We had a very different Thanksgiving this year. Usually we are in California with DT's family and The Lovely Lisa. This year, due to the Duck football schedule that dominates our life, we opted to remain in Oregon. The Lovely Lisa jetted off to the east coast to spend the holiday with Lenny's family. Our sister joined us, but our niece, Carla, was off for a long skiing holiday in the mountains with our brother/her uncle.
Dinner for three! No matter. Three or thirty - I polished the silver and set a pretty table.
I suppose we did what you did today - watch football and eat too much food. (PS: I ran 3 miles!) I am a bit embarrassed to announce our local college sports TV station was replaying every Duck football game from this season, back-to-back. A virtual Duck Football Marathon. I'm not going to lie - we re-watched a few games.
Score was the same.
Ducks still won.
I ordered a (free-range, organic, heritage, raised-by-vegan-virgins) bone-in turkey breast from my gourmet hippy grocer.
Exactly five pounds. It was a thing of beauty. I put several cloves of garlic in my mini-chopper with fresh rosemary, thyme, parsley and sage, salt and pepper and ground it into a paste. It was then mixed with quite a bit of olive oil and spread over (and under) the skin of the turkey. I put an inch of water in bottom of my roasting pan, placed the breast in the oven and in less than two hours, we were ready to eat.
Does anything smell better than a turkey roasting?I don't think so.
The turkey was moist, juicy and fragrant - and the skin was crispy, salty and divine.
Don't forget the spinach gratin. (I made the teeniest amount. Didn't need it on the menu, but it just isn't Thanksgiving with out spinach gratin.)
And dressing... or is it stuffing? This was probably the best thing on the menu tonight. I didn't add anything unusual - no sausage, oysters, nuts, mushrooms - just onion, celery, sage and stock to organic artisan bread chunks. The dressing was super moist.My sister had seconds.
The steamed green beans would have been the healthiest item on the menu... if I hadn't doused them with a huge pat of butter.
And don't forget the cranberry sauce - served in a Candlewick dish my parents received as a wedding gift. I made it myownself (12 oz fresh Oregon cranberries, zest from one orange, juice from one orange and 1 cup of sugar).
Don't forget the rolls! I made rolls this afternoon. Just a normal buttermilk dough, but I added a bit of pure maple syrup (instead of sugar) to sweeten the bread and give the yeast a little help. They were very lovely and light and will be great tomorrow for a sandwich with left-over turkey.
My pumpkin pie tasted very good, but it didn't set-up very well and I was disappointed in the result. Too fluffy. No matter, we were not interested in desert after our meal.We did not have mashed potatoes. We did not have sweet potatoes. We did not miss these things. Our afternoon and evening was exceptionally lovely. We had a nice fire in the fireplace and drank wine from our neighbor, Ponzi Vineyards. After all our conversations about the photos we were going to take of ourselves to send to our Dad and our daughters... we only snapped photos of food. So sad.
I know you will not be surprised, but the food on our menu tonight was organic.
Just in case you have not heard... the Ducks (ranked #1 in the country and sitting on a 10-0 record) are playing the University of Arizona tomorrow night at Autzen Stadium. We are taking our RV down to the game. Tailgating will occur, but the weather is supposed to be especially cold and miserable. Kick-off is at 4p pacific. The game will be broadcast live on ESPN. GO DUCKS!
DT and I extend our best wishes to you and your family for a wonderful Thanksgiving. Thank you for reading this little website.
Until my next update, from Autzen, I remain, your Thanksgiving correspondent.