We woke up and walked a couple of blocks toward the country club around 8:00. When we returned Suzette made a small snow man from the shoveled snow from the side walk. It was a winter wonderland with approximately 4 inches of snow.
We prepared the dressing and prepped the turkey and stuffed the turkey and put in the oven at 10:00. It was a ten pound turkey. The instructions said to roast the turkey for 20 minutes per pound. 20 minutes was three hours and 20 minutes, so 1:20.
I then toasted two slices of whole wheat bread and made open faced sandwiches by smearing cream cheese on the toast, then laying thin slices of onion on the toast and finally slices of Gravad Lax. Suzette made an even more interesting sandwich. I sliced four slices of Gravad Lax and she chopped it and mixed it with cream cheese to make a Lax schmear that she spread into the cavity of a piece of
celery.
At 1:00 I shucked the 35 oysters. We had chilled two bottles of Gruet Brut and a bottle of 2008
Argyle vintage Brut.
At 1:30 Willy and Robin arrived with a bottle of New Zealand Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, which I chilled. Suzette opened a bottle of Gruet Brut and we started eating oysters. Robin is visiting Willy from Vancouver, knew him when they were students at UBC, and was raised in New Zealand by Canadian parents. The most fun part of the meal for me was the oysters and champagne because we could relax and talk to Willy and Robin.
We did not eat all the oysters so we put the remaining dozen or so into a bottle for oyster stew tomorrow night.
When Mike and Karen arrived we poured the bottle of Amarone and Pinot Gris and started the dinner service. Things got so busy that I forgot to take pictures.
Dinner
I removed the stuffing from the turkey and put it in a bowl. I then carved the turkey and made two separate piles, one of white and the other of dark meat on the platter. The turkey was a 10 lb.er Suzette had bought at Smith’s for $.47/lb. it was moist and tender, one of the best turkeys I can remember eating at a Thanksgiving. All we did was stuff it with dressing made with white and whole wheat bread mixed with apples, celery, onion, tarragon and eggs.
It is 4:09 a.m. on the 29th and the snow is melting and I am thankful that I got the roof repaired I think. I will check for leaks in the morning.
Back to dinner. We trussed the turkey with 4 inch bamboo skewers and twine and put it into a roasting bag with a T. of flour as the instructions directed and put it on a rack in a roasting pan and baked it the requisite 2 hours. When the small thermocouple popped up Suzette reduced the temperature to 200 degrees to keep it warm for about ½ hour until we removed the turkey to a cutting board and Willy and I removed the cooking juices to a sauce pan from the bag with the stock we had made by simmering the neck and giblets and flour. Suzette made the juices and drained stock into a gravy by adding a roux of butter and flour.
As soon as the oven was empty Suzette roasted the three squash casserole containing, butternut, acorn, and Kabocha squashes plus toasted piñon nuts that she heated until the tops of some of the peaks of squash began to brown. Then she put the bowl of dressing taken from the turkey in the table and put the rest of the dressing in a large Soufflé dish into the oven to bake while we ate dinner. She also heated the whipped sweet potatoes in a sauce pan on the stove and Robin poured the PinotGris for Suzette, me, and her and Willy poured Amarone for Mike, Karen, and himself. The Amarone was a nice choice for a red wine because it has both body and a fruity flavor that went along well with the fruitiness of the cranberry sauce and added a heavier grape flavor to the meal. I loved the Benton Lane Pinot Gris because it also had a distinctively apricot flavor and clean tannins that I found complimentary to the meal also. Mike and Karen had filled and served glasses of water to each place that we drank with the meal.
The meal was wonderful. There were no bad or dried out dish. I even liked the cranberry sauce Suzette made with lemon juice, instead of Mother’s usual orange juice, because she balanced the lemon juice nicely with sugar or quince syrup. We have an abundance of quince syrup this year because we processed the forty pounds of quince produced by the tree at the Center by peeling and quartering the quinces and Suzette cooking them in sugar water to preserve them as fruit ready for baking. She has been using the resulting quince syrup in many ways, including in the cranberry sauce and in the apple glaze she made for the duck last Friday evening..
After dinner we rested and I showed Karen and Mike the art.Karen seemed quite knowledgeable about the art and seemed to enjoy viewing it because she is a native New Mexican, so familiar with the landscapes captured in the pictures.
We then gathered around the table in the TV room and Mike and Karen and Suzette served us slices of pumpkin pie Mike bought at Double Rainbow Bakery, which left an entire extra pie, because he had brought two pies several days ago. Robin showed us photos of her hiking and camping trips she plans for her friends and parents.
At 8:00 Mike and Karen left to see the new movie “Ford versus Ferrari, and Willy and Karen left to go pack I hope. Willy must move out of his duplex by Saturday.
The new apartment is not quite finished and water and electricity are not hooked up yet, so Willy will need to move his furniture to the downstairs store space at 524 Romero that is empty and stay at our house with a few days’ changes of clothing until the CO for the building is issued.
We went to bed before 9:00 after taking the pot of turkey broth and extra pumpkin pie to the garage and putting up the rest of the food in the inside fridge.
It is 4:45 a.m. and I have cleared my throat of crud by drinking water, so will go back to sleep.
Bon Appetit
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