Thanksgiving Notes
This year we were invited out for Thanksgiving, though I was permitted to cook a few things anyway. Notes after the game:
- Yes, you can fit a Weber grill into the back of Linda's hatchback, even though the legs are too weathered for disassembly. I worried about this all day Wednesday; in the event packing the grill took five minutes.
- Yes, grilled turkey is better. But, in the future, I will not let the turkey run long because the rootmoos is late. When the instant-read says the turkey is done, it's done. Get it off the grill. (Looked great, tasted great, but it was just a shade overdone)
- For vorspeisen, I made a cheese onion tarte. You take a sheet of puff pastry, score it ¼" from the edge, and paint the edge with a diluted egg yolk. Then you add a layer of 1/2c ricotta and an egg yolk, blended in the food processor until smooth, with ¼c creme fraiche folded in. Thinly slice 1/3lb of Cantal cheese, and put the slices on the top. Top that with lots of caramelized onions, a panful of sauteed mushrooms, and a handful of fresh rosemary, sage, and thyme coarsely chopped. Keep frozen until ready to cook, pop into the oven (350• or so) for 35 minutes, eat. Much better
- Heidi’s pumpkin pie was tasty, but not sweet enough. Taste the filling. When will I learn?
- Linda volunteered a chocolate pecan pie. “What chocolate pecan pie?” I asked. “The one you made that time.” I didn’t recall ever making a chocolate pecan pie. Warning lights start to flash. Too late to market, anyway. Fortunately, The Joy of Cooking
was written for exactly this situation. And it was a damn good chocoloate pecan pie, too.
- Amazon, amusingly, offers three different editions of Joy. This makes sense; when I say a recipe comes from The Joy Of Cooking, people always ask “New or old?” That’s got to be the ultimate triumph of tech writing: they keep your obsolete editions in print. See also Roger Torey Peterson.
- Agave nectar makes a nice substitute for corn syrup in pecan pie.
- Frozen blueberries work find in blueberry pie. 2.5 T of flour is the right amount of thickening. Next time, use more thyme in the filling. And more berries. And the frozen berries need to be spiked more aggressively with citrus and sweetness.
- However many vanilla pecans you make, it's not too many.