or different for thanksgiving this year?
thought i'd throw this out there, to maybe get new ideas or what not for next year or even this year...
plus to share good/new ways to make traditional stuffs.
specials plans, new traditions starting?
i found a pie receipe in the family cook book that i've not seen made in my 25 years of thanksgiving.
it's pear pie.
sounded delicious, so that's my contribution..
PLUS...
i'm now officially one of the ladies in the family. the past, say 20 years i've played football the morning of thanksgiving with all the guys and kids... i now have to bow out gracefully, but i'm pushing to be able to do both this year :)
i've been asked to join the prep team of most of the women in the family to cook this year and from here on out,
since gramma has had to step down.
i'm PRETTY PUMPED!
anyone else?
I eat at my parents every year.....I'm gonna try somehow to get her to incorporate some organic and natural ingredients into the meal this year. The old folks are so stuck in their ways.
One step at a time though.....organic cranberry sauce to start.
I've done this in the past with turkey, not a huge turkey...just one of those smaller turkey breasts. About halfway through the baking, rub the outside real good with cranberry sauce. Lots of it. Let it seep into the skin and meat. Oh so good.
its a vegan recipe.. hear me out though. Even if you are not vegan this pie is better than regular pumpkin pie.. trust me. Last Thanksgiving we made regular pumpkin pies and a vegan pumpkin pie and this one was gone in a flash. Everyone said it was much better and wanted to know why 8)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Have ready, one 9" unbaked pastry crust (your favorite, or see two recipes above)
Blend in blender until smooth:
2 c. solid-pack canned pumpkin (one 14-15 oz. can)
(NOTE: if you use home-cooked pumpkin, drain it for several hours hanging in a cloth bag, so it's thick like canned pumpkin; measure after draining.)
1 c. non-dairy milk (preferably a rich soymilk or nut milk)
3/4 c. brown sugar or Sucanat
3-4 T. cornstarch (depending on how firm you like it)
1 T. molasses or blackstrap molasses
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. EACH ground ginger, nutmeg and salt
1/4 tsp. ground allspice or cloves
Pour the filling into the pastry and bake 60 minutes, covering the edges with foil if they begin to brown too quickly. Cool on a rack, then refrigerate overnight before serving.
I with Will, trying to go more and more organic, the wifey works at Whole Foods so that is a bit easier....however there are traditions that must not be tampered with, the deep frying of the turkey :beers: :beers:
I think theres an organic sunflower oil that is good for deep frying. Can't think of the name though.
Do they give employee discounts at Whole Foods? If so.. I may get a weekend gig there. Love my organics but man...$$$.
my wife has been using organic turkeys for a while. I don't know if it's in our head, but we think it tastes better :-)
I'm gonna rock some pies.
Pumpkin & rum-pumpkin pie.
I'm gonna be on the road most of thursday on my way over to Portland (actually Vancouver WA) so I have no idea what awaits me for dinner when I arrive.
Butternut squash soup with brown sugar toasted pecans on top.
We have a family Tradition that my mom has been making for years. It is easily the most popular/sought after dish around the dinner table every year. It is an oyster "casserole" for lack of a better term.
I don't remember all of the ingredients, but I know she starts with raw oysters, a little cream, some butter, and then topped with crushed crackers (ritz or saltines) and then bakes it. That sh** is the bomb! I'll have to ask her how she does it, but iirc, it is fairly simple.
My wifes family does something similar in New Orleans....oyster dressing I think they call it. Although instead of the crackers they mix the oysters in with stuffing.
sounds good.
Mrs sls (lbs) starts cooking today.
My job Thursday will be to eat and pull corks.
Gonna start with a Pinot (Gary Farrell), and end with an ice cider we got in Montreal a few weeks ago to have with desert. Not sure about what will happen in between, but should be fun. :-)
Quote from: willsteele on November 19, 2007, 10:11:09 AM
My wifes family does something similar in New Orleans....oyster dressing I think they call it. Although instead of the crackers they mix the oysters in with stuffing.
If there are "left overs" from that dish, they usually end up in the stuffing. My mouth is watering just thinking about it!
Damn straight. Good thing is, even though we always spend Thanksgiving with my family (typical northern Thanksgiving), we always spend Christmas with hers in the south. And they make basically the same meal for xmas as for Thanksgiving. So I won't miss a thing. Erster dressing in just over a month! Nice.
Gratin daupinois, or for us 'mericans, potatoes au gratin... fat, creamy, and garlicky, in paper-thin layers.
I worked in the kitchen at Whole Foods in Chapel Hill for a couple of summers. The discount was a great thing. Plus I got pretty good at my Spanish. Forgot most of now, of course.
FYI: this might not sound cool to some.
So i mentioned this whole Duck experiment...i am making (trying) free-range, humane, organic foie gras. I've tthought about doing it for about 7 yrs, and this is it. Ducky is 3.5 months old, kept in a large pen with a small pool to play in and he has been eating over 1 lb of corn soaked in h2o (for easier conversion to fat). He is about 7 lbs now, where the others, kept in a separate pen are about 4 lbs...I also brough back a black truffle from vegas (score!), so i am making a Truffled Foie Gras Tourchon with home-made fig preserves and duck "cracklins", which is duck skin cooked in duck fat until its crispy. The family has only heard me rave about this kind of stuff, so i am thrilled to make it for them to try...
Poor little Ducky.
A world without foie gras would be a sad, sad place. Improving, humanizing, and localizing production is a noble experiment. I applaud your efforts. This also answers my question--you were the guy who posted a while back about cooking for Alice Waters.
BTW, Bobafett, why duck, specifically? I'm just curious.
Quote from: Bobafett on November 20, 2007, 08:17:26 PM
FYI: this might not sound cool to some.
So i mentioned this whole Duck experiment...i am making (trying) free-range, humane, organic foie gras. I've tthought about doing it for about 7 yrs, and this is it. Ducky is 3.5 months old, kept in a large pen with a small pool to play in and he has been eating over 1 lb of corn soaked in h2o (for easier conversion to fat). He is about 7 lbs now, where the others, kept in a separate pen are about 4 lbs...I also brough back a black truffle from vegas (score!), so i am making a Truffled Foie Gras Tourchon with home-made fig preserves and duck "cracklins", which is duck skin cooked in duck fat until its crispy. The family has only heard me rave about this kind of stuff, so i am thrilled to make it for them to try...
Poor little Ducky.
If your family doesn't like it and want to send the leftovers somewhere - LMK :-)
BTW if you feed the duck like that to make fois gras, how is the rest of it?
Lot's of g*nja food going on over here.....I'm up to my gills in butter 8-)
Quote from: caravan2001 on November 21, 2007, 12:37:19 AM
Lot's of g*nja food going on over here.....I'm up to my gills in butter 8-)
I only wish.
My Family is HUGE, so if the wife and I bring anything I get yelled at because there is too much food (How can you have too much food when you are feeding 60 people). The wife, however, is from France and her parents now live in VT so we go to their house on friday and her mother makes Coq a Vin and lamb. I loves me some lamb but I have to bring my own mint jelly, they think I'm a barbarian.
Because i am hungover at work and thinking about the Holiday....
Who is cooking tomorrow? I got a free turkey and am thinking about deep frying that shit after tomorrow once the kits go on sale.
What type of tasty Paug treats you doing tomorrow?
I'll share...even though there's another thread like this.
The traditional Sachs & Ballantine feast--
Snacks:
caviar pie (cold, not cooked, more like a layered dip. delicious. )
smoked salmon
cheeses, etc.
-with champagne
The main event:
roast turkey
my dad's stuffing (full of fresh bread, sausage, pecans, water chesnuts & cranberries)
several pureed root veggies
gratin potatoes (that's my part)
salad
-with gallons of red wine
My mom's pies, pumpkin, apple, mincemeat
-with coffee, probably more wine
Frying a turkey scares me--all that hot, flammable oil? Yikes. Go with God, Igbo.
since yesterday, Mrs lbs has been working on a Thanksgiving dinner that just can't be beat.
all made in house
lunch
homemade minestrone
snacks
eggplant dip, cheese, etc
dinner
pumpkin soup (?southwestern style) with hot peppers and pepitas (roasted pumpkin seeds)
turkey with focaccia stuffing
sweet potatoes topped with apples and Calvados
squash with kale
garlic mashed potatoes
haricots vert with shallots and toasted hazel nuts
apple cider, pinot noir
desert
pumpkin pie
apple strudel
cheesecake
coffee
ice cider (from Quebec)
Quote from: Bobafett on November 20, 2007, 08:17:26 PM
Poor little Ducky.
I'm definitely all for eating fowl, but I sure hope he didn't have a name... :cry:
Quote from: slslbs on November 21, 2007, 12:13:42 PM
since yesterday, Mrs lbs has been working on a Thanksgiving dinner that just can't be beat.
all made in house
lunch
homemade minestrone
snacks
eggplant dip, cheese, etc
dinner
pumpkin soup (?southwestern style) with hot peppers and pepitas (roasted pumpkin seeds)
turkey with focaccia stuffing
sweet potatoes topped with apples and Calvados
squash with kale
garlic mashed potatoes
haricots vert with shallots and toasted hazel nuts
apple cider, pinot noir
desert
pumpkin pie
apple strudel
cheesecake
coffee
ice cider (from Quebec)
Mmm....
turducken.... anyone tried this?
a friend of mine out ont he eastern shore invited me out 4 years in a row to have this with his family.
i can't eat meat, except seafood.... trying to work fowl back into my diet at least...
i can do eggs/dairy and the like... just not pork or red meat...can't even eat deer. sucks..
anyhow, is this stuffs anygood?!
My cousin and his crew in Brooklyn do a turducken feast once every mid-winter. I've never been, but it sounds awesome. Lots and lots of meat.
Why no meat? Choice or health?
Quote from: sunrisevt on November 21, 2007, 01:05:23 PM
My cousin and his crew in Brooklyn do a turducken feast once every mid-winter. I've never been, but it sounds awesome. Lots and lots of meat.
Why no meat? Choice or health?
my body decided it didn't want to process it anymore.
i have to be guarded in what i eat... but i can eat by-products...it's weird. ma thinks it might be my gallbladder, in some way, shape, or form....
even bullion cubes and chicken broth upset my belly.
sucks living in the south, too...
EVERYTHING is either made in animal fat or cooked with some kind of meats...
You've got lots of health care pros in your family, though, right? Ample advice, resources?
Sorry about the forced diet. My little sis has PKU--phenylketonuria. It's an inherited condition that prevents her from metabolizing phenylalanine, which is in pretty much all the protien sources in the human diet. Without a strictly controlled diet, people w/ PKU end up severely mentally disabled. So she drinks an engineered protein supplement w/o phenylalanine, and eats only low protien foods. I.e., no flesh, dairy, nuts, legumes.... but animal fats are ok, like butter, and cream in small doses. Every dish other than turkey at our place has a smaller, separate version for her. Diet works--she's a phi beta kappa classics grad. (Me=proud big brother.) :-)
medical pros out the wazzo, yes sir.. and I'm heading in the same direction...
sis has a funky thing that's up with her too, and has to watch all kinds of things she eats
and that's based around what GTE's filtered out in to her body and then to the liver.
she's got autoimmune hepatitis. not contagious. not from drugs.
it basically means her body decided one day to attack her liver as if it were foreign.
she found this out a year before her 21st birthday and was super disappointed.
none the less i rented the bar out that i was manageing, shut it down, and threw her a bash in downtown
Richmond, Va. :) was fun... and the doc even let her have one drink for that :)
weird things the human body can do or not do.
an extraordinary machine.
Quote from: alcoholandcoffeebeans on November 21, 2007, 01:33:22 PM
sucks living in the south, too...
EVERYTHING is either made in animal fat or cooked with some kind of meats...
You're not kidding! Believe it or not, I was a vegetarian for a stint. That is, until I took a job down south. :-)
Quote from: alcoholandcoffeebeans on November 21, 2007, 03:43:31 PM
weird things the human body can do or not do.
an extrodinary machine.
You got that right. I've been watching my wife's body build a baby for a while. It's just awesome. Sorry about your sis, too--but glad she's got you around.
Quote from: sunrisevt on November 21, 2007, 03:53:25 PM
Quote from: alcoholandcoffeebeans on November 21, 2007, 03:43:31 PM
weird things the human body can do or not do.
an extrodinary machine.
You got that right. I've been watching my wife's body build a baby for a while. It's just awesome. Sorry about your sis, too--but glad she's got you around.
oh oh oh!!
babies are amazing things to watch grow...
just knowing that everything that kid will have for it's entir elife is being made inside of that little place.
so freakin' amazing!
and i try to help with her diet, it's just all in IF she plans to listen ;)
Quote from: antelope19 on November 21, 2007, 03:51:09 PM
Quote from: alcoholandcoffeebeans on November 21, 2007, 01:33:22 PM
sucks living in the south, too...
EVERYTHING is either made in animal fat or cooked with some kind of meats...
You're not kidding! Believe it or not, I was a vegetarian for a stint. That is, until I took a job down south. :-)
yeah, that's really just NOT an option down this way :)
Well, ladies and gents, I'm gettin' outta here a little early. If you're celebrating, have a great holiday and travel safely.
Quote from: antelope19 on November 21, 2007, 04:25:00 PM
Well, ladies and gents, I'm gettin' outta here a little early. If you're celebrating, have a great holiday and travel safely.
most def!!
happy thanksgiving, everyone that's checking out early!!!
stuff yer face :) & travel safe!
Quote from: alcoholandcoffeebeans on November 21, 2007, 03:56:42 PM
oh oh oh!!
babies are amazing things to watch grow...
just knowing that everything that kid will have for it's entir elife is being made inside of that little place.
so freakin' amazing!
Totally! I try to restrain myself, so I don't sound like a dork, but hell--ultrasound is so cool! Last prenatal visit we could see all 4 chambers of the heart, the aortic valve opening & closing, and the kid turned to face us and stuck out his/her tongue! So
freaking cool.
Quote from: antelope19 on November 21, 2007, 03:51:09 PM
Quote from: alcoholandcoffeebeans on November 21, 2007, 01:33:22 PM
sucks living in the south, too...
EVERYTHING is either made in animal fat or cooked with some kind of meats...
You're not kidding! Believe it or not, I was a vegetarian for a stint. That is, until I took a job down south. :-)
yeah, that's really just NOT an option down this way :)
[/quote]
I heard that, too. My sister travels in Europe a fair amount for school, and has a bitch of a time getting lo-protein foods... "vegan" works as a short cut in the States, at least in cities and such, but "no dairy or meat" just doesn't compute in Italy.
I'll be off soon too, but I'm hoping for a few drunk posts tomorrow evening....
Quote from: sunrisevt on November 21, 2007, 04:39:37 PM
I'll be off soon too, but I'm hoping for a few drunk posts tomorrow evening....
Good idea.
Quote from: sunrisevt on November 20, 2007, 08:23:13 PM
BTW, Bobafett, why duck, specifically? I'm just curious.
Duck is just what most of Am. foie gras is, as imported goose foie gras is not legal in the us for import. Magret duck is the specific french breed used in Modern Production...further research is needed for the next step in the project, which is locating the exact breed of goose that the Egyptians ate when Foie Gras was first noticed...every goose they killed before the migration would have livers that were over 35% of total body weight...it was one of Cleopatras favorite luxury items...
^^^Very cool. My old man was actually in France last week and brought back about 1/4kg of foie gras wrapped tight.
I'm still curious--are there North American geese you could breed for foie gras? Or are the ducks you're using from French stock? I think it's pretty interesting.
I was actually supposed to go pheasant hunting this morning with a bunch of family, but a mink or something got into the barn and killed all our friend's birds. Tragic. :-(