Thanksgiving 2013

Thanksgiving Plate 2013Our Thanksgiving was very low key this year.  I didn’t have a lot of time to do prep work because of other commitments during the week.  Wednesday I did as much as I could and then on Thanksgiving Day I had to finish up the rest.

Thankfully that wasn’t too much!

I made the mistake of going to the grocery store on Tuesday for some last minute items.  Yikes! I won’t be doing that again.

We had a huge turkey this year.  It was a half turkey that weighted in at 15lbs.  It looked enormous in the fridge and the roaster!

When all was said and done though, we didn’t have nearly as much leftover meat as I had feared.

I tried a new little twist with sweet potato pie that I think turned out pretty well.  I added in some eggnog and bourbon to the mix.

Bourbon always goes over well in this house.

Thanksgiving Table 2013We had the basics for sides: stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and then some green beans.  No green bean casserole, just plain beans.

We ate dinner in our jammies and had the kitchen cleaned up by 4pm.  A very relaxing day which I’m calling a success!

Even though we didn’t go all out this year, dinner tasted perfect and the company as always, was the best.

How was your Thanksgiving?

Craft Beer Meal Pairing Posts And How We Can Fix Them

Pouring Shipyard's Smashed Pumpkin Craft Beer is definitely becoming more and more popular as people explore beer beyond the boundaries of the Big Breweries.

Many sites are trying to ride this wave by providing beer pairing lists to go with your holiday meal, and this is where I get grumbly.  Looking at some of these lists, it is very clear the author isn’t familiar with craft beer or how to approach the topic.

My two biggest complaints about these types of lists is that I feel the author does not take into account;

  1. The availability of each beer
  2. The ABV of each beer

First up (and the most ridiculous one I found) is from The Daily Meal.

Reading the article you can gather that this author might not be a beer drinker.  She states:

“In Boston, the long-awaited release of Shipyard’s Pumpkinhead is accompanied by wringing hands, and excited squeals from grown men.”

Do men in Boston do this for Shipyard? Perhaps they do, but Shipyard is based out of Portland, Maine so I’m not sure why she’d be discussing the Boston male population.

Regardless, let’s look at her list of pumpkin beers for Thanksgiving:

The first one listed, right out of the gate, is Avery’s Rumpkin.

Ok, this is where my head might have exploded.

Rumpkin is a very limited release beer and it is not widely distributed.  So good luck getting one.  Not to mention this beer comes in at 18% ABV so if you drank this after a huge day of heavy food, it will knock you on your ass.  Well, at 18% it’s going to knock you on your ass regardless unless you share a 12oz bottle with someone else.

Beer #2 is Blue Moon’s Harvest Moon.

Just no.  You can’t list a highly coveted and sought after craft beer in one breath and then follow that up with a beer from Coors. (Didn’t know Blue Moon is actually Coors brewing? Lots of big brewers are starting to do this sleight of hand now.)

While I won’t dissect the whole list here, I will say that her other picks are at least a little better.

The Rumpkin aside, the big issue with this list is distribution and availability.  Smaller breweries don’t have a wide distribution area so most people aren’t going to be able to find those beers.

Thanksgiving 2011The Beeroness does a better job with beer pairings for Thanksgiving. Though I do feel that again, availability is playing a factor here.

And some of the beers, while not clocking in at 18%, do have a higher ABV that needs to be taken into consideration.

For Thanksgiving in particular, ABV plays a huge factor because this is a whole day of eating and sipping in most households.  Sipping 9% and up beers all day long is going to catch up with you after that slice of pie.  Especially if that slice of pie is accompanied by a 12% or higher barrel aged stout.

My recommendations for creating beer pairing lists for Thanksgiving is to seriously consider the ABV and try to stick with sessionable beers in the 5-7% (no higher than 8%) for during the day and then maybe a something slightly higher for dessert provided that it gets split up amongst guests.

For beer pairings in general, I think lists should provide styles of beers as recommendations verses listing a specific beer.  This way everyone can take that list and go to their local store to see what is available to them.  A style list will apply to everyone where a specific beer list can potentially frustrate folks trying to buy beer for a dinner.

Especially if those folks are just getting into beer and aren’t sure what to get.  They would be able to present a style list to someone at the store and ask for suggestions for those styles.

I realize that articles can’t get away with this fully and that they do have to list some specific beers because people are going to ask.  However, if the emphasis is on the style of beer, then readers will still have something to reference when they are out purchasing beer.

Seek A Brew will let you know which beers are distributed to which states.  It’s very helpful when trying to locate beers. By checking, the author would be able to provide a couple of suggestions that should cover most areas.

Keeping availability and ABV of the beers in mind will lead to a solid beer pairing list.

With all of that said, what are you serving with your holiday meal this year?

 

Thanksgiving 2012 Theme: Lard-licious

In my Thanksgiving recap post, I briefly hinted that there was a theme this year to our feast.

And no the theme wasn’t related to the decor or a color scheme or anything like that.

It was food related, as almost every dish we ate had it incorporated somehow.

This year the focus for our Thanksgiving feast was around lard.

Yes, you read that right.  LARD.

Or Pig Gold as I refer to it.

I purchased half a hog this year and with the fat that came with it, I rendered that down into lard.

I knew I wanted to use lard in the pie crust but also wanted to use it in different ways with the other parts of the meal.

I made biscuits using lard instead of butter and they turned out a lot better than I expected!  My expectations were low only because I’m still getting used to baking at elevation.  These rose beautifully and were very flaky.

I was also surprised by how full they kept me! We ate these for breakfast Thanksgiving morning and they kept me full and satisfied all the way until about 3pm. Which was just in time for the big meal.

Lard was also used in the pie crust and I’m sorry I have no picture of that.  We were too busy eating it for me to snap a picture.

Along with using lard instead of butter on the turkey, I also used it to make the roux for the gravy.  Scott declared that as the best gravy we’ve had yet and I’ve been making gravy for a while folks!

The only items that did not have lard in them in some way were the collard greens and the stuffing.

Everything came out tasty and I definitely plan on using it again next year for Thanksgiving!

Have you used lard in cooking before?

 

Thanksgiving Turkey 2012

This year I had to approach things a little differently with the Thanksgiving turkey, due to new living arrangements and the state of the turkey when it arrived.

Normally I would brine the whole turkey in a large bucket and store it away in the second fridge that we had.

However, moving and living in a rental home means things are much different.  There’s no second fridge anymore leaving me with no room to brine a whole bird. So I had to plan a different approach.

I decided to break down the bird and only roast half, saving the other half for another time.  However the bird came to me already frozen which meant once thawed, all of it had to be cooked.

Ok, no big deal.  Go with the flow and all that.

I still broke down the bird into quarters and used the back to make stock (which turned out lovely!).

I brined one breast and wing, and one leg quarter.  The other breast-wing and leg quarter got a dry rub slapped on. I did not have room in the fridge for four large brining bowls or else the entire turkey would have been brined.

I was actually excited to do this little experiment! We have been eating brined turkey for years so I was curious to be able to do a side-by-side comparison of brined verses not brined.

Maybe they would taste the same? Maybe not? We would soon find out!

Instead of using butter to rub on the skin and underneath, I used lard that I recently made. It went on a lot smoother than the butter!  I then sprinkled the turkey with:

  • Garlic Powder
  • Smoked Paprika
  • Chili Powder

In the roasting pan was:

  • Stock
  • Bourbon
  • Onion
  • Carrot
  • Celery
  • Jalapeno Peppers
  • Lemons

I also decided to go with the cheesecloth method while the turkey roasted.  This was something that another food blogger suggested during a weekly food blog Tweetchat, Foodies Nite In. (PS: This food chat happens on Twitter each Monday from 4-6pm EST)

The idea is that you soak a cheese cloth in melted butter and white wine, drap that over the turkey as it roasts.  This is supposed to help keep the turkey moist while it roasts.

If you’re curious about where you can buy cheesecloth, Target carries some for a really inexpensive price.

For my turkey I went with:

  • Melted Butter
  • Bourbon
  • Stock

I used bourbon since the turkey was brined in bourbon.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that you won’t have to bast the turkey as often since it is covered in cloth.  If anything, you have to bast it even more.

The cheesecloth will dry out and dry out quickly. I found myself having to bast probably every 15-20 minutes.  If I waited any longer, the cheesecloth would start to burn.

The oven was 375 degrees, so not a high temp at all.

I was roasting parts from a 13 lb bird and it took about 2.5 hours for it to roast.  20 minutes before it was done, I removed the cheese cloth and cranked the oven temp up to 425.

I let the turkey finish roasting while the skin browned and crisped up.

The results I found with this Thanksgiving Experiment:

  • Brined turkey was way more tastier than the non-brined. It was also juicier.
  • Cheesecloth method was nice but the increased basting was kind of a pain.
  • No need to use alcohol or butter to soak the cloth in. Regular stock or even water would be fine. Save the alcohol for sipping (or gulping, whatever).
  • Roasting in quarters is easier and the back makes for great stock.
  • Lard seems to make the skin a lot crisper and more golden in color than butter.

That was how our Thanksgiving bird turned out!  Not sure if I’ll do any of this again next year.  I’m not making plans just yet and will see what next year brings.

Did you have turkey for Thanksgiving?  How did you prep yours?

Thanksgiving 2012

We’re back after a few days off for the holiday!  As you can see, our Thanksgiving tends to be pretty laid back.

Sweats or jammies are the dress-code and a MUST.  If you show up in anything other than elastic waist pants, you’ll be turned away at the door until you are properly outfitted.

We did some new things this year for Thanksgiving as we adjusted to our new space.  My overall approach, simple and stress-free, stayed the same though.

Normally I run on Thanksgiving morning but this year I decided not to.  I did get up early and start things moving along.

I did not go all out with decorations because the thought of unpacking another box was very unappealing.  I managed to pull out a few things to make the table a little festive though.

I also bought some super cute owl clips from World Market (not an affiliate link) and clipped those to the garland on the table.

The turkey turned out beautifully! And no, your eyes are not playing tricks on you.  I broke the turkey into quarters and roasted it that way this year.  I did things a little differently with the turkey, which I’ll talk about in another post.

We always have wine with Thanksgiving dinner and keep things simple with a nice Pinot Grigio.

For dinner, we had stuffing, mashed potatoes, turkey (clearly), and collard greens.  Along with some amazing gravy to go with everything!

We hung out, ate some great food, and gamed our little hearts out.  Perfect holiday!

Our Thanksgiving definitely had a theme to it this year which can be summed up in one word: Lard.

Oh yes.  But we’ll chat about that later.

How was your Thanksgiving this year?

Thanksgiving Planning

We’ve made it! It’s the week of Thanksgiving when all of the prep and planning starts to take place!

This is my favorite week and I look forward to it all year long!  I love spending time in the kitchen and I get to be in the kitchen each day this week.

Thanksgiving will be just a touch different around here this year because we’re still getting adjusted to a new space (both house and location) but we’ll talk all about that next week.

Now it’s time to focus on food prep!  I picked up my turkey over the weekend from Jodar Farms and will be sticking that in the fridge today to thaw out.

The rest of the week will be spent prepping and baking.  You can get an idea of how my week will look from this post. I’m also trying out some new things this year so fingers crossed it all works out!

Here at the HQ we’re on holiday until next week and then I’ll be back with a recap of our first Thanksgiving in Colorado!

Are you already prepping and planning for the big day?

Have A Very Happy Thanksgiving!

Lessons In Thanksgiving

Scott and I have been having Thanksgiving dinner together for over a decade by this point.

2012 marks, what I believe, is our 13th (I think, I’m bad at keeping track) year of dining together on the big day.

I’ve been making Thanksgiving dinner for us this entire time and over the years I’ve learned a lot.

Not only about cooking for the big day but also what we like and prefer.

One big thing I learned is to keep things simple.  While Thanksgiving is a big day full of eats, there doesn’t need to be 16 courses for the meal.  I find that can get over whelming, not just for the cook, but also for those eating.  I fully want to get my grub on but not quite that much.

We have a turkey, and a few staple side dishes.  Plenty of food to keep us satisfied and the fridge stocked with leftovers for the next few days.

Comprise is also a large part of Thanksgiving.  Everyone has different traditions and different things they are used to eating on the big day.  Scott was used to having sweet potatoes with his dinner.  I didn’t care for sweet potatoes (that has changed and now I love them).  So instead of tossing another side dish on the table, I make sweet potato pie for dessert instead of pumpkin.  Homemade crust and homemade whipped cream to go with it!   He’s happy and I’m happy.  Comprise, it helps keep things simple.

Over the years we’ve realized that we prefer to eat the big dinner as a late lunch, around 1 or 2pm.  This means that the kitchen is cleaned up shortly after and the rest of the day can be spent doing whatever we feel like.  Having an evening meal meant that we were doing dishes at 8 o’clock in the evening.  Yuck.

I was worn out by then and grumpy at having to still be doing more work.  An afternoon meal gets rid of all of that!  And if we get hungry again, then it’s easy to pull out some leftovers and heat.  Simple!

We like having a nice crisp pinot grigio with dinner.  It makes the dinner feel more fancy and goes perfectly with the turkey and sides.  No fussing with special cocktails and making sure things are mixed properly.  A simple wine, easy to take care of and no stress.

While making dinner is a lot of work and I’m prepping for days before hand, it’s low stress.  Now we’re in a groove and every year Thanksgiving turns out awesome.

What is your approach to Thanksgiving?  Is it a high maintenence affair or simple and casual?

Brining 101

Are you going to be brining your turkey this year for Thanksgiving?

Is this your first time brining a turkey?  If you know anything at all about this blog then you know that we are all about the brine here!

If you’re brining a turkey for the first time then this post on Brining A Whole Turkey is for you!

Here are two additional articles that provide tips for brining:

Don’t worry, these tips and suggestions don’t apply to just turkey.  You can brine chicken and pork as well!
Here’s a Tequila Brined Chicken and Cider and Beer Brined Chops to give you an idea of how to brine other items.

Last year for Thanksgiving we had a Bourbon Brined Turkey and this year we’re having that again!  I’m going to up the bourbon to 1C and add a little more jalapeno peppers in for some kick.

Sweet Potato Pie

Pumpkin pie is one of those items that I stopped making for our Thanksgiving dinner a few years back.  Don’t get me wrong, I love pumpkin!

But we have it all the time and I use it in a lot of different applications.  Sweet potatoes were something that was completely traditional for Scott to have at Thanksgiving so we couldn’t skip them.

What to do? They had to be part of the menu yet as a side dish would put us way over the edge.

I decided to remove them as a side dish and return them as dessert.

This has worked out very well!  We’re still getting sweet potatoes for the big day but not as a sticky gross mess (sorry but that whole marshmallow thing needs to go!).  Instead it’s served up in pie form!

And if you’ve got folks who claim they hate pumpkin (GASP!) you can serve them this instead!

This year I experimented a little and added a crumb topping and some good rum into the mix.

Andrea’s Rum and Sweet Potato Pie

For The Crust:

  • 2C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
  • 1/4C Coconut Oil
  • 1TBSP Light Olive Oil
  • 1/2TBSP Sugar
  • Cold Water

Combine flour, oils, and sugar into a food processor.  Pulse and slowly add in the cold water, 1/4C at a time.  Pulse until the mixture comes together and starts to form a ball.  The mixture should be easy to handle and come out of the food processor without sticking.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least two hours.  Can be made up to two days ahead of time.

For the Filling:

  • 1, Very Large Sweet Potato
  • 2TBSP Butter, room temperature
  • 1/4C Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
  • 1/4C Dark Rum
  • 1tsp Ground Cinnamon
  • 1/4tsp Ground Clove
  • 1TBSP Molasses
  • 2TBSP Brown Sugar, Packed
  • 2tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1/2tsp Baking Powder

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Poke holes in the sweet potato and place on a greased baking sheet.  Bake until a knife can be inserted easily.  Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.  Remove the outer skin and place sweet potato into a bowl for your stand mixer.  Add all the remaining ingredients for the filling and mix until everything is well blended.

For The Topping:

  • 1C Pecan Halves
  • 1C Oats
  • 1/4C Rum
  • 1TBSP Brown Sugar
  • 1TBSP Butter

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it resembles a crumble mixture.

Assembling and Baking:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Pull out a 9inch pie pan and grease using nonstick spray or olive oil.  Roll out pie dough until it’s about 1/4inch thick.  Place and fit into pie pan.  Crimp the edges and use a fork to poke holes in the bottom to allow steam to escape.  Add filling and smooth the top.  Sprinkle crumble topping on top using all of the mixture.

Bake for about 25-30 minutes.  A toothpick inserted will come out clean.  Remove and allow to cool completely before slicing and serving.

Serve and enjoy!

This pie went over very well this year!  The crust was flavorful but since I used whole wheat pastry flour, it had some great chew to it.  I like pie crusts to have some heft and not be too much like a pastry.

The rum was extremely prominent in this pie!  Next time I would probably leave out the rum in the crumble topping but feel free to play around with it and see what you like! I would probably add a little bit more olive oil or butter to the topping as well so it has a little bit more moisture to it.

Leftovers can be frozen and pulled out when you feel like a little slice of the holidays is necessary.

Have fun guys, and remember, always play with your food!  Enjoy!

Leftover Idea: Turkey Nachos

Everyone else is starting to post holiday cookie recipes and I’m over here still talking turkey.

This is my last leftover post and then you are free to put Thanksgiving behind you.  Or if you’re like us, you’ve got leftovers in the freezer and might be pulling them out soon to make this.

It was two days after Thanksgiving and I wanted to use up a little bit more turkey before it was wrapped up and placed in the freezer.  I thought of making sandwichs and I knew soup was right out.

I wanted something fun and a little different.  Plus it was a game night and game foods started running through my head.

I finally settled on nachos!

Turkey nachos, easy, different, and fun to eat.

Andrea’s Turkey Nachos

  • Leftover Turkey, cubed or shredded
  • 1/2  Red Onion, chopped
  • 1 Green Pepper, chopped
  • 1 Carrot, shredded
  • 1 Can Pinto Beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1C Frozen Corn
  • Salt
  • Garlic Powder
  • Chili Powder
  • 2C Your Favorite Salsa
  • Shredded Cheese
  • Tortilla Chips

Preheat oven to 400 Degrees.  Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with nonstick spray or olive oil.  Put a layer of tortilla chips on the baking sheet.

In a sautee pan, add in about 1/2TBSP olive oil and heat over medium heat.  Add in the onion, pepper, carrot and season with a little salt, garlic powder, and chili powder (amounts are to your taste).  Sautee for about two minutes.  Add in the turkey, beans, and salsa.  Heat until everything is heated through.

Remove mixture from heat and pour over the tortilla chips.  Sprinkle the top with your favorite cheese and place in oven.  Bake about 10 minutes, just until the cheese is melty and bubbly.

Remove from heat and serve with guacamole and sour cream!

Perfect way to get out of the Thanksgiving leftover rut and simple enough to put together that you aren’t slaving away in the kitchen.  Again.

I used pepperjack cheese and chihuahua cheese.  Nice and creamy melty goodness!

Have fun guys, and remember, always play with your food! Enjoy!