When the Smoke Clears

Alright, yes, it is a quiet Thanksgiving here in the cabin, and I have been cooking up a storm. I have drop-ins and strandeds coming by for food, but mostly it’s a relaxed place. It’s not the perfect place for Thanksgiving because without TV, there is no football. Mom wanted me to drive down, but I had already made other commitments. I’ll go visit her soon.

However, I wanted some good food… so… traditional holiday fare around here:

Basic Turkey breast slow roasted on a rotisserie in a convection oven over several hours, still moist, rich and tender. Seasoned with sea salt from just outside my house when I was in the Caymans, fresh English Rosemary (a little milder than domestic) and thyme from the yard, lemons, a bit of butter and dry white wine. Stuffing… well, dressing, since it’s hard to stuff a spinning bird… includes homemade bread from last week, sage, thyme, garlic, shallots (all from the yard, of course), and some homemade chicken stock.

Fresh mushroom/wine sauce for the gravy a little less thick than my normal but still tasty. There is also a standard, traditional gravy with no mushrooms for the less sophisticated.

Side dishes include a different kind of green bean casserole with swiss and gruyere cheeses, sour cream, and NO condensed mushroom soup. Also, cranberry relish made from whole crandberries and no gel or can indentations. I never understood those, by they way… cranberry sauce is so incredibly easy to make, why go with the canned variety that tastes like chemicals and has a slight grit to it?

Also, sweet potatoes, of course, with standard salt, cinnamon, brown sugar, brandy, butter, and stuff. And the mashed potatoes. I’ve said it before, the French, for all their faults, know how to cook. And when it comes to doing mashed potatoes… or a puree, rather, they have it down. Mine come out so good that no one wants to put gravy on them. But it takes a lot of patience and a lot of arm and shoulder strength to do them right. It’s technique more than ingredients.

As an appetizer, roma tomato slices baked slowly under a low heat with fresh basil and garlic, drizzled in olive oil over goat cheese and toast.

For desert, a winemaker’s harvest cake with an odd combination of late season crimson-red grapes, olive oil and merlot. Not too sweet, not too rich, but still full of goodness.

A wide variety of beers, wines, fruit juices and sweet tea are also available, please be sure to tip your server.

I also take requests and have thrown together a raspberry torte for a couple, but no… not enough time for the slow-bake green beans. Maybe later this weekend.

And between my stray soldiers and my friends, I have had calls from all over the world. It’s truly a blessing to know these men and women. They are not forgotten on a day like this or any other day for as long as I live.

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