mac and cheese, first go

last summer chad was having the good idea that someone should make mac and cheese for thanksgiving.  i teased him a lot for this.  so today, i made a go at mac and cheese to bring to thanksgiving.

1. cook pasta
way ahead of when you want to make the mac and cheese, cook your pasta.  i used strangled priest.  once i drained it, i put it in the fridge in a bowl. it could be there as long as over night, but at least 4 hours or so.

2. start to heat oven to 350 degrees.

3. fry pasta
put way too much olive oil and butter in a dutch oven like pot.  (i love my crueset pot).  when hot, add the pasta and stir and fry until you have a satisfactory amount of "crunchy brown" pieces.


4. mash garlic
using a masher or knife, mash about 4 or 5 cloves for 1lb of pasta.

5. grate cheese
tonight i used gruyere.  whatever the size is they sell at my local market, rainbow bridge.

6. add garlic and some of cheese
when pasta was close to done, i added the garlic and stirred.  i added some of the cheese and stirred.  i also grated parmeson cheese into frying pasta.  i removed from heat.  if i was not "making mac and cheese" i would have stopped here and eaten this.  yum.

7. make creme sauce
melt butter and add equal parts flour.  stir until roux is light blond  color.  slowly pour in milk or creme.  (tonight all i had was half n half, so i used that).  add the rest of grated cheese to milk mixture.

8. mix, salt and bake
pour creme cheese sauce onto pasta.  stir.  gruyere is pretty salty, but i added some smoked salt too.  i grated some more cheese onto top of pasta and put it oven for 20 minutes.

Extreme Ginger Carrots

Old recipe, new method and new flavor angles:

1. peel and cut carrots  into shape you like. tonight i did them the way ed brown taught me.  slicing as i roll them to get some interesting shapes.  tonight i used 3 farmer's market sized bunches.

2. heat olive oil or preferred oil in a pan and brown the carrots.  i like them so the look like they were roasted.

3. while browning, finely grate a lot of ginger.  tonight i think i added too much, maybe close to 1/2 cup, but no one seemed to mind.

4. finely grate 2 oranges.  squeeze the juice from these two oranges.

5. mix orange juice with some tamari soy sauce, maple syrup and cayenne to taste.  proportions depend on your desired taste.

6. once carrots are browned to your liking, stir in the ginger. then eventually add the juice mixture.  allow to come to a boil, then turn heat way down, cover and let simmer on low until desired softness of carrots has been reached.  usually about 45 minutes or so.

7. tonight the balance of ginger and cayenne was a little intense, so i added a smidge more maple syrup.  also, the sauce was super potent.  to tone down, i might have added a little water to the juice mixture.

8. in the past, i have minced up shallots and added with the ginger.  tonight i fried up the shallots separately like in Vietnamese cooking. then to serve, stir in a little of the fresh orange rind.  chop up some mint and scatter on top with fried shallots.

Thanksgiving Again

Everytime I cook Thanksgiving Dinner, I feel like I am starting from scratch.   It's like I've never done it before.  This year turned out pretty good so I figured I make some notes to help me next year.

The Turkey
1. Delya Gates Raises Delicious Turkeys
Got our turkey from Delya up on Fairview right here in Ojai.  I was skeptical cuz it looked like a Supermodel turkey.  Long legs and flat chested.  I was worried that there would be no meat.  The 9lb. was the perfect amount for 4 peeps with just enough meat for some sandwiches tomorrow.  And, most importantly the bird tasted great!

2. Salt and Sugar Brine

• Dissolve 1 cup sugar and 1 cup salt into a gallon of water. Add some cinnamon sticks, bay leaves, crazed black peppercorns.  Warm to make sure it all dissolves and then cool.  Use ice if in a rush.
• Place turkey breast side down into a garbage bag inside a white foam cooler.  Pour in brine and add another gallon water + to cover bird.  Seal and put in garage if cold enough.  
• 9 hours later, remove and put in fridge uncovered.

3. The Mark Bittman 45 minute method

• Set oven to 400 or so
• Remove backbone and open turkey up
• Lay in roasting pan and smear with butter
• Tuck in garlic cloves and herbs
• Pour a little water into pan
• Place in oven and set timer for 23 minutes
• Turn bird in oven and set timer for another 23 minutes
• Check bird and allow to cook for as much longer as necessary dep on size

The Stock

• Brown the Giblets
• Add some big pieces of onion, carrot and celery
• Deglaze with chosen liquid
• Add Broth from store
• Add Aromatics like Rosemary and such
• Bring to boil and allow to simmer until you start to need it
• Drain

The Stuffing

• Get Olivia’s homemade herbed breadcrumbs from Farmer and the Cook
• Melt too much butter and remove some (2 sticks)
• Add chopped onion and celery (1 cup each)
• Add pine nuts and chopped pecans (1 cup or so total)
• Add salt and herbs and pepper
• Stir in breadcrumbs and add back in butter to toss (6 to 8 cups)
• Stir in Chopped Parsley
• Stir in Stock (about a cup)

The Carrots

• Get Fresh Carrots from market
• Cut in cool shape like Ed taught you
• Saute in Pan until starting to turn golden
• Add chopped ginger and shallot.  Continue to saute
• Add Orange Juice, Maple Syrup and Soy Sauce and Water
• Turn heat to super low, cover and allow to braise
• When ready to serve, toss with mint and orange zest
• Can be made ahead, but get super super soft

The Mashed Potatoes

• White Rose? Potatoes from Market
• Pealed and chopped in half (so left pretty big)
• Placed in cold water and brought to a boil
• Boil for 25 minutes or until potatoes are practically falling apart
• Drain and put right back into hot pan and put on burner, allow to dry out
• Begin to Mash with masher
• Eventually add in buttermilk/butter/heavy creme mixture you melted
• Continue to mash until fluffy and light

The Green Beans

• Prep by cutting ends off
• Right before about to eat, steam for just a few moments so beans stay crunchy
• Toss with some butter, salt and chopped herbs, like dill

Gravy

• My gravy did not work at all this year.  Never got thick.  Even went to the trouble of making a roux. So no notes here except to get better advice next year.

Cranberry Sauce

• Buy Olivia’s Ginger Cranberry Sauce again.

Desert

• Thank you Knead Bakery for the Pecan Tart and Apple Creme Fraiche Tart!
• Thank you Whip Cream!

Spinich Salad

I was reluctant to bring a salad to Thanksgiving.  Who has room for salad on Thanksgiving?  Why would you have salad when there's stuffing?  But I love Babs and will do whatever she says.  I made this from what I had in my fridge mostly from our local farmers.

1. Wash a bunch of Steve's amazing spinach

2. Mash up some garlic with some salt.  Add some of Alice's Ojai White Balsamic Vinegar.  Add some chopped green peppercorns and chopped mint from Steve and chopped parsley from BD.

3. Thinly slice at least 2 bulbs of fennel and a bunch of B.D.'s tiny scallion chive onions.  Mix and squeeze a meyer lemon from Friend's Ranch over them.

4. Toast pine nuts.

5.  When ready to serve, toss spinach with fennel mixture and dressing.  Crumble Feta on top. Heat olive oil in small pan on stove.  When hot, pour over salad to wilt.  Toss quickly.  Sprinkle in Pine nuts and add 3 cubed avocados.  Gently toss.  Salt to taste and serve.

Ginger Carrots

I was fretting about this dish.  I had not made it in a while and was not quite sure how I used to do it.  So i approached it with some angst,  but it seemed to turn out okay.  Even Lia liked it.

Peel and cut too many carrots from your favorite farmer to be as closely the same size as possible.  Heat olive oil or other favorite oil in a big saute pan and brown in batches if necessary, removing to a bowl.

Add more oil to pan and saute too many minced shallots and too much minced ginger.  De glaze a bit with some orange juice.

Throw carrots back into pan.  Add a mixture of Orange juice, honey, soy sauce, black pepper and water back to pan.  Bring to a boil.  Then lower heat as much as possible.  Cover with wax paper and lid if necessary.  Braise for up to an hour until carrots are as you like them.

Stir in fresh chopped mint and a little salt to taste if necessary.

Roasted Cranberry Sauce

At the suggestion of the Saveur, I roasted the Cranberry Sauce.  This recipe needs tweaking, but here is what we did.  This made enough Cranberry Sauce for an Army.  16 Peeps barely made a dent.

6 boxes of 7oz Organic Cranberries from Farmer and the Cook

1.5 cups Maple Syrup (sugar would prob. work too)

6 tbl. olive oil

5 pinches good salt

8 crushed cardamon pods (not a good idea, too many loose cardamon bursts...ground might have been better)

8 cloves (again, had to find the cloves in the sauce after roasting)

6 cinnamon sticks (candela would have been better)

2 seeded and deribbed jalepenos from FnC thinly sliced (if you know your people, leave some seeds in).

Peeled and thinly sliced skin of 3 oranges (from FnC)

Tossed Together and Roasted in an Oven at 450 for about 15 minutes.

(I like the look of whole berries in the sauce.  This blew all the berries up and so the sauce was more like jam)

Transfer Berries and Such to a Bowl and stir in 5 tbl. or so of Fresh Squeezed OJ and 4 tbl. or so of Port.  Let sit for an hour and taste.  Eventually remove the pods, cloves and sticks before serving.  (This was a pain!)  Refrigerate if you like cold cranberry sauce.

We mixed in the seeds from one pomegranate.  I love this!  it gives the sauce a burst like surprise.

Thanksgiving at the Washburns

We went to the Washburns for Thanksgiving.  I was super grateful to not cook a feast this year.  First year in a long time.  

The meal was fantastic.  I was assigned a vegetable dish, salad and cranberry sauce.  I ate none of what I brought.  I focused completely on the stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and a little turkey.

Recipes following.

Tough Turkey

I was feeling ambivalent about hosting Thanksgiving dinner, but when I found out that Healthy Family Farms, the same stand from which I get my eggs from, was going to be making turkeys available, I got inspired.

Not remembering how big a turkey I usually get, and not sure who we were having over, I ordered a 20lb-er. When I picked it up, it was the biggest turkey I started inviting friends.

In honor of the local turkey, I felt out the rest of the menu from what I could get at the Farmer's Market, Farmer and the Cook and Rainbow Bridge. All organic and mostly local, I felt grateful again to live in Ojai, California.

On Wednesday, when I opened the turkey to get it ready to brine, I was overwhelmed by it's force. At risk of sounding too hippy, the spirit of my turkey was HUGE and I felt compelled to light a candle and say my prayers of gratitude. This was some turkey. I mean, like whoa whoa. It gave off this intense force that made my hair stand on end everytime I handled it.

But I learned a valuable lesson this holiday. While ethically I was very pleased with my free range organic turkey, I had not intended to cook an athlete. While the bird was perfectly cooked, nothing could mask the touch and chewy meat. Next year, I will be looking for the turkey that given the choice to run free, chose to relax and fatten up a little. A turkey more like me.

Thanksgiving 2007 Menu
10 peeps
Mixed Group.
2 Vegans

Appetizers
- Roasted Nuts with Rosemary, Brown Sugar, Cayenne and Salt
- Cheese Plate and Crackers
- Smoked Salmon Plate with Lemon Dill Sour Creme, Red Onions, Capers and Pumpernickel Toasts
- Herbed Olives


Dinner
Tough Turkey
(I carved according to the Video on the NYT. Great!)
Gravy
Basic Bread Stuffing (Bread from FnC)
Braised Fennel (Fennel from B.D.)
Slow Simmered Leeks in Olive Oil (Leeks from Rainbow, Carrots from Tutti Frutti, Onions from FnC)
Gingered Black Kale (Kale from Rainbow, Ginger from FnC)
Roasted Small Red Potatoes (Potatoes from Farmer's Market Stand)
Cranberry Sauce with Pomegranate Seeds (Cranberries from FnC, Local Pomegranates)


Desert
Katherine brought a Pear Tartan
Craig brought a Pumpkin Pie from Olivia