Thanksgiving Sides

[Ling]

The pecan pie tasted exactly right.  But now that I know that a pecan pie is filled with several sugars and syrups, and NOTHING ELSE besides pecans and eggs, I may have slightly smaller portions in the future.

Don't forget the butter!

[SethG]

The pecan pie tasted exactly right.  But now that I know that a pecan pie is filled with several sugars and syrups, and NOTHING ELSE besides pecans and eggs, I may have slightly smaller portions in the future.

Don't forget the butter!

You're right, I forgot the butter!

Edited October 21, 2003 by SethG (log)

[mitmondol]

Boy, what happened?!

I thought I just replied! Now it seems it didn't happen.

Anyway, Seth, I was trying to tell you about some totally different traditions we have in Europe. I cook a turkey on Christmas day, because Thanksgiving day doesn't exist.

Stuff it with a chestnut-goose liver mixture.

For sides, I make mashed potatoes (that's same!), have to have red cabbage, brussel sprouts with almonds, a chunky apple sauce mixed with fresh, grated horseradish. Roasted quinces, may add amushroom dish. and freshly baked bread, kind of like rolls.

No pies though, totally different desserts. Like a yeast dough roll with poppyseed filling.

[SethG]

I picked up the November issues of both Gourmet and Cook's Illustrated.

In Gourmet, there's a bunch of Thanksgiving greatest hits. I made one of them a few days ago-- turnips braised in butter and stock, then topped with diced chives (or was it scallions) and parsley. I thought it was quite nice, but I don't know if it will make it to my table on Thanksgiving, since it can't be made ahead.

Cook's Illustrated has a pumkin cheesecake I'll try soon and upon which I will report.

[mags]

Pumpkin cheesecake never made sense to me. To my tongue, pumpkin is all about warm, autumn flavors, and cheesecake -- like lemon and fresh mint and berries -- is all about light, juicy spring/summer flavors. Putting the two together just seems to muddy things, for me. But then, I don't like chocolate cheesecake (REALLY don't like it) or hazelnut cheesecake, either, for pretty much the same reasons.

[SethG]

Pumpkin cheesecake never made sense to me. To my tongue, pumpkin is all about warm, autumn flavors, and cheesecake -- like lemon and fresh mint and berries -- is all about light, juicy spring/summer flavors.  Putting the two together just seems to muddy things, for me.  But then, I don't like chocolate cheesecake (REALLY don't like it) or hazelnut cheesecake, either, for pretty much the same reasons.

You know, mags, I may end up agreeing with you. I'm generally a cheesecake purist. I like New York cheesecake, with none of that strawberry syrupy stuff. Any additions or gimmicks make me suspicious.

But in the spirit of the holiday I thought I might give this a try.

[hjshorter]

Pumpkin cheesecake never made sense to me. To my tongue, pumpkin is all about warm, autumn flavors, and cheesecake -- like lemon and fresh mint and berries -- is all about light, juicy spring/summer flavors.  Putting the two together just seems to muddy things, for me.  But then, I don't like chocolate cheesecake (REALLY don't like it) or hazelnut cheesecake, either, for pretty much the same reasons.

You know, mags, I may end up agreeing with you. I'm generally a cheesecake purist. I like New York cheesecake, with none of that strawberry syrupy stuff. Any additions or gimmicks make me suspicious.

But in the spirit of the holiday I thought I might give this a try.

I made a cranberry cheesecake one year that was pretty good. If you're interested I could dig up the recipe.

[SethG]

Gosh, I don't know, Heather. There's only so far I'm willing to go with this experimental cheesecake. Let's see how I like the pumpkin. Thanks, though.

[hjshorter]

I usually find pumpkin cheesecake to be less than the sum of its parts. The cranberries were tart enough to cut through the richness, and as I recall there was lemon in some form in it too, juice or zest.

[SethG]

I usually find pumpkin cheesecake to be less than the sum of its parts.    The cranberries were tart enough to cut through the richness, and as I recall there was lemon in some form in it too, juice or zest.

Okay, you sold me! Can you PM me?

[slkinsey]

When you decide what you're having... please tell us.

[SethG]

I'm bumping this up to ask a question I've already asked elsewhere. I bought some dried corn. Someone tell me how to make something great with it, please!

Also, looks like I'm going with a fairly traditional list of sides/pies for Thanksgiving:

delicata squash braised in cider (from last weeks NY Times)

garlic, spinach and rice casserole (from Thanksgiving Dinner by Anthony Dias & Katheryn Blue)

green beans with shallot butter (Nancy Berry)

cranberry sauce (Mark Bittman)

pickled red onions and cranberries (with chipotle) (from the Nov. Bon Appetit)

And my sister 'n law is bringing a sweet potato thing. And I may roast some asparagus at the last minute. And I'd like to make a corn thing, with your help. And I've thought about making either a potato or a noodle kugel. (Bloviatrix, if you're out there, I'm sure you could help me with this.)

Anybody else got any other ideas that are interesting but not too outre? I don't want my family feeling experimented upon. But right now I'm feeling kinda boring.

Desserts:

Pumkin pie

Bourbon pecan pie

cranberry cheesecake

(This may seem like cranberry overload, but the cranberries are really not the main event in the onion thing above. They add tartness, but the onions are the thing you remember.)

[megaira]

Glad someone started this thread, I've hoovered a few ideas from it and stashed them away...the pecan pie, the shallot butter green beans & the cranberry jezebel sauce.

I also went over to amazon and picked up the Thanksgiving Dinner book since I've been digging through all of my cookbooks looking for just that - a collection of recipes just for Thanksgiving. I needed ideas. It likely won't arrive in time, so I'll use it next year.

ETA - I picked my copy up for 5.80. I ordered it before I saw Seth's deal for 1.80 - that's awesome.

4 foot lobster... I'd love to see how they wrestled that monster into the pot. You'd have to steal the Fate's cauldron to get a cooking vessel large enough.

We (I should say "I" -I don't see hub participating in the cooking, but I could be wrong) are going the traditionalist route...turkey, gravy, Julia Child's sausage/sage stuffing (and possibly a second stuffing with sweet sausage and chestnuts), potato babka, the green beans with shallots (thank you for saving me from green bean cassarole again) & french bread. If I can turn that all out in a couple days, it'll be a miracle for me, but anyway.

Dessert: possibly a pear/apple/cranberry pie from Joy of Cooking. It looked interesting.. that bourbon pecan pie is very tempting, too. I was going to do the pumpkin bread pudding from Cold Weather Cooking, but I'm not sure if I've pumpkined myself out.

All I need to do is figure out a schedule to make all this stuff for 2. count 'em. 2 people. We'll have guests for dessert though, at least.

Pumpkin cheesecake: I tried out my pumpkin bread pudding on the neighbor and a couple weeks later she brought back the container with 2 huge pieces of pumpkin cheesecake with bourbon whipped cream. It had a graham cracker/butter crust... was very rich, but somehow quite light. You could taste the pumpkin, but it wasn't overwhelming... we liked it. Well, actually, we both devoured our pieces, burped contentedly and lay around talking about how much we like the neighbors.

Edited November 24, 2003 by megaira (log)

[SethG]

Last night the wife and I were parked on the couch and happened to see that William Shatner was hosting a "Holiday Showdown" edition of Iron Chef: USA.

And one of the announcers turned out to be Anthony Dias Blue, author of Thanksgiving Dinner! So we kept watching, and of course the theme ingredient turned out to be.... (don't look if you don't want to know)

turkey! I won't disclose who won, but we thought the loser was robbed.

[mags]

Last night the wife and I were parked on the couch and happened to see that William Shatner was hosting a "Holiday Showdown" edition of Iron Chef: USA.

And one of the announcers turned out to be Anthony Dias Blue, author of Thanksgiving Dinner! So we kept watching, and of course the theme ingredient turned out to be.... (don't look if you don't want to know)

turkey! I won't disclose who won, but we thought the loser was robbed.

Loser was TOTALLY robbed! And.........oh man, that was just so weird. Who WERE these people? Ron Popeil was a judge? William Shatner? He seems to have had his own 15 minutes of fame plus an entire small city's. It made me realize that a great deal of what I found charming (for a while) about Iron Chef was the ham-handed translation. Rendered in the original, I just found it dumb.

I think for me the weirdest moment was at the end, when Shatner was standing next to...ahem, the loser, who looked to be about three feet tall. And I thought, oh goodness, I never realized the gentleman in question was a.......an extremely short person. Eventually a long-shot revealed that Shatner was standing on some kind of plinthe.