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Nov. 27th, 2008
Thanksgiving food notes
Nov. 27th, 2008 10:41 pm8/100: Butternut squash soup. Came out better than I expected, maybe due to sitting in the fridge overnight. It's lovely but very delicate, which made it an odd companion at a table full of aggressively macho side dishes. It will hold up well at the leftovers brunch tomorrow. Some time I will make it again with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fengshui's advice in mind.
9/100: Roast turkey. The book recommends brining for 4 hours and letting it air-dry for 8 hours. Due to timing restrictions (didn't get started till midnight Wednesday) I brined it for about 8 hours and let it dry for 4. Still it came out well. I overcooked it a bit but it was not completely dry when it arrived at the table. The roasted vegetables in the pan were, sadly, totally carbonized. Notes for next time: if the bird is under 14 pounds, don't be afraid to check it early and often.
10/100: Giblet pan gravy. Very tasty.keyne pointed out that this recipe is awfully cumbersome and not a huge improvement over making it from pan drippings. She's right. On the other hand, due to the aforementioned overcooked bird, we didn't actually have any useful pan drippings, so it's just as well I did this.
Other dishes at our table, not blessed by America's Test Kitchen:
Key lime pie, from the recipe on the key lime juice bottle: perfect. And dead easy, too. You can't get any more rock-stupid than this: egg yolks, lime juice, condensed milk, beat well, slosh into pie crust and throw in oven at 350. Nice.
Pumpkin pie: every year we lose our recipe for lactose-free pumpkin pie and go hunting for another one. This time I gave up and just substituted 10 oz Lactaid milk with 2 tsp. cornstarch for 12 oz condensed milk. Texture was good but it wasn't quite as sweet or rich as I'd like.
Creamed spinach: from a randomly chosen recipe found on the net. Not bad. I used 2% milk and Greek yogurt in place of whole milk and sour cream. Whole milk would have rounded it out better. Maybe even a little half-and-half.
Mashed potatoes: made from potatoes. Smart.
Dressing: from a bag, but what you gonna do?
Honey-wheat banana rolls: from an old DAK bread machine recipe book. At the last minute I dumped them into mini-loaf pans instead of forming them into rolls. I liked the result -- very Outbacky.
We used at least a pound and a half of butter.
thomasyan and brother brought a very nice bottle of Australian tokay (!) which we had with dessert. Also some homemade pork dumplings (!!) which we completely forgot about in our madness. We had homemade pork dumplings in our house and didn't even serve them. I can't believe it. They were both lovely dinner guests and extraordinarily tolerant of the circus acts which are our children.
After coffee and tea and pie and wine, we gave in to the kids' pleas and settled in to watch some Pink Panther from Netflix. As the food coma started to descend, the brothers Yan took their leave of us for the drive back in to the city and we got the boys to bed. Not bad.
fengshui's advice in mind.9/100: Roast turkey. The book recommends brining for 4 hours and letting it air-dry for 8 hours. Due to timing restrictions (didn't get started till midnight Wednesday) I brined it for about 8 hours and let it dry for 4. Still it came out well. I overcooked it a bit but it was not completely dry when it arrived at the table. The roasted vegetables in the pan were, sadly, totally carbonized. Notes for next time: if the bird is under 14 pounds, don't be afraid to check it early and often.
10/100: Giblet pan gravy. Very tasty.
keyne pointed out that this recipe is awfully cumbersome and not a huge improvement over making it from pan drippings. She's right. On the other hand, due to the aforementioned overcooked bird, we didn't actually have any useful pan drippings, so it's just as well I did this.Other dishes at our table, not blessed by America's Test Kitchen:
Key lime pie, from the recipe on the key lime juice bottle: perfect. And dead easy, too. You can't get any more rock-stupid than this: egg yolks, lime juice, condensed milk, beat well, slosh into pie crust and throw in oven at 350. Nice.
Pumpkin pie: every year we lose our recipe for lactose-free pumpkin pie and go hunting for another one. This time I gave up and just substituted 10 oz Lactaid milk with 2 tsp. cornstarch for 12 oz condensed milk. Texture was good but it wasn't quite as sweet or rich as I'd like.
Creamed spinach: from a randomly chosen recipe found on the net. Not bad. I used 2% milk and Greek yogurt in place of whole milk and sour cream. Whole milk would have rounded it out better. Maybe even a little half-and-half.
Mashed potatoes: made from potatoes. Smart.
Dressing: from a bag, but what you gonna do?
Honey-wheat banana rolls: from an old DAK bread machine recipe book. At the last minute I dumped them into mini-loaf pans instead of forming them into rolls. I liked the result -- very Outbacky.
We used at least a pound and a half of butter.
thomasyan and brother brought a very nice bottle of Australian tokay (!) which we had with dessert. Also some homemade pork dumplings (!!) which we completely forgot about in our madness. We had homemade pork dumplings in our house and didn't even serve them. I can't believe it. They were both lovely dinner guests and extraordinarily tolerant of the circus acts which are our children.After coffee and tea and pie and wine, we gave in to the kids' pleas and settled in to watch some Pink Panther from Netflix. As the food coma started to descend, the brothers Yan took their leave of us for the drive back in to the city and we got the boys to bed. Not bad.
Thanksgiving Leftovers brunch!
Nov. 27th, 2008 10:45 pmIf you find yourself on Friday with too many leftovers, bring them to our Thanksgiving leftovers brunch!
In fact, if you find yourself without any leftovers at all on Friday, come eat ours anyway, because, let's be real, we have way too much food anyway.
Thanksgiving leftovers brunch is a fabulous tradition started years ago byagaran, ghislaine and winged_faerie, and I'm delighted that we get to host it this year.
Friday at 1pm at our place in Carlisle. Comment here or email or text if you need directions.
In fact, if you find yourself without any leftovers at all on Friday, come eat ours anyway, because, let's be real, we have way too much food anyway.
Thanksgiving leftovers brunch is a fabulous tradition started years ago by
agaran, ghislaine and winged_faerie, and I'm delighted that we get to host it this year.Friday at 1pm at our place in Carlisle. Comment here or email or text if you need directions.