posted on November 14, 2000 10:15:08 AM new
I want to know three things...
1st, what are you thankful for?
2nd, what is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?
3rd, what is your favorite dish and what is the recipe?
Number 1: I am incredibly thankful for so many things. First is my family, we gather with four generations for each holiday and celebration. I feel very lucky to have my Grandparents, parents, all siblings, and my crew all here. It's rare today that a whole family is all in one place. I'm also thankful to be alive in this time and place. Had I been born even 50 years earlier than I was, I probably wouldn't have survived a couple of medical issues that I've had. Living in the US or Canada is an incredible blessing, and I am grateful.
Number 2: I guess my favorite tradition is the gathering I mentioned earlier. That and having one of the young kids say the blessing. Ya just never know what they'll say. Last year, my then 2 year old, shouted "QUIET" in the middle of the blessing. I think he was ready to eat.
Number 3: My favorite food on Thanksgiving is my Mother's gravy. She boils all of the neck, heart, gizzard etc. Uses the broth from that as her stock. takes all of the drippings and mixes with the stock. Adds a chopped hard boiled egg and thickens. Man is it good. I've tried and tried but have been unable to duplicate her gravy.
posted on November 14, 2000 10:25:24 AM new
For about a dozen years, at the approach of turkey-eating season, I have been trumpeting to all who would listen, and to a good many who would rather not, that there is only one way to cook a turkey. This turkey is not my turkey. It is the creation of the late Morton Thompson, who wrote Not as a Stranger and other books.
This recipe was first contained in the manuscript of a book called The Naked Countess which was given to the late Robert E. Benchley, who had eaten the turkey and was so moved as to write an introduction to the book. Benchley then lost the manuscript. He kept hoping it would turn up -- although not as much, perhaps, as Thompson did, but somehow it vanished,irretrievably. Thompson did not have the heart to write it over. He did, however, later put his turkey rule in another book. Not a cookbook, but a collection of very funny pieces called
Joe, the Wounded Tennis Player.
THE ONLY WAY TO COOK A TURKEY!
This turkey is work... it requires more attention than an average six-month-old baby. There are no shortcuts, as you will see.
Get a HUGE turkey-- I don't mean just a big, big bird, but one that looks as though it gave the farmer a hard time when he did it in. It ought to weigh between 16 and 30 pounds. Have the poultryman, or butcher, cut its head off at the end of the neck, peel back the skin, and remove the neck close to the body, leaving the tube. You will want this for stuffing. Also , he should leave all the fat on the bird.
When you are ready to cook your bird, rub it inside and out with salt and pepper. Give it a friendly pat and set it aside. Chop the heart, gizzard, and liver and put them, with the neck,into a stewpan with a clove of garlic, a large bay leaf, 1/2 tsp coriander, and some salt. I don't know how much salt-- whatever you think. Cover this with about 5 cups of water and put on the stove to simmer. This will be the basting fluid a little later.
About this time I generally have my first drink of the day, usually a RAMOS FIZZ. I concoct it by taking the whites of four eggs, an equal amount of whipping cream, juice of half a lemon (less 1 tsp.), 1/2 tsp. confectioner's sugar, an appropriate amount of gin, and blending with a few ice cubes. Pour about two tablespoons of club soda in a chimney glass, add the mix, with ice cubes if you prefer. Save your egg yolks, plus 1 tsp. of lemon -- you'll need them later. Have a good sip! (add 1 dash of Orange Flower Water to the drink, not the egg yolks)
Get a huge bowl. Throw into it one diced apple, one diced orange, a large can of crushed pineapple, the grated rind of a lemon, and three tablespoons of chopped preserved ginger (If you like ginger, double this -REB). Add 2 cans of drained Chinese water chestnuts.
Mix this altogether, and have another sip of your drink. Get a second, somewhat smaller, bowl. Into this, measuring by teaspoons, put:
Wipe your brow, refocus your eyes, get yet another drink--and a third bowl. Put in three packages of unseasoned bread crumbs (or two loaves of toast or bread crumbs), 3/4 lb.
ground veal, 1/2 lb. ground fresh pork, 1/4 lb. butter, and all the fat you have been able to pull out of the bird.
About now it seems advisable to switch drinks. Martinis or stingers are recommended (Do this at your own risk - we always did! -REB). Get a fourth bowl, an enormous one. Take a sip for a few minutes, wash your hands, and mix the contents of all the other bowls. Mix it well. Stuff the bird and skewer it. Put the leftover stuffing into the neck tube.
Turn your oven to 500 degrees F and get out a fifth small bowl. Make a paste consisting of those four egg yolks and lemon juice left from the Ramos Fizz. Add 1 tsp hot dry mustard, a crushed clove of garlic, 1 Tbl onion juice, and enough flour to make a stiff paste. When the oven is red hot, put the bird in, breast down on the rack. Sip on your drink until the bird has begin to brown all over, then take it out and paint the bird all over with paste. Put it back in and turn the oven down to 350 degrees F. Let the paste set, then pull the bird out and paint
again. Keep doing this until the paste is used up.
Add a quart of cider or white wine to the stuff that's been simmering on the stove, This is your basting fluid. The turkey must be basted every 15 minutes. Don't argue. Set your timer and keep it up. (When confronted with the choice "do I baste from the juice under the bird or do I baste with the juice from the pot on the stove?" make certain that the juice under the bird neither dries out and burns, nor becomes so thin that gravy is weak. When you run out of baste, use cheap red wine. This critter makes incredible gravy! -REB) The bird should cook about 12 minutes per pound, basting every 15 minutes. Enlist the aid of your friends and family.
As the bird cooks, it will first get a light brown, then a dark brown, then darker and darker. After about 2 hours you will think I'm crazy. The bird will be turning black. (Newcomers to black turkey will think you are demented and drunk on your butt, which, if you've followed instructions, you are -REB) In fact, by the time it is finished, it will look as though we have ruined it. Take a fork and poke at the black cindery crust.
Beneath, the bird will be a gorgeous mahogany, reminding one of those golden browns found in precious Rembrandts. Stick the fork too deep, and the juice will gush to the ceiling.
When you take it out, ready to carve it, you will find that you do not need a knife. A load sound will cause the bird to fall apart like the walls of that famed biblical city. The moist flesh will drive you crazy, and the stuffing--well, there is nothing like it on this earth. You will make the gravy just like it as always done, adding the giblets and what is left of the basting fluid.
Sometime during the meal, use a moment to give thanks to Morton Thompson. There is seldom, if ever, leftover turkey when this recipe is used. If there is, you'll find that the fowl retains its moisture for a few days. That's all there is to it. It's work, hard work--- but it's worth it.
(What follows is not part of the recipe, but is an ingredients list to aid in shopping for this monster, or for checking your spice cabinet -REB)
Ingredients List:
1 turkey
salt
garlic
4 eggs
1 apple
1 orange
1 lrg can crushed pineapple
1 lemon
4 lrg onions
6 celery stalks
plenty of preserved ginger
2 cans water chestnuts
3 packages unseasoned bread crumbs
3/4 lb ground veal
1/2 lb ground pork
1/4 lb butter
onion juice
1 qt apple cider
posted on November 14, 2000 11:02:36 AM new
Spaghetti Squash
Cut lengthwise, put halves face down in a shallow baking pan, add a little water.
Bake @ 375 until almost done (25 min?) and then turn squash over and put a chunk of butter (depending on size, up to 1/2 a cube) in the well, put back in oven, let it melt.
Pull back out and spoon over and around so it drips between strands.
To finish, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, then back in the oven for a quick broil and you're done
edit to make a hotter oven.
[ edited by VeryModern on Nov 14, 2000 11:04 AM ]
posted on November 14, 2000 11:27:52 AM new
I am thankful to be born in the time and place I was born in. I am thankful to be surrounded with good friends,a loving husband and a warm puppy. And I'm also thankful for having the faith and will to survive if any or all of these were to be taken away from me.
My favorite thanksgiving tradition would have to be what we call our orphan Thanksgiving dinner (we also do this at Christmas).
We try to gather up those who we know who have no family or cannot get home for the holidays and include them in our celebration.
My favorite dish would have to be pumpkin pie. Unfortunatly it seems to be the one thing I can't cook. No matter what I do my pie crust is like tough and I can't seem to get the filling to thicken like I like it.
It's more like pumpkin soup served in a combat boot when I make it.
So I don't make it any more.
posted on November 14, 2000 12:09:51 PM new
I'm thankful for this breath-of-fresh-air non-political thread!!!
My traditional Thanksgiving turkey is stuffed with sourdough crumbs, macadamia nuts, sweet Maui onion, scallions, celery, and a dollop of orange marmalade, then basted in an orange marmalade sauce... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
And since we have a nice peaceful thread going here, I'd like to share something I wrote some years ago called:
CAT'S THANKSGIVING THOUGHTS...
We are all
Thankful for the good things
The riches
The pleasures in our lives...
But what about being thankful
For what brings us to these rewards?
I say:
Be thankful for adversity
Because it is in the troubled times that we learn to be human.
Be thankful for sorrow...
It makes the joys we eventually feel so much sweeter.
Be thankful for those times that youve been down on your luck...
And wondered if you would ever have enough to make ends meet...
To pay the bills and feed your children...
Living this existence every day of our lives...
And wondering if we will survive...
Through all of our daily struggles
We become stronger...
And develop a sense of pride that we have made it.
We have perservered and won.
Without our frailties, we would not be as human...
We would not feel the joys in our lives, deep down in our souls
And truly be
Thankful.
Only when you have walked through the deepest valley can you appreciate the highest mountain.
Step back
And take a look at your life
And see all of the things that you have accomplished...
All of the things that you have because you worked for them.
All of the trials that have been a part of your life...
And the relief you felt when you pulled yourself through them.
We do not have fairy godmothers who wave a magic wand
And spoil us by simply giving us the things that we need in this world...
We must work hard and earn our own way,
And contribute to making the world a better place by doing so...
So when you ponder what you are thankful for,
Be thankful for what you have done with your own life.
And be proud.
posted on November 14, 2000 12:57:24 PM new
This is my first year living in a house instead of an apartment, and because of that my husband has decided to make a turkey for Thanksgiving this year. I'm a little nervous but he seems pretty excited about it, and we're even buying a new oven for the occasion because ours is broken. I figure it will at least be better than the half-cooked salmon he baked on a wood plank last year.
What I'm thankful for:
I'm very thankful for my family and for marrying into an equally nice one. I'm thankful for my cats and for their regular use of their litter box, and I'm also thankful that they haven't seen fit to shred the furniture. I'm thankful that my mom is also my best friend, and that the teenager who gave birth to me almost three decades ago gave me up for adoption. I'm thankful for the beautiful region in which I live and for the opportunities I've found here. I'm thankful for the freedom this country offers and thankful for our American veterans (digitalman take note!)
Favorite recipe:
I'm really fond of a green bean recipe which can be found on the side of dried onion cans. Yum!
posted on November 14, 2000 12:57:37 PM new
That is beautiful Cat.
That reminds me of one I read once. I don't remember where I read it and can only paraphrase it, but it has stuck with me. It is kind of like this:
Don't complain about having to cook dinner or do dishes, be grateful you have food.
Don't complain about doing laundry, be grateful you have clothes.
Don't complain about having to get up early to go to work, be grateful you have a job.
It continues on...if anyone knows what this is from, I'd love to see it again.
[ edited by UpInTheHills on Nov 14, 2000 12:59 PM ]
posted on November 14, 2000 03:43:08 PM new
Thanks Upinthehills.
I am also thankful that Thanksgiving will be q.u.i.e.t. around here... I've had 3 sets of company from the mainland in the last month, including my EX who is still here (not staying with us in the house though, I'm not that stupid, lol) plus 2 parties, including one slumber...
sooooooo I'm looking forward to a nice quiet day and I'm not going to answer one stinkin email on Thanksgiving either!
posted on November 14, 2000 06:54:14 PM new
I am thankful this is the first year in a long time my mom lives close to me and we won't spend half our holiday time traveling. It will be non-rushed this year. I am also thankful to be an American (even during these trying times). I believe we really take a lot of things for granted.
Our tradition and food are probably the same things. My mom makes great pumpkin pie, uses "secret" spices. She also makes apple salad which contains apples, red grapes, walnuts, celery and mini marshmallows. Throw in some mayo and you're good to go.
posted on November 14, 2000 07:05:47 PM new
hammerchick, my mother makes a similar salad, but mixes it with pistachio pudding and plain gelatin and lets it sit... awesome!
I'm getting hungry reading all of these delicious thoughts!
posted on November 14, 2000 07:11:35 PM new
Ah. Here come the holidays! Pass the Valium!
I'm thankful that my kids are healthy, and that I am still kicking, and that my marriage was strong enough to withstand moving so close to the strangest in-laws I've ever had the misfortune to know!
We don't have much in the way of traditions anymore -- my family traditions pretty much died off when my mom died. Siblings are scattered. And the crazy inlaws...well, they don't "do" holidays. So the only real tradition we have left for Thanksgiving is that we gather with others who are "orphaned" on the holiday, and we potluck. We eat, we drink, and we play Uno until we are hysterical. Whatever works, right?
My gotta have it dish is Candied Sweet Potatoes. Not those nasty canned things with marshmallows on top (that's what my momma used to do - blech!) but real sweet potatoes, sliced thick and cooked the night before in fruit juice, butter, and brown sugar, with walnuts. They are always better the second day!
posted on November 14, 2000 07:20:06 PM new
Talking about the whole sweet potato thing...
Ya know, some of the best sweet potatoes I've had in a long time are the ones at Boston Market. They mash them and then do the brown sugar marshmallow thing on top. Yum... I'd love to have that recipe.
Yes, I know it's weird.
edited for ubb
[ edited by UpInTheHills on Nov 14, 2000 07:20 PM ]
again
[ edited by UpInTheHills on Nov 14, 2000 07:21 PM ]
posted on November 14, 2000 07:27:45 PM new
That sounds pretty good, UpInTheHills. No Boston Market up here, tho - closest McDonalds is 40 miles one way! Next time I go to the cities, I'll see if I can find a Boston Market and check it out.
posted on November 14, 2000 08:47:22 PM new
RainyBear -
Nothing to worry about - Turkey is the easiest meat to cook -
Whoever mentioned green bean recipe - my mom made it often - it is really good.
Thankful for,
Three healthy children, a beautiful area to live in, a great relationship with my current ex (we remain best friends), a terrific job that allows me to work from home (not ebay) and the new technology as I have met so many wonderful - diverse humans on this board and others. I also thank our military and current state of affairs during my lifetime as not many hardships in comparison to when others generations lived their lives.
Recipe,
Quit with the squash - my gag reflex begins just thinking about it.
Good one,
Have to say pumpkin pie and I, too cannot make it to be the best.
posted on November 15, 2000 05:20:02 AM newWho gets to sit at the head of the table? Big Bush or little Bush? I see trouble brewing!
Having spent a good portion of my life with this sort, I can assure you that WASPs are eminently hierarchical. Daddy will sit at the head of the table, with Bar at the opposite end, just the way it should be
As to the pumpkin pie debacle, do try using the dairy-case Pillsbury crusts (the red box, they come in rolled-out disks so you'll have to get yourself a glass pie plate) and a can of Libbey's pumpin pie filling, except use heavy cream for the milk. I have had more embarrassing compliments about my "homemade" pie crust this way - actually came in runner-up in a hotly-contested office dessert bakeoff. The glass pan seems to brown the crust bottom better, and you can actually SEE if it's done. Before you bake, cover the edge of the crust with a collar of aluminum foil to keep it from browning too fast. And let that pie sit overnight OUTSIDE the refrigerator. Bacteria be damned. Refrigerators ruin pie crust.
posted on November 15, 2000 09:32:05 AM new
I used a glass pie plate once for a cranberry-apple crumb pie for Thanksgiving, and left it, like a dope, on top of a stove burner that I had neglected to turn off and while we were eating turkey, the pie EXPLODED! No kidding...I had cranberry goop and glass everywhere, what a mess.
posted on November 15, 2000 04:21:54 PM new
Well, for those of you who like pie but cringe at the thought of making piecrust - I just tried a new and utterly idiotproof recipe tonight and half the pie is gone already. If you're familiar with Chess Pie or Italian Easter ricotta pie, it has a texture and taste much like those, and I think would make a nice counterpoint to pumpkin:
2 c. milk
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. Bisquick
1/4 c. melted butter (no cheating with margarine)
4 eggs
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 c. lemon juice - the real thing, not that yucky bottled stuff - about 2 lemons
1 tsp. grated lemon rind
Blend everything on high speed for 15 seconds. Pour into a greased 10 inch pie plate. Bake in 350 degree oven until a knife inserted in center comes out clean (this took 45 minutes in my convection oven, but the recipe says 50 to 55 minutes). When it comes out it will be all poofed up and look hideous, but it'll behave itself as it cools.
And here's the pumpkin recipe, which I haven't tried yet, but only because there's no pumpkin in the house:
1 c. evaporated milk (NOT sweetened condensed)
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. Bisquick
1 tablespoon melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pumpkin pie filling OR 1 cup pumpkin puree and 1 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Same instructions.
Best part is that it messes up only 2 pans - the blender cup and the pie plate (if you use a glass one, you can melt the butter in it in the microwave).
posted on November 15, 2000 04:24:28 PM new
What a great thread and a good day for me to find it! I don't post much here, but I am very thankful today. The doctors had me and my whole family about half hysterical thinking I had bone cancer. It seems I do not and that what I do have is very common and very rarely turns malignant. For that I am very thankful.
I am also thankful that my mother is doing better and is now on proper medication. She spent a week in the hosipital a couple of weeks ago with congestive heart failure. I am also thankful that my father is back home after spending the whole summer in a nursing home because he was too ill to be at home. So our family is once again whole and on the mend! (Even if my poor husband is now turning gray with a house full of us sickies
I think our favorite old tradition is Mom's pumpkin pie. And I was delighted to find out a couple of years ago I can make it just like hers Our new favorite tradition is my husbands squash. My family never really ate it and they still don't care for it, but I love it! Yams too, yum!
We always gather at Mom's house, which happens to be my house this year and last. Before that it was my brother's for a couple of years. That's another thing I am grateful for, that us kids are able to take care of and put a roof over my parents heads. We also try and gather up strays or orphans too. We have some lifelong friends from doing that and they're like family too. One of whom is serving our country over in Germany and I am thankful that he and his family are safe. But we sure do miss him! We can't wait until he comes home next year
Hmmm, favorite dish...There's so many! I would have to say Mom's pumpkin pie. She uses the red box Pilsbury crusts now too and follows the recipe on the Libby's pumpkin can, except she doubles the spices and uses raw sugar. (I think you use a little less, I'll have to ask her.) Wonderful stuff! Even people who don't normally like pumpkin pie like Mom's.
Here's best wishes and wonderful family (blood or adopted in one way or another) gatherings to everyone. Happy Thanksgiving!
Edited because I forgot about the raw sugar in the pumpkin pie, crucial!
~~MouseSlayer is not a cat =^..^= ~~
[ edited by mouseslayer on Nov 22, 2000 03:52 AM ]
I thought that I would try out your Bisquick pumpkin pie recipe. As I was writing down the ingredients for my shopping list, I noticed that you said to use evaporated milk instead of sweet condensed milk. Are you sure about this? All of my recipes call for just the opposite. I can't wait to try making such an easy pie.
posted on November 21, 2000 04:11:25 PM new
Yeah, I know, the "evaported" is a bit odd, but you see you're adding 1/2 c sugar...can you imagine adding sugar to a recipe that contains condensed milk? (Makes my teeth hurt, and I'm one of those shameful folks who likes condensed milk right out of the can with a spoon - and even though I like it I find the idea absolutely disgusting and rather shameful).
Enough of my condensed-milk conflict Here's the link:
Val decided she didn't want pumpkin...so after I ate almost the whole pie I described earlier (sigh of shame) I made up the cherry recipe. That's gone too. Good thing she got 2 cans of pie filling.
posted on November 21, 2000 04:46:36 PM new
Hi VeryModern - I'm glad you mentioned spaghetti squash - I love squash baked in the oven with butter and brown sugar but have sorta forgotten about it.
Upinthehills - I wonder if that Boston Market sweet potato is similar to the sweet potato crunch I fix - mashed up sweet potatoes and some other ingredients - then topped with a brown sugar/butter crumbly topping - it's delicious!
Now I'm getting hungry!
edited to say that I'm *very* thankful for having food to be able to cook, clothes to wear and a roof over my head - this year has not been a very good one for me but I know it could be MUCH worse.
[ edited by bobbi355 on Nov 21, 2000 04:48 PM ]
