Crankybunny

Date:  November 25^th, 2004

Guests: 

• Carl
• Michelle M____
• Cheryl S____ & Scott
• Barbara
• Amy
• David
• Me - Nif

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Appetizers:

• Vacherin Mont d’Or with whole wheat baguette slices
• Nicoise & mixed marinated olives

Entrée & Sides: 

• Alsatian-Brined Turkey with Riesling (from Food & Wine)
• Creamed Cipolinni onions and mushrooms (Chanterelle, Shitake, Oyster, and Crimini)
• Sautéed Brussel sprouts with pine nuts and browned garlic
• Mashed potatos
• Roasted parsnips and yellow carrots with horseradish butter
• Chestnut stuffing (Did I really use that much butter?)
• Orange-cranberry sauce
• Cranberry sauce from a can (because I’m stubborn)
• Gravy
• Parkerhouse rolls

Desserts:

• Pumpkin pie
• Apple pie
• Apple/quince tart
• Ginger"snap" cookies
• Fresh whipped cream

After much preparation—chopping and cooking—Thanksgiving has come and gone.

I don’t really know what to say.  There were 8 of us total and I think that everyone had a good time.  There were people helping out everywhere.  Michelle chopped a multitude of vegetables and fruits, and made the most wonderful cranberry sauce and on top of all that, gingersnap cookies.  And then she made the gravy!  Cheryl and Scott brought some of my favorite wines (Joel Gott zinfandel and a burgundy) and a wintry bouquet and an apple pie from the farmer’s market.  Barbara and her friend Amy brought some decadent mashed potatoes and a pumpkin pie. Carl brought two bottles of Pinotage from South Africa which we all enjoyed.  6 bottles of wine, 1 six-pack of beer and a lot of water later the evening came to an enjoyable end.

The Preparations

I had ordered a turkey from the Union Square Farmer’s Market two weeks prior and as I walked away from the stand I had some misgivings as I had no receipt or confirmation—only my name on a slip of paper that said Saturday (and not which Saturday).  So, arriving at the market the Saturday before Thanksgiving I was told that there was no turkey for me. 

As the panic rose in my voice—“Does this mean I don’t get a turkey?”—a very nice man who seemed to be in charge of everything somehow got me one.  It was a very large turkey (20lbs!!) but you’ll hear no complaints from me—how could I turn down the potential of a freezer full of turkey and turkey-based stuff?

For once, I had no remorse for the guy that screwed up my order and fed him to the lions.  He kept saying that I was supposed to pick it up the Saturday prior and I kept repeating our entire conversation back to him about brining etc.  I hope he didn’t get into too much trouble, but he should pay more attention to the protocol of holiday orders.

Once the turkey was obtained and the rest of the produce purchased, I trucked it all home in my pushy cart to stuff into the refrigerator. 

The preparations were done over the two prior days.  Even though it didn’t really seem like a lot of cooking it really was.  On Tuesday morning I made brine with juniper berries, peppercorns, bay leaves, and mustard seeds.  Then came then turkey wrestling part—the turkey needed to be rinsed off and then put into a large enough container to hold both the turkey and the brine.  The container that I had bought expressly for the purpose of brining turned out to be too small, but there was a small plastic wash basin in the bathroom that we used for cleaning and other such things.  I washed it out very, very well and then lined it with plastic bags.  In went the turkey, brine, some Riesling and a whole lot of water—4 more quarts to be exact.  Twist up the bag tight, put it on the bottom shelf and hope it works.

Tuesday night was the beginning of the chopping.  I chopped all of the mushrooms, some of which had frozen because I turned the temperature on the refrigerator too low, and the associated ingredients for the mushroom dish.  Cooked the mushroom and onion dish and let it cool.  I also roasted chestnuts that Michelle had given me and in the course of scoring, roasting, peeling it because apparent that the majority of them were mildewy.  They exploded in the oven and emitted little puffs of mildew when peeled—much like those smoke bomb fungi that everyone like to play with when they were kids.  While the chestnuts were exploding in the oven I mixed up the dough for the “light and buttery” rolls.  Finally reading through the directions completely I consequentely discovered that the dough needed to be refrigerated overnight—so be it and in it went into the refrigerator and the chestnuts into the trash.  I called it a night.

Wednesday morning I flipped the turkey in the brine—much easier than expected and headed off to what was to be an annoying partial day at work, but I did finally leave around 2pm. Once home there was a lot more to be done.  I pulled out the roll dough and let it warm up. While warming, I peeled and chopped the parsnips, carrots, and prepared another round of chestnuts.  Michelle came over and chopped up just about everything else:  herbs needed for the flavored butter, bread and shallots for the stuffing, Brussels sprouts, and apples for the tart. I made the apple/quince “applesauce” used to underlie the fruit in the tart while baking the rolls.  As the rolls were finishing coming out of the oven, David’s 18 year old cousin Abigale came over to visit and the three of us went to dinner at this small, but good tapas restaurant called Tia Pol which is right down the street from us.

Thanksgiving Morning

Thursday morning dawned and fortunately I didn’t need to get up a the crack of dawn.  I did however, get up and immediately start the stuffing which really only consisted of sautéing a lot of shallots in a lot of butter and then adding bread and chestnuts and baking.  Oh yeah, there was a bunch of fresh thyme in there too.  The stuffing turned out great—even I like it and I don’t really like stuffing.  When we reheated it before dinner, Michelle poured some stock in to moisten it up a bit. After the stuffing came the tart which really only required assembly.  Having pulled the dough out the night before I rolled it out only to find that it was sticking to the waxed paper.  Instead of freaking out I put the dough right back into the freezer and 20 minutes later the paper came right off.  Let’s hear it for not panicking.  After assembly—dough, sauce, fruit—the tart went right into the oven.  On the stove top a syrup of apple cider and quince syrup was simmering.  When the tart came out the syrup whet on.  Then everything that could be done was and I set about cleaning with David.

The actually dinner prep was relatively well orchestrated between Michelle and I.  When the turkey came out (only slightly underdone—didn’t know where to put the thermometer) the stuffing and the parsnips when in and the brussels sprouts and pine nuts when on top to brown.  Mashed potatoes went into the microwave, the cooked Brussels sprouts got the browned garlic added and all went to the table while Michelle made the gravy.  Pictures were taken and then everyone dug in. Yum.

After the main course we sat around for a bit talking and watching Mean Girls and then listening to music.  The deserts were the icing on the cake, so to speak, and all of them were good.  Barbara whipped up, literally, some whipped cream for the pies and everyone, I think, had a taste of it.  Thank goodness there was a hand blender in the house as that would have been a big pain in the ass to do by hand with a small whisk.

Then over the next few hours everyone toddled off to their respective homes and I keeled over into bed.

Thanksgiving is for friends.