the ocean always dreamed blue dreams
Cranberry Nation
by , 11-27-2009 at 12:52 PM (2626 Views)
I adore Thanksgiving. Unlike his more bloated sister, Christmas, Thanksgiving doesn’t promise more than it can deliver. Yesterday was no exception. I felt peace, love, pleasure, happiness. My cup (and plate) runneth over.
Having said that, I have to admit that this blog is mostly about the best meal I have ever made. I’m not a cook, really. As my oldest son once said, I heat. I commute, I work, the budget and time are limited, and our meals are often reflective of that. In the midst of our culinary deprivation, I have found a few meals that abound in taste and a relative ease of cooking that I can pull out of my admittedly small chef’s hat for our eating pleasure. Meatball subs, baked chicken breast and new potatoes, taco soup, chili. They tend to be hearty and vaguely reminiscent of those “50’s meals, heavy on the prepackaged food products, but filling nevertheless.
But I can make a great homemade Thanksgiving feast (sans pie, that’s straight from the stores’ freezer to my oven).
For your eating pleasure I present the following menu: bacon wrapped turkey, homemade mashed potatoes (using Yukon gold potatoes), green bean casserole, homemade cranberry sauce (who knew it was so easy!), cranberry salad, strawberry bread, pumpkin pie, strawberry jello.
The strawberry bread is a winner, moist and delicious. I made it the day before.
The bacon wrapped turkey was awesome. I slid bacon under the skin, laid it over the breasts in a lattice pattern, wrapped it around the legs and tucked it in the cavity. I laid two quartered yellow onions around it and cooked it for three hours. The smell was heavenly.
I mashed the potatoes with cream and real butter (usually I use margarine; it’s what I grew up with, what can I say?) My oldest son did the honors in mashing them, and his brother made the strawberry jello. About an hour and a half after I put the turkey in I started making the cranberry sauce. First you boil together a cup of water and sugar (a simple syrup), then just add the cranberries and cook for approximately 10 minutes, until the berries pop. It is absolutely awesome, so much better than those horrible cans of sauce, where it comes out with the can lines pressed into it. The second batch of cranberries I made with crushed pineapple, and a touch of cinnamon and allspice. It’s even more awesome. I feel like Keats and Hernandez, like I’ve just been given my first kiss or eaten my first most delectable meal in Italy. Next I made the green bean casserole (for what is Thanksgiving meal without it?) and it went in after the turkey came out.
After the turkey was through roasting I made the gravy. I added one-half cup of white wine to the drippings, brought it to a boil then added the flour and water mixture slowly until it thickened.
I have to say, with great pride, it was the most heavenly meal I have ever made. We ate, in great accord and thankfulness, for the food, for life, for each other.
This holiday has not been without its bittersweet moments. My father had a mild stroke last week. He his home and resting, but he is weaker now. I’m very worried. My sister lives in the same town, but we are faced with the problem of convincing my very stubborn and independent parents that it is time for them to have some help.
Please, my dear friends, I would love to hear about your wonderful Thanksgiving meals, or the best meal you have ever had, or the best meal you have ever cooked.
Qimissung
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