Thanksgiving

[firstfrost]

Thanksgiving was lovely. Highlights included the discussion of whether or not it would be morally positive to regrow people from their frozen heads on Mars as an offsite backup for humanity, everyone mistaking the brussel sprouts for stuffing, and twe's little dude preferring ham to turkey (Victory for the forces of Ham!). I was kind of splatted today, so did not go to any of the "bring your leftovers!" get-togethers today; I have neither eaten many leftovers, nor washed the last of the dishes. But I did get some Dragon plotting done, so that's something.

The menu included:

• Ham with cherry/stout sauce
• Decadent Stuffed Mushrooms of Decadence
• Corn pudding (more of a bread pudding than the Redbones version)
• Smokey Sesame Peas
• Balsamic Braised Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta
• Mashed potatoes + caramelized shallots
• Chestnut and Sausage Stuffing
• Pecan frangipane tart with cranberries
• +crockpot turkey and pumpkin pie, courtesy twe

The brussel sprouts (recipe from Smitten Kitchen) were a smash hit - I think they may go on the permanent Thanksgiving roster. (I was explaining that my goal for all the dishes is for people to think "ooh, I would have more of that, if I weren't full" rather than "Well, I should have some of that for completeness". So, of course, everything evolves in the direction of having bacon in it (or in this case pancetta).

The frangipane, also a new-to-me Smitten Kitchen recipe, was popular too; the last of the new recipes was the peas, which were interesting but not stellar; they will probably not reappear.

Comments

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on a lovely Thanksgiving! The Brussels sprouts do look yummy--they seem to have become my standard Thanksgiving vegetable, in various guises, so perhaps I will steal that one next year!

[merastra.livejournal.com]

Oooh, Smitten Kitchen is one of my fav sites. Your Thanskgiving all sounds so delicious! That frangipane tart in particular sounds great! The brussel sprouts sound really good too. Bacon makes (most) everything better. :-) Did you actually use veal stock in yours? Also, when you're planning how much to make, do you figure 1 serving per person or 2 or what?

I like your metric of "ooh, I would have more of that, if I weren't full" for determining if recipes achieve repeat status. :-)

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I just used chicken stock, since that was going in a bunch of other things already.

For Thanksgiving, it can be anywhere between half a serving to a serving and a half per person for side dishes; there's the tradition of eating lots, but also, if there are a bunch of dishes, people are often not eating a whole serving of each of them, so it balances out.

[twe.livejournal.com]

The Muffin may have been a bit turkeyed out by yesterday, since I tested the whole crock pot turkey thing the week before and then he was eating turkey breast at least once, if not twice a day since.

The brussels sprouts were great! From a distance, though, they do look a lot more like I expect stuffing to look like; I think the big pieces of bread and the lighter color of the actual stuffing did not match my mental imagination of what chestnut and sausage stuff looks like, so I wound up later wondering if I had missed eating it. We're definitely going to have to give them a try here. (Vegetables that Andrew actually likes? Score!)

I am sad that I dozed off before I managed to try the pecan tart too.

[merastra.livejournal.com]

Also, although I like turkey (especially fancy Thanksgiving-style turkey), I find that I gravitate towards ham because of all the salt&nitrates. NaCl yummy. :-)

>>Vegetables that Andrew actually likes? Score!
Heh. :-)

[chengesu.livejournal.com]

Sounds yummy. I had to Wikipedia frangipane. Since my only mapping for that word was a plant (in Wikipedia under frangipani), which I'm pretty sure is poisonous and not tasty in tarts.

[kelkyag]

Decadent Stuffed Mushrooms of Decadence
Would there be a recipe? Not that I really need more decadent food right now ...

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Hah, it looks like this one is originally from Epicurious but I found it on Smitten Kitchen too: http://smittenkitchen.com/2006/12/just-a-few-bites/

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

Are there recipes for the peas and corn pudding?

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

Peas is this (http://smittenkitchen.com/2010/06/crushed-peas-with-smoky-sesame-dressing/), though I didn't mash the peas or put it on pita. The corn pudding is from the Olives cookbook, so I have emailed it to you. :)

[readsalot.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[kirisutogomen.livejournal.com]

Crockpot pumpkin pie sounds intriguing, although I don't immediately see how that could work.

By "morally positive" do you mean "good"? Also, huh? You're aware that primates don't regrow from just severed heads, yes?

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

I forget now why it was being discussed in those terms; the distinction might have been "good is a thing you should do, morally positive is things that one might approve of other people doing, or things that would be nice to have hypothetical people having done even if one were dead and did not have any personal opinions any more."

(In the fictional future, you can regrow people from their frozen heads...)

[shumashi.livejournal.com]

I think the kickoff question was the need for a Mars colony as an offsite backup for people in case the Earth was destroyed, where there was a faction of "What's the point?" and a faction of "Humanity must continue!"

The argument meandered many places from there.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a great menu.