Thanksgiving: eh?!
Hey all!
We just celebrated our Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and mine was so fab' this year I thought I'd share the details. Hopefully it will get some of the American Serious Eaters drewling over their upcoming festivities!
Ham: Glazed with maple syrup mixed with Brown Sugar and cloves (bone in) --- w/ gravy of course
Deep Fried Turkey: with herbes de provence rub -- also with a poultry gravy
Pierogies: boiled then fried (potato and sauerkraut varieties)
Papanki (sp?) sauce: Canadian wild mushrooms with fresh dill and potato cream pureé
Steamed Brocoli and Cauliflower: Topped with butter-fried breadcrumbs
Greek Salad with Kalamata, last of the garden tomatoes and sheep/goat cheese feta and a light mustard dressing
Home made cranberry sauce: with cinnamon and lemon zest
Lots of beer :)
What are you folks planning for American Thanksgiving?
Canadian Serious Eaters: what did you eat??
:D hungrychristel
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24 Comments:
This SE ex-pat celebrated her Canadian Thanksgiving with only hubby around for dinner, so we had the following:
--stuffed rosemary and garlic Cornish game hens, with gravy from the drippings
--stuffing made with challah, celery, onion, garlic and carrots
--mashed 'taters
--ginger cranberry sauce
--roasted butternut squash soup
--booze!
avaryne at 10:37AM on 10/13/09
This year we will have turkey, mashed potatoes/gravy, mushrooms, green beans or asparagus, canned cranberry sauce and some kind of pie. Year after year....MIL doesn't like change or additions. A few years ago I made a sweet potato/pecan pie and she nearly had a fit. Took everyone raving about the pie for her to concede that it was okay for them to be combined and I have made it several times. I would love a cornish hen or deep fried turkey since I have had neither.
I really should be' thankful', though.
janaatwg at 10:52AM on 10/13/09
Sob - we didn't have our typical Thanksgiving meal because my nephew was married on the Saturday and there was just too much going on. I made cabbage rolls (first time) with my brother, and Mother (her recipe, which she loved) - we made up six Savoy cabbages worth, but I have to admit they weren't the best - I think they could have used more cooking time and definitely, next time, I will "doctor" up the sauce and meat/rice mixture with more spices and a little heat. Still, they served the purpose of a "drop in" meal for whomever was around - I had salad, crusty rolls and baked potatoes and fixings. Christmas is coming up! @hungry christel - I am so jealous!!
bareneed at 11:01AM on 10/13/09
My Thanksgiving was pretty plain compared to yours:
Roast turkey with herb stuffing and pan gravy
Roasted sweet potatoes
Beat, carrot, apple salad with toasted pumpkin seeds and sultanas
Home-made cranberry sauce with port and orange zest
Green salad
Popovers
Apple and cranberry crumble pie (brought by a friend)
It was my first time cooking Thanksgiving dinner and it came out really well. We don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in Québec, but my girlfriend is from Saskatchewan and she had been pining for a traditional holiday meal. So we recruited my family and started a new tradition.
SqueezeBottle at 11:06AM on 10/13/09
Beet not beat...
SqueezeBottle at 11:08AM on 10/13/09
We rented a cottage for our Cdn Thanksgiving. FOrtunately the kitchen was well equipped. We had a leg of lamb crusted with garlic, thyme, rosemary, mustard and lemon. That was roasted with carrots and onions. We pan roasted brussel sprouts until soft inside and crunchy brown outside, sprinkled with salt and lemon, then mashed potatoes, and gravy frm the pan drippings.
Apple and pumpking pies for dessert. YUM!
BananaMonkey at 11:24AM on 10/13/09
@hungrychristel--I've never had gravy with ham, though certainly I've heard of it. How do you make yours?
BananaMonkey at 11:25AM on 10/13/09
i like 'beat' better, squeezebottle-lol. congrats on making your first feast!
i was so jealous of you canucks yesterday...i can't wait until november!!
@hungrychristel: i love that you made pierogies!! your cran sauce sounds good too, altho i always have to eat the canned stuff on t-day. weird, i know, but 30 years of traditionally eating it has been instilled in me-lol.
gastronomeg at 11:27AM on 10/13/09
@banana monkey: I lined my roasting pan with root veg (crosshatch fashion) along with some onions, bayleaves and peppercorns; set the ham on top (scored it of course to get the crunchy bits) and inserted some cloves in the scores; halfway through baking I basted the ham with the brownsugar/syrup mixture. Surprisingly enough: the ham/fixins left a whole lotta yummi bits and drippings in the pan! I just made my gravy from that with a bit of a roux (sp?), dijon mustard, and some veg stock :) I had to wait for it to seperate a bit cuz we all know how greasy pork drippins' are! >> ps: sooo missed brussel sprouts this year. My sister cried because papa didn't make his famous mashed potatoes this year :*( hahah they're like: priceless!
@avarin - whats challah?
@bareneed - was the wedding food good at least :o ?
@SqueezeBottle - we had a guest from Quebec this year! she made the cranberry sauce; she insisted she would make it from scratch and it was sooooo worth it!
hungrychristel at 11:36AM on 10/13/09
@hungrychristel -- challah! We had a loaf sitting around the house and I thought I'd give it a try in the stuffing. I've never made homemade stuffing before, but hubby thoroughly enjoyed it!
avaryne at 11:43AM on 10/13/09
My sister-in-law bought dinner (though she roasted a capon). It was fine, the tourtiere was quite nice. I baked chocolate chip shortbread cookies for dessert.
I am American though and looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving next month. My mom cooks up a storm - amazing turkey from a local farm, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin bread, some green vegetable or other (usually asparagus because my dad won't eat broccoli), you never know what else. I also make cookies for that (oatmeal scotchies, for the last 20 years!), mom makes pecan pie and something chocolate. Last year I made corn muffins and they went over well. This year, I think I will take over making the gravy - my mom only took up gravy a few years ago and a roux is just not her strong suit, though everything else is always fantastic.
wellred at 11:46AM on 10/13/09
I took Thanksgiving dinner to my sister's. We had roast turkey with traditional sage stuffing (and it was the best looking turkey I've ever made - and tasty too!), mashed potatoes, green beans with a sprinkling of toasted almonds, cranberry sauce made from scratch and gravy - oh and crescent rolls from the can because my sister just loves them. It was low key - just four of us - my sis and our two kids (10 and 6) and we had a lovely time. A great meal - I look forward to hearing about American SE's Thankgiving adventures in the next month!
Maureen at 1:00PM on 10/13/09
@HungryChristel: Can you tell me about the papinki sauce? It sounds delicious and based on your description, I may have the necessary ingredients in my fridge as we speak and I never have dill on hand. What do you serve it with or on?
PumpkinBear at 4:02PM on 10/13/09
@PumpkinBear:
I think the papinki (sp?) itself are the type of mushroom from what I understand. My mother and her mother anually walk through the Manitoba woods and collect this type of mushroom in their dress--the dress being the basket (funny visual I know) and then they either a) freeze them or b) dry them.
They make this "sauce" (or kinda stew) out of the frozen from fresh ones. I haven't seen them make it but by the taste of it I would guess that it's got a cream of mushroom or cream base, cubed potatoes, TONS of fresh dill and extra extra onions and garlic. I believe it's a Ukranian or a Polish inspired dish?
I spent some time researching and I can't find out what they're called; they might be Honey">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_fungus">Honey Mushrooms?
I might have to ask my mom!
We utilize it over the pierogies mostly; but I like it on ANYTHING! :D
hungrychristel at 4:31PM on 10/13/09
Sounds absolutely fantastic! Tell me - what kind of gravy does one serve with ham?? I've never served gravy with it and I'm curious.
I'll do a brined turkey with gravy - which might contain mushrooms, giblets or both.
There will be old standards for sure. This is why I have to have a MILLION people at my T-Giving table - I'm not willing to give anything up.
Corn pudding, sweet potatoes in one incarnation or another (having nothing to do with marshmallows), bread stuffing and homemade cranberry sauce. I'm not a big white potato eater but if I know others want them, I'll make them. If I have the time and inclination, I'll make my roasted carrot souffle.
I've been doing biscuits instead of bread and (thank GOD) my biscuits have improved over the years and no longer resemble hockey pucks.
There will definitely be Dorie Greenspan's T-Giving Twofer Pie. It has become a staple at my T-Giving dessert table since I first discovered it. I can't get away from the thing. I crave it and poof! Before I even know what happened, I've made it.
I can't wait.
therealchiffonade at 5:54PM on 10/13/09
Ahhhh, Chiff! That Twofer pie looks absolutely fabulous!! I will definately make that one for the holidays....Thanks for the suggestion....
Italiancupcake at 6:20PM on 10/13/09
Okay, @hungrychristel, one more recipe, please: how did you make the poultry gravy?
betteirene at 9:08PM on 10/13/09
Thanksgiving was pot-luck in my extended family for more than 30 years. (one year 6 people brought pumpkin/squash pie. We started to branch out to the exotics a little after that.)
But since we wanted leftovers my family always came home and cooked a turkey and everything traditional sometime the next couple of days. And I do the same thing now no matter where I have Thanksgiving (Turkey is so cheap then.) Love stuffing and gravy made with giblets. potatoes, squash, rutabagas, whole cranberry sauce. Didn't grow up with a green vegetable tradition, interestingly enough. I sometimes do beans or peas to add the the oodles of frozen meals I make from this feast. Also make some apple pie without the crust to add to the frozen meals.
lemonfair at 6:03AM on 10/14/09
I cannot cannot WAIT!! I love Thanksgiving!!! I make/bake everything basically the same since I started doing T-day in 1990..I even use the same ragged Bon Appetit-I think the magazine has moved 8 times with us. It is the only item that I can always find. Now we spend it up in NH--so we get fresh turkey and shop at the Dartmouth Co-op, which is a beautiful store!! So excited!
PoorOldMama at 8:18AM on 10/14/09
@chiffy: check out my instructions to bananamonkey at 11:36AM on 10/13/09 - The only difficult part of it (because the ham is so amazinly fatty) was ensuring I separated the gravy. It was nice and thin in consistency and the mustard made it so perfect!---I saw the contestant on hells kitchen last night make a corn pudding: I'd love to try this sometime! You have any secrets?
@betteirene - Since the turkey was fried in the frier (and not in a roasting pan) before we dropped it in the frier we removed all the offal (popes nose, liver and kidneys I think?) bits and just let them fry in a pan to get all the yummi bits stuck to the pan; then deglazed with standard red wine--I cheated with this though: I love the Knorr packaged gravy mix and I throw this in the pan when I deglaze to get the right consistency. (don't hate me cuz I luv it LOL)
Keep the stories and recipes coming ladies and gents...just because mine is over doesn't mean I cant celebrate it again in November :D
hungrychristel at 9:50AM on 10/14/09
Soooo ... I'm looking forward to redeeming myself for thanksgiving this year. I tried out one too many recipes for the first time and they all could use some tweaking. I brought a few different sides / accompanients to my parents
The cornbread with red pepper was too spicy - I think I'll make good ole cheddar chive this year. The sweet potato / banana casserole thingy I made (courtesy of Tyler's Ultimate) was great when I made it the day before but did NOT reheat well. (so much for saving time). I also made spiced pumpkin seeds and even though you can eat them with the shells, the general preference was for the shell-less ones I made (with a spicy curry concoction, delish). Will recreate this year, only all sans shells
Pecan pie and cranberry sauce were old standbys that were a hit, though my family, too, prefers the canned stuff. I would love to try the ginger cran version though, recipe please?
mookie at 2:13PM on 10/14/09
Our annual Thanksgiving menu is so good, it's hard to mess with. But, I'm thinking of adding a butternut squash pie to the mix. I'm going to test it out very soon.
Chew on That at 4:03PM on 10/15/09
The BF and I kept it pretty simple, if overly abundant: a turkey (keep in mind it's just the two of us, and I'm vegetarian), mashed potatoes and turnips, roasted green beans, veggie refried beans and apple crumble pie with vanilla ice cream.
piccola at 11:58PM on 10/16/09
@piccola - that's really sweet of you to do turkey when it's only you two and you're a vegetarian! The string of leftovers your BF consumes after T-Giving must be a mile long. ("Turkey soup, turkey tetrazzini, turkey quiche, turkey nachos!")
@Chew - Butternut squash will not taste much different than pumpkin pie. My cousin prepares "mostly pumpkin" pies for a homeless shelter and using butternut to stretch the pumpkin is a tactic they use to keep the cost down.
@mookie - Once you make fresh cran sauce, you will NEVER look back. It's incredibly easy and very delicious. If you take one bag of crans (supermarket sized bags are usually 12 oz.), 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water, it's a basic recipe you can use to springboard off and add a whole host of other ingredients. For your ginger cran sauce, add 1/4 cup finely chopped candied ginger. For orange cran sauce, add the zest and juice of 2 oranges (as part of the water requirement). For pear cran sauce, add the diced flesh of 2 pears. Use a granny smith apple. You can add dried cherries if you like. Add the flavoring agents to the pan, bring the sauce to a boil, lower to a simmer and simmer for about 10 minutes. Crans have a TON of pectin and the sauce will set up as it cools. For a sauce with some crunch, stir in 1 cup of rough chopped pecans or a finely diced poblano chile at the end of cooking time.
therealchiffonade at 6:48AM on 10/17/09