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.