Text 33863, 87 rader
Skriven 2015-12-01 08:36:08 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: thanksgiving digression 591
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Huge abundance

I don't know why Rachael the organic farmer slash sea captain
changed her plans, but we went from a possible low of two to
fifteen, quite suddenly, and from one 7-lb turkey to that one
plus a 11-1/2-lb one. Not a big deal - Rosemary has been known
to host parties for upwards of 50 guests (that when her very
gregarious husband was alive); this Thanksgiving the challenge
was to come up with matching flatware and dishes, which was
mostly met with ease. Rosemary set up a long table arrangement,
with the dining table (with leaves) augmented by a cafeteria
table (such as you might find in a church social hall) and a
card table, somewhat lower, at the end, presided over by John,
Rosemary's baby brother, and his wife Connie (hence, it was
called "the children's table," despite the residents' average
age being between 50 and 60.

I wasn't around for the appetizers, which consisted of a bunch
of store-bought delicacies bearing Cedars or Sabra labels: 
artichoke dip, cheeses (looked like Brie, Manchego, and Cheddar), 
and crackers; tabbouleh; hummus and crudites. I later contributed
cracklings and odd bits from the turkeys two, which were done
half an hour early owing to the unpredictability of Rosemary's
oven (last time they took half an hour extra).

We ended up eating almost all the little turkey and only about
half the bigger one. More flavor (both of them, as it turns out,
were Bourbon Reds) meant less gorging, I suppose.

Things I made:

sage and onion dressing - standard, but I used 50% more onion
than normal, having found extra cooked onion in the fridge, and
fresh sage that had survived the first frost, which was even
more mild than I expected, so what resulted was onion and sage
and onion dressing. Being too impatient to wait for the turkey
bits to make broth from I used stock made from a chicken that
had been procured for that purpose some days before;

gravy - the usual, but it was mostly chicken gravy, see above,
though enriched with turkey fat;

butternut squash roasted in olive oil for the benefit of 
Rachael's beloved, who is celiac and dairy-free both and thus
a bit of a pain to cook for - this was actually delicious;

pumpkin with maple syrup, rum, and butter for the rest of us -
Rosemary had bought a smallish pumpkin described by the seller
as a "hybrid" - what s/he didn't divulge was that the cross
was between some kind of pumpkin and some kind of spaghetti
squash. Result, extremely stringy flesh, which I corrected 
by chopping it very fine and cooking it twice as long as it
deserved; and tasteless, which I corrected with lots of rum
and butter. It ended up okay.

Things other people came up with:

gluten-free cornbread stuffing - not my cup of tea;

gluten-free gravy flavored with nutmeg - nor this, which
would have been okay but for the spices (I am told there 
was also allspice and clove);

glazed carrots (purple and orange) - pretty good but way
sweet;

pea salad (lettuce, mayo, thawed peas, shredded cheese, bacon 
bits) - as strange as it sounds;

mashed potatoes made with mayo - surprisingly normal;

a pumpkin stuffed with candied sweet potatoes that looked
like it had walked out of a gourmet-type magazine - other
than being hugely sweet, it tasted quite good, and the
pumpkin shell, which I was loth to waste, later got turned
into version two of the maple syrup, rum, and butter thing.
This was what Courtney was threatening to top with grilled
marshmallows, to which I shuddered inwardly and pointed
out that positioning the pumpkin top jauntily on top was
very cute; this resonated with her who used to work as a
food stylist for some of the top restaurants in New York,
so we were spared that additional dose of sweetness;

and braised kale, which I suppose was okay except for 
its veganness.
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