Thanksgiving – the day after
I am happy to announce that there wasn’t a single political discussion at the Thanksgiving celebration I attended yesterday. For that I’m extra-special thankful. My personal experience is that such things never, never, never lead to anything good.
Did I eat too much yesterday? You betcha, but not enough to become ill.
My favorites? My sister-in-law’s (technically, my ex-brother-in-law’s ex-wife) fabulous apple pie, the cranberry sauce, the roasted sweet potatoes, and a variety of stuffings (or is it dressings? They weren’t baked inside the turkey).
Did I say turkey, singular? Actually, there were four turkeys, cooked different ways. Turkey’s not my favorite part of the meal; I consider it primarily a sturdy base of support for cranberry sauce.
This was a big, big group of several families, involving a big long table with forty people. Fortunately, it was hosted in a large house in a beautiful setting with a view.
Today there will be more visiting, eating (turkey soup, turkey sandwiches, turkey pot pie) and talking, eating some more and watching the kids amuse each other.
How about you?
Had the family over for the preceding three days. First visit to my home for the new grandson. Everyone was thrilled to see them, and my ex even behaved herself, somewhat.
I liked my Nebraska pecan pie so much I made another.
Recipes?
My sister-in-law does most of the cooking now that my mother has become too frail, and she’s busy with a new job so for the first time we ate out. An old restaurant I’d barely heard of about twenty minutes away yielded a very respectable buffet that included some fantastic ribs. We were all quite pleased and unlike yourself I did eat myself sick.
Neo, do you think you would have enjoyed a politics-free time had the impeachment inquiries produced anything substantive? Lefties can’t help themselves when sitting on news that seemingly favors their side, they must bleat it out and scan the room for knowing looks. The fact that nothing like this happened was probably telling.
I don’t have any relatives anywhere within a thousand miles, so like every July 4th, Christmas, and (for the first time) Thanksgiving, I invited a bunch of friends over, and specifically posted in the Facebook event that I would like everyone to leave their political opinions at home for this one day.
It helped, I’m sure, that there was no family involved other than my 10-year-old daughter, so nobody felt like they could presume on any obligation to host them that I might have.
“The people that agree with us already agree, and the people that don’t, don’t really want to argue about it … not today, anyway.”
Nice quiet small dinner with one of our daughters here. Salted the turkey two days early and left it in the fridge uncovered, then before roasting smeared it with ghee and seasoned it. Pretty much the best turkey I’ve ever done. Turkey soup production will begin tomorrow and it will be eaten Sunday (it’s best the next day).
One of the things that I was thankful for this year was my girlfriend’s delicious maple pecan pie. And her gravy.
numbad:
My impression of this particular group, not all of whom I know well, is that they avoid political discussions for the most part. It may be because there’s a variety of political persuasions there.
I am sad to report there was no pecan pie at our Thanksgiving this year.
On the other hand, perhaps that’s why I didn’t eat myself sick this year.
Celebrated Thanksgiving w/ our daughter’s family, as we do every year. All the usual food on the table. Tam and I make the dressing, gravy, and pumpkin pies, and whatever else we’ve been asked to bring.
The grandkids are in college now, and they bring many of the same friends to the table every year, so we’ve been blessed to follow their lives from year to year. Strong, clear-eyed kids, just starting their adult lives.
My bride is not able to do all the cooking anymore, so she only made dressing and cooked the turkey. The rest we bought at the local delicatessen. And it was all fine. The turkey, a very small one, was the moistest I can ever recall. There was no politics because it was just my wife, our daughter, and me – we’re all conservatives, thank God.. We all like football, so we watched all three games.
Well, we did talk a bit about the news that Tim Eyman has thrown his hat in the ring for governor of Washington. Unless some other really compelling Republican decides to run, we are going to support Tim. He’s an impecunious version of Donald Trump. The man has been hounded by the state AG, but he doesn’t back down and isn’t afraid to speak his piece. He might be controversial, but IMO, he is a giant compared to Jay Inslee.
I was invited to what turned out, as is usual with my fantastic hostess, to be a delicious feast attended by a whole bunch of smart, accomplished people. It was also an inspirational event. One of the guests was a guy that was super fit, and he plays basketball every week. I later found out he is 80 years old!
Neo,
“My sister-in-law’s (technically, my ex-brother-in-law’s ex-wife…)
Applause! It is a real sign of emotional maturity when one can maintain and continue their familial relationships with one’s ex’es and their families.
J.J. — considering that a King County court (natch) just blocked on a technicality Eyman’s latest initiative that passed by a HUGE margin, I suspect he’s got a pretty good chance as that huge margin of voters expresses their anger with Seattle.
Of course, we’ll have to see how many bundles of D ballots get discovered in closets and car trunks this time.
Lefties probably didnt want to broach the subject but were probably seething yesterday. Trump successfully trolled the press (or the press again trolled themselves) and sent a motorcade to a golf course while the Donald was feeding troops in Afghanistan. This was Trump doing a worthwhile thing in either effort, and truly something to be thankful for.
Bryan Lovely,
The famous ballots found behind the voting machine in King County in the Rossi/Gregoire gubernatorial election may have changed the direction of state gov’t more than anyone can imagine. Rossi would have been a good governor and he wasn’t some nut but he couldn’t overcome the KC machine.
Maybe I’m too pessimistic but I give Eyman little chance although there will be a big backlash if they try to weasel out of the car tab initiative.
We had what my hubby described as a “2 man Thanksgiving” & it was terrific. Seemed like no pressure to cook just a turkey breast, it was done in 1 1/2 hr versus the several hours with the standard bird. Then the sides, easy just for 2,& eclairs for dessert. Had company over for the second football game so we were able to get our turkey naps done to the droning of Bears vs Lions. No politics but hubby & I are on the same page so when it happens it’s just affirmation.
Bryan and Griffin – let us hope our fellow voters are fed up with being shut out by our “betters.” Turn out in all the counties but King and Piece could make a difference. Well, we can dream can’t we?
Aha! Is that the difference between stuffing and dressing? I heard ‘dressing’ used at the dinner that I attended, and couldn’t understand why – thought it was a regionalism.
A light fast, probably less than I usually intake.
Curiously, we were hosted by a neighboring couple who specifically instructed us to shun politics which we proceed to completely fail to do and the results were perfectly pleasant–even though I am an unreconstructed NR type Reaganite and most of my dinner companions middle aged female leftists. We had the ban in mind when we sat down in the living room but stacked on the coffee table were copies of old Time magazines from 1968-’70. One thing led to another …
There were a few reasons I think that things stayed amicable:
1. I’ve been a curmudgeon con (can I copy write this?) in Boston and Cambridge, MA. for decades.I’ve been swimming in this blue (really red) sea for a long time.
2. Although the women were of the sort that were veterans of sit-ins, protests, the left-wing politics of the Village, Cambridge and Provincetown (one was a theater director), NONE had been a recent graduate of a seat of higher learning and so were NOT programmed with the latest newspeak. The most political of them voiced her suspicion of the thing called “intersectionalidy.” She did NOT like. And I think for a certain type of old (noncommunist) leftist, the whole point of being political is to ARGUE about stuff–so that they find a Bucklyite less boring than a country clubber OR party flack.
3. I you live in the city there are political issues that are as much a matter of temperment and taste than ideology. You can go at it hammer and tongs about things like bike paths, closing times, green spaces for quite some time whithout guessing how the other votes nationally.
One thing we never mentioned once was anything to do with the president because I bet we all agreed, across the spectrum, that the most worn out topic of all was Trump.
I had dinner with my sister’s family. It was great; fantastic meal, great conversation, surrounded by family and friends. I am thankful.
We all talked politics, mostly tribal stuff; Standing Rock, Carpenter (now Sharpe) v Murphy, Gorsuch vs RBG on treaty rights…
My sister is *not* a Trump fan. In fact, she hates him. After dinner, I showed her the “swoll” Trump photo the Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters were waving. Now she hates Hong Kong.
We flew to Chicago to spend the holiday with my sister and her ill husband who will probably not see another Thanksgiving. We had a nice time and will go home tomorrow, Sunday, to Tucson.
The kids (now in their late forties and fifties, but still “the kids”) all live on the other side of the country from us in northern NV, so we had a two-person Thanksgiving. I found a 9-pound turkey and dry dressing mix at Costco, and we added a vegetable mix based on Brussel sprouts while my wife made a pumpkin pie.
It didn’t all work out — I spatchcocked the turkey for the first time, and although it was moist, it was also tough and chewy. Martha Stewart did not warn about that!
I forgot to do the mashed potatoes, the gravy was too thick, we forgot to open the canned cranberry sauce, and we forgot to put sugar in the pumpkin pie. The pie DID have a great crust, though — Carol has learned a new trick with crust that involves using sour cream instead of ice water. I think we’ll try another pumpkin pie in a few weeks, this time with sugar.
Just by way of a public service announcement, I should say I was not impressed with spatchcocking. The meat was moist, it is true, but I cannot say I have ever had turkey that was as chewy as this. Whether that was from high-temperature/short time cooking, or some other feature of the technique, I don’t think I’ll try that again. Even the leftover turkey is chewy!
Now to finish the leftovers and start working on a reprise of the pumpkin pie!
It was just the two of us, as usual, but I make a whole turkey because we like the leftovers; I’ll do turkey crepes with the gravy that’s left over, then a turkey casserole along the lines of turkey tetrazini (calls for spaghetti, but sometimes I use noodles), then turkey mole’ enchildadas. Turkey turns out to be a really good match with mole’ (I just buy the mole’ sauce, so it’s easy).
I like to do most of the things the same every year, in homage to my grandmother. I fix a relish tray (carrot and celery sticks, olives, pickled beets from a jar — Gram grew her own beets and pickled them herself) and I make a jello salad with cranberry sauce, walnuts, and celery (and canned crushed pineapple; this is actually something I first had in college, my first Thanksgiving away from home, but Gram also made jello salad with fruit in it, made in a little mold so it was pretty on the plate; I just make it in a pan and then cut it in squares). And I make dinner rolls from scratch. They never turn out as well as Gram’s but even when they are heavy and/or misshapen they are still pretty good!
Most years I like to do something a little different, too. This year I made squash soup, and it was good. The recipe called for croutons with gruyere cheese. Instead I made cheese wafers with the gruyere — they had pecans in them, which seemed a little odd, but I took the risk and they were great! Like little crackers. Delicious warm with the soup and they were good at room temperature as well. We had the soup and the cheese wafers early, as a sort of lunch, which was relaxing (easier timing-wise; as anyone who cooks much knows, timing is the main issue!)
I also broke with tradition on the dessert. Instead of a pumpkin pie and an apple pie, I made mini pumpkin cheesecakes and little pecan tartlets. Both quite good!
Has anyone had good luck with Brussels sprouts? They never seem to turn out very well for me.
Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all. I am thankful to neo for continuing to blog, and I am thankful for this pleasant comment community.
Since someone asked about recipes:
Here’s the soup:
https://smittenkitchen.com/2006/10/winter-squash-soup-gruyere-croutons/
The cheese wafers are from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook (by Marion Cunningham) — let me know if you want that recipe, I’ll type it here
Here’s the cheescake — I halved the recipe to make small ones, but it didn’t make the right amount of filling, and was probably imperfect (but so good I can’t wait to make the perfect version! I was worried it would either be not pumpkiny enough or not cheesecakey enough but it was the perfect combination)
https://smittenkitchen.com/2006/11/bourbon-pumpkin-cheesecake/
I didn’t use the topping, since I had too much filling, so at serving time I topped them with whipped cream to which I added a little bourbon. That worked!
John F. MacMichael
One of the things that I was thankful for this year was my girlfriend’s delicious maple pecan pie
HEB has occasionally been selling maple pecan pie, in addition to chocolate pecan pie. I don’t see the chocolate pecan pie as a big improvement over a regular one, but HEB’s maple pecan pie is the best pecan pie I have ever eaten. Which for a store-bought pie, is quite a compliment.
Sarah Rolph, thanks for the pumpkin cheesecake recipe! Made without the crust in a buttered 9×13 pan, that would be a rational semi-low-carb dessert. I’ll try it!
One of the interesting but not surprising things about these large family gatherings is the cell phone usage. We had 25 people for dinner ranging from my late 80s mother to her great great grandson who is 2 with most ages in between. Those of us over about 40 were never on our phone (a couple even bragged about leaving them at home) but the younger people in 18-30 range were on their phones constantly. Since we had so many people we had several tables and at one point all four people at one table were on their phones while eating. Not talking at all.
It’s interesting because most of the older generation are just as into their phones as the younger are usually but they had no problem checking out for one day.
Sarah Rolph:
I remember reading long ago that canned pineapple inhibits the jelling action of jello. Maybe that’s untrue, if you use it successfully in a mold?
A major reason why political discussion may have been relatively absent from the festival table:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/solidarity-democrats-delusion-about-collapse
Though here’s one Turkey gathering that could probably have gone a bit better:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/france-summons-turkish-ambassador-after-erdogan-calls-macron-brain-dead
Excuse my intervention, please. It’s fresh pineapple which can’t go in jello. It has an enzyme which prevents jello from setting. The heat of the canning destroys the enzyme, so that works fine.
I think *fresh* pineapple has enzymes that digest protein – which is why it is used to tenderize meat. My guess is that canning heats the pineapple to the point where the enzyme is destroyed.
Thanks. Now that you mention it, I do recall that it was fresh pineapple.
Our leftover turkey mutated into turkey pot pie and then turkey tetrazzini. All the variety one may expect under the circumstances. 🙂