Thanksgiving menu

[magid]

• turkey (12 pounds, from Trader Joe's, no antibiotics, etc)
  
• endo- and exo-stuffing: 6-grain & pumpkin seed bread*, boozy apricots* and sage*, walnuts, caramelized onions*, sauteed white button and crimini mushrooms with fresh sage and onions*, semi-dried apricots*, eggs, ground sage
  
• cranberry relish: cranberries*, orange, sugar
  
• roasted root veg: onion*, beets*, parsnips*, and carrots*
  
• slices of baked sweet potato*
  
• dilly beans* (canned last summer)
  
• green salad: green and red lettuce*, vinegared strawberries*, 6-grain & pumpkin seed croutons*, strawberry vinaigrette (I made the strawberry vinegar this summer, and this might be the first time I'm really using it!)
  
• the whites: mashed rutabagas*, potatoes*, and turnips* with salt and some olive oil, topped with frizzled leeks*
  
• apricot* pies (one with cinnamon and cayenne in the crust, both courtesy of DAL)
  
• cranberry pie (courtesy Mom)
  
• pumpkin* pie (pumpkins from the last of the regular CSA distributions)
  
• crisp: boozy apples*, boozy pears*, apples*, apricots*, pecans, topped with a mixture of peanut flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, black pepper, and olive oil, plus a vanilla bean on top
  
• divers fruit liqueurs and perhaps the rumtopf
  * local

Comments

notes

[magid.livejournal.com]

Not surprisingly, the endo- and exo-stuffings ended up rather different: the exo was crispier, while the endo fell apart in the bird juices. The endo flavors also balanced differently, with the savoriness added in balancing the apricots. In any case, I didn't have enough sage.

The veggie dishes all turned out well. I was particularly pleased with the mashed veggies, which seemed much more luxurious than just salt and olive oil would make. Must do that again (though with more rutabaga and no turnip; the only reason I had the turnip was I mistook it for a rutabaga in the dim light at the farm share pickup).

This might have been the first pumpkin pie I made from scratch, and I'm happy with how it turned out. Others were too: there was least of that left.

The peanut topping on the crisp didn't work the way I wanted; peanut flour is not the right thing for this application.

There was Way Too Much Food, but at least I am happy eating all of it.

We never got around to any of the booze.