Thanksgiving

I started cooking Wednesday night around seven. Twenty-four hours later, the table looked like this:

Here's My entry for the second annual "Thanksgiving Table of the Year Awards"



From Left to Right: Rica, Christal, Jessica, Grainne, Andy, Meredith, and Mk



Did I mention we made Pie? Andy Supplied the Apple filling, and Christal made the latticework. Yum yum!!

Since I put so much work into it, I'm going to describe in detail the meal.

I started with the sausage. In the states we used morning star farms sausage; they're the best and totally yummy, also totally non-existent here in Cairo. So, I started with some texturized Soy Protein, added pepper, rosemary, fresh parsley, marjoram, thyme and some garlic powder. I mixed that all up, let it soak in water for a while, then mixed it with a few teaspoons of flour and a few eggs. I rolled them into sausage links (with their light brown color, they really looked gross) and dropped them into boiling water (with bouillon and tamari) until they floated to the top. Then I fried them in butter until they were golden brown.

I then made a typical sausage stuffing, with celery, onions and butter, and mostly the same spices except I added a bunch of sage and a LOT more garlic. I put some vegetarian chicken patties on top of that and left it to soak up some moisture overnight.

Then I had to make the stock. I've never found parsnips here in Cairo, So I used turnips instead. I boiled the shit out of some onions, garlic, celery, parsley, potatoes and turnips, with pinch of marjoram, thyme, and oregano.

By this point, it was about two in the morning (it would have been done earlier, except, while I was putting my wife to bed, the stock boiled over and the flame went out, so I lost a few hours there (it takes me a while to put her to bed).

The next morning, J went to work and took Mk with her. So, after a nice cup of coffee and a not so nice bike ride to the market, I started back up again. I took my stock from the night before, removed all the vegetables but keeping the starchy ones. Then I put a whole new batch of veggies in there (mostly the same ones but I also added some carrots, spices, tamari and bouillon) I then boiled the shit out of them. I strained it again, but this time, I took all the veggies and tossed them into the blender, slowly added some of the strained stock. I ended up with a thick savory substance the consistency of tomato soup, which I then tossed back on the stove and reduced until dinner time. To this mixture I added a bunch of mushrooms sauteed in butter, garlic and basil. This was my gravy.

So that's the main focus of my meal. Sausage stuffing with thick mushroom gravy. But I had quite a few other little extras:

Tomato, mozzarella, and basil morsels sprinkled with balsamic vinegar and oil for an appetizer

A carrot, date and apple salad

tabbouleh salad

cold roasted beets (rubbed with garlic, salt pepper and olive oil)

Lentil soup (Jessica made this)

fresh peas (just lightly steamed)

string beans sauteed with almonds

sweet potatoes with a butter, ginger, and walnut sauce

Mashed potatos (Jessica made these)

And, of course, ocean spray cranberry sauce, pulled out of the can with the lines still intact, cut into two halves and places on the plates.

For dessert, I made two pies.

The first one was a simple pumpkin pie made from canned pumpkin filling. I added evaporated milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. The recipe called for cloves, which I forgot I had, and I also decided not to put nutmeg in it, because I blamed last year's yucky pumpkin pie on the nutmeg (in retrospect, it is possible that i accidentally put coriander into it).

Andy brought some apples and we made a nice apple pie with a latticework crust on top.

Although the pie fillings were not really my doing, I was especially proud of the crusts, which consisted of flour and butter, with just a pinch of salt. The weren't the best I've ever had, but they were respectable. Especially since I've only made one other crust in my life, almost ten years ago for a spinach quiche (or was it broccoli?). The secret, I think, is not to work the dough too much. Also, use room temperature butter when you mix it in with the flour but, after you get it to the right consistency, refrigerate it for a few hours before rolling it out. At least that's what Irma says.

We also had homemade whipped cream and strawberries and Cristal had brought some delicious pomegranates

Finally, Jessica made some spiced chai (ginger, cardamon, cloves, cinnamon, and black tea, with milk and sugar) and I made some coffee.

All in all, it was a pretty darn good meal, and I don't think I'll have the energy to cook again, for about six more months-- probably just in time for our leftovers to run out.

So we had five guests, and we all had a lovely time. Jessica fell asleep around nine. At about ten o'clock Meredith, Christal, and Rica left. I put Mk to bed and Andy hung around for a few more hours. Today is his sister's birthday, so he wanted to use our Skype to call home. Also, since today was Jessica's Birthday, I also put her present out. It consisted of about 30 pictures enlarged and finally getting our wedding present from Uncle John framed as well as a piece of word art which she made when we first started dating. She woke up around five this morning and found it:

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone, and Happy Birthday Jessica!!