Success!

Thursday morning started bright and early, as I threw together a loaf of bread in the bread maker, just in case someone needed a sandwich. After showering and taking care of the dog, I peeled the potatoes, losing two fingernails and a little skin in the process - but didn't have to worry about keeping my nails nice for a wedding in two days, so I really didn't care. The potatoes soaked for four or five hours to leech some of the potassium out of them, making them healthier for my dad. In an ideal world, I would have kept some of the peels in the potatoes, but my understanding is that a lot of potassium (which is healthy for many people but doesn't mix well with certain medications) is in the peel, so down the disposal they went. I am trying to be good about keeping food scraps, but I've never hosted a big meal like this before (once I had my parents and sister up for a meal and that was a really big deal) so I was trying to keep things simple.

I chopped carrots, celery, and onions to roast the turkey on. I had six carrots from the farmers' market two Saturdays ago, and Michael picked up some celery at the grocery store. The onions are locals that have been hanging out in my kitchen for a couple of weeks.
The 16.5 lb turkey came fresh on Tuesday from a farm in southern WI.


I stuffed it with more celery and carrots, to make it nice and juicy.
I watched a show on the Food Network where the chef soaked a cheesecloth in butter then laid it over the turkey during the roasting process. My mom had heard about this technique from a friend, so I decided to give it a try. Mmm . . . a butter soaked blanket.
I had intended to get the turkey in the oven at 10:00, so I was pretty happy that I got the bird in at about 10:20. I had left plenty of time to get the bird out and the other dishes cooked before we ate at 3:00, so a 20 minute late start was nothing to be worried about.
Then I frantically started to think about appetizers, after Michael's mom and step-dad, and my little sister, my twin and her family arrived. We had WI cheese (of course), Ritz crackers (one of the few processed foods), homemade pickles, and a little plate of cream cheese topped with apple butter, pumpkin butter, and cranberry preserves. My mother-in-law and my little sister were kind enough to follow my uncertain instructions and put it together for me. The pumpkin butter was a big hit. Sorry I don't have a better picture of it - I had delegated the picture-taking at this point! My sister made a dish like this with cranberry chutney once upon a Thanksgiving, and I was inspired as a way to use up some of my pumpkin butter. My mom had the idea of serving with with bagel chips - which they do not sell in Portage, apparently. So my mom picked some up . . . and was the last person to arrive. In the meantime, my mother-in-law jumped right in to chop celery for stuffing, to wash dishes, and to basically do anything else I asked her to do. She's great, what can I say?


Of course I realized sometime after midnight on Wednesday that the turkey baster I bought last Thanksgiving had broken, and I had nothing to baste the turkey with. We improvised. I basted once, but my mother-in-law, my twin, and Michael took over from then on. The recipe I watched on TV did not talk about basting, and I hadn't really considered it, never having made an entire turkey before. (My step-father-in-law suggested I put a couple of cups of water and some chicken stock in the pan, so I did, and was glad I'd taken his advice. I was also glad to have had multiple containers of chicken stock in the freezer.)


I made a large dish of stuffing which was okay, but I think I might skip it next year. I love stuffing but I always make too much.

Michael and I had a private conference about the green bean casserole and decided to skip the lard-fried onions on the top, because the house was very warm from the oven, the stove, and the gorgeous sun beating in the non-curtained windows lining the south side of our house. (The sun was streaming right into the kitchen, so someone had to move the appetizers out of the way before they melted.)
My twin (who had previously been assigned the job of mashing the potatoes) offered to help with the mushrooms and roux. She delegated the mashing to my mother-in-law, who was happy to help, and then I think she handed the pot over to my mom for a while - right when I added the milk and butter, making the whole mashing thing a lot easier. Sorry I don't have any pictures. I have no idea what I was doing at that point! (Possibly microwaving the 2 lbs of sweet corn from the farmers' market that I'd frozen in one huge bag just for this very meal.)


It was plenty warm so even though I took the rolls out of the fridge a little late they had no trouble rising in my kitchen.


We checked the turkey right around 2:00 and it was done.

So it rested under a tinfoil tent for about half an hour, until we woke my dad up to do the carving. In the meantime, the stuffing and green beans went in the oven, and my mother-in-law and I washed the dinner plates, which have spent a lot of time in storage over the last 35 years or so.
My mom made the gravy, which I got to put in the gravy boat that matches the china from my great-great-aunt that my mom gave me as a wedding present. The rolls got a little bit dark on the bottom. I kind of forgot about them, and they probably would not have made it into the oven at all if it hadn't been for my mom - but I never told her that my oven is a bit touchy, and I like to check things a few minutes before the shortest suggested cooking time. They weren't that bad - Adele ate at least three. I served the mashed potatoes in a beautiful bowl that Michael and I got as a wedding gift from my friend Tracy - with whom I have celebrated many Thanksgivings, most of which were in Tennessee with her grandmother. After I took this picture Vern asked about cranberries, so I took the three types of cranberry out of the fridge - my mom's cranberry relish with pineapple, that her mom used to make, my mom's cranberry sauce with cinnamon, based on a different one of her grandmother's recipes, and the cranberry preserves I canned earlier this summer/fall. They were all a big hit.
We were a little bit crowded around the table(s) but everyone had enough to eat!

And later on we came back for pie - two types of apple pie from my mother-in-law, cranberry-apple from my mom (with real WI cranberries) and my pumpkin pie with whipped cream (which my mother-in-law, my twin, my mom and I all tried to whip by hand - my preferred method - but eventually I had to get out my whisk attachment for my hand blender because it was too hot in my kitchen!). I sweetened one batch of whipped cream with maple syrup, but that batch developed small dark chunks of ??? in it - so I used sugar in the next batch, just to be safe.
Adele loved her pie. Especially her second "slice" which was just a big pile of whipped cream!

And then someone dressed Anna up in her Halloween costume so I could get a picture with my Raggedies.

Yum, that smells good!

Alternately Titled: Green Bean Casserole, Practice Round

I knew I needed to make a practice green bean casserole before Turkey day, and last night was the night. I ended up combining two recipes - I used the shallot part of the recipe from Alex's Day Off, and the bean part from Alton Brown. (Please check my previous post for links to the food network where you can click to see both recipes.)

The recipe called for 4 cups of vegetable oil in which to fry the shallots. I used onions, and I used lard. I didn't measure four cups. I didn't really want to use that much. My lard is rendered, but not too fancy, and it's not particularly expensive, but four cups seemed like a lot.

I think this was a good two or three cups, though.

I started slicing the onion, then turned the burner on to melt the lard.
While the lard was melting, my husband called from the other room, "Yum, that smells good, honey." I admit that when he said that I was defrosting a container of chicken broth in the microwave, and I was slicing onions. But there is no question that the smell he was referring to was the melting lard. And I told him so. And apparently he is not at all opposed to using lard for cooking (although he did express some reservations about switching to whole milk, because he really doesn't want my ideas about food to lead to major weight gain). I hope the other people that are coming to my house for Thanksgiving feel the same way about lard. (I will probably have low-fat milk options available in my house for them.)
I was supposed to have the fat at 350, and I did take the temperature when this pan was around 300 degrees, and then I threw an onion ring in. It cooked like I expected it to, so I stopped worrying about the temperature.

I asked my husband to stay in the kitchen with me, since I've never (1) cooked a big pan of lard before or (2) really fried anything in oil like this. He used the opportunity to take a picture of me hard at work. I even smiled.
Some of the onions got a little too well-done, even though I only let them sit in the oil for a few seconds before starting to scoop them out. I was using a slotted serving spoon, which was not ideal (it was too small) but it was the best utensil I had. I was afraid my other (plastic) utensils would melt.
The lard stayed relatively clean, although a lot of flour collected in the bottom of the pan, and started to burn. My house got very smoky and I had to open a window in spite of the fact that the temperature was in the 30s. I have no doubt that the same things would have happened if I'd been cooking in oil instead of lard. (Feel free to leave me a comment explaining why I'm wrong, though!)

When the onions were done, I started the green bean part. First, I sauteed mushrooms in butter (I chopped them before I started chopping onions. These are regular grocery store white button mushrooms. The only mushrooms I saw at the farmers' market last weekend were oyster mushrooms, and we're not huge fans of them.)
I added flour to make a roux. I made sure to cook it long enough to get the flour taste out.
Then I added one cup of homemade chicken broth, and let the liquid simmer for a minute or two.
At some point I threw in a clove of garlic. The recipe called for two, but this was a pretty big clove.
Then I added a cup of heavy cream. This recipe called for half-and-half, the other one (which I'd been intending to make) called for cream (I believe). I did not measure, and maybe I should have because my sauce never thickened in spite of cooking it for longer than the recipe said.
Finally I added the (store-bought, frozen) green beans, and approximately one quarter of the onions. The recipe said to cook all of this in a dutch oven, then throw it in the oven. I don't have a dutch oven. I do have a cast iron skillet that would have worked, since I did not need a lid, but did not think of that until just this minute. I transferred the beans to a casserole dish, topped them with the rest of the fried onions, and threw the dish in a 400 degree oven for about 15 minutes.
I could have cooked it longer.

The casserole was pretty good. It wasn't great, but it was good. When I make it next week, I might try to add more flour or less cream. I will probably cook it in my cast iron pan. I think I should make more onions, too.

We enjoyed the casserole, watched our Thursday night shows (Big Bang Theory and The Office) and I snuggled with the dog, who enjoyed showing off his new haircut.
I got a Snuggie from my sweetie for Christmas last year. I love it. I don't care if people make fun of Snuggies on Facebook and YouTube. I'm keeping mine, and I don't care who sees me in it.

Thanksgiving Shopping

My mom decided that it is going to be my responsibility to host Thanksgiving at my house. In some ways this is great. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It is all about the food, and when the meal is at my house, I have more control over what kind of food is served. Like the pastured turkey I will be picking up fresh next Tuesday from Jordandal Farm. And the potatoes that came from my garden and dad's friend's garden.

And the stuffing I'll make from home-made bread.

And the cranberry preserves.
And the pumpkin pie from a garden pumpkin.
And the homemade rolls (that I don't use the bread machine for!).
And the green bean casserole.
Yup. I'm going to make green bean casserole. I turned the TV on this past Sunday, just to see what was on. I checked the Food Network. They were in Thanksgiving mode, and the show coming up next (it might have been 8:30 or 9:00) was going to feature stovetop green bean casserole. The program was Alex's Day Off. I'd never heard of it, but I was intrigued by the recipe. I bought the ingredients (no cream of mushroom soup, sorry Michael Pollan) at the grocery store today, among other things. But when I went to the Food Network website to check out the recipe I think I found a better one from Alton Brown. I generally like Alton Brown, so I am planning to try his recipe instead. I was going to make the stovetop one tonight, because I had time, but my husband is at his graduate class, and I'd rather wait till he is home to sample it while it is fresh.

It had never occurred to me to look for recipes for green bean casserole that did not include cream of mushroom soup. But I'm glad I stumbled across some. (There are 26 different recipes for green bean casserole on the food network website.)

Since I am going to be hosting my sister and her two little girls, and my in-laws, I needed to stock up on things I don't typically buy anymore. Like soda (I felt totally bewildered in that aisle today - the last time I was there was when I needed seltzer water for ginger ale, which was difficult enough to find, but I really felt overwhelmed by the choices today. I wanted diet coke for my step-father-in-law, and I was looking for vanilla coke for my brother-in-law, but could not find it anywhere. The colors were making my head swirl. Funny how the colors of produce at the farmers market don't make my head swirl. I guess that's be cause I know if something is orange it is probably a carrot, whereas if a box of soda is red I have no idea if that means Coke, Dr. Pepper, Diet Rite, Strawberry Crush, or Code Red Mountain Dew. I ended up with root beer, because I'm fairly certain there wasn't any vanilla coke in the store today). It is amazing how easily I have become accustomed to avoiding the processed foods in the store.

Another processed purchase I made today was cereal. I've posted before that it can be a little bit challenging for me to feed my niece breakfast because she is allergic to eggs (when egg is the primary component of a dish) and oatmeal. I often eat oatmeal for breakfast, and my weekend specialties include omelets, scrambled eggs, and french toast. Some days I just have bread or toast with a topping, and during the warmer months I eat a dish of yogurt, but those are pretty boring meals for company! (Homemade applesauce, on the other hand, is very exciting, mostly because my niece sent me a video asking for more applesauce please. The first batch I gave them was a big hit.)

I have a lot of applesauce, Adele, but you're going to have to convince Uncle Michael to share it with you!
So I talked to my sister for a little while this afternoon in the store parking lot, and while we discussed the different breakfast options (pull-apart cinnamon rolls, going out - but we can't because they make peanut butter cookies in their bakery and most of their breakfast foods include lots of egg), she said "we could just have cereal." Yup, they can, because I picked up a box this afternoon. I had been planning to buy them some cereal (it is good to have familiar choices on hand for little kids who are away from home) but have not actually purchased any for myself in a while - since I looked at the Cheerios label and realized how many ingredients they have! The choice here was fairly easy - I think everyone in their family (except the baby) eats Frosted Mini-Wheats. Well, they buy a generic version. I wanted to buy a generic version too, but couldn't find one. This was another bewildering moment. Since I don't spend a lot of time in the aisles at the grocery store any more, I was not used to reading all of the packaging. All I could see was row upon row of Kellogg's products. (Did I spell that right?) I would have gotten the name brand ones, but there were so many different kinds of frosted shredded wheat I would have come home with something I didn't want. Some were strawberry. Some were cinnamon. Some were honey nut. I think some had aliens in them. Finally I saw the generic brand, which seemed to just be wheat and white frosting (read: high fructose corn syrup on top of high-fructose corn syrup flavored white flour with added artificial and natural colors to make it look like whole wheat) and put a box in my cart quickly, then moved on to the next aisle.

You know what? I just looked at the label, to see how off my guess was, and I was mildly- pleasantly surprised to see that the first ingredient is whole grain wheat, followed by sugar. There are a lot of ingredients (11) but no HFCS. (Unless the manufacturer left out a word in front of sugar, i.e., "corn." I say this because the box is not labeled as "No HFCS" which seems very strange to me in a world where everyone now knows that "corn syrup" is the bad guy.) Yes, sugar is still the second ingredient, and that is not what kids (or dads or moms or anyone) should be eating for breakfast! But anyway . . .

I am not writing this post to criticize my sister and her family or anyone who eats a traditional American diet. My intention is not to judge them or their choices. After all, the food industry has been teaming up with the government to sell this stuff to us for decades. It is no wonder that Americans make the choices they do. At the same time, I am judging the food itself. Maybe processed food seems like the only choice for some people under a given set of circumstances. (The family in Food, Inc. who walked through a grocery store and could not afford real foods comes to mind.) It is not the right choice for me right now. The more I read about processed modern foods versus real foods from nearby prepared the way our ancestors would recognize, the more I am inspired to avoid the grocery store altogether. But I'm not there yet.

Still searching for a solution to the breakfast dilemma, I bought two packages of breakfast sausages made by a WI company which are full of artificial ingredients, but they'll be a good addition to the cinnamon pull-aparts. I haven't bought frozen meat at the grocery store for a while now, but, again, it is for company and a holiday. (I may pick up a pound of local, nitrite free bacon for $5.50 when I get my turkey next week. Isn't that exciting?)

I picked up a can of evaporated milk just in case I don't find a pumpkin pie recipe that doesn't call for any. And I bought a bag of frozen green beans. I want to save my "real" green beans for Thanksgiving (the ones I froze from my garden and the CSA this summer) so I bought a frozen bag for my experiment in "real" (but not "traditional") green bean casserole. I looked at fresh beans, but, I have to be honest, it seemed ridiculous to buy fresh green beans at the grocery store. Who knows where they came from or how fresh they really are. They were quite picked over, and they were sitting next to pea pods, which is not a problem in and of itself, but the whole scene made me miss my garden. Somehow it was easier to buy green bean pieces in a plastic bag in order to keep in mind that, unless it is labeled "local," the fresh produce in the grocery store is just as much a commercial, well-traveled product as the frozen stuff in white bags. I don't know if that makes any sense or not.

While I have been writing this blog, I noticed a picture of the "welcome to Madison" bags I made for out-of-town guests at my wedding last year. We filled the bags with peanut-free items, because of Little Miss Adele, and I added apples and oranges to the bags because I wanted to include some real food, but we put all kinds of processed foods in those bags - Pringles, Capri Sun, Austin cracker sandwiches - and it is just a reminder of how much my food priorities have changed in the last year.

I have now been writing blog posts for close to four hours this evening, and need to move on with my life! The bad part about having Thanksgiving at my house is that I have been slightly stressed out about the whole thing for weeks now. For one thing, I don't have enough furniture for 11 people to relax on! Also, I can't fit anything other than the turkey in my oven, which makes me wonder when I'm going to cook the stuffing (and the green bean casserole if I go with an oven-baked version). I'm worried that there won't be enough food, etc., etc., etc. But my goal is to take some good pictures of the meal as it is being cooked, and then to get some pictures of people eating as well. I must kind of enjoy stressing out because I do it all the time.

I am by no means the only person cooking for this meal, in case I made it sound that way. My mother-in-law is bringing two apple pies from Minnesota, my parents is bringing a cranberry-apple pie, cranberry relish, and cranberry sauce, a jar of my dad's pickled beets, my mom's famous cheese dip, and appliances like a crock pot and a bigger coffee maker than the one I have. My little sister is bringing yummy pumpkin bread. My twin sister may not know it yet but she is most definitely going to be in charge of mashing the potatoes. We are not going to be short on food! And we're all going to have a wonderful time, and you'll get to read about it all right back here in a little over a week (I hope).