Ours was quiet, but quite lovely. It was just my husband and I and our
daughter this year. I am really used to large holiday gatherings so I wasn't
sure how I would like this. Can you imagine I overcooked? Not cooking too
long...but cooking too much? lol
We had a very simple, traditional dinner. Turkey, brined then roasted. Sage
& onion dressing (you know, bread, herbs, onions & celery...that kind),
smashed taters and quite possibly the best gravy I ever made in my life! lol
In the morning, during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I put some turkey
wings and onions in the oven to roast until they were deep golden brown and
yummy looking, then added them to a stock pot with some celery and herbs and
covered them with some chicken stock I had. When the turkey was done, I
deglazed the pan and added that to some of the turkey wing stock to make the
gravy. A little flour slurry and we were golden.
Add in some cranberry-orange relish, some corn I froze over the summer, some
green beans with pine nuts and rosemary....and that was our dinner.

Oh...almost forgot dessert. Again, I made too much! I made a chocolate cream
pie, a cherry pineapple pie (thank you Dimitri---It was wonderful!), and
fruit salad

Happy days,
kimberly

Nexis wrote:

Oh...almost forgot dessert. Again, I made too much! I made a chocolate
cream
pie, a cherry pineapple pie (thank you Dimitri---It was wonderful!), and
fruit salad


Mine was excellent. And it was especially interesting because it was the
first time I'd ever seen a Balthazar of red wine, which the gang *did*
manage to finish ('cept for me, I don't drink red wine)!

Our pumpkin cheesecake with caramel sauce was divine :-)

[And I got the turkey carcass, so I'm making stock with it]

--
Best
Greg

"Nexis" wrote in message news:qw9yb.68$yf.57@fed1read01...
Ours was quiet, but quite lovely. It was just my husband and I and our
daughter this year. I am really used to large holiday gatherings so I
wasn't
sure how I would like this. Can you imagine I overcooked? Not cooking too
long...but cooking too much? lol
We had a very simple, traditional dinner. Turkey, brined then roasted.
Sage
& onion dressing (you know, bread, herbs, onions & celery...that kind),
smashed taters and quite possibly the best gravy I ever made in my life!
lol
In the morning, during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I put some
turkey
wings and onions in the oven to roast until they were deep golden brown
and
yummy looking, then added them to a stock pot with some celery and herbs
and
covered them with some chicken stock I had. When the turkey was done, I
deglazed the pan and added that to some of the turkey wing stock to make
the
gravy. A little flour slurry and we were golden.
Add in some cranberry-orange relish, some corn I froze over the summer,
some
green beans with pine nuts and rosemary....and that was our dinner.


Your dinner sounds similar to what I prepared. I use the same procedure for
making turkey gravy. I had a fine Thanksgiving here but one of my daughters
returned last night with a fascinating story about her Thanksgiving day.

She had gone to spend Thanksgiving with friends in another part of the
state. They all were invited to join one of the friends’ relatives for
Thanksgiving dinner. It was at a home located in some of the most expensive
real estate on the West Coast. What happened there was that two members of
the household staff were out and those were the ones on whom the two hosts
were depending to prepare and serve the dinner. No problem, at first they
thought, just order out. But it was a big problem because no restaurant that
met their standards was anxious to prepare and cater a full Thanksgiving
dinner on a moments notice. Actually, all the grocery shopping for the
intended dinner had already been done for this couple. All the makings were
on hand and ready to be cooked. Problem was that neither one of them had a
clue how to do it and didn’t want the guests cooking their dinner. So as the
day wore on they stayed on the phone for hours until they finally found a
place willing to accommodate them. Dinner finally arrived later on which my
daughter described it as looking wonderful but more like an artistic
endeavor than a Thanksgiving feast. I’m waiting to see the photos. She found
out later that these people were only able to obtain the dinner by bidding
up the offer to well over $200/person or about 3 grand which goes to show, I
guess, that just about anything can be done for the right price. A surprise
came at the end of the meal when the woman of the house, proving that there
was at least one appliance in the kitchen that she could operate, served up
coffee from the expresso machine.

Meanwhile I spent about $40 to prepare Thanksgiving dinner for six,
including a bottle of dry Semillon and a Merlot. My daughter, who arrived
back last night, dropped by today for a meal of leftovers from our
Thanksgiving dinner: Turkey, brined and then charcoal roasted on the Weber
kettle, oyster stuffing, glazed yams, cranberry orange relish, mashed
potatoes and gravy, broccoli and for dessert pumpkin bread pudding. On
Thanksgiving our dinner had begun with oyster stew but there was none left
over. My daughter said “ Dad, this is real food.”

In article qw9yb.68$yf.57@fed1read01, "Nexis" wrote:

Ours was quiet, but quite lovely.

Ours was good, too. I served in a consulting role and managed to keep
my hands in my pockets and my mouth shut (mostly). Beck did the 14#
turkey, made the dressing (including a small packet of it for her dad
that included some raisins), the cranberries, corn, and a caramel pecan
pie. The Pills pie crust was rather dark, but no one objected. The
turkey was moist and delicious. I'd brought rolls from the bake sale,
the fixings for the German's Sweet Chocolate Pie, a couple bottles of
the Noveau Beaujolais, and olives for the relish plate. I spoke to make
the gravy, wanting to try the arrowroot. I'll do that again. Jamie's
mom brought three pies, a ham, and the fixings for her sour cabbage slaw
thing. Finely shredded cabbage with a hot bacon, vinegar, and sugar
dressing poured over. Ooooh, that stuff is good!

We ate at high noon so Sam could eat with us. She wore a beautiful red
velvet jumper dress with a white longsleeve shirt with red bows on the
sleeve and satin cording on the collar. "I cute." She's talking lots
and has her Grrr (what she calls Grandpa Rob) wrapped around her finger.
Her favorite book for him to read to her is about the little train, so
he bought her a Lionel Junior train. She was simultaneously excited,
wary, and curious about it -- push a button and it makes train sounds
for 33 seconds straight. And it moves. Her other grands gave her a big
red wagon (a plastic Radio Flyer with beverage holders, seat backs, and
seat belts. Jeez!). We gave her a couple more books, too. This
morning she climbed into the wagon, arranged herself with her book on
her lap and summoned Beck: "Mama. Pull." We celebrate her birthday on
Thanksgiving or the day after when the families are together. It works
well -- or has for two years. :-)

The leftovers were as good as the first serving. Hope you're feeling
better, Kimberly. Greet Alexis for me!
--
-Barb
www.jamlady.eboard.com
"If you're ever in a jam, here I am."

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...
snip
and a caramel pecan pie.

Yum! I love a good pecan pie and I've never heard of caramel pecan before!
I found a recipe that involves melting caramels. Is that pretty much the
secret? But if not, any chance for the recipe?


We ate at high noon so Sam could eat with us. She wore a beautiful red
velvet jumper dress with a white longsleeve shirt with red bows on the
sleeve and satin cording on the collar. "I cute."

She certainly is! Although I haven't seen any recent (November) pictures,
so maybe I should withhold my judgment for now :-).

rona

--
***For e-mail, replace .com with .ca Sorry for the inconvenience!***

Hark! I heard "Nexis" say:

Ours was quiet, but quite lovely. It was just my husband and I and our
daughter this year. I am really used to large holiday gatherings so I wasn't
sure how I would like this. Can you imagine I overcooked? Not cooking too
long...but cooking too much? lol

snip

It can be hard to scale down the quantities, but I'll bet you
had a nice, quiet day. :-) Ours was pretty traditional -- 10 of
us at my sister's place, roast turkey, all the sides (I was pressed
into gavy making service, which turned out quite nicely), pumpkin
pie and mocha cheesecake for dessert. I made the cheesecake; it
was a new recipe and I was less than impressed. Everyone had a
good time, and Sister informed me that she and her brood of six
will be attending Christmas at my house, which puts the body
count up to 12 people. I expect to be asking a lot of questions
of RFCers over the next 3 weeks.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving... :-)


--
j.j. ~ mom, gamer, novice cook ~
...fish heads, fish heads, eat them up, yum!

From: "Nexis"
Date: 11/29/2003 3:58 PM Mountain Standard Time
Message-id: qw9yb.68$yf.57@fed1read01

Ours was quiet, but quite lovely. It was just my husband and I and our
daughter this year. I am really used to large holiday gatherings so I wasn't
sure how I would like this. Can you imagine I overcooked? Not cooking too
long...but cooking too much? lol
We had a very simple, traditional dinner. Turkey, brined then roasted. Sage
& onion dressing (you know, bread, herbs, onions & celery...that kind),
smashed taters and quite possibly the best gravy I ever made in my life! lol
In the morning, during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I put some turkey
wings and onions in the oven to roast until they were deep golden brown and
yummy looking, then added them to a stock pot with some celery and herbs and
covered them with some chicken stock I had. When the turkey was done, I
deglazed the pan and added that to some of the turkey wing stock to make the
gravy. A little flour slurry and we were golden.
Add in some cranberry-orange relish, some corn I froze over the summer, some
green beans with pine nuts and rosemary....and that was our dinner.

Oh...almost forgot dessert. Again, I made too much! I made a chocolate cream
pie, a cherry pineapple pie (thank you Dimitri---It was wonderful!), and
fruit salad

Happy days,
kimberly

Ours was quiet, too, as we have no family out here. Since we had a turkey last
month, I decided to go non-traditional. We had beef fondue with about nine
dipping sauces, French bread and assorted raw vegetables. I used to have two
fondue pots but who stole my orange one? I used to put broth in one pot and
oil in another, but it was just broth this time. I was a little concerned
about ended up with boiled beef, but the beef ended up having good flavor.

I made Stroganov with the leftover beef the next day. I made the noodles from
JOC. I will probably make an onion soup with the broth today.
rharps.com

"Melba's Jammin'" wrote in message
...
In article qw9yb.68$yf.57@fed1read01, "Nexis" wrote:

Ours was quiet, but quite lovely.

Ours was good, too. I served in a consulting role and managed to keep
my hands in my pockets and my mouth shut (mostly). Beck did the 14#
turkey, made the dressing (including a small packet of it for her dad
that included some raisins), the cranberries, corn, and a caramel pecan
pie. The Pills pie crust was rather dark, but no one objected. The
turkey was moist and delicious. I'd brought rolls from the bake sale,
the fixings for the German's Sweet Chocolate Pie, a couple bottles of
the Noveau Beaujolais, and olives for the relish plate. I spoke to make
the gravy, wanting to try the arrowroot. I'll do that again. Jamie's
mom brought three pies, a ham, and the fixings for her sour cabbage slaw
thing. Finely shredded cabbage with a hot bacon, vinegar, and sugar
dressing poured over. Ooooh, that stuff is good!

We ate at high noon so Sam could eat with us. She wore a beautiful red
velvet jumper dress with a white longsleeve shirt with red bows on the
sleeve and satin cording on the collar. "I cute." She's talking lots
and has her Grrr (what she calls Grandpa Rob) wrapped around her finger.
Her favorite book for him to read to her is about the little train, so
he bought her a Lionel Junior train. She was simultaneously excited,
wary, and curious about it -- push a button and it makes train sounds
for 33 seconds straight. And it moves. Her other grands gave her a big
red wagon (a plastic Radio Flyer with beverage holders, seat backs, and
seat belts. Jeez!). We gave her a couple more books, too. This
morning she climbed into the wagon, arranged herself with her book on
her lap and summoned Beck: "Mama. Pull." We celebrate her birthday on
Thanksgiving or the day after when the families are together. It works
well -- or has for two years. :-)

The leftovers were as good as the first serving. Hope you're feeling
better, Kimberly. Greet Alexis for me!
--
-Barb
www.jamlady.eboard.com
"If you're ever in a jam, here I am."


Sounds like alot of fun! I can't believe how big Sam is already...it's
amazing how fast it goes once you're the grown up isn't it? Oy.

Alexis said to tell you she gets her new school pics for this year next
week. She was actually supposed to get them a coupla weeks ago, but they
messed up the class pic (spelled the name of the school wrong, then forgot
to put the teacher in it!) so there was a bit of a delay.

I'm feeling better for the most part, but today I'm getting a cold thanks to
my oh so considerate brother in law brining his charming but quite sick
daughter over not once, but twice this past weekend. Yay! lol

Mom says to tell you hi, and ask if you can get the recipe for those
Vietnamese pancakes! lol She's been looking for them since we got back I
think. She really likes them. She's doing better, and Dad's good, but he's
had a rough year of it. They had to increase his insulin, which he wasn't
happy about, and he had a couple panic attacks that he thought were heart
problems, plus a kidney infection. 3rd time since he was diagnosed, so
they're getting worried about his kidneys now.

Hope everyone is healthy and warm.

Happy Holidays,
kimberly

My Thanksgiving was totally amazing. I awoke early on Thanksgiving
and could hear my family moving around and making preparations for the
big day. We celebrated our Thanksgiving at my aunt and uncle's ranch
in Oklahoma. All the men came in from hunting (it was a lucky day for
the deer). After a big holiday breakfast, the guys moved to their
positions on the couch, and my aunt, grandmother, mom, and I headed to
the kitchen to cook. We didn't eat our Thanksgiving dinner until
about 6pm, but it was worth the wait. We had an entire kitchen full
of food. We cooked three turkeys (2 butterball in the oven and one
wild that got deep fried). There was two kinds of stuffing (sasuage
and cornbread) two kinds of potato casseroles, sweet potatoes, green
beans, cranberry salad, apple salad, cranberrys, orange jello salad,
and rolls. After eating the biggest plate of food you have ever seen
I headed back to the kitchen for a big slice of pumpkin pie. Our
dinner was awesome!

"Nexis" wrote in message news:qw9yb.68$yf.57@fed1read01...

snip

Oh...almost forgot dessert. Again, I made too much! I made a chocolate
cream
pie, a cherry pineapple pie (thank you Dimitri---It was wonderful!), and
fruit salad

Happy days,
kimberly

Well you are very welcome - I was happy I found your recipe.

Ours was quite nice about 14 adults + 3 kids 17 in all.

Sbout noon we started with

2 types of Salami from # 2
Humus and pita from # 2
Kalamata Olives and Feta from # 2
Musubi (with shrimp and spam) from # 3
Spinach dip from # 4
Tortilla Chips
Apple Smoked Cheddar *(DOD)
Apple Smoked Swiss (DOD)
Assorted Crackers.

(served with savinion blanc)


Dinner about 4:00 PM

I brined a 20 pounder in TJ's spiced cider and Madera along with other
stuff.

The dressing was made from torn dried toasted sourdough bread with dried
cranberries refreshed in sherry, apple and pecans, which I picked up the
last minute at TJ'S - it just seemed right.

Garlic Taters from # 1 (not roasted Garlic)
Green salad from # 2
Maple Glazed Yams DOD
Trees and cheese (Broccoli and cheddar cheese sauce) DOD
Green Beans (you know the kind) from # 4
Gravy (of course)

Some very nice Merlot from Guest # 6
A Zinfandell

Dessert

Home made Apple Pie and Pumpkin Crumb Pies from # 2
Cholate silk pie from Guest # 5
Gran Marnier spiked whipped heavy cream

Pete's Coffee and assorted liquors.

Around 8:00 PM refirgerator raid

Dimitri

*(DOD) Dear Old Dad :-)

We prevailed on my cousin in Woods Hole, MA to accept the mob again
this year. Her house has a big eat-in kitchen so people at the stove
are not out of the social loop. There is a view out on a small pond
with a pair of Buffleheads in their new winter (mating) plumage--very
sharp.

Barbara and I went up on Wednesday AM, after a last stop at the
Greenmarket, to pick up cheeses from a sheep farm in NJ and a cow farm
in CT. We already had cheeses from two other local farms, for a total
of two cow, one sheep, and one goat. We had about 20 other cheeses
from other parts of the country, but all artisanal raw-milk cheeses
made in the US.

From Quattro's game farm we picked up an 11+ pound capon (again I was
successful in forestalling the dreaded turkey).

From one of the produce farmers an acorn squash and a yellow squash
that looked like an acorn in shape.

At an earlier Greenmarket, I had laid in a supply of chestnuts from an
old tree in PA that survived the chestnut blight.

From Citarellas I got 3 dozen Wellfleet oysters. Coals to Newcastle
you may say, but they are not easy to come by on Cape Cod.

Domestic wines including several bottles of Vidal Blanc from Sakonnet
vineyard in Rhode Island. We also brought EV olive oil and balsamic
vinegar from California.

And, to make soup, a big pile of dried porcini foraged north of the
Catskills last spring and local creme fraiche and garlic.

After checking in at the B&B, we went to the house and hydrated the
porcini and roasted the chestnuts to shuck them.

On Thursday AM we went to the house after breakfast at our B&B. I had
hydrated the mushrooms the afternoon before, but I wanted to boil down
the broth while it was still unsalted.

My cousin was preparing the bird to go in the oven, and making
stuffing using the chestnuts.

At about 11 AM a woman I didn't know came in and introduced herself as
Rich's partner (Rich is my cousin's husband, a podiatrist). Her
husband runs a scallop dragger and had just returned with both sea
scallps and Nantucket bay scallops.

I insisted she take some of the Wellfleets. I ate a few of the
scallops right out of the bag, but saved most to serve seared later.

The cheeses were laid out on plates segregated by animal, with the
exception of a camembert type from NY state that combines sheep and
cows milk from adjacent farms. They stayed available through the day
and evening. I sort of think they should be a layer of dessert, but
not everyone agrees.

Others contributed fresh cranberry relish, veggy dishes, and pies.
After the first walk, with different lengths for different people, of
ages from 14 to 92, I started shucking oysters, and went on til people
had enough.

Then we did seared scallops with quick deglazes from the pans. Then
another short walk, followed by the capon with roasted potatoes,
roasted garlic, and two baked squashes with garlic cloves filling the
cavity.

Brussels sprouts. If I had known I might have brought a piece of
fantastic baby wild boar bacon I had at home. They were good anyway.

Then music for a while, with two or three fiddles, concertina, piano,
recorder. Nobody had room in the car to bring a cello.

A carousel of slides. Then another walk.

Evening with cheeses and wine.

The cheese assortment was a real step beyond previous years, even
though I wasn't fast enough to get the gold-medal winner (Red Hawk?).
The four farmers that came to the Greenmarket all had a soft-ripened
cheeses just ready for TG. We had a good mix of old favorites and new
ones.

I had a great time. This is by far my favorite holiday. In truth, I
dread most of the others.





Rodney Myrvaagnes NYC J36 Gjo/a


"Be careful. The toe you stepped on yesterday may be connected to the ass you have to kiss today." --Former mayor Ciancia

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 15:50:15 -0500, Rodney Myrvaagnes
wrote:

We prevailed on my cousin in Woods Hole, MA to accept the mob again
this year. Her house has a big eat-in kitchen so people at the stove
are not out of the social loop. There is a view out on a small pond
with a pair of Buffleheads in their new winter (mating) plumage--very
sharp.

snip...

I had a great time. This is by far my favorite holiday. In truth, I
dread most of the others.

What a wonderful adventure...it sounded like a article from some
fabulous cooking magazine!

(oh...my family & I are most willing to be adopted by yours next
Thanksgiving)

Boron

PS.where is the NJ sheep farm?

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 16:26:05 -0500, Boron Elgar
wrote:

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 15:50:15 -0500, Rodney Myrvaagnes
wrote:

We prevailed on my cousin in Woods Hole, MA to accept the mob again
this year. Her house has a big eat-in kitchen so people at the stove
are not out of the social loop. There is a view out on a small pond
with a pair of Buffleheads in their new winter (mating) plumage--very
sharp.

snip...

I had a great time. This is by far my favorite holiday. In truth, I
dread most of the others.

What a wonderful adventure...it sounded like a article from some
fabulous cooking magazine!

(oh...my family & I are most willing to be adopted by yours next
Thanksgiving)

Boron

PS.where is the NJ sheep farm?

I'm sorry. I forget the name of the town. I will try to remember to
post it when he comes again. I think he is Wednesday.

There was another sheep dairy in NJ that I got from Murray's, but the
label from that is gone as well.


Rodney Myrvaagnes J36 Gjo/a

For your upscale SUV: Dingle-balls hand knit of natural Icelandic yarn

On Tue, 02 Dec 2003 00:20:43 -0500, Rodney Myrvaagnes
wrote:

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 16:26:05 -0500, Boron Elgar
wrote:

On Mon, 01 Dec 2003 15:50:15 -0500, Rodney Myrvaagnes
wrote:

We prevailed on my cousin in Woods Hole, MA to accept the mob again
this year. Her house has a big eat-in kitchen so people at the stove
are not out of the social loop. There is a view out on a small pond
with a pair of Buffleheads in their new winter (mating) plumage--very
sharp.

snip...

I had a great time. This is by far my favorite holiday. In truth, I
dread most of the others.

What a wonderful adventure...it sounded like a article from some
fabulous cooking magazine!

(oh...my family & I are most willing to be adopted by yours next
Thanksgiving)

Boron

PS.where is the NJ sheep farm?

I'm sorry. I forget the name of the town. I will try to remember to
post it when he comes again. I think he is Wednesday.

There was another sheep dairy in NJ that I got from Murray's, but the
label from that is gone as well.

Thanks. I have visited/taken a tour of one artisanal cheese farm in
Sussex County and had so much fun, that I am delighted at the thought
of getting to a few more in NJ or lower NY. I realize it is getting a
tad chilly to do it, but what the heck.

Boron