I haven’t cooked much in the last couple years. First it was “I can eat as well/better at Google for free, so why bother?” Then it was “I get home too late to bother doing much.” Sad thing is, I love to cook. I sometimes wonder if I made the wrong career choice. I started cooking when I was in my late teens and haven’t stopped since.
So, when my good friend & co-worker @stesla said his wife (@etesla) was coming to visit for Thanksgiving and they were wondering what to do for Thanksgiving dinner, I invited them down. I was excited by the challenge as well as a bit intimidated… I’d never done a full Thanksgiving dinner by myself before!
But armed with my experience in the kitchen as inspiration from Thanksgiving & Christmas dinners past, I knew I could do it. Apparently I was right, as dinner was much enjoyed.
Here’s the spread (clockwise form the top we have stuffing, ww dinner rolls, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, carrots, brussels sprouts, and gravy, with the turkey in the center):
I twitpiced that and got questions, so here’s the specifics:
The Cheats
I bought the rolls and cranberry sauce at Safeway, and used a turkey gravy base from William Sonoma prepared according to the directions (highly recommended, btw).
Stuffing
Inspired by my mother’s and Nancy’s great aunt Mary’s stuffings.
INGREDIENTS:
Adjust based on the amount you want to end up with. After doing a trial run a couple weeks ago, I added the apricots & pecans to the recipe. The apricots give a nice sweet counterpoint to the hot sausage, and the pecans give a bit of texture.
- potatoes, peeled, cubed
- hot Italian sausage meat
- butter
- mushrooms
- celery
- onions
- garlic
- assorted Italian-style herbs
- salt & pepper
- sour dough bread, cubed and dried
- dried apricots, coarsely chopped
- pecans, coarsely chopped
METHOD:
Cook the potatoes until just tender, drain, reserving the liquid. Cook the sausage, crumbling into small pieces. Drain on paper towels.
Melt a bit of butter in a skillet. Saute mushrooms until lightly browned and any water has been reduced off. Reduce heat and add garlic, onions and celery. Cook until caramelized somewhat. Add the herbs and sausage. Mix and remove from heat. Let cool somewhat. Mix (in a big bowl ideally) with potatoes and bread. Mix gently so as not to mash the potato. Add potato liquid to moisten the mixture as required. Mix in apricots and pecans. Press into baking dish.
Put it into the oven, covered with foil, when there’s about an hour left on the turkey. Remove foil after half an hour or so to let the top crust up.
Mashed Potatoes
These are almost a direct copy of Nancy’s mom’s potatoes.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/4 lb butter
- garlic, chopped
- potatos, duh… a bunch
- 8 oz brink or cream cheese
- chives, finely chopped
- salt & pepper
METHOD:
Get the butter and cream cheese out of the fridge and let it warm up so it’s soft.
Saute the garlic over low heat in a bit of butter. You just want to soften it and let it mellow a bit.
Peel and roughly chop the potatoes… like, inch or so cubes. Boil them until tender and mashable. Drain. Mash the potatoes well. I used a ricer and it totally rocks. If you like mashed potatoes, get yourself a good ricer. (sidenote, yes. My kitchen is like Unix: it’s full of very focused tools that do one thing extremely well.)
Chop up the remaining butter, mix it into the potatoes. Chop up the cream cheese, mix in. You want to do this while the the potatoes are still really hot. Mix *well*. You don’t want globs of cream cheese. Mix in the garlic and the butter it was cooked in. MIx in the chives.
Pack the potatoes into a baking dish. Put it in the oven along with the stuffing, covered. Like the stuffing, uncover a half hour or so before the end to brown the top.
Pomegranate-Balsamic Glazed Carrots
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/4 cup pure pomegranate juice
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 ounce (2 Tbs.) unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 lb. carrots, trimmed, peeled, and cut into sticks about 2 inches long and 3/8 inch wide
- Kosher salt
- 1/3 cup lower-salt chicken broth
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
- 2 tablespoons lightly packed thinly sliced fresh mint
METHOD:
Combine the juice, vinegar, and honey in a liquid measuring cup and whisk. Cut 1 Tbs. of the butter into 4 pieces and refrigerate.
In a 12-inch skillet, heat the remaining 1 Tbs. butter with the olive oil over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted, add the carrots and 1-1/2 tsp. salt and toss well to coat. Cook without stirring until the bottom layer of carrots is lightly browned in spots, 4 to 5 minutes. Using tongs, stir and flip the carrots and then leave undisturbed for 1 to 2 minutes to brown. Continue cooking, occasionally stirring and flipping, until most of the carrots are a bit browned in places and are starting to feel tender, an additional 3 to 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium if the bottom of the pan begins to brown too much.
Carefully add the chicken broth, cover quickly, and cook until all but about 1 Tbs. of the broth has evaporated, about 2 minutes. Uncover, reduce the heat to medium low, and add the pomegranate mixture (re-whisk, if necessary) and the cayenne. Cook, stirring gently, until the mixture reduces and becomes slightly glazy, about 1 minute. Take the pan off the heat, add the chilled butter, and gently toss with a heatproof spatula until the butter has melted, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Season to taste with salt and stir in about two-thirds of the mint. Serve in a warm shallow bowl or on a platter, garnished with the remaining mint.
SOURCE: Fine Cooking 101, pp. 53
Brussels Sprouts
Chef Brian Mattingly taught me the joys of sauteed brussels sprouts when we were both working at Google. Brian’s since moved on to revolutionize the food program at Apple.
INGREDIENTS:
- brussels sprouts, lots
- butter
- salt and pepper
METHOD:
Trim and clean the sprouts. Quarter them.
Melt the butter in a pan. Add the sprouts. Saute over low-medium heat until they are browned and softened. Add salt and pepper as desired. Add more butter as required.
Turkey
I bought a 3lb frozen turkey breast, which worked out nicely for 3 people. I simply roasted it, basting occasionally with melted butter mixed with a generous amount of dried Herbs de Provence.
After it was done, I drained off most of the fat and made the gravy in the pan, first deglazing with a bit of red wine.
