Thanksgiving 2021

Buttermilk-Brined Turkey BreastRoasted Turkey LegsGravyChef Paul Prudhomme's Cornbread DressingSweet Potatoes With Cranberry Chutney Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad with Pears, Toasted Almonds, and Parmesan Mercurey 1e Cru, Château de Santenay, Les Puillets 2015 Pumpkin Pie

Between Oscar's illness and Covid isolationism and my disorganization, we had a fairly small Thanksgiving meal. I didn't manage to order a turkey in time, so I bought two turkey breast "roasts" and two turkey legs. The roasts were a single filet, rolled, barded and wrapped in an elastic stocking sort of thing. I unwrapped these and brined as in Buttermilk-Brined Turkey Breast (web; GD). Before cooking, I made a little green "paste" of chopped rosemary, sage, parsley, and garlic with a bit of olive oil. I spread this on the underside of the breasts, topped with a slice of dried ham, then rolled them up and wrapped them in their stockings for roasting. For the Roasted Turkey Legs (web; GD; notes), I pretty much followed the instructions. The gravy I made from the turkey leg cooking skillet. It was tasty, but a bit on the salty side from the rub. The breasts were fantastic, with moist and tasty meat; this is worth doing any time of year. The legs were a bit dry. 

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Cornbread Stuffing (GD, notes) is an old favorite, delicious stuffing. New on the menu were the Sweet Potatoes With Cranberry Chutney (web; GD). The chutney was good with the sweet potatoes and most everything else on the plate. This may come around again. Also new was the Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad with Pears, Toasted Almonds, and Parmesan (web; GD) This sounded a bit odd, but was definitely a hit.

No picture of the Pumpkin Pie (GD; notes). It was good. 

We both enjoyed the meal and were thoroughly stuffed at the end. A small dinner, but still there was lots of foo.

Thanksgiving 2017

Salade de Mâche et Roquette avec Betteraves Capesante di Tacchino con Pancetta ed Erbe Aromatiche (turkey scallops done in the fashion of Shane's Roasted Rolled Turkey Breast with Pancetta and Herbs) with its sauce Wild Rice Braised with Mushroom Duxelles Cranberry-Port Relish fruit salad camembert with sliced baguettes Moulin à Vent Libby's Pumpkin Pie

Started off a bit of a disaster. Ed was in charge of the flower arrangement. He overfilled the ring and set it on the table. Where I discovered it sitting in a damp place on the table cloth. Went to move it and sloshed water all over the place. Unset the table, wiped up with the tablecloth, found another table cloth, and reset. To discover that a salad fork was lost in the process. Sigh.

For a starter, we did it the easy way with an old favorite, Lamb's Lettuce with Beetroot (BEFCC, p32). I had thought to do something else, but Ed suggested this salad, and I still had a bit of dressing left from the last time we served it.

For the main, I had thought to make some French-ish turkey scallops with a nice gravy, but then thought I could pretty easily make Shane's Arroso di Tacchino con Pancetta ed Erbe Aromatiche, rolling the good stuff (a paste of sage, rosemary, garlic, anchovy, lemon peel, and olive oil topped with pancetta) into turkey scallops rather than a turkey breast.

Served this with Wild Rice Braised with Mushroom Duxelles (Way, p331), a yummy fruit salad made by Ed (apple, pear, banana, red currants, raspberries, blackberries, and walnuts from our tree). And my old Cranberry-Port Relish (MC), still good.

The turkey rolls were really yummy. The big roll is more impressive, but the mini rolls are pretty darn good.

Then a bit of camembert.

Then some classic pumpkin pie following the Libby's can recipe. With a bit of cream, not whipped, just cream. I made the mistake of cutting the pie into eights rather than sixths. In the end we were piggies and ate another piece each. Half the pie gone.

All was yummy, but we still haven't found the missing fork.

Thanksgiving 2016

relish tray Kaye's Pickled Green Beans Spiced Marinated Mushrooms carrot sticks mixed olives Marinated Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Rucola Roast Turkey Sweet Potato-Carrot Puff Chef Paul Prudhomme's Cornbread Dressing Cranberry-Port Relish Gravy sliced baguettes Brouilly Fleuri Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake

Another fairly light Thanksgiving  this year. For guests, we had Tina and Albia from Ed's Montbron choir, and Bill, who's visiting. Bill asked for a proper turkey, so that's what we had. I neglected to take any photos of the food, but here is Ed carving the turkey.

For the relish tray, I made with my Pickled Green Beans (MC) and Spiced Marinated Mushrooms (MC). Served with with carrot sticks and store-bought mixed olives.

For a starter there was Marinated Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Rucola. I used the marinade as the vinaigrette for the rucola. This is really two recipes smerged together. If I can ever run Mastercook again (hoping a new motherboard for the Cube someday lets it start up), I'll enter what I do as a single recipe. This is becoming another standard.

As go-withs there were my old standards, Sweet Potato-Carrot Puff (MC) and Chef Paul Prudhomme's Cornbread Dressing (MC). A double-dose of the puff overfilled my oval casserole, so we have a bit extra of that, still to be cooked. I used a 300g package of gesiers/gizzards for the dressing.

And, of course, there again was Cranberry-Port Relish (MC), a recipe that came from VT originally, but I've reduced the sugar. It's a really tasty and simple-to-make cranberry sauce. So much better than the canned stuff. All eaten but a spoonful, the first time that's happened. And some pretty good gravy made with chicken stock.

For bread there was a sliced baguette, but not much of that got eaten.

The five of us had two bottles of Beaujolais, one Brouilly and the other Fleurie, both 2012. In the past we've liked Fleurie, but tonight the Brouilly was the hit.

And, finally, there was some Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecake (web), which was a Thanksgiving first, and delicious.

Thanksgiving 2015

Kaye's Pickled Green Beans pistachios potato chips Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Rucola Arrosto di tacchino con pancetta ed erbe aromatiche (Shane's Roasted Rolled Turkey Breast with Pancetta and Herbs)  with its sauce Sweet Potato-Carrot Puff Chef Paul Prudhomme's Cornbread Dressing Cranberry-Port Relish Gravy Buttermilk Bread Cloverleaf Rolls Juliènas Morgon Pumpkin Flan

A fairly light Thanksgiving  this year. For guests, we had Cath and Doug from one of Ed's choirs, and Eddy Harris and his friend Marjolaine.

I'd planned on a relish tray with my pickled green beans with carrot sticks and olives. (Note to self: small marinated mushrooms would be a good fourth for this combination.) Discovered at the last minute that there weren't any carrots. The last of them, and not quite enough, went into the Puff. Instead I put out little dishes of pistachios and potato chips, which we munched on with pineau.

For a starter there was Marinated Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Rucola. I used the marinade as the vinaigrette for the rucola. This is really two recipes smerged together. If I can ever run Mastercook again (hoping a new power supply for the Cube lets it start up), I'll enter what I do as a single recipe.

At Ed's request, we again had Shane's rolled turkey breast. I dry-brined the turkey, and this might have been fine, but I horribly overcooked it, so it was way too dry. The first time I've used my new roll of kitchen twine, after finally using up the first ball I bought so long ago. Served the "juice" from the cooking as a separate sauce.

As go-withs there were my old standards, Sweet Potato-Carrot Puff (MC) and Chef Paul Prudhomme's Cornbread Dressing (MC).

And, of course, there was Cranberry-Port Relish (MC), a recipe that came from VT originally, but I've reduced the sugar. It's a really tasty and simple-to-make cranberry sauce. So much better than the canned stuff. And some pretty good gravy made with the turkey stock I made last week.

I also made some cloverleaf rolls, because that nice soft white bread is so good for soppy. Probably the first time I've actually made this recipe with real buttermilk (lait ribot) instead of dried. Now I've got to use that up in the next week or so.

Since there were six of us, I bought two bottles of Beaujolais, one Juliénas (which we've never had before that I can remember) and the other Morgon. We neglected to notice the year. Both were good.

And, finally, there was some Pumpkin Flan (MC), which is delicious.

Just before the coffee we sampled some of the Averna Cream that we brought back from Italy. This won universal approval.

Not much picture-taking happened. Did get a picture of the camellias on the table before we sat to eat.

Thanksgiving 2014

Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Mustard Vinaigrette Arrosto di tacchino con pancetta ed erbe aromatiche (Shane's Roasted Rolled Turkey Breast with Pancetta and Herbs) Thyme-Roasted Sweet Potatoes Haricots Verts in Walnut Oil Cranberry-Port Relish Gravy Buttermilk Bread Cloverleaf Rolls Morgon 2005 Pumpkin Mousse

Another "light" Thanksgiving and no pictures this year. We had company and there were almost no leftovers.

We started with Balsamic Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Mustard Vinaigrette (web), a recipe I collected from EAT-L, served with a bit of rucola. I'd been warned that the recipe made way too much vinaigrette, and indeed it would have. Also, I found the acid-to-oil proportion way off. I used equal amounts of lemon juice and olive oil with a bit of mustard. It worked very well with the sprouts and arugla.

At Ed's request, we again had Shane's rolled turkey breast. This is delicious and makes a nice presentation, and it's not hard to make either. Couldn't find enough pancetta at the shop, so used some coppa. Doubt we could tell the difference. (I'm now almost at the end of the first roll of kitchen twine I bought, probably in the late 60s, maybe early 70s. There's maybe one more roast to tie with it.) Made a bit of gravy, thickened with potato starch, from the cooking juices. I love this turkey roll, but I miss the glamor of the whole turkey too.

As go-withs there were Thyme-Roasted Sweet Potatoes (web) and Haricots Verts in Walnut Oil (Lunch, p216; HandyBook). Both were good. I like the haricots verts, but they're not a good dish for this meal really, since they need to be cooked in the interval between courses and take just a bit too long. Might try parboiling them ahead of time to shorten the final cooking time, then just finishing in the oil.

And, of course, there was Cranberry-Port Relish (MC), a recipe that came from VT originally, but I've reduced the sugar. It's a really good and simple-to-make cranberry sauce. So much better than the canned stuff.

I made some cloverleaf rolls, because that nice soft white bread is so good for soppy.

All with our last bottle of Morgon bought direct from the vineyard. Although Beaujolais isn't supposed to be drunk old, this was still very good. Beaujolais seems to go well with turkey.

And, finally, there was some Pumpkin Mousse (MC; CL86, p88), which is kind of a crustless, "light" version of pumpkin pie, pretty in parfait glasses.

Thanksgiving 2013

First we were going to be in the Netherlands for Thanksgiving. Then Oscar ended up with an abrasion on his cornea. We postponed our trip, then cancelled it. Meanwhile, planning a Thanksgiving dinner here didn't get along very far. Instead, I defrosted some slices of Tandoori-Style Roast Turkey Breast for our turkey bit.  As go-withs there were two old favorites, Indian Mashed Potatoes (Q&E, p90) and Tangy Green Beans with Ajwain and Ginger (SpiceKitch, p38), along with the last bit of tamarind chutney from the freezer. The green beans were some brought to us by a neighbor when their garden overflowed, very Thanksgiving-like. We served this with a bottle of the gold-prize-winning St Sornin rosé La Fenêtre. And there was a pumpkin pie for dessert. That's all, folks.

Thanksgiving 2012

Marinated Brussels Sprouts Arrosto di tacchino con pancetta ed erbe aromatiche (Shane's Roasted Rolled Turkey Breast with Pancetta and Herbs) Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Thyme Haricots Verts in Walnut Oil Cranberry-Port Relish Gravy Buttermilk Bread Rolls Fleurie 2010 Pumpkin Cake

Not much energy for Thanksgiving this year, since we're both recovering from cold/flus. We were almost prepared to skip it, but then I was intrigued by the recipe for a turkey roulade that came across on EAT-L, so I built a small, easy menu around that.

The starter and the ender were the same as last year. I only discovered this when I went to write this post—I was just looking for something good and easy.

Tuesday I made the cranberry relish, since that only gets better sitting in the fridge. This felt like an official start.

Yesterday I got the sprouts on to marinate; all that was needed for them today was to was to clean some arugula and plate it all. I put four turkey breast halves on to brine and took the bucket up to Barbara's extra fridge. (How nice to have an extra fridge. But even better might be having a friend with space in her extra fridge.) Made the cake in the evening.

The cake got iced early today. Then we did our shopping (which didn't happen yesterday because we were waiting for a DHL delivery that should have come last week Thursday) and picked up the turkey. Started the real work by making the herb stuffing for the roulades, then assembling one roulade from two breast halves. It appeared that I didn't have enough of the herb mixture to adequately stuff two rolls, so I froze two of the brined breasts. Peeled and sliced sweet potatoes to roast, then topped the green beans. The bread machine mixed the dough and I made my usual cloverleaf rolls. The gravy was just the juice from the roasting turkey topped up with a glug of Marsala, then thickened with a bit of potato starch.

The turkey was a bit of fun to assemble, although it's definitely a hands-on preparation. I started with two boned turkey breast halves, about 3 kilo's worth. These were opened out (the "filet" on one side and a flap cut from the thick part on the other) and flattened to make one big piece (sort of). The surface was coated with an herb mix of rosemary and sage from the garden, flat parsley (fresh and some frozen because there was none at the shop today), garlic, anchovies, and lemon rind, all bound together with a bit of olive oil. This mixture was topped with slices of pancetta. And all was rolled up,  tied with string, and plopped in a baking dish surrounded by a goodly slog of white wine. Nothing really difficult and the results were delicious.

Here's most of the meal served before someone remember to clear the salad plates.

Thanksgiving 2011

Relish tray: pickled green beans, carrot sticks, olives, cherry tomatoes Marinated Brussels Sprouts roast turkey Prudhomme's Cornbread Dressing Sweet Potato-Carrot Puff Cranberry-Port Relish gravy pain Morgon 2003 pumpkin cake

Another day of thanks. Bill came from Amsterdam, and we invited our new neighbor, Vanessa, and her two kids, 9 and 13, I think. They are vegetarian, so everything but the turkey was meatless. Served mostly old favorites. Looks like Brussels sprouts are becoming a tradition. Dinner was supposed to be six-ish, but I miscalculated the weight and thus time for the bird and it was just after seven thirty when we sat down. Vanessa brought an eagle feather and we passed that around, each saying what we were thankful for.

For the first time ever, I think, I managed to get a Thanksgiving starter on the table. It actually worked quite well. The turkey was out of the oven, resting. The casseroles rested in their still warm oven. Early in the day, we opted for bread from the boulanger rather than homemade rolls; otherwise, it would have worked well to pop the rolls in the oven as we served the starter.

The flowers on the table are camellias from the garden. Camellias from the garden in November? Yes. One shrub is blooming and the other two are ready to go. What will they do in the spring, I wonder? Here's the table, almost ready to start serving.

Relish tray
Nothing new here. I made my pickled green beans that I love and Ed doesn't. Company liked them too. Mixed olives from the shop.

Marinated Brussels Sprouts
Several years ago, I made this recipe a couple of times and we liked it, but I kind of forgot about it. The original recipe called for steaming the sprouts, but since I've had good luck roasting them lately, I did that instead. I used all the marinade for twice the sprouts, and that seemed fine. Served with arugula, topped with toasted walnuts.

Turkey
Turkey was 4.3kg/9.5lb this year. I chopped some herbs (sage, rosemary, and thyme from the garden), grated some lemon zest, mixed with some salt, and rubbed under the skin. Stuck the grated lemon inside the bird. Followed my old Joy of Cooking instructions, used only a dishrag, rather than a dish towel, to cover its breast. Since I don't have a rack to fit in the casserole dish, I used some long bits of bread to help the bird balance. Neglected to take a picture. Tasted good anyhow.

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Cornbread Dressing
Because we had vegetarian guests, I made this with mushrooms rather than giblets. I've done this before and it works fine. And garlic broth instead of chicken broth. Really good stuff.

Sweet Potato-Carrot Puff
A double dose of this fit perfectly in the AH Wedgwood oval casserole. And it was a good thing I made a double dose, since the kids really liked it. A single dose is advertised as serving 8; I think 6 is more like it. There was only one small serving left.

Cranberry-Port Relish
Bill arrived earlier in the day, bringing three sacks of cranberries. Put two into the freezer and used part of the last to make this relish. Really easy, really good.

Gravy
Sautéed shallots and 'shrooms to start the gravy made with garlic broth. Used two cups of garlic broth. Should have used more since we were quite out at the end of the meal.

Pumpkin Cake
I made this for Club Liseron last month and it was a big hit. Opting for an easy dessert, I decided to do this again. Used my standard cream cheese icing, which has been quite runny the last two times I've made it. Has the St Moret (cream cheese) changed? Could it be that the butter was frozen? A mystery. Well, the kids like the big puddle in the middle of the cake. You can see it's mostly gone here.

Thanksgiving 2010

Relish tray: pickled green beans, carrot sticks, olives, cherry tomatoes roast turkey Prudhomme's Cornbread Dressing Sweet Potato-Carrot Puff roasted Brussels sprouts Cranberry-Orange Relish gravy cloverleaf rolls Beaujolais nouveau pumpkin pie

Another day of thanks (Ed's not sick and no trip to the hospital!) and overeating. Mostly old favorites, only the Brussels sprouts was new. I was still a bit down with a cold earlier in the week, so I didn't get much ahead-of-time cooking done. But I was all day in the kitchen Thursday. We'd have never made an earlier dinner, so it's good Ed insisted on going to choir practice. Luckily the right oven was in a cooperative mood. I keep it turned on all day long, even when it wasn't busy. All was ready right on schedule at 18.00.

Relish tray
Nothing new here. I made my pickled green beans that I love and Ed doesn't. Company liked them too. Mixed olives from the shop.

Turkey
Knowing we'd have only a few guests, I asked for a 4kg turkey. When I picked it up, it weighed in at 2.6kg. When I looked doubtful, the butcher said, Oh, it was 4kg before it was killed. Hmm, I thought I was asking for dressed weight rather than live weight. I'll be clear next year. Did nothing special here, besides sticking and onion and a lemon inside, just followed by old Joy of Cooking instructions, but needed only a dishrag, rather than a dish towel, to cover its breast. Here's the baby just out of the oven:

Small, but it tasted good. I used some long bits of bread to help the bird balance. I'm hoping these will be really good munching.

Chef Paul Prudhomme's Cornbread Dressing
I haven't made another dressing since I discovered this recipe. Love it, yum! Can't be bothered to make a second dressing like I used to do either. There's too much to eat already.

Sweet Potato-Carrot Puff
I've been making this for Thanksgiving for at least thirty years. Certainly it was already a standard before we moved to the Netherlands. For the first time this year it failed, and I haven't a clue why. I did overcook (too long in the pressure cooker) the sweet potatoes, but cooked or mushy really shouldn't make that much of a difference. And the dish I usually use (a Pyrex bread pan) was not to be found, so I used another dish that would fit in the toaster oven. (Turns out this dish is actually the size that was required, so it shouldn't be a big deal.) Usually I made this dish the day before and thus cook it another 15 minutes. Could that make the difference? It wasn't "set" and worse, the flavor was blah, not yummy like it usually is. A puzzle.

Roasted Brussels sprouts
Now, this was something new. And a big success. Neither of us a big fans of Brussels sprouts. I really want to like them, they're just so cute, but don't. And these guys were great big ones, not even close to the tiny ones you could sometimes get in the Netherlands. But decidedly edible. And easy. Clean 'em up, leaving them whole. Toss with some olive olive, salt and pepper, and a sprinkle of garlic powder if you like. Bake for 40 minutes at 400F. The outer leaves might become disturbingly black—don't worry about it. I expect this will become a standard.

Cranberry-Orange Relish
No fresh cranberries to be found, so I used this old recipe, replacing the fresh cranberries with the dried that I bought at the Fête de Pain a couple of months ago. Not bad, but fresh would have been better.

Gravy
No juices to speak of in the pan, so I made a bit of gravy from scratch, including sautéed shrooms for chew. Not bad.

Cloverleaf rolls
These were a hoot. Instead of using my usual roll recipe (Magic, p107), I used a recipe for buttermilk bread that Ed likes especially. My notes on the roll recipe page say that the 1-1/2# version makes a dozen rolls and the buttermilk bread recipe is for a 1-1/2# loaf, so I thought it would do fine. Problem 1: I didn't break up the buttermilk powder very much (it starts to clump up as soon as the box has been opened) and after going through the dough program there were still noticeable lumps of "powder." Problem 2: The dough was pretty close to soupy. I'm sure I measured the water right, and I thought I counted cups of flour properly, but I must have missed out a cup. Ok, add some flour and go through the Pizza program. Still too soft to handle, but the buttermilk lumps have disappeared. More flour, another Pizza program. Now it's looking like dough. So I dumped it out and made up the rolls, ignoring the fact that the balls were bigger than usual and the dough softer. The rools were big and some of them not done through. Tasted good, though. Maybe I should make up a proper loaf of this recipe next time we miss the boulanger.

Pumpkin pie
Oh, boring old recipe from the Libby's can. About the best pumpkin pie around. And much easier than any of my other alternatives for pumpkin whatnot.