Giving Thanks for Friends, Farm Shares and Home Improvements

It's been a longish dry periods between updates, with one of my all-time favorite holidays in the meantime -- which means, I think, we owe a decidedly longish entry today. And luckily, I am sitting at home dreading doing the 7th and 8th sinkloads of dishes (Nate having done the same amount over again before leaving for work), so conditions are perfect for blogging. So let's start with Saturday ...

Saturday
Nate left early on work on Saturday morning, so I tackled a day sure to be full of work and chores in the only sensible way: having my breakfast and watching home makeover TV. After the coffee and oatmeal were but memories and the various living rooms and kitchens had been repainted, I checked my email and got some bad news: Nate had emailed to say his store had no turkeys of any variety, whether fresh or frozen. This year's Canadian Thanksgiving dinner is the 10th I have hosted, and while the paucity of turkeys in the U.S. has given me a few dicey moments in those 10 years, I have always found one of appropriate size in time for dinner. And, not to give away the whole show, but this year was no exception -- but it took phone calls to every Whole Foods in New York City, and a two-hour round trip to the farthest one to bring my 15-pound beauty back to the welcoming confines of our fridge.

Needless to say, that put a bit of a cramp in the flow of the day, but I persevered through the highs and lows. Example: I did the laundry (high) but dumped out an improperly-closed container of OxyClean all over the floor and into my laundry bag (low). I made the best damned spice cake I have ever made in my life -- moist, spongey, excellently spiced (definite high) and then fumbled one of the pans taking it out of the oven and broke the top layer into many a piece (definite, curse-filled low). I facilely whipped up a pie crust -- my personal culinary Everest -- but made an unsatisfactory filling. I also labored to put our living room, kitchen and bedroom into a semblance of order in advance of company. It was a long day, so when I finished my pie crust I rewarded myself with some Champagne taking up room in our fridge. (Two birds! One stone!). Said Champagne was leftover from the batch I bought to sip on our wedding day. Creating a pie crust with good texture: as happy a day as the day we married? I'll never tell.



Nate came home around this time, and we had a few hours more of work before Jeff, our guest for the holiday weekend arrived. We had planned for a dinner out in celebration of Jeff's birthday the day before, but by the time he arrived and found parking (apparently there was a major entertainment event in the Heights that night, so parking was far, far away), he was exhausted and the hour was late. So we ordered some Plum Pomidor (plantain chips, calamari, bolonaise and fettucine) and enjoyed some 365-brand Merlot in a box we imported from Chicago. Dinner was delicious, despite the expressions on our faces -- even the delivery calamari was good:









And the 365 Merlot was fab AND came in an ecologically correct box and spigot.



After we supplemented the merlot with some birthday cake for the birthday guest -- the traditional wacky cake with buttercream icing (a little too crunchy in the icing, actually, since we ran out of icing sugar and supplemented with white sugar) served with untraditional drink umbrellas in it. Note the cake stand in use: a delightful feature of this weekend was getting to put into effect all the wedding gifts I registered for and was told would never get use. Let it be witnessed: I have used my cakestand at least once, and it was glorious and totally worth it.





Afterward we watched some of the Red Sox games.





Sunday

The next day dawned late -- or rather, we greeted the dawn late -- and we began the preparations for the evening's dinner. By eating toast.



Then came the next-most important task: reinstalling some shelves we had hung earlier in the week and that were drooping unhappily. Can't have drooping shelves. Obviously, Nate and Jeff enjoyed this task immensely.



Jeff eventually hit on an ingenious solution of bracing the shelves with washers, and we could turn our attention to the main dish of the day.



You may note that Nate is holding the turkey in a fantastic roasting dish. This is, as I said, the 10th Canadian Thanksgiving I/we have hosted, and the 15th, I believe, overall we've celebrated, and this is the very first time we have had a roasting pan to use in place of a foil pan. And guess what? IT WAS AWESOME.

Then, while Nate labored in our one-bum kitchen, Jeff and I decided to use the aforementioned broken spice cake for a recipe that I created with Nate: a spice cake pear trifle with pumpkin-butterscotch sauce. Ridiculous easy -- just tossed some farm-share pears in amaretto and layered them with the cake, some whipped cream and the sauce (converted from the butterscotch icing made for the ill-fated spice cake) -- and with the double benefit of looking highly impressive AND letting me use the trifle bowl I registered for. Zing!

Here I am while we assemble:



And here's Jeff hoisting the finished product like Lord Stanley's cup. Luckily, unlike the cup, if you touch the trifle bowl before you have won it in combat, you're not jinxed from ever having it again.



At that point, it was time to set the table and start laying out the goods. The turkey emerged, looking golden and lovely.



Crackers and baguette, check.



Cheese plate with Stilton, borough market cheddar and fromage affinois with kiwi berries, grapes and fig jam, check.



Pumpkin drop biscuits with flax seed, created by Nate as a last-minute addition, check. Served on wedding gift tiered server, check and ROCK!



Guests with drinks in hand, check.



And after everyone had arrived and got settled, it was time to bring out the main courses: the turkey; stuffing; roasted share celeriac, brussel sprouts, share garlic, butternut squash, celery and share onions; mashed sweet potatoes with pecan praline; mashed potatoes; mashed share carrots and share turnips, a Nate's family classic; share corn tomalito; Nate's homemade cranberry sauce; and gravy (in our new gravy boat, yeah!).



(Check out Nate's pics on flickr -- the link is on the side -- for detail shots, if you're so inclined.)

And after everyone had sufficient time to bloat, we brought out the desserts: the aforementioned trifle and pumpkin pie, as well as apple pie, banana cupcakes and cookies brought by generous guests.



A closeup on my pumpkin pie. The best-looking -- but paradoxically worst-tasting -- pumpkin pie I have ever made.



I think the food -- all thanks to Nate -- turned out deliciously, and our guests (15 this year, a good amount in as that we only have 13 seats) seemed to leave full, which is all you can ask for. And the new office-nook created by the bookshelves didn't seem to negatively affect the space really at all. Hooray! I gave thanks for the blessing of sharing a delicious meal with all the fabulous friends and family who came to visit (including new friends! Some who were Canadian!), as well as for our new gifts getting some use (shallow, shallow, but true, true) and for the non-droopy shelves being sufficiently secure to not fall on anyone below. I think we can all be thankful for that.

Monday

Today was a mellow day: Jeff returned to Rhode Island, Nate went to work, and I ran errands before succumbing to the cold I've been trying to push off and returning home to collapse on the couch and listen to Sherlock Holmes books on tape. Tomorrow should bring three great things: pictures of the apartment redo and hot turkey sandwiches, which are so great they count as two items. I can't wait.

Bison Burritos & Corn With Cotija!

Today's challenge: I was thinking that I would make something Mexicany for dinner. The problem: I also wanted to use up our bok choy. The solution? Well, you're just going to have to keep reading to find out the secret surprise!



The first step was making a salad with the beets. Generally when one thinks about beets their mind does not immediately go to Mexico. However, tonight I was all about breaking down walls. I'm like the Ronald Reagan to vegetable origins' Berlin Wall.

I made a salad using the red leaf, arugula, and beets. I combined that with some toasted pepitas, cotija cheese, lime juice, olive oil, and cayenne. The result was quite pleasing, however, the beets were not quite as flavorful as the beets we'd gotten earlier in the season.





I used the bison I had in the freezer from the summer to make a chili with the red and green peppers and some black beans. I made a quick burrito with a compound sour cream (with cumin, cayenne, lime, and chili), some red leaf lettuce, and some avocado.



I used three out of the six ears of corn by making corn on the cob with cotija and lime. I also made a spicy mayonnaise with cayenne pepper and tossed this all together.



Another dish that is popular throughout Mexico is the baked potato. Almost as much as the beet, the baked potato was a staple of the ancient Aztec diet. For my Mexican baked potato I also used the compound sour cream from earlier.



And for the bok choy: Mexican bok choy stir fry! I rendered a little bacon then cooked the bok choy with a little chili, cayenne, salt, and a touch of honey.

Wasn't that an amazing climax? It's hard to top it except with . . .



Some Spanish wine! Nothing says Mexico like some wine from a country that is not Mexico! I liked the wine. Jen thought it tasted 'musty'. Also there were some weird little black balls that had collected on the cork. I suspect that this was because of some tannins. When in doubt, blame the tannins.

And that, my friends, is how you make an incredibly weakly themed ethnic meal.

Enjoy.

In Which Nate Teaches Some Women About Corn

Today's farm share pick up was fairly uneventful. It started with me driving by the pick up location at 3:30 only to remember that the vegetables don't get set up until 4:30. I occupied the hour I had to kill by performing a 173 point parallel park into a sweet vacant space.



Later on I walked over to pick up our share this week. In the share we got: 2/3 pound of arugula, 1 bulb of celeriac, 4 beets, 1 eggplant, 1 head of red leaf lettuce, 2 bell peppers, 1 bulb of garlic, 1 head of bok choy, 6 ears of corn, some snap beans, and 16 pears. A woman picking up was complaining about several things including the amount of corn we were getting. "What am I supposed to do with all this corn?" she griped.

I offered her some advice. She should try freezing the corn. I'd done this the previous two weeks being unable to use the corn quickly enough. The grumpy woman seemed unimpressed but the rest of the women there were quite interested in how they could best do this.



When I got home I cored, peeeled, and cut the remaining apples from last week and threw them in a pot to make applesauce.



I made a salad using the arugula, red leaf and sliced pears. Combined with a little Parmesan, olive oil and lemon juice it made a pretty tasty salad.



I used up the eggplant with the zucchini from last week to make a white vegetable lasagne. I wasn't incredibly impressed with the result. The eggplant was very woody. Also, my laziness may have affected the final product. What I should have done was par cook the sliced squash prior to assembling the lasagna. What I did do was just layer the squash in the pan raw which resulted in a thinner and slightly more watery lasagna.

So it goes.



We had some of the warm applesauce with a sprinkle of cinnamon as dessert. Afterward we also made some yogurt with some of the raspberries Jen's dad had given us before we left Chicago. I think he may have given them to us just to brag about the fact that they only cost $0.99 per container.

Regardless, they were delicious.

Fixing a Leek (For Dinner)

This past weekend, Jen and I flew to the Chicagoland area for a friend's wedding. It was an incredibly quick trip that culminated in yesterday's 16 hour drive home. Why did we drive home? Well, we are now car owners, courtesy of Jen's sister who sold us her car. Now we have the pleasure of having to park a car in our neighborhood. And it only took 12 hours to get our first ticket!

Today was mostly spent relaxing with a quick early morning jaunt to Ikea where I picked up a few things we've been needing and came home to put it all together.

There were still a good deal of vegetables in the fridge from last week but nothing very suitable for a proper lunch so we picked up some sandwiches from Jou Jou.



My favorite moment of the day was our break for tea where we got to enjoy banana chocolate chip muffins and date squares made by Jen's mom! She packed enough date squares and muffins to get us through the week.



The greens held up surprisingly well since last week so I was able to use them for salad with pistachios, grape tomatoes, feta cheese, balsamic vinegar and olive oil.





Jen's dad gave us some leeks from his garden. I used those leeks along with the leeks from the farm share to make a quick potato leek soup. I rendered a little bacon in a small amount of butter, cooked the leeks and potatoes, added a little chicken stock and milk and pureed it. I finished it with some chopped dill which I don't normally do but it turned out pretty well.

Now it's 8:42PM and we are having a debate. Jen is taking the side of getting back to work cleaning, organizing and getting our new furniture set up. I'm taking the side of going straight to bed right now.

May the best debater win.

Indian Summer

Today I came home with the intention of doing two things: 1) making a dinner that was Mexican themed and 2) making a dinner that used up some of our corn.

My score: 50%.



This week we got: 2 red peppers, 1 bunch of leeks, 5 ears of corn (again), 1 1/2 pounds of potatoes, 1 pound of salad mix, 1 pound of carrots, 1 head of bok choy, 1 pound of sweet turnips, 3 squash, and 4 pounds of Yonder Farm apples.



I started off by making a corn salad with the corn, red pepper, wax pepper, red onion, mixed greens, cumin, cardamom, cayenne, and tandoori spice. Normally when the word Indian is used in this close proximity to the word corn it is not the country India that is being referred to. Some would say that there isn't a ton of corn used in Indian cooking (of the non-Native American variety). However, I needed this to lead into my main course . . .



Vegetable Tikka Masala. I cooked up some onion, pepper, eggplant, carrot, and potato then simmered it with some tikka masala sauce. I served it over some basmati rice with the tiny amount of naan we had left in the freezer.



For dinner we had some baked apples that Jen had set up earlier yesterday. I added a little maple syrup and granola to the mix, filled the cored apples and baked them.

Now that we have another four pounds of apples left and we're going away for a long weekend I'm going to have to get creative to use up the rest of these apples. Maybe I can make grilled apples with applesauce for dinner tomorrow night.

Have I mentioned that I don't really care for apples all that much?