The turkey thighs that I dry brined for a day and then rubbed with butter before roasting turned out great. The skin even was crispy and delicious. Potatoes were good, gravy was passable. I only bought two thighs, but they were big ones, so now I have a lot of leftover meat. I may make another attempt at gravy tomorrow with the drippings that I saved.
More gravy is always the answer! And I grab Turkey thighs whenever they're available. So much more flavorful and juicier than breast meat. Whole Food had a stack of them and I made Emmett's favorite Turkey pot roast /au vin thing that I make. (Basically like making a pot roast with turkey thighs but cooking it down with a combination of brandy, apple cider and French Onion stock.)
I'm hitting the wall after two days of cooking but you know what? We kind of snatched Thanksgiving from the jaws of 2020. Once Emmett told me he couldn't come down, I knew we were going to drive up and deliver food to him. We picked a halfway point in Marin - and between half the driving and no traffic on T-day, it was a breeze. In fact, it was very pleasant as it was gorgeous out, and we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge with the water sparkling and we got to see Emmett too.
So that was very heartening. Then we took the Richmond Bridge over to the East Bay and dropped off food with EM, who was solo and watching Football games. And she exclaimed to see how grown Matilda was and it was just lovely to see her.
Then we drove up into the Oakland Hills to deliver food to Wendy, the GF of JZ's dad. She was out walking (which we knew ahead of time), so just left food on her doorstep. But it was such a beautiful drive through the canopy of trees in golden, late autumn, late afternoon light.
Did the whole round trip in 2 hours, listening to Van Morrison on the way out and Belle and Sebastian on the way back.
JZ and I were ready to flump and eat on the couch, but Matilda wanted a Proper Thanksgiving so we set the table, and actually ate it with a laptop propped up while we Zoomed with JZ's extended family, Wendy and Emmett which was fun.
Then we took a break and did a sweet, short Zoom with Emmett, his GF and EM. Lots of laughing and it felt familiar and easy, like our Thanksgivings usually are.
So 2020 tried to pull some bullshit on us, but we powered through and connected in person and online and with food and drink.
Food Scorecard:
Turkey - excellent, dry brine true believer now.
Stuffing - I thought I nailed it but it was a little overcooked. Timing issue.
Mashed Potatoes - best I've ever done! Just fork mashed with lots of butter, cream, garlic and salt. That's all you need.
Turkey Gravy: Slightly darker roux than I intended, but managed to balance it out. Rich and dark and lovely.
Mushroom gravy: Brought the brandy forward in the mix. Really flavorful.
Brussels Sprouts: Burned 'em! Should've cooked them after I took the turkey out. Timing issue.
Mushroom stew: So flavorful! I've got this one down. And even though my pastry puffs were too small to be cups, I cut them in half and served the mushrooms on top and everybody snarfled it up.
Endive Salad: Simple and flavorful with pears, pecans and goat cheese.
Beer Mac & Cheese with Shrampies: Really good, but the cheese sauce was even better. Not sure what I'm losing in translation. Maybe make the cheese sauce more intense as it has to cover a lot of macaroni? Getting shrimp pre-cooked from local tacqueria a genius hack.
Cranberry Sauce: Port and orange version really good. This is my perennial now.
Except for the sprouts everything was super tasty. One of my better executed Thanksgivings. But I still need to vary the plate more so it's not so carby and brown. I'll figure it out.
Oh! Pie!
Raspberry/Bluberry pie: Good! Not as revelatory as the Raspberry/Peach pie Mr. Flea made for us in Athens, but he's a damned pie master.
Apple Cream Pie: Very good, but a bit sweet. I would tweak the recipe down in that regard. Texture was great. Would do again with some tweaks.
Wow, that menu is drool-a-licious. I’m envious even though I’m all topped up with take out fare. The purple sweet potato pie is delicious and we look forward to having more tomorrow.
Raising my glass of good cheer to you all.
David, please send me the mushroom stew recipe. I need to try that. It sounds like an exhausting but gratifying day.
I do hope that the ill are feeling better today and that negative tests abound.
My morning was more exciting than it needed to be. Let's just say there is a potential for too much excitement when you have warm weather, fruit trees, open doors, and cats. After the drama passed I took my mile long walk, it was already a bit warm at 7 AM so hopefully tomorrow I can get an earlier start. And hopefully the cat won't feel a need to bring me breakfast in bed. IJS
All that food sounds yummy! I am glad the hardest thing I made was the keto stuffing!
This week has been my happiest week since the Pandemic started. I almost feel normal again. I don’t know if it was seeing you guys on Saturday, having a mostly meeting free week, planning my Thanksgiving (I love planning things), my great new director at work or what, but I am trying to carry that happiness into today and made myself another plan. I think part of my despair is that being at home where time is an amorphous blob is just terrible for my sort of lack of executive function. If I don’t plan something, I too am an amorphous blob full of can’t. I don’t know why I keep forgetting this
The best part of my day yesterday was probably delivering Meals on Wheels, even though I was bitching about it in my head in advance. The people were so nice, and happy to have the meals! And I think we can keep doing it, even when we're going back to my uncle's in the future, so that's nice.
I always miss the first several hundred posts of a new Nattee because it doesn't show up in Message Center and I have my routines! I wonder if there could be a way to autosubscribe to new versions of threads I'm already subscribed to down the line?
Anyway, happy Thanksgiving all. My family is celebrating on a Brazilian beach and it is amazing and beautiful. No turkey, but lots of booze and fried food.
David, please send me the mushroom stew recipe. I need to try that. It sounds like an exhausting but gratifying day.
I'll have to write out the recipe. I just kind of wing it but I know the general outlines and then I just tweak it as I go. It's my own recipe, and the original idea was just to maximize mushroom flavor as much as possible. As with Emmett's turkey pot roast, I do cook it down with brandy and apple cider, then hit it with as much umami as I can while keeping the balance.
This week has been my happiest week since the Pandemic started. I almost feel normal again. I don’t know if it was seeing you guys on Saturday, having a mostly meeting free week, planning my Thanksgiving (I love planning things), my great new director at work or what, but I am trying to carry that happiness into today and made myself another plan.
Yes, I'm looking forward to another Buffista Zoom call. I hadn't realized how much I missed your faces and voices now that we've let the F2Fs fall to the wayside.
I think part of my despair is that being at home where time is an amorphous blob is just terrible for my sort of lack of executive function. If I don’t plan something, I too am an amorphous blob full of can’t. I don’t know why I keep forgetting this
We need to give you a project!
I am making slippers for Maria’s mom, who is still in the hospital. So that is my project for today. I think I want to an all handmade Christmas with as little purchased as possible- using up my stash of stuff- so masks, slippers, hats, scarves.
My uncle keeps trying to get me to write a book, but I haven’t written anything but work or school stuff since I went to college. I was a prolific plotter as a 6, 7, and 8th grader, but I never finished anything, so I think that is what he is thinking of. But I think if I had a huge desire to write I would have written some fan fiction over these years!
I'm already working on a list of elaborate things to cook over my two-week year-end vacation. Like, lasagne where you make all the parts, or cassoulet, or croissants.
