Comments on: Thanksgiving – the day after

By: Surellin

Surellin — Wed, 04 Dec 2019 18:44:49 +0000

Our leftover turkey mutated into turkey pot pie and then turkey tetrazzini. All the variety one may expect under the circumstances. 🙂

By: neo

neo — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 19:18:24 +0000

Thanks. Now that you mention it, I do recall that it was fresh pineapple.

By: Ben David

Ben David — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 18:42:57 +0000

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.

By: Kate

Kate — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 18:40:33 +0000

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.

By: Barry Meislin

Barry Meislin — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 18:37:34 +0000

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

By: Neo

Neo — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 17:48:54 +0000

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?

By: Griffin

Griffin — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 17:09:46 +0000

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.

By: Kate

Kate — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 16:17:50 +0000

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!

By: Gringo

Gringo — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 15:33:03 +0000

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.

By: Sarah Rolph

Sarah Rolph — Sat, 30 Nov 2019 15:31:26 +0000

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!