It has been a pretty uneventful month or so. I have to say that we are generally pretty boring people. My husband works from home and I am a homemaker, so we spend the day together, sort of anyway. It is nice because we can eat lunch together and spend time with our dogs without them being alone for long stretches of time.
We have had a a beautiful fall season and winter seems to have come early this year. We had our first snow storm of the year on the day before Thanksgiving. We got less than they said we would, but it still made it difficult for travelers. Thank goodness the roads were clear on the holiday and our family could still join us for our feast.
I took over Thanksgiving dinner a couple of years ago when my mother in-law decided she didn't want to do it anymore. I certainly didn't mind. The only challenge is fitting enough people around my table in my incredibly small dining room.
This year I decided that I would make as many of the dishes as friendly to my restrictive diet as I possibly could. Preparations began a good month ahead of time with me looking through my favorite cook books, magazines, and websites for the recipes. From there I made my grocery list and shopped on the Monday before Thanksgiving.
I could only find frozen turkey which I was very concerned about getting thawed before I wanted to cook. Okay, there was one fresh turkey that was so big it would not fit into my oven and would take a new mortgage to purchase. Early on Wednesday, I took out my turkey and prepared it for the brine. I ALWAYS brine my turkey and I highly recommend it. I learned this trick from Cooks Illustrated. Into my biggest stock pot went about 2-3 cups of salt, the turkey and water enough to cover the turkey. It sat in the brine, in the refrigerator, until I was ready to cook it at 6 am on Thanksgiving. I aimed to get the turkey done early so it had plenty of time to rest and retain all of the juices. I did not have to add any liquid to the turkey pan, as it produced quite a bit on its own. I lay the turkey on a bed of carrots, celery and onion and placed a sage butter under the skin of the breast to keep things moist. I did not baste so the skin could get nice and crispy.
This also opened up the oven for the side dishes. First up was
corn pudding since it has to cook for an hour. I found this recipe this year and it sounded much more interesting than my traditional one. The texture of the frozen corn and the flavor of the onion made such a big difference.
Next was the
Bourbon Sweet Potato Puree with Pecans. The bourbon adds rich flavor that is not too sweet and the nuts add texture.
I also roasted some mushrooms with salt and pepper and made polenta to go with them. this was a nontraditional dish that my husband didn't think would go over with his parents, but they loved it.
Stuffing was a challenge to figure out how to do gluten free. Last year I made a stuffing with gluten free bread and frankly, it was terrible. But I ran across a recipe for Wild Rice Stuffing. That would provide the necessary traditional flavors and be acceptable. You basically make your favorite wild rice blend, I used chicken stock for the liquid. While that is cooking up you saute onions, celery, mushrooms, sage and other traditional stuffing seasonings in some butter. when the rice is finished, add the onion mixture. throw that in a casserole with a little more chicken stock and back for about 20 minutes.
Instead of the gooey green bean casserole, I made steamed green beans with some sauteed shallots and lemon zest. Add the green beans to the saute pan to marry the flavors. With all of the rish dishes, I wanted the beans to have a fresher cleaner taste.
We also had a nice green salad, some corn muffins with blueberries (a tradition in my husband's family), and then dessert!
I made a pumpkin pie with a
buttery pie crust recipe. I substituted King Arthur Gluten Free Flour for the flour in the recipe. The filling is from my very worn copy of Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook. I substituted coconut milk for the evaporated milk.
All in all, I would say that Thanksgiving this year was a success. Of course I made turkey stock from the carcass and it is now waiting to be soup. Leftovers have been a joy to eat and have gone pretty fast.
Now the planning for this year's Christmas Eve open house begins! It is going to be very different as we are having a pancake and pajama theme this year. All breakfast foods! Still in the planning stages, but I think it will be fun and different.
