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What's for Dinner is a collaboration between Kate Petersen, Cookiebear, and myself. It is a selection of what we are making for our friends and families this holiday. Please share your how your family celebrates and your own menu with recipe for others to enjoy.
Grab a glass of wine or your favorite beverage and please share your own traditions and recipes. Today's diary is a long one as it is a "family" meal but we think you will enjoy.
Recommend too!
Unless you have been living under a rock, or in another country for that matter, you've probably noticed Thursday is Thanksgiving - the day we suddenly become thankful for our otherwise dysfunctional families, all things we perceive as bountiful, and the excitement of a blue legislative branch. I think for me it became crystal clear when I went to the market to snatch a free 96 oz. package of cheese lasagna this morning. It was one of those deals where the market gives you free food if you buy a certain amount of food in a set period of time. With two households on the same privacy violating card (I always sign up as some famous name and a made up address; Monica Lewinsky has no clue she has several grocery cards in Western NJ), the $300 adds up fairly quick. The resulting bounty goes to the local food bank and when I checked before going to pick it up they asked for the lasagna as they had some vegetarian families inquiring.
Seeing the line out the door of families needing a bit of extra help this morning was heartbreaking. I wanted to go back to the market and buy a couple shopping carts of stuff to bring back but then my own reality hits that I can only do and afford so much. Keeping that lasagna or a turkey or a ham would be several meals for us but as much as we struggle at times, there are people worse off than us here in our county that claims one of the highest per capita incomes in the nation. The poor are well hidden here and I can't help but to think it causes a crisis for those who try to help. I've made my usual promise to stop by and donate some cash after the New Year when donations generally slow down some. Stopping at the egg stand which operates on the honor system confirmed that people here with their high salaries don't think of others when I saw they had no more eggs out and a sign directing people to call them for eggs as people were stealing from them at the stand. Stealing a dozen eggs! The stand is kind of out of the way and not in an area which has walking traffic which means people actually pulled their car over, got out, and stole something others worked hard to produce. Did I tell you this county has one of the highest per capita incomes in the nation and oh, by the way, is also reliably very very red in elections. You can pretty much thank the voters here for reelecting Ferguson to NJ-07. I didn't follow up on eggs from Sand Hill as I didn't have my cell with me and there is another place nearby I went to. I am however looking forward to what that experience was which forced them to stop the honor part.
First up is Kate Paterson.
Thanksgiving!
I love to cook and I love nurturing the people close to me, so I absolutely adore holidays like this. The challenge comes from the fact that, although my husband undoubtedly loves to eat, he hates holidays and every year grumpily demands that it should be just like any other day.
Also, he hates turkey.
This year I am doing steaks on the grill for the guys, probably with mashed or baked potatoes and a green salad. For me, I'm going to be a tad more adventurous.
I could make this outstanding vegetarian "meatloaf" as a main dish:
Cashew Mushroom Loaf Recipe
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
8 ounces cashew nuts
4 ounces fresh bread crumbs
3 medium potatoes, cooked and mashed
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 cup hot water
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 ounce butter
8 ounces mushrooms, chopped
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Heat the oil and fry the onion and garlic until soft. Grind the cashew nuts, then mix with the breadcrumbs. Mix in the mashed potatoes and herbs. Add the onion, being sure to scrape all the juices into the mixture. Season well.
Melt the butter in a skillet and sauté the chopped mushrooms until soft. Grease a 2-pound loaf pan and press in half the nut mixture. Cover with a layer of mushrooms and top with the rest of the nut mixture.
Press down well. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hour. When cooked, remove the pan and let stand for 10 minutes before turning onto a plate. Serve hot or cold.
But probably I am going to try another lactovegetarian thing, which is full of ingredients neither of the men will eat anyway. This is a long recipe (although not terribly difficult to make), so I will link to it instead of listing the whole thing here: Phyllo Turnovers with Roasted Squash and Chiles. This dish has the added attraction of being exactly the kind of thing my daughter loves, so I will send leftovers her way.
For my daughter, I'm also planning to make one of her favorite dishes, squash casserole from her Gran's recipe. Although this incarnation of the casserole came from a Southern Living cookbook, I didn't find that out until after I'd asked Gran for the recipe.( I still have that handwritten note, which I will pass to my daughter as a keepsake.)
Gran's Squash Casserole
My parents-in-law lived about a two-hour drive from us. Once a month or so when our children were small, we drove north through beautiful farm land and small towns to spend a day with them and eat gorgeous vegetables in a Southern Sunday midday "dinner." This recipe was a favorite of my daughter, now grown and married and beginning to be interested in cooking for herself. Gran is no longer here to teach, but she left behind a number of her favorite recipes - comfort food par excellence.
* 2 cups cooked squash
* 3 tablespoons butter
* 2 eggs
* 1 teaspoon salt
* ½ teaspoon black pepper
* 1 medium onion, chopped
* 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
* 1 cup evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed milk) or half & half
* 2 cups cracker crumbs (about 1 stack saltines)
1. Preheat oven to 375°. Spray a 1-quart casserole dish with cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, mash cooked squash. Add other ingredients and mix well.
3. Pour mixture into casserole dish. If desired, top with additional shredded cheese.
4. Bake at 375° for about 40 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean.
Makes 6 servings.
tags: side dish, squash, cheese, vegetarian
I'm also making pumpkin bread. This particular incarnation is the result of a year or two's fiddling to get the right mix of little-bit-sweet, little-bit-spicy, whole-wheat hearty goodness. This time of year I buy a dozen or so pie pumpkins, bake them whole (about an hour at 350°, or until you can stick a knife into the side of the pumpkin), then scoop out the seeds and pureé the flesh. Freeze in 2-cup portions for making pumpkin bread all year long.
These also make great muffins. After mixing the batter, just scoop into muffin tins and bake at 350° for about 10 minutes.
Pumpkin Bread
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup water
2 cups pumpkin
1-3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1-2/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup granulated white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup raisins or dates (chopped)
1/2 cup diced walnuts or pecans (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two standard bread pans.
In a mixing bowl, combine oil, eggs, water and pumpkin.
In another bowl, sift together flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. Make a well in center of dry ingredients and add pumpkin mixture. Blend until dry ingredients are moist. Stir in raisins and nuts. Bake 1 hour and 20 minutes.
Cool briefly in pans before turning out onto a rack.
And last, what's Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce? This year I am forgoing the 88-cent cans of Ocean Spray with their evil high fructose corn syrup and making my own:
Cranberry Sauce
Ingredients:
* 1 12oz bag of fresh or frozen cranberries
* 1 cup fresh orange juice
* 1 tsp minced fresh ginger
* 1 tsp minced orange zest
* ¼ tsp cinnamon
* ½ cup honey
Bring orange juice, ginger, zest and cinnamon to a boil on high heat in a medium saucepan.
Rinse cranberries and add once liquid is boiling. Reduce heat to medium and cook uncovered for about 10 minutes.
Add honey. Remove from heat and cool.
If you want a smooth, jellied cranberry sauce, run it through a food mill, or press the cooked sauce through a wire strainer to remove the cranberry hulls.
Easy! Less sugar! What's not to like?
One last recipe. Even if you don't cook, this one is absolutely painless:
Thanksgiving Special
2 cans vegetables
2 cans condensed soup
1 canned ham
1. Purchase canned items at your local grocery store.
2. Drop off at your local food bank or soup kitchen to help feed the homeless and hungry.
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Heh...I wrote the above about the food bank before I read Kate's contribution. Thanks Kate! I hope it indicates that our pleas fall on a bunch of ears that all think alike in this area.
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And from the ever-creative Cookiebear (who may be the one Kossack I am most envious of thanks to all she has shared about her homestead):
The Special Needs Thanksgiving
Yes, it's true --- I really am usually http://music.barnesandnoble.com/...
mediaplayer.asp?ean=074646782026&disc=1&track=2" just happy to be me. But there are times, and this is one.
Picture it: preparing Thanksgiving dinner for a diabetic and a cystinuric. The diabetic can't eat too many carbs; the cystinuric can't eat protein.
This means my initial plan of experimenting with a delectable new recipe (lamb roasted on a bed of acorn squash and sweet onion) is out
--- unless I want to do The Exclusionary Thanksgiving, where some people can eat this over here, others can eat that over there, and never the twain shall meet, except for the greens.
But that won't do because I'm a Dem, dammit! I'm not exclusionary! I want everybody to be able to at least taste whatever they want, limited only by their appetites ...
... which means no turkey and dressing over a healthy slice of sweet potato pie with fresh whipped cream on the side. It means no mashed potatoes shmooshed in the middle and filled with dressing and giblet gravy and cranberry-orange relish, topped with maybe just a dab of sweet potato pie.
Hm. Perhaps we could cancel Thanksgiving this year? If we did, I could stay home and finish cleaning out the closets.
But alas, I have not yet been named Queen of the Universe, and Thanksgiving will be held as usual.
So I have no choice. I have to figure out vittles which are festive, yet acceptable fare for both a diabetic and a cystinuric.
Donning Investigative Hat for the Google Expedition
Cooking for my diabetic guest is easy: meat and veggies and a minimum of fluff, meaning a minimum of dressing and sweets. Pile the plate with good protein and even more good veggies, and they're set.
The cystinuric, however, complicates things. In essence, her kidneys are unable to process the aminos from protein. So she has to severely restrict her diet, or suffer gigantic staghorn kidney stones which, over time, can lead to kidney failure. Not something to mess with.
According to The
Cystinuria Support Network, she must:
Exclude animal protein by not eating any meat, limited milk, yogurt, cheese and other dairy, no eggs and no fish. Stock up on green vegetables and other forms of vegetable protein such as nuts, beans and pulses.
Hm. Nuts. And vegetables. Maybe a main dish of something with mushrooms and nuts?
So ... nuts for handy snacks. Maybe my latest concoction of pecans lightly glazed with a mix of Braggs Liquid Aminos (which is essentially a light soy), organic dehydrated onions and lots of freshly ground black pepper.
One dish of plain pecans, one dish of glazed.
A big salad with choice of crumbled goat cheese or ... hm. Another cheese. Something mild.
Wild rice dressing is still an option, except that it will have to be meatless.
A centerpiece dish of mushrooms and ... hm.
Epicurious to the Rescue
Now, I used to make a fabulous Cream of Wild Mushroom soup, but it requires chicken stock and definitely has too much dairy for a cystinuric.
So my thoughts are running to some kind of grilled or baked main dish with primary ingredients of mushroom and onion, and a wild rice casserole on the side.
Or maybe ....
Stuffed Portabella Mushrooms
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup coarse fresh bread crumbs
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon minced garlic
4 medium portabella mushrooms (3/4 lb), stems finely chopped
3 canned plum tomatoes, chopped
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
1/2 cup dry white wine
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large nonstick skillet over moderate heat until hot but not smoking and lightly brown bread crumbs, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a large bowl.
Heat 1 tablespoon oil in skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and sauté onion, stirring, until tender. Add garlic and saute, stirring, 1 minute. Add chopped mushroom stems and salt and pepper to taste and sauté, stirring, until tender, about 3 minutes. Add tomatoes, sage, and 1/4 cup wine and cook, stirring, until almost all of liquid is evaporated. Set aside half of bread crumbs and stir mushroom mixture into remaining bread crumbs.
Heat remaining tablespoon oil over moderately low heat until hot but not smoking and cook mushroom caps, gill sides down, covered, 5 minutes. Turn mushroom caps over and add remaining 1/4 cup wine and salt and pepper to taste. Cook, covered, until just tender but still juicy and mound filling in caps. Heat mushrooms until hot, about 3 minutes.
Makes 2 servings (4 as a side dish).
Served with a baked wild rice made with lots of sweet onion and thyme, maybe some nuts, fresh parsley (of course) and some kind of oil. The nuts will be pecans, given I'm drowning in them right now (oh, I do love this time of year, when the pecan growers are sitting at every corner selling bags of them!). And we have to have something sweet potato-ish in there as a side. Maybe instead of pie, grilled sliced sweet potatoes and onions, maybe even lightly glazed with ...
something. A touch of orange juice. Which makes it diabetic unfriendly ... but if sliced, then portion friendly and lacking the deadly crust of pie.
So I'll be experimenting over the next few days, definitely finding a substitute for the bread crumbs, adjusting seasonings and just plain playing.
The menu, at least, seems pretty well set: a big green salad with choice of goat cheese or ___ cheese; pecans, glazed and not; and the main course, some kind of stuffed portabellos with sides of a wild rice casserole (yet to be completely figured) and grilled sweet potatoes.
If anyone has any fabulous, tried and true stuffed portabella recipes, I'd love to see them!
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My Big Fat Organic Turkey
And then there is moi who in typical fashion is still toying some with the menu. As it turns out, two adult guests who we were counting on to come backed out but I had already placed an order with my local bird farm for a 16 pound turkey. It's a pile of turkey I fear and way too much for what at this point is a small gathering of 3 adults and two children. They raise them free range based upon the orders placed a month or two ago.I was originally going to pick it up on Tuesday and then decided that the kids might want to see where their food comes from so we changed that to tomorrow. They are young-just 5 and 6-but really got into the whole gardening thing over the summer with me and even saved pumpkin seeds to plant next year without any prompting from the grownups around them. We will spare them the killing and defeathering but seeing the animals wander around the farm will be fun for them and hopefully be the seed for a future conversation about sustainability and factory farms.
I like to brine the bird as they can run a bit on the "gamey" side since they are without hormones and a carefully adjusted diet. A brine can be just about anything but you cannot use a "self-basting" turkey. Self-basting types are injected with salt and brining it will make it way too salty. Use only a fresh turkey if you plan to brine. I first brined about 5 years ago and have never decided against it since. Done properly it will give you the most flavorful and juicy turkey you have ever had.
A basic brine is water, lots of salt, and sugar. Seasonings of your liking make it special and unique for your family. Ideas include aromatic spices such as rosemary, thyme, oregano. Put in some garlic and onion and you are talking an heirloom recipe.
My specific recipe I found a couple years ago and am pleased with is with juniper and allspice berries:
Brine:
11⁄2 cups kosher salt
1⁄2 cup plus
3 tablespoons sugar
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
7 cloves
11⁄2 teaspoons whole allspice berries, cracked
1⁄2 teaspoon juniper berries
Enough water to cover the turkey.
Bring to boil and allow to cool to room temp.
I use one of those giant zipper bags in a cooler outside (and out of the sun) with blocks of ice surrounding the bird.
Brine it for 8-24 hours.
The night before T-Day and counting, place it in the fridge uncovered to dry some. This makes the skin crisp.
I found this on the internet and have seen it republished several times since. I don't know where it came from originally.
The turkey will roast at 450 degrees for about 30 minutes and then down to 350 for however long is necessary. Cover the wing tips and breast with a foil tent when you are happy with the brownness of it. Unlike the rest of the world, I only go to about 155 degrees (unstuffed) at the junction of breast and thigh. The bird will continue to heat itself as it sits and get up to a safe 165. If it is still running red shortly before eating, cut the legs off and stick all of it back in the oven for a short while.
I'm really, really anal about checking the temp for the last 40 minutes or so. It doesn't take but a minute to go from juicy delicious to dried cardboard. I check about every 10 minutes.
To save time while the turkey sits for 30-45 minutes, I make a stock ahead of time for gravy and dressing. Today was going to be stock day but as I started it realized I was missing the innards and feet from the actual bird. I purchased a couple backs a couple days ago. Anyways, the plan tomorrow is to roast the parts for about 1.5 hours and then simmer in a pot with an onion, carrot, and some celery. I'll deglaze the pan and save that for the gravy along with some of the fat.
The stock will be split between the dressing and gravy.
The gravy is simple:
Make a roux with the fat and some flour. In a pot, slowly whisk in your hot stock. Add any seasoning you want at this point.
The gizzard dressing I make is equally simple:
Unseasoned bread cubes (or make your own from any dense bread)
Bells seasoning
Salt
Pepper
Cooked gizzard
Lots of butter - 1/2lb?
Celery
Onion
Stock.
Saute the celery and onion in the butter until soft. Add bread cubes, bells seasoning salt and pepper to taste along with finely chopped gizzard and some stock to moisten as desired. Cook your gizzard in the stock you made btw or simply simmer for an hour or so. DO NO use liver in your dressing nor your stock as it gives it a funky bitter taste. If you have pets, they'll cuddle a bit more if you cook the liver in a different pan and feed it to them.
I make the dressing the day ahead and bake it outside the turkey. I always get the turkey in late and it cuts down on cooking time for it.
The rest of the menu:
Pickle plate with a variety of items--both as appetizers and on the table.
green beans with roasted garlic
pickled red onions
shredded lemony brussel sprouts
mashed potatoes with corn (plain old yukon golds with buttermilk and some corn mixed in after mashing)
cranberries made with orange juice (surprise yourself - put some Grand Marnier into the mix)
As I tell my guests, the above is always subject to change at any given moment based upon my success at gathering the ingredients and imagination. Let me know if you are interested in any of the side dish recipe.
Enjoy your holiday. May it be healthy, happy, and fun.