Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving
11/24/11

I offered to cook my first Thanksgiving dinner at Richard's apartment.  Richard (Dick) has a face like Father Christmas, a very cheeky grin and a wonderful sense of humor and the best story teller I have ever heard.   Now a little background .... Dick was brought up with his matriarch Grandmother ruling over the household - his mother had to bow to the Grandmother at all times and was not even allowed in the kitchen.  Dick's family were very wealthy and respected in the area and had a great number of slaves back in the plantation days - later becoming servants known as "the help".  Dick's Grandmother's wet nurse became part of the family and helped raised Dick also.  So in that context Dick “the southern gentleman” was used to formal dinners, perfectly prepared and presented meals and good manners.  Dick was the curator of the oldest Church in the East (St Lukes). We used the "old family" dinnerware - the crystal glasses that were a wedding present to his Grandmother (my goodness was I nervous washing and drying those !!!) and silver dinnerware with the family crest.  The table looked beautiful and Dick had tears in his eyes.  Dick would normally spend Thanksgiving with his caregiver and friend, Fran and her husband Cliff, we were so fortunate to be able to spend that time with him.

I wanted to cook a traditional dinner (I had been instructed on some of the recipes by Dick) - the turkey had to be roasted after being thawed for days then allowed to dry in the fridge for 24 hrs - pity because we didn't purchase the bird until 48 hrs before so ours was short changed from the beginning.  Thanksgiving dinner consists of Turkey, gravy, dressing (stuffing if it is cooked inside the bird), beans, cranberry sauce, a sweet potato dish and of course to finish with - pumpkin pie.

I made my own cranberry sauce and wanted something to be a little different so I found a recipe that adds orange zest and brandy - the sauce turned out too sweet and orangey so I had the "boss" taste it and declare my thoughts were correct so I cooked up another batch without sugar and orange and mixed them all together - it was really good.  The long green beans are always served with caramelized shallots - I couldn't get shallots so tried to caramelize onions - I had little burnt crisp bits in with the beans :-).  Fran made two sweet potato pies and gave one to us for our dinner - now this is the very strange part - to make sweet potato as a vegetable you cook it and either leave in lumps or mash, cover top with brown sugar, pecans and marsh-mellows - and yes that is considered a vegetable - if you want to turn it into a dessert pie you add egg and a crust !!!  Fran says there is a reason Americans are soo large :-).  The latest is deep frying the bird - yuk !!  Oh and mashed potatoes - not baked !!!!

Dinner was wonderful - beans undercooked, turkey tender and moist, dressing a little crunchy and mashed potatoes left in microwave and totally forgotten but we had a great time and full tummies.

Now back the to subject of salads and veges - jello (jelly for us) is mainly used in salads here - you can add grated carrot to a lemon jelly etc.  I went to dinner the other night and Rowena served a dish which was red pears cut in half and the core taken out, the gap filled with cream cheese and chopped walnuts then put back together and placed in a rectangular dish.  Green jello covered the pears - very pretty and tasted wonderful but we ate it before the main meal as it is considered a salad - boy do I love this place - dessert before and after the main meal !!!!!