Thanksgiving menus

[S.Vashti]

That sounds like a great pesto, livius.

[livius drusus]

It is, and I was fully prepared to hate it just because collards in every other application make me wretch. I don't even like how they smell when you wash them.

[Sonoma Bear]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

I'm always glad to help a brother in collard-hating.

You start with a batch of collards. I have no idea what weight it is; it's just whatever I get in my local organic produce delivery, usually something like a half dozen freakishly gigantic fronds. Remove the stems and center ribs, then blanch the leaves in salted boiling water until they're just tender enough to eat, I'ma say about 6,7 minutes.

Remove them from the cooking water using tongs and drain them in a colander, pressing the water out gently. You'll use the cooking water to cook the pasta in, so just leave it on the stove with the lid on for a while. Once the collards are decently drained, chop them coarsely.

Pit a half dozen or so giant green olives and chop them coarsely too. Chop 2 large garlic cloves while you're at it. If you have a food processor, which I assume you do because it hasn't exactly gone unnoticed that you guys are running a professional kitchen up in there, blend the olives and garlic together until finely chopped. Add the collars, a scant 1/2 tsp or so of salt, freshly ground pepper, and like a quarter of cup of toasted pecans.

Once everything is finely chopped, add 1/2 cup of extra-virgin olive oil in a slow stream while the motor runs. Turn it off, then add 1/2 cup of Parmigiano Reggiano and pulse until combined.

If you don't have a food processor, you can do all of this with a large mortar and pestle, which is how I make it because I'M HARDCORE LIKE THAT YO.

As with all pestos, when you cook the pasta is the leftover collard pot likker, keep a cup or so of the cooking water in case you need to thin out the sauce when you toss it. You won't need to use more than a few tablespoons, most likely, but better than safe than sorry.

Thanks very much for this, Livius! I'll give that a try sometime, as others have noted, it does sound interesting. I'm certain, however, that Mulebear will not give it a try - he loathes olives in every incarnation. Despite him being a relatively normal person otherwise, he dislikes olives, mushrooms and raspberries. No one is perfect....

[Janet]

Cranberry Salad Recipe, courtesy of my sister-in-law

Coarsely chop one bag of fresh cranberries in a blender.
Stir in one cup of sugar and place crabnerries in a colander over a bowl and allow to drain overnight.
Then:
Add one small can of pineapple tidbits (drained)
one cup or so of halved red grapes
one or two red apples, chopped. If skin is nice I do not peel.
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans, or more, to taste.
Fold in one or two large dollops of fresh whipped cream and chill.

It makes a very refreshing drink for the cook if you reserve the cranberry juice and pineapple juice and then add a little seltzer water.

That's it. I sometimes use pistachios because I love them and the color contrast is nice, but I have walnuts so I'll probably use them this year.

[LadyShea]

It makes a very refreshing drink for the cook if you reserve the cranberry juice and pineapple juice and then add a little seltzer water.

If by "seltzer water" you mean Stoli, I am in!

Thanks for the recipe, sounds yummy. I still have some pecans I shelled and froze last year, thankfully, since none of my trees produced this year

[S.Vashti]

Janet, that sounds awesome, and I may just use that recipe instead of what I have planned.
Do the cranberries drain overnight on the counter, or the fridge?

[Charmion]

I was at the checkout last night and spotted a beautiful pie on the cover of Yankee Magazine. The pastry was cut in various leave shapes and it was just beautiful. I'd like to find some pastry cutters in the shape of leaves. As I was waiting in line, I took time to search for the information about the cover.



From the website:

Kristin's Bistro & Bakery is rated in the top five Best Bakeries in New England by Yankee Magazine.

Catering By Kristins


I also found a recipe for "Cheesy Leaf Crackers" using the leaf-shaped pastry cutters.

Cheesy Leaf Crackers

[Ensign Steve]

That pie crust is beautiful, and what a creative idea. And you could do it with any of your favorite shapes to match the theme of your event.

[Sock Puppet]

Ima roast a turkey. I'll probably use the spatchcock () method I used last year, which liv turned me onto via chat.
I LEARNED IT FROM YOU, OKAY? I LEARNED IT FROM YOU!

I still don't understand where they get their cooking times, though. It does take considerably less time, but significantly more than the 1.5 hours they cite.

[Janet]

I drain the cranberries on the counter. I find that sugar doesn't absorb into fruit well while it's refrigerated.

Williams-Sonoma carries leaf shaped cookie cutters every Fall. At least, they did when I worked there and I've seen them since so I assume it's still a regular thing.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Sonoma Bear

Thanks very much for this, Livius! I'll give that a try sometime, as others have noted, it does sound interesting. I'm certain, however, that Mulebear will not give it a try - he loathes olives in every incarnation. Despite him being a relatively normal person otherwise, he dislikes olives, mushrooms and raspberries. No one is perfect....

But he loves him some stenchirific collard greens. Go figure, amirite? The good news is I've made this without the olives too and it was still awesome, so you can just leave them out. If he's willing to meet you half way -- which he should because you're only doing this to find a way to make something he likes palatable in the first place -- make a small batch with the olives. They add a delicious briny element, but in no way does the final product taste like olives. You wouldn't know they were in there. It's like anchovies in Caesar salad.

[Sonoma Bear]

Thanks, Livius! By the way, you were talking about us having a professional kitchen - not at all, believe me. We both like to cook, together and separately, and are very good at it - so we have some good quality equipment, very few gadgets (per se) and we use what we have a LOT. Incidentally, it was via our interest in food that Mulebear and I met and ultimately got together. We're coming up on ten years, with only a few cooking disasters during that time.

[Sonoma Bear]

Janet - thanks for sharing your Cranberry Salad recipe, which does sound really good. I'll tuck it away in our recipe database and give it a try when we have a chance. Incidentally, we went grocery shopping this morning and couldn't find ANY fresh or frozen cranberries - a week before Thanksgiving!

[mulebear]

Originally Posted by Sonoma Bear

Thanks, Livius! By the way, you were talking about us having a professional kitchen - not at all, believe me.

For two foodies that like to cook... We have the kitchen from hell.

The house was built in 1948 and has what I like to call a farmer's wife's kitchen. A big rectangle with a sink and a few cabinets. The gas stove was added sometime later and without much thought about placement. The only place for a refrigerator is against a wall that blocks the view down a hall to the bedrooms. On top of this mess a washer and dryer was installed next to the gas stove.

It ain't purty.

[lisarea]

Oh, I'll bet my kitchen beats yours for sucking. This is a bigassed house. Five bedrooms plus a bonus room, three baths, two living rooms on the main floor, and a teeny weeny galley kitchen like something on a houseboat or something.

When we have the official FF contest for who has the most stupid and terrible kitchen, I am going to kick your ass.

[Demimonde]

I betcha my bungalow's kitchen can take you both!

[S.Vashti]

I'm pretty sure my "let's use a door as the only counter in the kitchen" unfinished kitchen will make a strong showing.

[inland wave]

We are making a trip to East Texas for Thanksgiving. I know that ham and turkey are on the menu so far... I want to make green beans with red potatoes, I am sure there will be cornbread stuffing, mustard greens, and homemade mac and cheese. There will be sweet treats-Texas sheet cake, pumpkin bread, cookies. Yummy!

[Charmion]

This recipe is from the Cooking Down East cookbook by Marjorie Standish. My family uses it every year on Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's a recipe for 3 loaves (smaller than 9-in loaf pans). It sounds like a lot of sugar but it's for three loaves. I read some of the reviews and I noticed that some people cut the amount of sugar in half and they were still satisfied with the results. Quite a lot of reviewers made their own additions or reduced the amounts of some of the spices. One person used butter instead of vegetable oil. Another reviewer used 2 cups of sugar and one cup of brown sugar.

There are 3,984 reviews for the recipe at the website so it looks like it's a very popular recipe. I also found the recipe at other locations on the web.

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/downea...ad/Detail.aspx

cooking downeast pumpkin bread recipe - Google Search

While I was in the process of looking at loaf pans in different sizes, I came across a recipe for gingerbread loaf. It looks delicious.

Gingerbread Loaf Recipe - TheBakingPan.com - How to Make Gingerbread Loaf

[Pinecone]

The pumpkin cheesecakes are cooling on the rack.

[lisarea]

Ha ha, you know what we did?

REARRANGED THE WHOLE KITCHEN P. MUCH YESTERDAY. I was thinking about this whole sucky kitchen thing, mentioned it to a friend Monday night, she made a suggestion, and then Matlock went to work and we implemented the suggestion last night and now the kitchen is way better. (We just got a gigantic gorilla shelf we already had downstairs, put it in this weird unusable spot in the kitchen, and moved everything that was clogging up the counters and stuff onto there. We still have a little other moving stuff to do, but it's way better already.)

It probably looks pretty stupid and industrial, especially in combo with my sad janky window pot rack, but whatevs. I think it's beautiful.

SO. I cooked and peeled and pureed two pumpkins tonight, and then I just CLEANED OFF THE COUNTERS without having to move everything around to do it. I just fucking wiped those motherfuckers, and so now they're clean! And I'm gonna make the cranberry relish tonight, and when I am done, I'm gonna just wipe the stupid counters off AGAIN just like it's not even a thing!

OMG. Know what we should do? CLEAR OFF THE DINING ROOM TABLE! That would be insane.

[Qingdai]

Originally Posted by Charmion

This recipe is from the Cooking Down East cookbook by Marjorie Standish. My family uses it every year on Thanksgiving and Christmas. It's a recipe for 3 loaves (smaller than 9-in loaf pans). It sounds like a lot of sugar but it's for three loaves. I read some of the reviews and I noticed that some people cut the amount of sugar in half and they were still satisfied with the results. Quite a lot of reviewers made their own additions or reduced the amounts of some of the spices. One person used butter instead of vegetable oil. Another reviewer used 2 cups of sugar and one cup of brown sugar.

There are 3,984 reviews for the recipe at the website so it looks like it's a very popular recipe. I also found the recipe at other locations on the web.

http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/downea...ad/Detail.aspx

cooking downeast pumpkin bread recipe - Google Search

While I was in the process of looking at loaf pans in different sizes, I came across a recipe for gingerbread loaf. It looks delicious.

Gingerbread Loaf Recipe - TheBakingPan.com - How to Make Gingerbread Loaf

I made about two dozen muffins and a loaf off of a recipe remarkably similar to this, it was oddly too spicy. Even more odd because I made the exact same recipe, with the exact same ingredients.

I blame the cold.

[ShottleBop]

We're going to our daughter's today. I know we're having turkey, and I'm getting low-carb pumpkin pie. (Mrs. ShottleBop made it, using almond meal for the crust, the miniature pumpkin I bought at Halloween, some stevia, some heavy cream, and some eggs.) Other than that, it will be a surprise.

[Angakuk]

My wife is fixing roast pork w/ potatos and carrots, czech dumplings, sour cream gravy and baked yams. For the salad she is fixing stuffed avocado with shrimp, diced tomatos, onion and hard boiled egg. I just finished making some pear sauce and plan to serve that hot over ice cream for desert, 'cause it probably will not be sufficiently chilled by dinner time to serve as a side dish.

Just the two of us for Thanksgiving dinner, so there will be plenty of leftovers.

[livius drusus]

I brined the chicken last night and it's currently air drying in the fridge. Cook's Illustrated told me air drying is an ancient Chinese secret to ensure the skin of brined poultry browns and crisps well. It's freaking me out, though, I won't lie, sitting there all nekkid on a rack in the fridge. I'm going to bleach the living fuck out of that fridge tonight, guaranteed.