Saturday, November 28, 2009

After Thanksgiving Memories...



Well, how did your Turkey Day go??







Ours was spectacular, truly wonderful. We cooked most of everything Wednesday.. Mary Joan chopped and stirred and gave a rousing moral support effort. When iI thought I was too tired to do the final item on our list, (splaying the turkey) she cheered me on and said "if you do it now all will be done then we can go to dinner at Don Pepe's and someone can serve you and when you get home we can watch a movie". That was all I needed so we attacked the turkey. Splayed, then rubbed with lemon juice and olive oil and covered in lemon zest, lots of fresh thyme ( from my garden), salt and pepper then wrapped tight and off to bed in the fridge.
Thursday morning we watched Macy's Parade and relaxed, walked the dogs and delivered pumpkin bread to the neighbors. All that was left was to reheat the potatoes, sweet and mashed, steam the broccoli, make the cranberry sauce, with apples and orange zest. And of course cook the turkey and make the stuffing and gravy. Well, the stuffing we did early, since it wasn't going into the bird, therefore we could wrap in foil and keep warm, the gravy takes time but, since I had made the stock the day before all I had to do was saute the oyster mushrooms and then go at making the gravy with, wondra, 1/2 & 1/2, salt pepper and a dash of chervil.
NOW THE FUN PART! The 18lb turkey was huge and looked even more so since it was splayed. So I cut off the legs and put them in a grill basket, and placed on the grill. The breast, and it was the biggest, plumpest, turkey breast I have ever seen, I just placed on the grill bone side down. Daddy was manning the grill (yeah Dad!) the first side was perfect. 15 minutes and gorgeous.. So, Daddy flipped the legs and I came out to help and flipped the breast, lid on grill.
And we came back in the house.. a couple minutes later I looked outside and the webber kettle was smoking like crazy. "DAAAAAAADDDDDY we have a fire", I called out.. He rushes out takes the lid on and yep... FIRE. Then he takes the legs off and I run out with 2 forks and stab the breasts and lift off and it is a ball of fire! We are all standing around blowing, swearing and waving and praying that too much damages hasn't been done.. So right into the house we go.. I wipe off the charcoal residue and it wasn't too bad.. actually it was all the fresh thyme stems burning and not the actual bird, so we places legs and breast on a deep baking pan and into the oven at 325.
well 90 minutes later.. we pulled out the best looking and definitely the best tasting Turkey I have ever made. I was moist and had a wonderful grill/smoked flavor. truly great.
Other than the Turkey adventure the rest of the meal was smooth sailing and easy and turned out just like I wanted..
Hope yours did too..
I attempted to take some photos of the food just before everyone "dug" in.. At least you get the ideas of what it looked like before we took our plates to my beautiful table...
Remember: IF YOU WANT RECIPES, WRITE TO ME! you can do it on comments.. Love, Tracey

Thursday, November 26, 2009

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!

Well, Turkey Day is finally here.. My cousin Mary Joan is here from Pittsburgh, and Daddy, of course and our friends Tommy & Kendall will be arriving around 5pm. Now that you have the guest list.... lets get to the menu. Mary Joan requested a more "traditional" menu.. (I usually go for non-traditional).. so,

Turkey
(I cut the back bone out of this 18lb bird, then broke the breastbone, not an easy feat, and then splayed it on its belly so it was flattened. rub the entire bird inside and out with lemon juice, olive oil, lemon zest, salt & pepper and fresh thyme. Wrapped it tightly in plastic wrap and put in fridge to marinate. Will put on grill for 15 min per side then into the oven for 90 min to finish)
Oyster Mushroom Gravy
(made from the stock of the turkey, oyster mushrooms, onions, carrots, celery, salt & pepper)
Mashed Potaotes
(typical except, I use celery root, yellow finnish potatoes, cream cheese, 1/2, salt & pepper)
Mom's Candied Sweet Potatoes
(in a deep skillet, stick of butter and 1 1/2 cup dark brown sugar stirring all the time till bubbling. par boil the sweet potatoes then dry with towel and place gently in butter and sugar, cook till very soft and sticky. DO NOT COVER WHILE COOKING)
Broccoli with Butter
Daddy loves his broccoli steamed with butter and salt and that is all... so that is what we will have)
Crystal's Pumpkin Bread
( many years ago, I worked with a gal named Crystal.. she was great. and one year she made this amazing pumpkin bread and luckily gave me the recipe.. I think I have made it every year since we met and that was .... long ago!)
Stuffing
(it will be plain and simple... sauteed onion, celery and fennel)
1000 pecan pie
(ok so i don't know that it is 1000 pecans.. but you get the idea.. take any pecan pie recipe and add extra pecans, roast them on a cookie sheet first if you have the time and then WOW, yummy)

I will try to post some photos later.. so you can see what I created.. Hope you all have a wonderful day, full of love, family & friends! Tracey

Remember write to me for recipes!

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Elle's Birthday Dinner!



Hey... I am back!
I had a dinner party for Elle, well it was her birthday and she created a menu of her favorites that I cook.

MENU...
chopped salad (fresh fennel, celery, sweet onions, feta, tomatoes, mandarin oranges, pine nuts tossed in a honey mustard vinaigrette with wasabi and lemon added)

eggplant towers (pan fry eggplant slices dipped in egg and tossed in panko and flour and garlic salt... stack eggplant then mozzarella , tomato, fresh basil, eggplant, drizzle with a tomato vinaigrette)

poached salmon stacks (garlic mashed potatoes on plate in center then shredded yellow squash lightly pan sauteed in a butter cream sauce, then I cut the poached salmon into squares
and placed a square on top of the squash.. drizzle of the cream sauce and garnished with fresh dill.)

OK<>
Of course I did a cake! One on my wacky towers.. very fun, devils food with a tower of red velvet all iced with cream cheese frosting and accents of dark double fudge..

I believe all 9 of us had fun, ate well and went home a little fattier and happier!

WRITE TO ME FOR RECIPES..... Love, Tracey