...so much that I made a Thanksgiving dinner for us tonight. We had a lovely, elegant meal with friends on Thursday; everything was delicious, and we all had lots of fun. I brought home the leftover hickory pie, but the rest stayed there--as it should. That meant no turkey leftovers, no stuffing, no gravy, no sweet potatoes in my refrigerator.
So last night I put a pie crust in the fridge, and I rolled it out and filled and baked it this morning: pumpkin pie, ready before church.* I peeled and chopped sweet potatoes and nuked them long enough to mash, beat in eggs and butter and sugar and milk and vanilla (avert your eyes, all you lovers of savory sweet potatoes) and topped with pecans and brown sugar and butter and flour: sweet potato casserole, ready to bake.
Then after lunch I went on a bike ride with Nick and Mark and various other folks to celebrate the birthday of one of Nick's friends. It was a great day for it, and a couple hours of exercise was just right for this weekend.
Back home, I put a turkey breast in the oven, then chopped onions and apples and sauteed them up to add to cornmeal stuffing. There were still rolls in the freezer from Thanksgiving so those came out to thaw. I toasted almonds and cooked green beans and pulled the leftover cranberry sauce out of the fridge.
Turkey breasts, of course, cook quicker and more evenly than whole turkeys, so in about two hours it was done and I had gravy going while the stuffing and sweet potato casserole and rolls heated up. And now we've eaten our fill and there's--hallelujah!---enough left for a couple more dinners, and maybe a lunch or two as well.
*I maybe should have waited until I was a little wider awake: following the recipe on the can of pumpkin, which was (I'd checked earlier) exactly the same as the one in the Joy of Cooking, I was fooled by the tiny type and used 1/4 cup of brown sugar where in fact 3/4 was called for. Even with my glasses on this just didn't register with me. The pie was fine, though--not as sweet as usual, but still fine.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
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3 comments:
I have been experiencing my own "I didn't host Thanksgiving" melancholy. I think this is a great idea, Libby,and I might have to do the same!!h
So, maybe all your cooking wasn't actually as leisurely and peaceful as you make it sound, but I'm struck again at how different my cooking life is from yours right now! Eli is my new, not-so-able helper, always dragging his stool over to the counter and trying to pour whatever's within his reach into, oh, who needs a bowl, really?
I do most of the real cooking while the boys are sleeping now...
We had our pre-Thanksgiving leftovers Wednesday for dinner: chicken in gravy made with mushroom stock, and small amounts of celery, onions, and carrotinis. Cranberry sauce, of course, and Cornbread, since there was no stuffing! It worked....
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