Thanksgiving is here. It's time to make all the wonderful dishes you and your family and friends love. Here's a guide to many of my favorite recipes.
Enjoy and drop me a line with your favorite dishes.
Raw Brussels Sprouts Salad with Bacon
Sweet Potatoes Three Ways: Mashed, Baked or Oven-Fried
Cornbread, Porcini Mushroom, Chestnut, Bacon and Sausage Stuffing
Thanksgiving, 1992, San Francisco, CA, my first away from home as a newly minted full-grown adult. I figured I would make the turkey, since of my 3 roommates, 2 were veggie, and one had no interest in taking on the bird. And so, I got us a huge frozen turkey that sat in our fridge for a few days befoere Thanksgiving.
The big day arrived. I went to the fridge and found that the turkey was nowhere near thawed. It was around 8am PST and our party started at 6pm. The phone (which had a very long cord, we for some reason didn’t have a cordless, and no cell phones yet) was dialed and Gran Fran came on the line (it being 3 hours later in NY, her turkey was well on its way. Must also mention here, that Joe was well out of the house, too, since he cannot be in the house with odor of the roasting bird.)
“Well, you’ll need to run cold water on it to get the ice to thaw. And, to make sure it’s ready to cook, you don’t want to give everyone salmonella.” (note: Gran Fran is very wary of all manner of undercooked food for fear of diseases.)
OK, so the turkey is huge, our sink is not. Into the bathroom I go with the turkey, dragging the phone through the length of our flat. The bird is dumped into the bathtub, cold water is run over it for an hour or so, and it is thawed. (Picture my two veggie roommates coming into the bathroom and seeing me wrestling with a gigantic turkey. Needless to say, as soon as it was thawed, I was back in the bathroom armed with bleach and tub cleanser to get all meaty-juices off the surfaces).
The turkey made it into the oven around 10am, plenty of time for it to cook through. I went about my business to make other dishes, and help get the house ready for our guests. We were dressed up and the house lit with candles just in time.
The turkey had a beautifully browned skin, the meat was moist, the side dishes were delicious.
But, I had forgotten one thing. The paper wrapped innards were still in the turkey cavity. Oy, this was a tough one to explain to the guests. Suffice it to say, the turkey had been cooked for so long that the innards had been cooked, too, no danger of salmonella. But, boy, what a discovery was made when that cooked white sack was found!
Luckily, we were mostly a bunch of out-of-towners on our first solo Thanksgivings, so all was ok, as long a the wine and beer kept flowing and the pies made their way to the table.
Now, 20 years later, I have perfected many a turkey, but my all time favorite is this bacon wrapped version. The skin is rubbed with brown sugar, sage and cayenne pepper. Spicy, sweet and wonderful. I did also use butter, which I don't usually do for poultry, but it really added a great depth of flavor. You can stick with just the bacon to moisten the turkey, but I have to say the butter added amazing flavor.
Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
serves 6
Stuffing was never high on my list of Thanksgiving loves. I never loved the flavor, and was put off by the number of ingredients involved.
That all changed about three years ago when I started making my own, with lots of bacon and sausage.
Anything that can act as a vehicle for as much meat and savory goodness as you can stuff into a pan is good by me. Thanksgiving dishes give me an opportunity to go a little bit crazy and not worry so much about the healthier way that I usually eat. Portion control in the stuffing and mash potatoes department are completely gone. I figure once a year, I can really let loose and pack in the good stuff.
If you can line up all your ingredients and cook the elements you need in advance, this stuffing will come together quickly and easily. There will be lots of dicing, browning and dishes, but all for the good cause of making the best stuffing ever.
This year, I used port to rehydrate the dried porcini mushrooms and added dried California figs, instead of dried apricots.
You can amend this recipe however you'd like: use wine instead of port; morels instead of porcini; pecans instead of chestnuts. Whatever you do, keep the earthy flavors balancing out the sweet and nutty flavors and you'll have yourself a wonderful stuffing.
Below is the recipe, but here are links to some of the main ingredients, which I've posted before:
serves 6
In three simple steps, you can have fresh roasted chestnuts.
Use them in your Thanksgiving stuffing, minced over pasta with a poached egg on top, in salads or with Brussels sprouts. Anyway you try them, they add a warm, nutty, earthy flavor to your dish. It's the perfect Fall food.
Take a look at this post, by Stephanie J. Stiavetti. She made the decision not the X all of her chestnuts. If you're thinking of experimenting with this, too, check out her experience first.
My mom always told us to cut a big X in the shell before roasting. She also said you have to peel the shells off when they are still hot from the oven. This time around, I wasn't able to, and the shells came off very easily, even when they had cooled slightly. And, it was way easier to handle them cooled.
Let the Holidays begin!