10:30am: We begin the stuffing. In one of those moments where the obvious momentarily overcomes my lifelong thick-skulledness, we realize that the difference between stuffing and dressing is that stuffing is stuffed into the turkey, and dressing is not. This was a perennial topic of discussion at family Thanksgiving dinners.
11:05am: It's very hard to separate the turkey skin from the meat, which we have to do in order to rub in the maple herb butter. We discover that the only way to do it successfully is to become violent with the turkey. Danie made the maple herb butter last night, which consists of:
2 cups cider, .5 cup maple syrup. Reduced to .5 cup liquid. Whisk in .5 cup butter, lots of herbs. Chilled overnight.
We rub the maple herb butter under the turkey skin, stuff the bird, and put it into the oven.
11:29am: On to giblet stock.
11:35am: We have identified neck, heart, liver, and something else.
11:56am: A short lull. Danie is talking about something called "vegebles." These seem to be related to vegetables.
11:48am: Danie just cleansed her nalate. It is the first of what we assume will be many nalate cleansings today.
12:20pm: Alice's Restaurant begins.
12:52pm: Alice's Restaurant concludes. I like the part when all the convicts are scared of Arlo Guthrie because he's in for....littering. The turkey stock, after smelling nasty for a while, now smells good. Cinnamon and coriander helped.
1:24pm: Turkey check. It is distressingly dark brown on the drumsticks. We are worried. We realize that this is probably due to the high concentration of maple herb butter in this area, cooking faster because of the sugar. We wrap the drums in another layer of foil.
2:27pm: Turkey out! Gratin in! Potatoes mashed!
3:30om: Dinner served. We had:
Maple Herb Butter Turkey
Homemade Turkey Stock Gravy
Sweet Potato and Sausage Gratin
Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Green Beans, Roasted Fennel, and Shallots
Apple Almond Streusel from Clear Flour
Talbott Case Pinot Noir 1998
Yum!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Skiver Me Timbers!
Aebleskivers
An inauspicious start for the morning: no bacon in the house, first of all, and then the secondary dismaying realization that we were out of milk. I was starting to whine, a little bit. We remembered that we had Bob's Red Mill Wholesome Goodness! Buttermilk pancake mix in the pantry and on the back of it was an intriguing recipe for something called "Aebleskivers."
It was fun to say, and we had pears that were starting to go gross, so we decided to make it (paereskivers?). Aebelskivers are apparently a kind of spherical Dutch pancakes that are loaded with apples. The flaw in our plan was a tragic lack of an aebleskiver pan, which we noticed belatedly (after Tony had already ripped off his shirt to intimidate the egg whites). But a muffin pan was called into service and it seemed to do OK. We minced the pears with some vanilla sugar, butter, and cinnamon, and spooned them into the batter.
Here's the basic Bob's Red Mill Wholesome Goodness! recipe:
2 Eggs, separated
1.5 cups Bob's Red Mill Wholesome Goodness! Buttermilk Pancake and Waffle Mix
1 cup water
2 tbsp melted butter
butter for frying
powdered sugar
For the pears:
2 pears
2 tsp vanilla sugar
.5 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp butter, melty
In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks until light. Stir in Bob's! etc, water, and 2 tbsp melted butter until blended. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold whites into batter.
Generously butter each aebleskiver cup... or muffin cup, as the case may be. We heated the muffin pan at 350 then filled each cup 3/4 full with batter. We spooned in the pear mixture to the top of it, probably just a teaspoon into each 'skiver, sprinkled an extra dash of cinnamon on top of each for good measure, and popped it in the oven.
So we're not sure if what we made is really an aebleskiver, because aebleskiver pans seem to be more stove-based, but whatever: they still cooked, the house smelled lovely, and we kept anxiously poking the 'skivers with toothpicks til they came clean.
Covered 'em with a dusting of sugar and some maple syrup for good measure- and heated up leftover pear mixture to make it more of a compote- and ate. I had four, and Tony managed eight. They were really light and fluffy, looked like little cupcakes- I guess that was inevitable- and while the ingredients weren't all that different from pancakes, were much less heavy, and much more fun, to eat.
An inauspicious start for the morning: no bacon in the house, first of all, and then the secondary dismaying realization that we were out of milk. I was starting to whine, a little bit. We remembered that we had Bob's Red Mill Wholesome Goodness! Buttermilk pancake mix in the pantry and on the back of it was an intriguing recipe for something called "Aebleskivers."
It was fun to say, and we had pears that were starting to go gross, so we decided to make it (paereskivers?). Aebelskivers are apparently a kind of spherical Dutch pancakes that are loaded with apples. The flaw in our plan was a tragic lack of an aebleskiver pan, which we noticed belatedly (after Tony had already ripped off his shirt to intimidate the egg whites). But a muffin pan was called into service and it seemed to do OK. We minced the pears with some vanilla sugar, butter, and cinnamon, and spooned them into the batter.
Here's the basic Bob's Red Mill Wholesome Goodness! recipe:
2 Eggs, separated
1.5 cups Bob's Red Mill Wholesome Goodness! Buttermilk Pancake and Waffle Mix
1 cup water
2 tbsp melted butter
butter for frying
powdered sugar
For the pears:
2 pears
2 tsp vanilla sugar
.5 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp butter, melty
In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks until light. Stir in Bob's! etc, water, and 2 tbsp melted butter until blended. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff but not dry. Fold whites into batter.
Generously butter each aebleskiver cup... or muffin cup, as the case may be. We heated the muffin pan at 350 then filled each cup 3/4 full with batter. We spooned in the pear mixture to the top of it, probably just a teaspoon into each 'skiver, sprinkled an extra dash of cinnamon on top of each for good measure, and popped it in the oven.
So we're not sure if what we made is really an aebleskiver, because aebleskiver pans seem to be more stove-based, but whatever: they still cooked, the house smelled lovely, and we kept anxiously poking the 'skivers with toothpicks til they came clean.
Covered 'em with a dusting of sugar and some maple syrup for good measure- and heated up leftover pear mixture to make it more of a compote- and ate. I had four, and Tony managed eight. They were really light and fluffy, looked like little cupcakes- I guess that was inevitable- and while the ingredients weren't all that different from pancakes, were much less heavy, and much more fun, to eat.
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