I’m still here.
There probably isn’t a better reason to snap back into the blogging spirit than to write about Thanksgiving which is objectively the best holiday of the year. One hundred percent food and zero percent presents and expectations. So here I am, thankful for the family tradition of never making the same recipe twice while still staying within the parameters of what is an acceptable Thanksgiving menu. Kind of.
For those of you who have been here for a long time, you’re well aware of the annual teleconference tradition as documented for the last seven years (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017). For the new people in the room: the intro pretty much tells you everything you need to know.
Every year, we review and critique the recipes we made. Some years we average in the 3 out of 5 range. This year was next level — I was wondering if we’re getting better at selecting and executing or if there was enough wine that we weren’t being critical enough, but I can confirm after the second batch of leftovers that we did, in fact, totally nail it.
So here we go:
Aperitifs
When I say we never make the same thing twice I actually lied — as some recipes are allowed to make a reappearance. Like this Cran Royale cocktail that originally made it’s debut at the 2016 Thanksgiving. Still deserves a rating of 5/5.
Salads
This beetroot and avocado salad was probably our only fail — and not that it didn’t taste good but that the beets stained everything red and there is something just super unattractive about green peas stained purple and actually looking almost grey. For esthetics alone, I’m giving it a 1/5.
Turkey
We wet brined a 24 pound turkey (had to use a cooler lest it break the shelves in our refrigerator). No recipe to share, but if you’re interested in how to wet brine I recommend reading Food Lab (where he’ll try to convince you to dry brine, and I’ll use my authority to tell you to wet brine anyways even though it’s a huge pain). Rating: 5/5.
Cranberry Sauce
Pour brandy in your cranberry sauce, you will not regret it. Good flavor, great texture, and a nice contrast to everything it goes on top of. Rating: 5/5.
Stuffing
Alright, you guys. I’ve been lobbying for oysters in stuffing for the last 4 years and I’ve always been shut down. This year I finally prevailed and I have to say, this was undoubtedly the best stuffing we’ve ever made. To be fair, I’m not sure that I can give credit to the oysters. I don’t think there were enough of them in here to make a really big impact (although if you got one in your stuffing bite it was delicious). But it was so, so good — probably because of the bread. If I were to do this again I would double the oysters. Rating: 5/5.
Potatoes
For the last 10 years, the potatoes and turkey have been the only constant at our Thanksgiving table. But we realized during this years menu conference that we’ve finally outgrown them, so we went with this super lemony mashed potato recipe to freshen things up. It was awesome — I never knew that lemons and mashed potatoes went together, but they most certainly do. Side note: we served the asparagus as a separate side dish, so see below. Rating: 5/5.
Vegetables
We had every intention of putting asparagus on top of the mashed potatoes like laid out in the recipe, but to be honest, these two things don’t have much to do with each other and when serving them for Thanksgiving, really act as two separate dishes. So we kept them separate. I give this asparagus tossed with anchovies a solid 4/5. You could do the same preparation for green beans too and it would be wonderful.
We usually do Brussels sprouts in salad form but this year we decided to soak them in cheese and breadcrumbs in this gratin. Classic style and classic flavor — the only thing I would change from the original is you really only need about half the breadcrumbs. Rating: 5/5.
And finally there was this gorgeous sweet potato dish which I will not insult by calling a casserole but it is baked in a casserole dish. First of all, esthetically it was the most beautiful in both color and texture. But lets not ignore that it also tasted incredible — sweet potatoes and harissa are definitely a match made in Thanksgiving heaven. I loved everything about it and give it a solid 5/5.
Dessert
Because there were people at our table who were celebrating their first Thanksgiving, we had to have a classic pumpkin pie. I’ve learned over the years that this custard version is superior to all others. Because the custard cracked, I’m going to give it a 4/5 but it was pretty close to perfect.
And last but not least–it’s probably no surprise that this apple cake with its two sticks of butter and 3/4 cup of sour cream tasted like heaven. And now that I’m getting to the bottom of the list I’m realizing that about half of our Thanksgiving menu was directly from Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipes, which just proves that an Israeli chef living in the UK is the perfect inspiration for a Russian family celebrating Thanksgiving in America..
And as always, a time lapse.
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Every year a time lapse. Hope you all enjoyed the greatest holiday of the year 🦃🦃🦃
I stuffed a rack of lamb with oyster cornbread stuffing one year. Would totally have been behind you on oyster stuffing after that! Happy Holidays!
writes Inger @ Art of Natural Liivng