Thanksgiving Menu

I wish I had pictures to share of our Thanksgiving feast, but our camera is still busted (a new one is on its way, but hasn't arrived yet). Karen has a couple of pictures of the table, which I'll post when I get them from her. The following is our menu:

Turkey - salted the night before with kosher salt and some spices, then rinsed. I used the same method as last year's Scholars bird for roasting it -- rubbed butter with fresh sage and rosemary under the skin and stuffed the cavity with more sage and rosemary plus quartered lemons and onions (and a few halved lemons and onions in the roasting pan), in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes, then 350-375 until it's done (our 9 lb bird took 2 and a half hours), basting with the pan drippings (or broth, which I had to add this year; had a particularly lean bird) every 45 minutes or so. The salting made the skin roast up so nicely, and the butter under the skin and the lemons and onions inside made the meat perfectly moist.

Giblet gravy - I actually didn't make the traditional, chunky giblet gravy this year. I followed this guide from the Splendid Table, and it is delicious. I think in the future I will cut back on the tomato paste, though. Because the turkey didn't give me much in the way of pan drippings, the tomato flavor from the broth is a little too pronounced. The gravy is delicious, though, and I could see using it with all sorts of meats. I'm also pretty excited about using the solids from the broth in soup.

Asparagus - I steamed some white asparagus (white instead of normal because it was cheaper this time) on the stovetop with a little lemon juice. Very tasty, and a nice, light counterpoint to all the other wonderfully heavy, carby options.

Green beans - I fixed some green beans that we brought up from home with salt, pepper, and bacon grease.

Risotto con la zucca (Pumpkin risotto) - This was my favorite side. It's a traditional risotto (like this one, but with white wine instead of red) with roasted pumpkin added. I roasted a little pie pumpkin until it was very soft, then mashed it up with a fork. I added it when the risotto was almost done, and seasoned it with some poultry seasoning and a little nutmeg. It was absolutely perfect.

Sweet potatoes - Karen made sweet potatoes. Folks said they were good. I'm sure they were, but I wouldn't know.

Cornbread dressing - If I had a failure with Thanksgiving dinner, this was it. Since we had so few people over, I couldn't justify making my grandmother's dressing, which uses 3 different kinds of bread and makes a TON. So I tried to make Paul's mom's dressing, which she usually uses as stuffing. I made a pan of cornbread that was pretty good. The crust wasn't what it should have been, because I still don't have a cast iron skillet, but I make really good cornbread. Her dressing recipe is crazy-simple, just cornbread, onion, celery, and broth. I somehow managed to make it too dry/crumbly; I don't think I overcooked it, so I must not have had it wet enough before it went into the oven. I was pretty disappointed in it. It was still tasty enough, and a spoonfull of the gravy stirred in made it hold together, but I think I'll stick with my family's complicated version in the future. I know I can do it right.

Homemade rolls - Karen did these. They were delicious, and more than took up the slack in the bread department for the less than stellar dressing.

Cranberry sauce (x2) - I made a pretty great cranberry sauce, using fresh whole berries boiled down in grapefruit juice and Grand Marnier with orange zest, cinnamon, and sugar, then thickened with a flour slurry. It was fairly impressive, and very, very easy. We also had the canned stuff. It was delicious in its own way.

Butterscotch pumpkin pie - See here, but with homemade crust and pureed fresh pumpkin.

Fudge pie - Karen, again. It was perfect.

Peach cobbler - This wasn't as good as it could have been, becasue I didn't do a very good job of draining the peaches, but it was still pretty tasty.

With dinner, we served a really nice Beaujolais (a 2003 Joseph Drouhin Moulin-à-Vent); we had coffee with dessert, and Fromke brought some delicious hot cider that we had while Paul beat us all in Trivial Pursuit. All in all, it was a very nice evening, with good food and better company.