November 28, 2024 Thanksgiving Day Lunch. Dinner - Sandwiches
We made the cranberry Sauce yesterday. I followed the recipe on the bag but substituted orange juice for apple juice and added the zest of two oranges and used all white sugar instead of 1/2 brown sugar. I also chopped and toasted 2/3 cup of pecan halves and added them after the sauce had cooked and thickened. It was the cranberry sauce I remember from my youth.
Also last night I minced an onion, diced a handful of celery, and cubed 1 1/2 loaves of white sandwich bread for stuffing.
This morning we awakened at 6:00 to make the stuffing and stuff the turkey. Suzette sautéed the onion and celery and mixed it with the bread cubes and an egg. To about 3/4 of the dressing she added three 6 oz. jars of Pacific coast oysters quartered, some herbs de Provence and chopped sage.
We then stuffed the neck cavity with the plain stuffing and stuffed the stomach cavity with the oyster dressing and trussed both cavities.
We placed the trussed turkey in a Turkey bag into a roasting pan.
Suzette then baked the 11 lb. in a 350 degree oven for slightly less than three hours until it reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
I then sliced the turkey meat and put it on a cooking tray that went into the steam cooking unit to stay warm.
I put the carcass into a large pot and added three stalks of celery, two carrots, and 1/2 of an onion plus some sage and started it simmering to make turkey broth.
Suzette poured the cooking juices into a sauce pan and made gravy by making a roux and then added the cooking juices and some of the broth to make gravy.
At 10:30 Monica, Aaron, and Lexi arrived with blanched green beans and ginger and garlic and a baking dishes of baked potatoes au gratin baked with Gruyere, and Pecorino-Romano cheese. Two wedges of blue cheese, a jar of homemade zachuck, a Romanian relish made with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant and lovely thin crackers.
Lexi and Suzette started making cookies in the kitchen and Monica, Aaron, and I put appetizers on the round table in the TV room. Aaron made mimosas with Gruet Brut and fresh orange juice from El Super and I poured Aaron the last glass of Le Ferme’ Julien Rhone Valley rose’. I had chilled a Le Pont Bandol rose earlier so when he finished the Ferme’ Julien, I opened the Le Pont and poured him a glass and it blew him away. Bandol is a special rose. Here is a description of why.
The Bandol wine region is located in the Var department of the Provence wine region in southern France. The region is on the eastern coast of Marseille and Cassis, overlooking the Balearic Sea.
The Bandol region is known for being the only place where Mourvèdre grapes can reach their full potential. The region's terroir is ideal for Mourvèdre grapes, with: 3,000 hours of sunshine, Clay soils that retain water, Cooling ocean breezes, and Shelter from an amphitheater.
I also took out the Texas Cheese board and gave Aaron the block of Dubliner and Monica put the two wedges of blue cheese on the board. I then asked if they wanted some Gravad lax. Monica loves Gravad lax and when I asked how she eats it she said, “Just plain with horseradish.”
So I first made a horseradish cream sauce. We whipped about 2/3 cup of whipping cream in a bowl until it stood in soft peaks and I added a generous squeeze of lemon juice, a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, and two or three T. of Long’s horseradish from Pennsylvania and mixed the sauce and filled a small ramekin with the sauce. I then filled a glass salad plate with slices of Gravad lax and sliced a few slices of Lebanon Bologna and Monica filled a bowl with the Romanian relish. The Gravad lax was consumed rather quickly, so I re-filled the Gravad Lax plate again.
Soon Monica’s friend, Nina, arrived with two plastic containers of warm stuffed peppers, stuffed with a mixture of pork, onion, and rice covered with a tomato sauce made with tomato juice. Nina also brought two trays of Romanian baked turnovers; one of cheese and the other of cheese and ham. Nina also brought a jar of Romanian pickles and a jar of zchuk, the eggplant, tomato, and pepper relish, a bottle of sour cherry liquor, rosette salami, a plastic container of pimento stuffed green olives, and a pumpkin roll for dessert plus a house gift of branvin and a set of small drinking cups.
Nina’s Romanian turnovers
Suzette and Lexi made snickerdoodles, German cookies with centers filled with jam, and glazed lemon cookies from 10:30 to 12:30.
Soon after Nina arrived Monica, Nina, and I went to the basement to find a red wine for Monica to drink. I got lucky and found a bottle of 2010 Wellington Mohrhardt Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon that I was unaware that I still had in the cellar at the bottom of the stairs. The Wellington 2010 was my favorite because it had pleasant fruit and an extremely smooth finish. As it turned out Monica liked it also and drank it during appetizers and through and after the meal, although Suzette drank a glass of it after the meal when we were sitting around the round TV room table again.
In the other wine cellar I picked up a Hermann Weimer 2019 HJW Vineyard Riesling to drink with our turkey lunch. The Bottle of HJW is one of Weimar’s best bottles of wine. When I tasted it, its acidity was very pronounced.
Here are the winery notes on their HJW Riesling:
The HJW Vineyard is where it all began. On a bench of land seven hundred feet above Seneca Lake, Hermann planted the estate's first Riesling vines in 1977. We spotlight this block each vintage in the limited release Riesling HJW Vineyard. The site's cooler mesoclimate shows through with racy acidity underpinned by a dense mineral backbone.
Here are some ratings of the ratings of the 2022 HJW vineyard Riesling:
94 Points
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
92 Points
Wine & Spirits Magazine
93 Points
Wine Spectator
96 Points
James Suckling
Top 100 Wines of 2022 - #45
Wine Spectator
Then at 12:30 I filled a platter with white and dark meat, and Suzette put the cranberry sauce on the table and Aaron put his ginger and garlic flavored green beans on the table and his au gratin potatoes on the buffet with the two dressings and we filled our plates.
The turkey platter and red wine carafe by Monica.
Nina’s stuffed bell peppers
Suzette’s carrots sautéed with dates
The two dressings
Aaron’s potatoes au gratin
My plate with 1/4 of a stuffed pepper, green beans, potatoes cranberry sauce and turkey covered with dressing and gravy
Aaron said his green bean recipe had been published in The NY Times several weeks ago. He chopped minced ginger and garlic and sautéed them and then tossed the blanched green beans in the sautéed ginger and garlic sauce.
We ate until we could eat no more and we rested and talked and Monica served the sour cherry liquor that Nina had made and Aaron and I ate slices of Costco pecan pie and the pumpkin roll that Nina brought. The Costco pecan pie tasted store made, while the pumpkin roll with its cream cheese filling was really delicious. Others tasted the pumpkin roll, but were too full to eat the pecan pie.
Nina’s Pumpkin Roll
I liked the sour cherry liquor. I found it rather alcoholic, but much tastier than plum brandy that does not have as strong a fruit component.
After lunch Suzette packed a tin with an assortment of the cookies Lexi and she made and Aaron took Lexi to her Mom’s for their family meal.
While Aaron was gone I suggested we walk around the block.
We walked by the Breaking Bad House and returned through the gate on 15th St. and the garden, which gave us the opportunity to tour the garden.
When we returned we sat around the round table until after 3:30 when Aaron returned and we thanked each for their lovely additions to the meal.
Aaron and Monica are taking Lexi to L.A. for the weekend tomorrow so they and Nina left all their food, so we have a massive amount of food left to eat, which was not Suzette’s intent to have no leftovers. Suzette put most of it on the table on the covered patio.
After everyone left we relaxed in front of the TV and Suzette dozed as I watched the Cowboys beat The Giants. I then started to watch Freud’s Last Interview starring Anthony Hopkins on Netflix but Suzette went to bed shortly after 7:00 and I put up the rest of the cheese and salami and sliced two thin slices of baguette that I spread horseradish cream sauce on and slices of the salami garnished with small slices of the French blue cheese and a 1/2 slice of Nina’s pumpkin roll and green olives stuffed with pimientos and made a cup of Earl Grey tea for dinner and then went to bed.
I blogged for a while and the fell asleep and awakened at 1:30 a.m. to finish this entry.
I did not do a blessing and forgot to ask the dinner guests what they were thankful for, but did offer a thought at the beginning of the meal that we were a family unit bound together through Earn DLT.
It was a hectic day of activity for Suzette and she was tired and sore and hopefully we will have a leisurely weekend, although tomorrow is a work day.
Fortunately, we will not need to cook for several days to come.
Thanksgiving is my, and I suspect most people’s, favorite food holiday of the year and that was my emphasis this year.
Bon Appetit
