Thanksgiving Feast

roasted turkey breast

I braved the daunting task of cooking for about twenty (20!) of my friends this past weekend, and believe it or not, it went off without a hitch. The holidays are times for your family; and for me, friends are as much family as the people that raised me. So I was pleased to prepare this meal for them and spend time together before we scatter to the four winds to be with our families for the holidays.

the buffet; and yes, i wear an apron.

Here’s the menu:

Roasted Turkey Breast
Traditional Sage and Sausage Dressing
Apple and Leek Dressing (v)
Turkey Gravy with Sherry
Baked Whipped Potatoes (v)
Spinach Gruyere Gratin (v)
Honey Glazed Carrots (v)
Cranberry Conserve (v)
Golden Beets and Pomegranate Salad (v)
Yeast Rolls (v)
Jack Daniels Pecan Pie, Pumpkin Bread, Ginger and Orange cookies (v)

(v) – no carne; vegetarian

You might be wondering how I pulled this off. Well that secret weapon was my mom, who graciously helped with preparation and supplies. Thanks, Mom. She also served as my phone hotline while I was cooking for any emergency questions like, “Can you refrigerate gravy, nuke it, and have it come together again?!” The answer: yes!

Herb Roasted Turkey

I could do without turkey at Thanksgiving. Yean, I’m in that camp. It’s on the buffet, but it’s not the highlight for me. And it’s probably more trouble that it’s worth. That said, I had to forgo the full bird. Instead, I roasted and carved two turkey breasts (bone-in) Friday night, refrigerated the slices, and intended to bring it up to room temperature for dinner on Saturday. (I forgot, and served cool turkey; but everything else was hot, so who knew?) The advantages of turkey breast over the full bird are: reduced thawing and cooking times, more quality meat, less carving, and it will comfortably feed a crowd with some leftovers.

turkey bird

To begin, thaw the bird according to the packaging recommendations for the specific weight of turkey you have. Rinse and pat dry. (Clean your sink thoroughly after this to avoid cross-contamination!) Preheat oven to super hot: 450°F. Because I lacked a roasting rack, I used halved onions and lemons to prop up the bird. Melt a stick of butter and stir in salt, pepper and fresh thyme leaves. Brush the bird with half of this mixture, and then half-way through the cooking time, brush the bird with the remaining.

The key to getting the turkey right is checking the internal temperature, which should reach 165°F in the middle of the breast. I used a snazzy oven probe meat thermometer with alarm. When the turkey reaches the desired, programmed temperature, an alarm goes off, and out comes the turkey. Easy, right? Then just let the bird rest, tented with aluminum foil for about 30 minutes. Then carve. I followed this video to get the best results.

turkey

Turkey Gravy

When the turkey was done and resting aside, I placed the roasting pan on the stove top over medium-high heat, and added a gravy base from Williams-Sonoma with equal parts milk. This allows for full-proof gravy when there are other dishes to get together. Scrape the bottom of the roasting pan to pick up some of the tasty bits. I sprinkled in poultry seasoning (on the aisle with herbs at the grocery store), cooking sherry, salt and pepper. Then taste and season until you’re happy. I let it cool and refrigerated it overnight. When I was ready to serve, I just microwaved it in 1-minute intervals, whisking between until hot. While it’s optional, I highly recommend adding the sherry. It made the gravy more complex and acidic.

clockwise from top: apple & leek dressing, turkey gravy, sage and sausage dressing patties, turkey

Traditional Sage and Sausage Dressing Patties

Recipe to come…this is a family favorite.

apple leek dressing

Apple and Leek Dressing

This is a vegetarian option from Martha Stewart, with the major flavor components being country bread, Macintosh apples, leeks and rosemary. Yum! I’ve got to start using leeks more. They’re a pain to clean  (grains of sand lodge in the layers of the plant), but well worth it. Leeks are a lit like a cross between an onion and celery.

baked whipped potatoes and spinach gratin

Baked Whipped Potatoes

This is my mom’s recipe. What’s great about this is that it’s a casserole. You’re not whipping and seasoning potatoes at the last minute before they go on the serving table. Instead, you make it and bake in advance and just keep warm until served. All of the delightful baked potato toppings are already mixed in, and you end up with this very flavorful, airy potato.

• 8 baking potatoes
• 3/4 cup hot milk
• 8 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons onion salt
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 tablespoons butter on top
• paprika

Directions
1. Peal, cube and boil potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain.
2. With an electric beater, combine hot milk, cream cheese, sour cream, butter, onion salt, and salt and pepper. Add potatoes and whip. Check seasoning—it may need more salt and pepper.
3. Pour into a Pyrex dish and sprinkle with paprika. Dot top of casserole with small slices of butter. Bake for 20-30 minutes in a 350°F oven.

Ina Garten’s Spinach Gratin

This cheesy little number was a favorite at the feast. And when you read the rich ingredients you’ll know why. One thing I like about this dish is that there’s a good balance between inexpensive—even some frozen ingredients—and the fresh, more expensive ingredients. And when it all comes together, it tastes truly divine. The cheese is gooey, and a bit crispy on top. And it’s well worth the extra penny for the Parmesan and Gruyere.

• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 4 cups chopped yellow onions (2 large)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups milk
• 3 pounds frozen chopped spinach, defrosted (5 (10-ounce) packages)
• 1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 425° F.
2. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saute pan over medium heat. Add the onions and saute until translucent, about 15 minutes. Add the flour and nutmeg and cook, stirring, for 2 more minutes. Add the cream and milk and cook until thickened. Squeeze as much liquid as possible from the spinach and add the spinach to the sauce. Add 1/2 cup of the Parmesan cheese and mix well. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
3. Transfer the spinach to a baking dish and sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan and the Gruyere on top. Bake for 20 minutes until hot and bubbly.

my favorite dish

Cranberry Conserve

This dish is absolutely my favorite item on the Thanksgiving plate. It’s sweet and tart, and crunchy and smooth. It beats the heck out of the canned, ringed cranberry gelatin stuff. And it is wonderful side item to not just turkey and dressing, but also chicken tetrazzini and other such bird dishes.

• 1 (12-ounce) bag of fresh cranberries (can use frozen)
  
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
• 1 orange, zest grated and juiced
• 1 lemon, zest grated and juiced
• 3/4 cup raisins
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• a splash of port (optional)
  

Directions
Cook the cranberries, sugar, and 1 cup of water in a saucepan over low heat for about 5 minutes, or until the skins pop open. Add the apple, zests, and juices and cook for 15 more minutes. Remove from the heat and add the raisins and nuts. Let cool, and serve chilled.

honey glazed carrots

Honey Glazed Carrots

These carrots serve as a nice contrast to the creamy, heavier recipes of mashed potatoes and spinach gratin. The preparation is simple, but ever so tasty!

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
  
• 3 pounds carrots, halved lengthwise, and chopped into 1/2-inch pieces
  
• 1 cup canned reduced-sodium vegetable broth
  
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• fresh thyme leaves
  

Directions
1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Add carrots; cook, stirring once, until beginning to brown, 2 minutes.
2. Add broth, honey, and vinegar; season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer, cover, and cook until crisp-tender, 10 minutes. Uncover, and cook over medium-high until carrots are tender and liquid is syrupy, 7 to 9 minutes more (there should be only a small amount of liquid remaining).
3. Remove skillet from heat; add butter, and swirl skillet until melted. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Top with fresh thyme leaves.

incredible salad

Golden Beets and Pomegranate Salad

I love love beets, and especially love them on a a bed of lettuce with a delicious cheese. Raleigh Times Bar serves a tasty pub salad with pears and roasted beets with Gorgonzola, so that was my inspiration in hunting down a Thanksgiving-appropriate recipe. I noticed that not many Thanksgiving guests were thrilled with the beets. It’s a vegetable that’s not too common, apart from mentions on The Office by Dwight Schrute (Bears, Beets, Battlestar Gallactica). To me beets taste like a combination of carrot and potato, and when oven roasted, they’re far superior to their canned counterparts. As for the pomegranate, I picked one up at the grocery store, out of sheer curiosity never having used one before. I had to look up how to open the darn thing.

This salad dressing is…ahmazing. It’s rather sweet and concentrated, so I added olive oil and a touch more red wine vinegar to cut the sugar and cover more greens.

• 4 golden beets
  
• 2 shallots, thinly sliced
  
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar, divided
• 1/4 cup olive oil
  
• 1/4 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegetarian option)
• 3 Tbsp Triple Sec or other orange-flavored liqueur *I had some leftover from margaritas
  
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
• Seeds of 1 pomegranate
  
• Salt
• 2 heads Boston lettuce, 1 head green lettuce, 1 head red lettuce
  
• 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese

golden beets, pre-roasting

Directions
1. Wash the beets, trim the greens from the top. Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper. Wrap in a packet of aluminum foil and place on oven rack. Roast at 375°F for an hour. Test the tenderness of the beet with a sharp knife. Continue roasting if not tender. Then allow to cool. Then peel and cube.
2. In a medium skillet over high heat, bring beets, shallot, vinegar, broth, liqueur, sugar, and orange peel to a boil, stirring often, until liquid is reduced to 2 Tbsp, about 5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.
3. Stir pomegranate seeds into the beet mixture and salt to taste. Serve on top of salad greens. Sprinkle with feta cheese. Toss with remaining red wine vinegar and olive oil.

How to get to those pom seeds…

chop off the top or the crown of the pomagranate.

score the pom in segments around the fruit from base to the chopped-off end

submerge the pomagranate, and pry apart the segments. separate seeds from the pith. seeds will sink. sift off the pith and skin from the top of the water.

Yeast Rolls

I will never make bread from scratch, when I can I buy these. They’re so good.

Dessert

For dessert, we feasted on a a variety of items—pumpkin bread, ginger and orange cookies, and J’s Jack Daniels Pecan Pie! Wowsah. This is a show-stopping pie. So pretty.

julia's pie pie pie

That wraps up our Thanksgiving Feast. Thanks to everyone that came from all over, and for those that couldn’t make it, I missed you! (Katie Co—I poured out a little champagne for you.) Much love and safe travels this holiday. Love, Miss Em

PS—Thanks to Ashton for taking most of these pictures.

I had to put my fork down to write this.

So I’ve been doing a good bit of eating this past month. Bad news: Foodstalkers has been left out in the cold. Good news: Your day has arrived, dear Foodstalkers. I shall enlighten you now!

Let’s go back to breakfast. I got up bright and early mid-December to experiment with pancakes. The real reason: ear infection, and I couldn’t sleep. But mere illness will never, and I mean never, take away my appetite. I’m on the brink of death to miss a meal.

beautiful blueberry pancakes

These are Jiffy pancakes, out of the box. But I quartered the recipe and added a few extra bits. I didn’t have milk on hand at the time, so I substituted water, and used the egg and oil. Then, I added cinnamon, cardamon, vanilla extract and fresh blueberries! With genu-ine maple syrup, this was a home run…and the inspiration for the next pancake attempt.

Oatmeal Banana Cookie Pancakes. I followed the recipe verbatim with the exception of the sour cream and whole milk ingredients. Just to get some dairy in, I used the skim milk I had on hand. Plus the banana adds good moisture. Hint: to mash a a slightly under-ripe banana, nuke it for about 15 seconds. These are off the heezy good. I would recommend surprising your roommates or honey with this breakfast on Saturday morning.

batter is gross. a little uncertain at this point.

mastering the flip.

tah-dah! nice stack.

That leads me to a Wednesday night dinner group adventure to Pulcinella’s in Durham. A quick bit on the legend of Pulcinella:

Pulcinella represents Napoli and the Napolitan spirit of life. He is known best for his costume of white and his simple black mask. The legend goes that Pulcinella avoided work and trouble through his disguise. While working in the pizzeria, Pulcinella was often more of an entertainer than a worker. He would dance around and play. But when the ax fell, Pulcinella would hide himself in the flour bin, escaping the troubles of life in a child-like manner. For this reason Pulcinella is a true representative of the child within us all. The spirit of happiness is Pulcinella.

The food was wonderful, beginning with bread (pizza dough) and an oil dip, and followed with house salad with fresh, garlic tomato dressing. My entrée, I believe, was Spaghettia Bella Notte? Can’t remember the name for sure. But here ’tis:

the way to my heart. pasta.

The sauce was really simple, but popped with flavor: lots of olive oil, roasted garlic, parsley, toasted pine nuts, olives and sardines. Incredibly salty, and thereby, goooood.

Next up: Turkey Fry. A lot to discuss, but I’ll just mention a few highlights. I took a bangin’ Mushroom-Potato Gratin from bonappétit. Upon reading the rich, rich ingredients, you’ll understand why so tasty. Unlike LG, I like a lot of chopping and dicing. The thin potato layers required some knife skillz.

building the layers.

ooey gooey gratin.

covered dish central

Other food stuffs: green bean casserole, corn bread souffle (my favorite!), fried macaroni and cheese balls, dressing, stuffed mushrooms, roasted tomatoes and burn-your-pants-off roasted jalapenos. Plus two fried turkeys, one of which was shot-up with hot sauce!We also enjoyed eggnog and a home-brewed keg of milk stout.

bird bird bird. bird is the word.

we did not eat Ducket.

After all of this face-stuffing, that takes us to the Balog Family Christmas Eve Dinner. Mama Susan really pulled out the stops this year with a fabulous menu.

the before-dinner spread

Clockwise from upper-left: Shrimp cocktail, Snowman cheeseball ( I will share this recipe soon) with crackers and baked pita chips, cranberry cocktail (with cranberry ice cubes!), cheese cookies and sausage balls. I could have feasted here alone…but along came the meal meal.

there's a lot of bacon on that plate.

That’s how Balogs do it. We like pork! Clockwise from the carne at the bottom: prime rib with beef gravy, 7-layer salad, lima beans with bacon, Katie Brown’s Spinach Casserole, Emmeril’s twice-baked potato casserole and bread.There was Coconut Cake, too.

Christmas breakfast is also a big meal at the Balog house, and required a quick turn-around in the kitchen for mia mama. Not to mention recovery time for those doing the eating! She whipped up Breakfast Casserole, country ham, biscuits, Crook’s Corner grits, fruit salad and coffee.

And now we arrive at the day after Christmas. Following a delightful party at MJ’s house in Chapel Hill, we were in for a night out on the town, which was concluded in the only proper way to end a night on the Hill: Time Out. I have so many things to say! Time Out is a CH institution. Yet, I’ve never gone during the day. It’s a strictly late-night, post-bar meal. Located on Franklin Street, near bars and lots of on- and off-campus student housing, you’ll likely run into people you do and do not want to see. If you ever take time to look, there are great historic photos on the wall, many of famous basketball coaches and players calling “Time Out!”

There’s also a police officer or two at the door to maintain order, but I like to think of them as greeters! “Welcome to Time Out, home of delicious biscuits, okra, fried chicken and mac-n-cheese.” Now for the food. There were many eaters among us, so I documented many-a-meal.

the classic: chicken cheddar biscuit

the side-lover

the side-lover + biscuit

hungry man meal

Not pictured: The Infamous Box-of-Bones. I only know of one brave soul that orders this. What is it, you ask? A box of chicken bones, freed of their meat parts, for nibbling on morsels of meat, fried bits and bone.

That was a long summary of a month’s-worth of eating. Happy New Year and Good Eats in 2009!

we did not eat Gretel.

A Public Apology to Foodstalkers

Dear Foodstalkers,

Shame on me. During the most spectacular time of food abundance, i.e., Thanksgiving, I strayed from you. I was too busy eating my heart out to pause and take time to tell you about it, better yet snap a picture. Please take me back. I promise I’ll never hurt you again.
Heart you,
Ms. Em

With that out of the way, I’ll summarize the past few weeks. I made these delectable little bites: Prosciutto Wrapped Figs, stuffed with goat cheese and topped with a honey cinnamon drizzle. Bake them for about 6-8 min. It’s a Semi-Homemade Sandra Lee recipe. Gasp. Turns out her recipes do have a time and place: a  BUNCO party.Cheers!

The Wednesday night dinner group hit up BOGO night at Shiki Sushi in Durham. We were a table of 9, so we tried 18 different rolls family style. Correction: not family style, but every-eater-for-himself style. I saw some cut-throat chopstick moves stealing bagel rolls! Here’s our sushi boat:

BOOM!

Thanksgiving highlights: my mom’s dressing patties smothered in white gravy infused with lots of sage, cranberry conserve (Ina’s recipe), my aunt’s yeast rolls and shrimp scampi at Ciao Pizza. And then there were my mom’s homemade go-to items for simple meals: poundcake, vegetable soup, snowman cheeseball and the most amazing citrus/shallot vinaigrette.

I’m back on the cooking train from a lengthy hiatus of soup, salad and sandwiches since Turkey Day. So last night I made Sara Foster’s Turkey Burgers with a Ms. Em twist. Cool side note: Sara Foster represents my Chapel Hill home (location of Foster’s Market) and my time spent in Birmingham (she was a contributor to Cottage Living)! I love her non-fussy approach to cooking. It’s about the ingredients and simple preparations that enhance the natural flavors of the basics.

If you think about a turkey burgers as really no different than a meatloaf or a meatball, that is, it’s made by all the stuff you add to it because otherwise it’s pretty bland, then you can play around with the ingredients. I adapted Sara’s recipe. Here’s my spinoff:

1.3 lbs. ground turkey meat
2/3 c. bread crumbs (I tossed a whole grain end slice and some Wheat Thins in my blender)
2 shallots, diced
2 T light mayo
1 T dijon mustard
lots of good shakes of Worchestershire
2 T Thai chili sauce
5 basil leaves, finely chopped
salt and pepper

Mix it all up with your hands. Make 4 patties and fire them up in sets of 2 in a hot skillet for about 3 minutes per side. Wave off the fire alarm. And then finish cooking in the oven. My patties weren’t cooking through the middle, but I didn’t want them to brown anymore on the outside, so placing them in a 250F oven for a couple of minutes finished them out just fine.

Burger Night

I ate my burger on a bed of spinach, alongside some grape tomoatoes and topped with a dijon mustard/honey/Worchestershire sauce. And then I also made some sweet potato oven fries (tossed in olive oil and Black Jack’s famous grilling rub for spice). That was a no-joke, economically friendly dinner at home! Nearly everything came from my regular grocery buying (tomatoes, spinach, sweet potatoes) and stuff that’s on-hand in my pantry. I just had to go fetch the turkey!

Yet another happy turkey day.