to see what other people considered traditional dishes. Over the years a few became part of our traditional dishes. But this also meant that often we had duplication. A few years we had multiple green bean dishes. Most years we had at least two different cranberry sauce/relish recipes, as we had our own traditional Cranberry-Orange-Apple relish. I still have to make that relish either for Thanksgiving or Christmas or the season just doesn't feel right. And my cousin likes the cranberry sauce from the can that you slice. But more duplication meant more yummy foods to try and more yummy leftovers (my favorite part, I'll get into that more in my next post).
We always made the turkey, as well as at least one dish of dressing. There was always whipped/mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes baked with brown sugar, butter and marshmallows on top, dressing/stuffing, rolls, salad, cranberry sauce/relish, various vegetable dishes like broccoli-cheese casserole or green been casserole or braised baby carrots, at least one chilled jello salad (such as pistachio fluff), and of course gravy, one with giblets and one without. A feast. Definitely a feast. You had to pace yourself so you had room to sample everything on the table. And that was just dinner. Dessert came later.
After eating, an assembly line was usually set up to clear the table, package everything up, and do the dishes. It never took long. Then we'd take a break and work on the puzzle, watch the parades or football on TV, visit, or just fall asleep on the couch and take a little nap. After an hour or so, people would start to think about dessert.
Dessert was just as much a feast as dinner. We always made our traditional Pumpkin Roll, which we'd make ahead as it had to be chilled (one less thing to do on Thanksgiving day!). There was also usually a pecan pie (did I mention my mom's family is from the South?), a pumpkin pie, and a few years there was even sweet potato pie. Or fruit pies like apple or mincemeat (with suet but with chopped apple instead of meat so it was sweet rather than savory). And plenty of ice cream or whipped topping for the pies. Guests would bring other desserts that aren't usually considered Thanksgiving desserts. I remember a chocolate-toffee layered dessert with cake, pudding, whipped cream and toffee bits, kind of like a trifle. Yummy. There was a delicious pear tart one year as well and unfortunately I didn't get the recipe.
This year I have no plans other than to make a meal for myself and spend the day at home. And I'm actually grateful for that. I'm grateful to have the time to myself to put things in order in my house and my life. To continue the purge of un-needed and un-wanted belongings that I've been dragging around. To recharge. And I am cooking myself a Thanksgiving dinner, with all sorts of recipes I've been wanting to try for sometime now. If they go well, then I'll have a lovely Thanksgiving menu for next year. If they go badly, well, let's just say the dog will be very grateful for a few days.
So Happy Thanksgiving to all!
Posts
