Text 18269, 132 rader
Skriven 2011-11-26 09:06:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: txgvg 262
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By the time I arrived (early for normal people) Rosemary had
already made the famous cranberry sauce of which I've spoken,
and I just had to putter around for a while waiting for Linda
to fix her pumpkin pie. Turns out that she uses the JoC recipe,
which is very similar but not identical to the One-Pie one -
when she came to the States from England, 30 years ago, that
was the recipe she became familiar with, and she carries a
Xeroxed and re-Xeroxed copy of it with her.

After which I got to do my thing, which involves roasting
the turkey at 350 upside down for an hour and then right side
up for two hours, basting occasionally with bacon grease or
whatever was handy. It's okay, nothing special, unlike my real
favorite ways of doing turkey, number one being red-cooked in
a soy and onion broth, number two being pressure-cooked (!);
or my favorite way of having someone else do it, by deep
frying. I used chicken bones from the chicken breasts, onion
and celery trimmings, the turkey innards packet, and assorted
detritus for a broth to make gravy out of. Stuffing was an
unholy mix of leftover stale bread, thyme and sage out of the
still unfrozen garden, a box of Bell's stuffing mix ($2.50 for
a pound of dry seasoned bread, not too bad), and chopped veg.
Also flirting inconsequentially with every female in sight,
finding some beer, and in general having a good old time.

Peak organic pale ale - medium hops, very pleasant, lightish;

Peak organic IPA - a little thick and sweet and quite a bit
hoppier than the above; dark golden in appearance and kind of
dark in taste as well. Definitely a filling and high calorie
tipple;

Otter Creek red winter ale - this looks rather like Killian's
and pours rather like Killian's, only with a substantial and
rocky head. Citrus and resin aroma confirmed by the taste,
which has grapefruit and hops and is quite bitter. Floral and
orangey aftertaste. Probably a shock for those who are used to
a mild red ale, but pretty pleasing. I gave one to John,
enjoining him to taste it without looking at it or its label;
he thought it a good IPA or APA style drink and wouldn't have
pegged it for a red.

Wines of the day:
Line 39 Cabernet (Central Coast) 10 - lots of coffee and
caramel on the palate, not too sweet, decent;

Ravenswood Vintner's Reserve Zinfandel 10 - oak and red
berries, borderline sweet, oaky herbal finish; also decent;

Ferrari-Carano Sauvignon Blanc - grapefruit, sour berries,
a bit of cat pee but not so much; I didn't have much of it.

Appetizers were straightforward: St. Andre multiple creme
cheese, which I didn't have, and raw almonds from the health
food store, not different from other almonds except that I
got one bitter one, which was exciting but didn't kill me.
Several varieties of Tribe hummus, the only of which I had
a close encounter with being the spinach and artichoke
iteration, to which I can only say "just say no." Think
canned spinach suspended in sour chickpea mash.

John and Connie appeared an hour after the appointed time.
They brought the sides:

broccoli casserole - this was surprisingly popular, especially
with the under-21 set. It's not quite my thing, but here's an
approximation of the recipe:

Broccoli casserole
cat: side
servings: 8

1 lb frozen broccoli, thawed
6 oz Velveeta, in cubes
1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
1 stick butter, melted

Put the broccoli into an ovenproof casserole. Cover with
Velveeta. Combine crushed crackers with butter; spoon over
the top of the casserole. Bake at 300F for 30 min or so.
May be reheated.

Source: after Connie Payne

dressing - I liked hers better than mine; oddly, nobody
else did (including herself), so I ended up being the only
one to actually eat hers: it was pretty standard Pepperidge
Farm but had some chopped green leafy vegetable in it.

Sweet potatoes, chopped, with minimarshmallows on top - I was
asked how to deal with browning the marshmallows, so I told
her to put the dish under the broiler as soon as I'd gotten
everything else out, so she did. And promptly forgot about
it, and presently I went sniff, sniff. The marshmallows had
blackened, which was fine, because that ensured that the dish
wasn't too sweet. Everyone else thought of it what sensible
people think of it, and as I sat next to Connie at table I
was the only one to eat much of it.

Somehow, nobody was assigned to make mashed potatoes, and
Rosemary told me quite unequivocally that Thanksgiving has to
have a mashed vegetable. So I boiled and riced some potatoes,
and she worked them over in the KitchenAid with some nasty
skim milk and a stick of butter. I guess they were okay, but
they were definitely redeemed by the gravy, see below for
egotistical aside.

--

My turkey was okay. My dressing was okay, and everyone pigged
out on it (but Connie's was more flavorsome, I thought). My
gravy, using the drippings and some of my broth, was some of
the best I've ever tasted; but then I like gravy and am not
shy about trumpeting my expertise at making same.

--

Dessert:

Connie's pecan pie, standard but very good, especially as she
might have sort of forgotten a little bit about it, so the nuts
were very crisp, almost shattering, and very done, almost burnt
but not quite.

Linda's JoC One-Pie pie, also standard but very good.

We had whipped cream and Turkey Hill vanilla ice cream to go
with, as well as Starbuck's decaf. I didn't partake, instead
pairing my sliver of each pie with a glass of Landy VS (should
have been VH for Very Harsh) Cognac.
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