Thanksgiving Weekend, 2010

This year my parents visited for Thanksgiving, reprising a tradition that they kept up for six or seven years when we lived in Atlanta.  It has been harder for them to travel since then, so they have only visited a couple of times since we moved to D.C., but they decided to make the trip this year.  I think that we all had a wonderful time.

My Dad has some dietary restrictions, so I put together a Thanksgiving menu that had healthier versions of some of the standards.  I spatchcocked the turkey, which involves taking out the backbone and roasting it flat.  This method obviously eliminates the option of stuffing, so we had dressing cooked outside the bird.  I did a wild rice dressing that included pecans, mushrooms, and Madeira, but no butter, in deference to Dad.  I probably should have added some dried fruit, though.  In addition to mashed potatoes (again no butter) and gravy (which Dad didn't eat) and cranberries poached in red wine with spices, we had butternut squash and leeks baked in parchment paper packets and green beans in a Meyer lemon and olive oil vinaigrette.  To finish it off, my Mom made a healthy pumpkin pie in an oil-based crust and I made an apple pie in a decadent buttery crust.  All in all, it was a pretty good meal, and we had ample leftovers.

Or even too many leftovers.  I'm getting a little tired of turkey, so I jumped at the chance yesterday to make something else for dinner.  We met a friend of ours out in Middleburg, Virginia, where we had lunch and I went meat shopping at the Home Farm store, which sells local heritage meats.  I bought some delicious (humanely raised) veal rib chops and a couple of pounds of chuck roast.

We had the veal chops last night, and I am marinating the chuck in red wine, along with some herbs and aromatic vegetables, so that I can cook it tomorrow in the slow cooker, while I'm at work.  I did the chops very simply, just searing them in a cast iron skillet and then roasting them for 15 minutes in a 375 degree oven.  That was just about right.  We also had some sauteed mushrooms and shallots, which I did in the skillet while the meat rested.  I deglazed the sauteed mushrooms with some cognac, added a little extra turkey stock I still had from the big day, and finished it with a little cream to make a sauce for the meat and the mashed potatoes.

In addition to visiting Middleburg, we also stopped up at the Linden Vineyards, in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  We tasted some very pleasant wines and split up a case purchase with our friend, so that we could enjoy the benefits of their "Case Club," one of which is access to a delightful tasting porch.  Judging from the reviews I read online, some people react pretty negatively to Linden's efforts to limit access, by, for example, requiring Case Club membership for some things.  From my perspective, the experience would probably be destroyed if access were not metered in some way, and they are simply doing it by allocating space to their best customers.  It seems like a reasonable way to operate a business.  Be that as it may, we have access for a year now, so hopefully we will make it up again.

Making Dinner at the End of the Week

My regular practice is to do the grocery shopping at Whole Foods once per week, with a supplemental trip to Trader Joe's or Costco or a conventional supermarket as needed, but usually no more than once per month.  With that schedule, putting dinner together towards the end of the week can be a challenge, unless I cop out and tell Glen that we're going out, or we are in gardening season so I have a ready supply of fresh vegetables.  This past weekend I did the marketing on Saturday, so I suppose that today (Wednesday) qualifies as "towards the end of the week."

Sitting in a conference room at work this morning, waiting for colleagues to show up for a telephone interview we had scheduled, I mentally reviewed the list of what was left in the vegetable bin.  Turnips.  Mushrooms.  Some spinach.  One red onion in the pantry.  Maybe do something Asian and make some sushi rice?  Figure out a way to incorporate a poached egg?  But what about those gnocchi that had been hanging around for a while?  Somehow that appealed more.

So, we ended up having a spinach and roasted red onion salad, along with gnocchi with turnips, mushrooms, and brown butter.  Here's what I did.  After peeling and halving the onion lengthwise, I cut it into wedges and tossed it with olive oil and some salt and pepper before putting it into the trusty little convection oven at 375 degrees.  It took about 35 minutes for the onion to roast, and then I tossed it with some very good balsamic vinegar.  I added the onions to the spinach, which I also dressed with some balsamic vinaigrette and sprinkled with some salt and a grind of pepper.

For the gnocchi, I quartered a fair number (probably about 10 oz.) of cremini mushrooms, and then I peeled four small turnips and squared them off, so that I could dice them into little cubes.  While sauteeing them in some olive oil, I minced some garlic, which I added to the turnips and mushrooms when they were pretty far along, and I browned about 3 tablespoons of butter.  Finally, I cooked the gnocchi in a pot of boiling, salted water.  Once they were done, I added them to the turnips and mushrooms, along with the brown butter, and tossed the whole mess together.  Of course it made sense to garnish with some good Reggiano-Parmigiano cheese after plating the gnocchi up with the salad.  It would have been nice to add some sage to the gnocchi, but I'll try that next time.

Pumpkin Lentil Stew

I am not ashamed to admit that I occasionally like to use a slow cooker.  I received mine as a gift some years ago, and, despite an initial 1970s macrame-avocado-green-cheese-fondue flashback, I have used it more than I thought I would.  Especially in the colder months, when something stew-like is what appeals.  It certainly did on Sunday, when we were running around all afternoon with a friend who was visiting.  So, I decided to make a second pot of the pumpkin-lentil stew that I had put together a few weeks ago.  Here is what I did.

Ingredients:

2 T olive oil

8 oz. hot Italian sausage, casings removed

1 large onion, chopped

2 ribs celery, diced

3 medium carrots, peeled and diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 bay leaf

2 black cardamom pods

some herbes de Provence

1 small sugar pumpkin, seeds removed, peeled and diced

1 bunch kale, ribs removed and chopped

1 can diced tomatoes, with their juices

1 1/4 cups French lentils, rinsed

1 quart low-sodium chicken broth

salt and pepper

Heat olive oil in skillet, and add sausage.  Saute, breaking up the sausage with the back of your spoon.  When it is browned add onion, celery, carrots, garlic, whole cardamom pods, and herbs.  Saute until vegetables start to caramelize.  Put in slow cooker, and add pumpkin, kale, tomatoes and lentils.  Stir to mix.  Add chicken broth, and some salt and pepper.  Cook until vegetables and lentils are tender.  (Approximately 5 hours on the "high" setting seemed about right, but other cookers might vary.)  Correct seasonings and serve.  Add a dash of sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar, if desired.

We had the stew with a beet and spinach salad and some homemade biscuits.