11.24.06
Back to Work today…
So…. full….
I think I ate my weight in turkey last night. At least I must have tried. All I know is, I got something on the order of 12 hours of sleep last night after that meal. Thank God I had the day off yesterday. But I don’t today. One of the big trade-ins in working the restaurant business is that there is very little holiday time off - if any at all. Restaurants tend to be closed for the holidays themselves, but the day after, it is back to business as usual. While you all are enjoying a 4-day paid weekend, I have to be back at work in about an hour and a half from now.
 How I got ready for the big dinner. |
Of course many people out there have been asking me “What did you cook for Thanksgiving this year?” Surprisingly enough, the answer is “not much”. With the change in jobs this week, and the uncertainty about my schedule that it brought about, I handed over the responsibility of cooking thanksgiving to my mom. She too is a very good cook, and she did a great job. Without further ado, the menu:
Soup Course:
Oysters Rockefeller Soup - Creamy, delicious and an all-around attractive dish. For those of you not familiar with Oysters Rockefeller, it is basically an oyster topped with spinach, cheese and béchamel sauce that is then broiled. To make it a soup, you make a real creamy base that you add oysters and spinach to. It was simply marvelous.
Pasta Course (We’re Italian, so we gotta have a separate course for the pasta!):
Penne alla Vodka - Italian being my specialty, I made this dish, and added prosciutto, asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes to the sauce. It was excellent, and many of us (unwisely) had seconds before the main course.
Main Course:
Turkey and Cranberry sauce - Of course. I did the carving only because this is something they teach you over and over again in culinary school. I had half the bird carved and ready to serve in under 3 minutes. And just to think - 3 years ago, I didn’t have a clue how to do that…
 Sausage in the stuffing. Nothing like stuffing meat with more meat. |
Cornbread stuffing with Andouille Sausage - My wife’s addition to the meal. A great recipe she just recently picked up, it was spicy and sweet and loaded with flavor - a really great stuffing that I think will be made again for future Thanksgivings!
Sautéed Beets and Carrots - Nice splash of color on the plate
Roasted Asian Green Beans - The trouble with Thanksgiving dinner is that usually the meal is entirely beige. That is the reason I think people serve cranberry sauce. It isn’t particularly good, it is just something that is not brown. My mom worked hard to figure something out that would actually be green to go on the plate. This was a nice addition of color, flavor and chlorophyll.
 They may be pretty now, but these boys have a date with a heck of a lot of oil! |
Fried Asparagus - This is the tip of the hat to my grandmother who was always the matriarch of Thanksgiving. She was a master with pan-frying, and fried asparagus was one of her specialties, so I make it every year in memory of her. Yes, asparagus is green, but with the fried batter around it, it comes out kinda brown, so alas, this too is another “brown” dish usually. But damn it is good!
Cheese Course:
Stilton - OK, not much of a cheese course per se, in that we had only one cheese. But damn, a good stilton with the wine we were having was a nice touch at this point. Though it is about now I realized I was in trouble with how much I had eaten…
Dessert:
Pumpkin Pie - Usually I make a cheesecake for dessert for Thanksgiving - Pumpkin or Apple Pie cheesecake - but this year was my mom’s year to cook, so she made her mom’s pumpkin pie. It was, as always, fabulous.
Now it is time to work off the food I have in me. Fortunately, I have to go to work, which is always a workout in its own right - but I am not sure how busy it is going to be the day after Thanksgiving. Maybe I need to go for a run or something.
If anybody wants any recipes, let me know, I am happy to share!
And finally, a poll to see what you think is the best use for leftover turkey. Everyone has their favorite, so let me know what’s the best!
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| Turkey Sandwiches |  38% |
5 | |
| Turkey Casserole | 0% |
0 | |
| Turkey Soup | 15% |
2 | |
| Turkey Pot Pie | 31% |
4 | |
| Turkey and cranberry - like having the meal again | 0% |
0 | |
| Turkey ala King | 0% |
0 | |
| Something else (leave a comment!) | 15% |
2 | |
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| 13 votes total | |||
Stumble it!
annulla said,
November 27, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Sounds marvellous and the biggest “not much” meal I’ve ever seen.
Chris said,
November 28, 2006 at 9:20 pm
That sounds like an amazing menu. The things that caught my attention the most was the stuffing (would love a recipe), the penne vodka, and roasted asian green beans.
As far as turkey leftovers, here are my three favorites
wild rice soup (recipe linked in one of my last few entries)
hot Browns (sandwiches from a Kentucky motel (moray sauce, tomato, bacon, turkey on bread broiled for a few minutes)
turkey tetrazzini
Alejandra said,
December 2, 2006 at 5:19 pm
I made fantastic turkey chinese fried rice…. That was kind of a fun departure from the norm…