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!

One of my favorite Summer Salsas

Mince:
1 clove garlic
1 serrano
1/2 a red onion
some cilantro

Chop:
a small bucket of cherry tomotoes or one large regular tomato

Mix together with some salt, olive oil and a squeeze of lime (lemon will do)

Serve with the "Have a Chips" or make your own chips for best results.

Sausage Pasta Soup with Chiptole and Herbs

Again, you don't need to start with bacon, but I did.

1. Start a pot of salted water on a path to boil.
2. Mince up a few slices of bacon and put in thick heavy pot like a Crueset.
3. While bacon cooks, thinly slice up an onion, chop up some carrots in desired shape and chop up some celery in desired shape.
4. When bacon has rendered its fat, add sausage to pan. Tonight we used Mild Italian Turkey Sausage from Rainbow.
5. When Sausage is done, remove and add more fat if necessary to pan. We used olive oil tonight.
6. Add onions, carrots and celery. Stir and allow to cook to your liking. I like them browned.
7. Add stalks of thyme, a bay leaf, some chopped rosemary and what ever else you want. I also added a lot of ground black pepper. Stir and allow herbs to get in there.
8. Add 1/2 cup of Muir Fire Roasted Crushed Tomatoes and stir.
9. Add two canned chiptoles in adobo sauce and some of the adobo sauce.
10. By this time water should be boiling. Add your pasta. We used Strangled Priest Noodles. They take 8 minutes.
11. Add the broth to your soup pot and bring to a boil. Allow to simmer a bit. Add the sausage back in and salt to taste. Add chopped parsley if you like.
12. Drain pasta when done.
13. To serve, put some pasta in a bowl, and pour soup over it. Sprinkle bacon on if you made it.
    

Pan Baked Eggs with Sun Dried Tomotoes and Dill

I know that I have mentioned my favorite Cutco pot before. When cooking for 1 or 2, I would choose this pot over all my All Clad, Creuset and other fanciness any day.

1. Mince up 2 slices of bacon (optional) and begin cooking in the Cutco pan or equivalent.
2. Mince a little red onion.
3. When bacon done, remove and leave desired amount of grease, or simply start with another fat like olive oil.
4. Cook onions for a little bit, add Mexican oregano or other herb of choice and add 5 or so perfectly dried Sun Dried Tomatoes from Farmer and the Cook. Stir to coat the tomatoes in oil.
5. Crack four eggs onto of the onions and sun dried tomatoes. Cover and set timer for 6 minutes.
6. Poke at yokes to check for "doneness". (Lately I like my yokes cooked and semi firm).
7. Remove from heat and using your Cutco spatula, cut into pieces and remove from pan.
8. Sprinkle with bacon if using. Sprinkle with Olivia's amazing dried dill, maybe some fresh ground pepper and or her latest smokey paprika salt.

The Knead Bakery

A bunch of years ago, my mother said to me, "When are you going to learn to buy desert?"

At the time I took it as an insult to my baking.

But this year I learned. I picked up 2 pies from the Knead Bakery Team. Born out of the womb knowing the perfect balance of butter and flour and sugar, these women are masters.

I got an apple crème fraîche pie and a pumpkin cheesecake.

OMG. Sublime. THANK YOU!

Mocktails

I am going on 9 months sober.

When I was a kid, my grandmother would make me a Shirley Temple or such drink so that I would have a special drink too at 5pm.

Seems like I still need that. And cuz I did not feel like drinking water all night, I brought my own mocktail fixings to Thanksgiving Dinner at my friends.

For starters:
- Italian peach juice, Pellegrino and a squeeze of citrus
Tangerine is great if you have it, but the lemon that my host had worked well too.

With dinner:
Pomegranate Juice and Pellegrino
Lime is really good in this and if you feel like being indulgent, pour a little cherry juice in too.

Pasta with Chicken, Sun Dried Tomatoes and a Lemon Creme Sauce

A while ago I mused about becoming a vegetarian again. I must have forgotten about bacon. And my therapist recommended against stopping eating meat.

Barbara Washburn would never make this. "Too much fatness."

1. Set a pot of salted water on a course to boil
2. Thinly slice a few slices (or more) of bacon.
3. In a heavy pan, like Crueset, render the bacon. When done, remove bacon with slotted spoon, leaving the fat.
4. Cut up 2 raw chicken breasts into bite size pieces and cook in bacon fat.
5. While chicken cooks, slice up some red onion. Mince a serrano pepper. Cut a package of Olivia's amazing sun dried tomatoes into slices. Finely zest a Meyer Lemon. Finely chop some Italian Parsley.
7. When chicken is almost done, but not quite, remove with slotted spoon.
8. Add more olive oil to pan if necessary, and add onions. Eventually add the minced serrano and sun dried tomatoes.
9. When onions seem to your liking, add some white wine or other liquid to deglaze the pan and help soften the sun dried tomatoes.
10. I added some turmeric for color. If Eric like saffron, I would have added that.
11. When water boils add pasta. Tonight we used our favorite noodle, Strangled Priest.
12. Add 1/2 pint of heavy whipping creme to pan. Stir and allow to simmer and thicken. Add chicken back in to allow it to finish cooking.
13. When pasta is done, drain and add to sauce. Stir in lemon zest and chopped parsley. Serve.

The pasta was really pretty and golden with flecks of red sun dried tomatoes and green parsley.