Happy Thanksgiving!

I was looking through my old posts as I planned the meal for 2011. Last year I was too busy to even write down what I made? Never again! Not that this year was much of a stretch. We have the routine pretty well down, and I didn't even do any cooking ahead (I had planned to, but a gas leak at our place on Sunday put the kibosh on any notion of making rolls or cranberry sauce in advance.)

Appetizers:

• Prosciutto and Gruyere Pinwheels
• Cheese and crackers 
• Sweet and Spicy Nuts (recipe below)

Bread Basket:

• Golden Pumpkin Walnut Loaf (which no one touched during dinner, perhaps because I forgot to slice it)
• Cloverleaf Honey Wheat Rolls

Dinner:

• Arugula (really spinach) Salad with Goat Cheese, Bacon (which I left out for dieting guests), and Balsamic-Fig Dressing
• Brussels Sprout Hash with Caramelized Shallots 
• New England Sausage Stuffing with Chestnuts
• Cranberry Sauce with Port and Dried Figs
• Mashed potatoes

The turkey was slathering under the skin with an entire stick of butter mixed with dried herbs, and cooked in a startlingly short period of time. The gravy was from this recipe and may actually have been my favorite part of the meal.

The following day, having learned from painful experience that if I wait it doesn't happen, I hacked the carcass into pieces, piled them into my stock pot, added carrot, celery, onion, and a few peppercorns, and set it to do its quiet magic while the rest of us went about our day. Only a week later, nearly all of the leftovers have been used.

It was a good day. Until the mouse ran across my stove....

Sweet and Spicy Nuts

1 C sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 large egg white
6 C unsalted nuts - walnuts, pecans, natural almonds, cashews

Preheat to 325. Grease 2 jelly roll pans,

In small bowl, stir first 5 ingredients together. In large bowl, with wire whisk, beat egg white until foamy. Stir nuts into egg white. Add sugar mixture; toss until nuts are thoroughly coated.

Divide nuts between jelly roll pans, spreading evenly. Bake 25-27 minutes or until golden brown and dry, stirring twice. (Check on them, you may need to rotate pans, one of mine gets done quicker than the other). Transfer nuts to wax paper to cool.

Store tightly covered at room temperature up to one month.

Easter Menu 2010

We had a busy, busy Easter Saturday. And Friday, for that matter. L was off school, but I had to work, and D spent the entire day running around as a result. Saturday morning was spent cleaning (the kids helped by behaving wonderfully and, in L's case, attempting off and of to help). Saturday noon D's parents arrived amid the usual shower of gifts.

We spent a good chunk of the afternoon outside, enjoying the amazing weather. Another chunk was spent playing ancient arcade games. D earned a ton of daddy points by driving out to Home Depot to find seed starter cups, which I have been unable to find anywhere nearby, so that L and I could plant radishes and peas. I have no ideas regarding their long-term fate, but I thought L might find it fun if we can get them to sprout.

Dinner was around 5:30. I didn't really do appetizers this year, and there wasn't really any time in which we would have eaten them!

• Loin of Pork with Fennel (Barefoot Contessa at Home)--I didn't want to do ham again, and I love fennel, so I had high hopes for this dish. Alas, I wasn't entirely thrilled with how this came out. I couldn't get a good reading on my thermometer and ended up overcooking it a trifle. The stuffing was good, but I think it could have used some more oomph; possibly I didn't use enough thyme. I would consider making it again, but with adjustments; perhaps a marinade?
  
• Artichoke, Leek, and Potato Gratin--This went over well. My husband loves artichokes; I can take or leave them, but I thought this was quite good, if not exactly exciting.
  
• Simple carrots
  
• My usual salad

As usual, too much food was consumed by me. It being Saturday, D had to leave for church a bit after dinner, and everyone was still too full for dessert, so I sent some home with them.

Dinner and a Movie

We stayed in on the Eve again. I made a pizza, we watched a movie, the kids went to bed at their usual time, and so did I. I think I am in the running for Most Boring Person ever, but since the cats got me up at 5:30 and we have to drive to Connecticut today, I'm pretty sure it was a good move to get some sleep.

We watched Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. I had never seen it before, somehow. As teenage wish-fulfillment goes, I don't think it gets any more harmless, and it had its cute moments.

Here's to the new year! Time to stare at a book draft for a while and pretend I'm working on it.....

Christmas Day Menu

For some reason, Christmas and I never quite connected this year. Not that anything went badly, I just never quite got caught up to where I thought I should be. Spending too much time and mental energy on other projects, I guess, and left too much for the last minute. Still, the food turned out pretty well, just less ambitious than I had hoped to be. Maybe next year I'll get myself more together.

• For brunch, an old standby: Ina Garten's Challah French Toast
• Blackberry-Mustard Glazed Ham - easy and very good, though the sauce thickened a bit more than I would have liked it to
• Roasted root vegetables, also to Ina's recipe
• Potato and Portobello Mushroom Gratin - this was all right, but might be improved by a touch of cream

To go with, my mother-in-law's orange rolls and a lime Jell-O mold. For dessert, the Nutmeg Cheesecake I made last year.There seems to be an error in my transcript of the recipe -- salt is mentioned in the crust but not how much. I put in 1/4 tsp and that seemed to be fine. I will have to see if I can find the original magazine and fix it, but that bookcase is behind the tree right now.

And that's that! New Years Eve we will probably keep simple, as people with young children tend to do.

Thanksgiving

Despite having taken the previous day off, I hadn't done any advance prep at all, which is quite unlike me--I didn't even settle the menu until less than a week beforehand. So I had to start cooking around 6:30. I love a heaped-up bread basket, and we were expecting our guests around 11, so I thought a few brunchy breads might be welcome. The first thing to go into the oven was Golden Pumpkin Walnut Loaf, a favorite standby. They were followed by Fresh Cranberry Muffins. While the dough rose for Cloverleaf Honey Wheat Rolls, I started on the savories.

The only new recipe I did this year was the Cranberry Sauce with Port and Dried Figs. I still haven't found "my" sauce, and I'm not sure this one is it, but it was very, very good and I'd certainly make it again. While that cooled, I roasted the chestnuts, made the rub for the turkey, and put together the Prosciutto and Gruyere Pinwheels (yes, again--I'll do something different for Christmas, though!) No one was in any danger of starving while we waited for four o'clock to arrive.

We had a big bird this year--sixteen pounds--and it had to go in around 11:30. Our habit has become to buy a kosher bird. This one, thank goodness, had been defeathered better than some we've had in the past. This year's recipe was Maple-Glazed Turkey with Dijon Gravy, and I can definitely recommend it--the turkey was practically perfect, sweet and tender.

Alongside it we had Brussels Sprout Hash with Caramelized Shallots, mashed potatoes (of course), a simple salad, and New England Sausage Stuffing with Chestnuts.

A clean-up crew of Dave and his mom tackled the dishes while I tucked away leftovers. Dessert is traditionally handled by my mother-in-law, who always brings both pumpkin and apple pies, no matter if it's just the four of us.

It was a wonderful day. Warm, drizzly weather--we had the windows open most of the time, the oven heated the place up too much. Nice to all be together. The kids behaved themselves marvelously, everything turned out well, and we all enjoyed the day. Happy Thanksgiving!

Challah

Well, I've learned something this week: don't start a bunch of posts and assume that you'll have time/brainspace to come back and fill in the important details later.

Um... here's a picture of some bread! From a week ago. Bad blogger, bad!

I first tried my hand at challah a few years back, and once I did, I wanted to know where it had been all my life? I think that if you make it, you will also fall in love. I was told that the recipe comes from Beth Hensperger's book Bread. It has come to me through a chain of at least two other people, and I hope you will pass it to others.

I don't bother with the egg glaze. This bread makes the best French toast you will ever have.

2 packages (2 Tbsp) active dry yeast

1/2 C sugar or honey

1 Tbsp salt

5 1/2 to 6 C unbleached all-purpose or bread flour

1 3/4 C hot water (120 deg)

4 eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 C (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

Rich Egg glaze

Poppy or sesame seeds (optional)

1 Place yeast, sugar, salt, and 2 C flour in a large bowl. Add water, eggs, and butter. Beat hard with a whisk until smooth, about 3 min. Scrape sides of bowl occasionally.

2. Add remaining flour 1/2 C at a time with a wooden spoon. Continue beating until dough is too stiff to stir. Turn the shaggy mass out onto a lightly floured board. Adding flour 1 Tbsp at a time as necessary, knead until dough is smooth and elastic and a layer of blisters shows under skin. The dough needs to be a bit firm for free-form loaves.

3. Place dough in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 to 1 1/2 hrs.

4. Gently deflate dough, turn out onto a lightly floured surface, and divide into equal portions. Roll each section into a strip and lay 3 strips side by side. Braid, pinch ends, and tuck them under. Place on a greased or parchment-lined sheet (Braids can also be placed in loaf pans). Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until almost doubled, 30-40 min. Because of the eggs, this loaf doesn not need to completely double. It will rise a lot in the oven.

5. Brush the dough with glaze and sprinkle with seeds. Bake in a preheated 350 deg oven for 40-45 min, or until a deep golden brown. Carefully lift braids off of sheet with a spatula to cool completely before slicing.

Yield: 2 large braided breads

Rich Egg Glaze

1 yolk or 1 whole egg

1 Tbsp water, milk, or cream

Whisk together until combined

Also, I did my first two "crits" for critters.org this week. Off to a good start, I hope.

Anniversary Dinner at Baba

This past week marked our ninth wedding anniversary (nine years on 9/9/09, oddly enough). His parents came down from Maine for the afternoon to watch the kids, and we got some time to ourselves.

The first thing we did was park ourselves on our own couch and watch The Third Man, which we Neflixed, um, about three months ago I think and still hadn't managed to watch. We have seen it before, several times, at the Brattle Theater in Cambridge (I miss that place), and it remains an excellent film. Then we went out for coffee and tea at the local Starbucks and talked about the movie, about writing, and how nice it was to get out for a bit.

After that, we headed down to the library to kill a bit of time before dinner (yes, we are nerdy that way), stopping in at an old-fashioned used book shop, the kind that breathes a slight must, and has shelves that go higher than is practical full of titles it seems quite impossible that anyone should ever want. I browsed the SF section and the cookbooks and didn't really find anything interesting, though if I ever broaden my collection of the latter to include obscure historical titles, I have a good source. Then on to the library, and then to dinner at Baba.

Why Baba? Because D* likes sushi, and it has a big sign outside proclaiming the best in Worcester as of 2008. I don't know if it's the best or not, because it's the only Japanese restaurant we've been to in this town, but it certainly appeared to be acceptable. I am not a big sushi fan, or indeed a fan at all, but they had a few other things on the menu.

The place is tiny, at least the downstairs; they might have had another room up, that wasn't entirely clear, and they sat us at the sushi "bar" even though the room was nearly empty at the time. We had a nice view of the kitchen, also tiny. I was amused to note on the menu Oyster Bay sauvignon blanc--the same stuff we still have a bit of in the fridge--at $10 a glass. (And yes, I do know a bit about how the business works in that regard, but wow.) I got a shiraz instead, which much to my surprise actually worked with my chicken's gingery dipping sauce. The service was fine, no complaints, the prices in line with what we'd expected for a bit of a special night out, and the food was quite good.

They don't have much of a dessert menu, which is only to be expected with Japanese food. When our server listed them off I was so startled by his mention of a fried dough dessert that I forgot the others, and we decided that we had to try it. We received two small rounds of fried dough, forming cups for a creamy mixture with blueberries in it, the whole topped with whipped cream. It was about as un-Japanese a thing as we could imagine, but we ate it happily.

I do regret not asking about the jellyfish salad, but there's always next time.

Happy Father's Day

Sorry for the loss of momentum here again--I've actually been working on writing, of all things, and might blog about that later. It seems that I can only keep two creative endeavors going at the same time without losing all headway elsewhere. Perhaps I need to schedule myself more.

But anyway, back to the food. Father's Day is one of those occasions when we lean on sexual stereotyping. The menu has to include meat, cooked in as primitive a fashion as possible. Since I didn't have a lot of time to think about it, this ended up being our menu:

• Ginger-Soy Grilled Steak. On the rare occasions I make steak, I love this recipe. It is ludicrously simple and very good.
• Ina Garten's French Potato Salad. My store had fingerlings, so I used those instead of the "new" potatoes, which are never new and that day looked particularly pathetic. I have abandoned her perverse-seeming instruction to cut up the potatoes after cooking them; it always seems to shred the skins, never mind what it does to my fingers!
• A green salad with dried cranberries and goat cheese
• Chocolate cake I've blogged before, with a simple and very sweet frosting from Martha.

It was a quiet day. Dave and his dad went off to the Higgins Armory for the afternoon, his mom played with the kids, and I watched some Torchwood.

Easter Saturday Menu

It was a celebration that almost didn't happen. Thursday night while D was at church, I called L to the table for her bedtime snack. "My tummy hurts," she informed me. "I need medicine." I was skeptical, gave her some gas drops, and ten minutes later, she barfed. It was a long night. By the end of the day Friday, however, she was doing better, so we decided to go ahead and have our Easter gathering--nothing big, just D's parents.

Since I didn't know until the day before that we were actually going to be having company, I cast about for inspiration and fortunately found some sitting on my desk, in the form of the not-yet-read issue of Bon Appetit. I've spent a lot of time lately trash-talking them, so I should put in a good word here; their recent issues seem to have resolved the layout and photography problems that just about had me ready to cancel my subscription, so I have hope that the overly-precious tone will follow. At the very least, they saved my behind for this holiday, since I was able to lift almost the entire menu.

Since we were planning to eat around 3 p.m., I made the menu's two appetizers as a sort of light lunch:

Mini Crab-Cakes -- Yummy, but I halved the recipe and didn't have quite as much crab as I really should have in the mix. I would make these again, with more attention to the proportions.
Asparagus and Mushroom Tarts -- Fabulous. Will definitely repeat these next time I have a good excuse, and guests who like mushrooms.

Instead of the lamb they suggested--I've never made it, and as it turned out my mother-in-law isn't really fond of it--I made a ham, but did serve the two sides they provided:

Garland of Spring Vegetables--Considering how simple this was, it was really, really good.
Saffon-Scented Couscous with Pine Nuts--Another easy standout.

For dessert, I once again went my own way. I had been thinking about this raspberry tiramisu-sort of thing, as a break after relatively heavy meal, but I had also been hankering after cheesecake lately, and I wanted to make something that would really stand out. So Double-Decker Raspberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake it was.

It was a wonderful meal, I think--one of the best I've done in a long time. We colored Easter eggs, the kids ran around a lot and got baskets of toys from their grandparents, and I managed not to stress myself out over anything at all for a change.



Sunday morning, L got out of bed and threw up again. But at least we had Saturday.

Valentines Day 2009 - Providence, RI

The day started early--we had to get the place cleaned up before Grandma arrived, and then I took L out to do the grocery shopping. I tend to forget that the one thing you cannot readily do with a four-year-old in tow is hurry. She wanted to see the lobsters, and look at the toys, and dawdle along poking at the dwindling snowbanks on the way home while I tried to cajole her into moving a bit faster, before my arms broke carrying all the groceries.

Grandma had arrived in our absence, bearing new clothes, books, and cookies as per her usual awesome self. We all had some lunch, and then D and I headed out to the highway. It felt incredibly weird to have no one in the back seat as we drove down to RI. Not one single request to listen to the Muppet CD, either. Once in Providence we found a parking garage without too much trouble and went out to take our bearings.

The first stop was Cellar Stories, where I bought a copy of Toujours Provence. From there we made our way to the riverfront park, where we were the only people in evidence.


It was a bright, slightly chilly day. The park is nice, with public art of varying comprehensibility, such as this blue figure in the water.


It also includes the Irish Famine monument, and on the other side the war memorials. I thought that the contrast between the World War I (background) and Korean War (foreground) monuments was quite striking.

We were suitably impressed by the high-water marker from the '38 hurricane, and then continued on our way. We had no real plan for the day, so we spent the next few hours just wandering. Saw the Brown campus and environs, slightly more lively than the downtown had been, visited their museum, poked along streets of old houses where if you squinted just right you might forget what century it was, stopped for a rest and a browse in the Athenaeum, and around 5 started thinking about dinner.

We had a couple of recommendations, but hadn't made any real plans, which given that it was Valentine's Day, might have been considered pretty foolish. We tried one of the two places we had heard of, found they were booked. Tried another one around the corner, which we had spotted in our wandering. Looked at the hostess' red velvet evening dress, looked at our jeans and sneakers, looked at each other and shrugged; the worst they could say was, "We don't serve ruffians," right? As it happened, they were booked solid, too. We headed back down the street, trying to decide whether we should head back toward where we had parked, and heard someone behind us calling.

It was the maitre d' from the second restaurant, following us down the street to let us know that there had been a cancellation just now, and he could seat us. Once we absorbed that he was actually talking to us, we nodded and followed him back to the restaurant, which was Mills Tavern. I can't say I think much of their Web site design, but dinner was wonderful, the service friendly and attentive without being overbearing (our waitress' name was Michelle, I think), and the bill not too excruciating for a special occasion. They did seat us off in a small side room, for which I certainly didn't blame them (and it was nice and warm) given our underdressed state, and we were far from neglected there.

We went the whole nine yards; D had oysters to start, I stuck with a seasonal salad, and then we went on to rack of lamb for him and braised short ribs for me. Mine had these tiny little roasted beets and onions along with it, and the beef was melting. I could have licked the plate. We split a chocolate mousse for dessert, which was good enough that the only words we spoke were the terse communications required to divvy up the liqueur-soaked raspberries. I think I had a Chilean malbec with mine; forget what he was drinking.

In a satiated haze, we walked back to the car and headed north toward Massachusetts. We arrived to find that everyone involved had a wonderful day, though the kids were a trifle wound up and disinclined to go to bed. Grandma stayed the night, and in the morning we all had pancakes before she headed home.

It was a fantastic day.

A Very Quiet New Year

Our plans to drive to the city for a party were derailed by the latest winter storm warning. As it happened, the storm didn't amount to much, but by the time this became apparent it was too late to go (the perils of living an hour away from pretty much everything).

Instead, I made cookies -- Triple Chocolate Cranberry Oatmeal, and some more cutout ones to replace the Christmas cookies long since devoured -- to take to a friends' open house New Years Day.


Try though I would, I could not seem to relax and get into a groove with the day. JJ was cranky, L was pesky, and I was snappish, and finally several cookies slid off the sheet as I was putting them into the oven and commenced burning into a smelly mess. Deep breath time. Open windows, turn off smoke alarms, turn on fans. The cookies got done regardless, and I spent some time playing with L before it was time to start dinner.

Given the uncertain planning, we kept it simple -- pizza and a movie, The Nightmare Before Christmas. We had seen it before, but not since just after L was born, and for some reason, I always manage to forget the musical aspect. It remains a very well-done, stylish, and funny film. I was a bit concerned about L, but she didn't seem to be scared by anything that was going on. It's hard to tell at age 4 what she thinks about most things; she has picked up the concept of "scared," but I have yet to see her really frightened about anything. She certainly isn't afraid of dogs or the dark or anything like that so far.

In the course of replying to a post in an online forum, today I opened up the recipe tracking file I started at the beginning of last year. I was astonished to see how much cooking I did back then, and how many new recipes I was trying (62 in three months!), even after I went back to work. Lately I seem to be all out of energy for that sort of thing, and I really hope to get it back.

Here are the presents!

No blogging for a while since we were in PA visiting my mother, and I of course was not cooking (though I did help chop once in a while). My mother does not, as a rule, cook either--it is entirely unfair, in my eyes, that she has not one but two gorgeous Wegmans stores nearby, bursting with fabulous vegetables and so many cheeses I get quite dizzy, while I have the world's crummiest Shaws (I went in there yesterday and they were out of whole chickens--I had to ask at the counter for them to scrounge me up one).

The trip out there went well, though we were delayed getting on the road as one of our cats had a sudden attack of something and wasn't breathing very well. So, rush her to the vet, wait for the vet to get there, and look at her, and tell us that she looks okay now, make arrangements with him to do some tests, arrange with the cat sitter to pick her up later on so that we can finally get going. While on the road the vet called to let us know that our cat has heartworm. Heartworm?! In a cat who hasn't been outside in her entire life? Apparently so.

But, back to the food. My mother (Nana, now that the grandkids have come along) did a good job for our visit--we had squash stuffed with a cheese, breadcrumb, and nutmeg filling one night, and simple roasted veggies over couscous another. My grandmother provided the traditional (for our family) Christmas Eve ham, potatoes, asparagus (cooked to a sorrowful fare-thee-well, unfortunately), corn, and salad. For dessert there were of course Christmas cookies, though I wasn't together enough this year to bring any.

We had gifts with my grandparents Christmas Eve, my mother Christmas morning, and my sister's family Christmas afternoon. Then on Friday we had JJ's first birthday, in which all of the above stopped by my mother's house. JJ seemed to like his cake (the very last Christmas cake they had at Wegmans, as it turned out -- their bakery seemed to have taken the day off, or something...). On Saturday we took the kids to Erie's Children's Museum and let them run around for a while, which was very much needed.

My cooking-related gifts this year were:

• from D, a new pepper grinder (ours had started shedding bits of plastic, not good)
• from D, a new timer/thermometer (ours gave up the ghost on Thanksgiving!)
• from my in-laws, a creme brulee torch! and a book of recipes to go with it (cue Beavis voice...).
  
• from my friend Dottie, a jar of herbes de Provence
  

And L got a cute little apron and chef's hat from her cousin, to wear when she's helping me. She is, by the way, coming along, little by little -- we had Chinese food that first night at Nana's house, and she sat right down and ate some broccoli and a little bit of rice, just like a normal person. She sat down to supper at my grandparents' table and had some salad. Last night, she asked for chicken--didn't eat any of it, but nor did she push her plate away and burst into tears, and she did eat a few bites of green beans. She's even started to let us know that she's hungry, which is something of a miracle.

The trip back was just as delayed as the one out there--the New York State Thruway was inexplicably closed at the PA end, so we turned around and took I-86 across NY instead. It was reasonably pretty, but it did take a bit longer than we would have liked. When we got home, we opened up a couple of cans of soup and called that supper.

Yesterday I spent most of the day doing laundry, and made a quick run to the grocery store. For my first night back in the kitchen, I roasted a chicken with garlic and herbes de Provence, put together a rice pilaf (the potatoes at Shaws being, of course, all green...), and steamed some green beans. Simple as it gets, and I quite enjoyed it.

A few days of vacation left, and enough on my "to do" list to energize without overwhelming me (for now). Bring on the new year!

Thanksgiving Dinner, 2008

My mind keeps drifting back to last year, which I kept dead simple because I was eight months pregnant at the time. Turkey, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, a couple of do-ahead nibbles, and my mother-in-law's pie made for a nearly stress-free meal for a change.


This year, of course, I tried to do a bit more, but not much more, since we have a newly-toddling little boy underfoot and I spent much of the month or so leading up to the holiday with my brain occupied by our potential house purchase. The actual menu came together shockingly late (for me), and I didn't get around to writing up my plan until the day before (an old catering trick, I think I got it from Ina Garten--make a detailed list of what has to get done, when, working backwards from when the meal is to be served, so that you don't forget to put the stuffing in the oven or something like that). This is what I came up with:

• Prosciutto and Gruyère Pastry Pinwheels--An old friend in the appetizer world, because you can do all the prep ahead of time, and then just slice and bake. They disappear very quickly because they taste fabulous.
• Arugula Salad with Goat Cheese, Bacon, and Balsamic-Fig Dressing--I am salad-impaired; Thanksgiving is the only time I make stuff like this, going for the bag-of-greens-and-bottled-dressing approach the rest of the year. The dressing for this is wonderfully sweet-tart and divine with the goat cheese. I had to use romaine because my grocery store has no arugula, despite the presidential election.
  
• Cranberry Relish with Apple Cider--This one had two changes. The first was accidental, because I bought pomegranate-flavored cider instead of normal (I thought they'd just changed the label somehow). I tasted it and thought it would do all right. Then I actually read the recipe, instead of just the ingredient list, and thought, Hm, that's a rather weird preparation. I think I'll cook it all together and see what happens. What happened was really good, so score one for being willing to go off the rails once in a while.
  
• Mashed potatoes. In one of Nigella Lawson's books she mentions that she's not daft enough to think that you actually need a recipe for mashed potatoes, but then goes on to include one anyway. I've always liked that bit.
• Brussels Sprout Hash with Caramelized Shallots--An unexpected hit last year, so I made them again. Might become... tradition!
  
• Apple and Sausage Stuffing--With added chestnuts. This turned out okay, but I think I should have toasted the bread, as it didn't hold up as well as I would have liked. Not bad otherwise, though.
  
• Salted Roast Turkey with Herbs and Shallot-Dijon Gravy--Another one where I cheated. I always buy a kosher turkey, so I didn't do the salting bit. I did mix a bunch of the herbs into the butter and slathered it under the skin. My probe thermometer chose an incredibly bad time to go on the fritz, but the white meat was done and delicious, and the gravy was fantastic. I'd make this one again any time, and if I had a standard turkey I'd certainly give the salting thing a try.
  

The cranberries, salad dressing, and appetizer were all put together the night before. The morning of, JJ helped by only getting up once in the night and then sleeping until 7:30. People started arriving around 10:30.

My sister-in-law brought some bread, and her mother the pumpkin and apple pies tradition demands. My husband's family are not big drinkers, and I'm still nursing the baby, so the wine list was minimal: a Beringer merlot my in-laws brought, and Domaine St. Michelle sparkling wine. I cooked, people lent a hand where needed and played with the kids when not. JJ and his grandfather both took a nap. Due to the long drive some people had ahead of them, we sat down to eat at around 3:30, ate a lot, sat around talking, did some cleaning up, called distant relatives say hello, ate some more, talked some more. The only time the TV was on all day was while L watched a library video after lunch--not a football to be seen! We have just enough leftovers to enjoy a reprise some time soon.

It was a very nice day. Good to see family, and spend a day not worrying about much of anything except whether the turkey is done enough.