Thanksgiving 2009

[teaberryblue]

As many of you know, for the past four years (this being the fifth), I took off a full week of work to make Thanksgiving dinner for my parents, my grand parents, and liret. This is my thank you to the people I love.

	Prepping the Beets		Daddy’s Special Thanksgiving Cocktail		Sugarbeet
	Crispy Baked Kale		Crab Salad on Endive with Dried Cranberries		Liver Mousse and Pickled Onion Crostini
	Homemade Cheddar Cheese Shortbread Crackers		Liver Mousse & PIckled Onion		Fennel Soup with Toasted Hazelnuts and Dried Cranberries
	Pretty Centerpiece		Jess! (NOT FOR EATING)		Mama! (Also not for eating)
	Dada! (Do not even think about eating!)		Escarole, Frisee, and Shaved Beet Salad with homemade vinaigrette		Pan-seared scallops with chestnut sauce and deep-fried sage
	Deviled Pickled Eggs		Cranberry-Mint Sorbet		Grandma and Poppa!
	Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes with deep fried shallots		Turkey!		Brussels Sprouts with maple-candied pecans
	Cranberry and Clementine sauce with pomegranate-candied pumpkin seeds		Rye and Pumpernickel Stuffing		Sauteed Broccolini with toasted almonds
	Corn pudding		Mixed root vegetable gratin		Cranberry-Pomegranate relish
	THE HOLY PEAS OF JOHN		Apple Pie		Pumpkin pie!
	Apple-ginger pie		Pecan Pie		German Chocolate Pie

Note: Everything here is homemade. The liver mousse is homemade. The crab salad is homemade. The soup is homemade. The syrups in the cocktails are homemade. The mayonnaise in the deviled eggs (which are home-pickled, like the onions) are homemade. The candied nuts and seeds are homemade. The sorbet is homemade. The beets, the carrots, the broccolini, the kale, and the brussels sprouts, along with most of the herbs, come from our garden so they're extra homemade. The only thing on the table that is not homemade are the peas, which are their own story. Their own very exciting story.

Mirrored from Antagonia.net.

(This is also counting as my Free Topic entry for therealljidol)

Comments

[supremegoddess1.livejournal.com]

dear LORD/GOD/GODDESS/BUDDHA/ALLAH is that a lot of food...

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

That is why I feel like a giant leaden balloon right now!

[supremegoddess1.livejournal.com]

do you make all of it, or do you have help? and exactly how many people are you serving?

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

There are just six of us! I do pretty much everything though my mom works on the pies and helps with the last minute food prep and cuts the onions (because I can't-- I literally can't even quarter an onion without crying). Jess put the crab inside the endive and put the liver on the crostini, though!

[supremegoddess1.livejournal.com]

you guys will have leftovers for months!!!

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

We will! I am super excited for making fried mashed potatoes.

[lifechild.livejournal.com]

*drools* Wow! That looks absolutely yumsciously amazing, I am very very impressed. Impressed from the tip of my head to the tip of my toes.

Woah.

[daydreamweaver.livejournal.com]

Please to be having shortbread cracker recipe? Pleaaaaaaaaaaase?

[torsui.livejournal.com]

you are AMAZING. *wide-eyed at the color on that turkey*

the shapes on the pies are adorable! i love the leaves.

[kittehkat.livejournal.com]

Grandparents: possibly for eating?

Dude, I want that relish.

All your pies are flipping gorgeous. Wow. I mean, it all is, but they're also adorable! And yummy looking!

[rattsu.livejournal.com]

HOLY CRAP and here I thought we had a lot of food on our christmas table... but, I bow to you, this is one of the more spectacular things I have ever seen.

Also, have you tried holding an unlit match between your teeth while you cut onions? Reputedly that helps a lot, something to do with the sulfur. Never tried it myself though...

[mstrobel.livejournal.com]

Damn I am HUNGRY.

[cetacea.livejournal.com]

Wow, that is amazing.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Yup, I've tried that, I've tried having lit candles, I've tried putting the onion in a bowl of water, I've tried keeping a piece of bread in my teeth and cutting them under a vent and a bunch of other things.I can't even be in the same room with other people cutting onions. It's kind of pathetic.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I am impressed with my belly.

Re: Woah.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Sure!

3 oz cheddar cheese, grated
1 oz parmesan or peccorino or another sharp grated cheese
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cp white flour
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp mustard
1 1/2 tablespoons sour cream
2 tbs ground nuts (optional-- you can also use herbs or something)

Put everything but the sour cream in a food processor. Process until the cheese has been cut up all grainy
Now add the sour cream and process again till all the dough gloms together
Take it out and roll the dough into two 1 1/2 inch logs. Roll the outside in the ground nuts.
Refrigerate the logs for 2 hours or overnight

To cook:
oven at 350F
Slice the logs into 1/4" slices and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Cook for 20 minutes. Take out and cool completely. They can be stored same as cookies.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

My mom did the decorations! I think they are adorable too. We have these awesome little cookie cutters she uses.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

NO EATING GRANDPARENTS. My mom did the decorations on the pies! She is awesome!

And the relish is:

1 1/2 bags cranberries
1/4 cup basil

Put in food processor.

Then make this syrup:

1/2 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup sugar
5 Tbs pomegranate molasses


(if you can't find pom molasses, add more wine and then use pom juice)

Boil till it gets syrupy

Add to the chopped cranberries. Add a tablespoon at a time till you get the desired amount of sweetness. If you like it more sweet, add some sugar or corn syrup.

Add 2 cups of pomegranate seeds (about one large pomegranate). Stir in with a wooden spoon!

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

NOM NOM NOM NOM.

[teaberryblue.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I love my Thanksgiving!

[phreakphantasia.livejournal.com]

You look so much like your daddy! He's too cute. :D

[majesticarky.livejournal.com]

Wow that's amazing. No wonder you needed a full week off to do it! It's really interesting how you do some unconventional dishes or put a spin on traditional dishes.

[onda-bianca.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...

[oneonthefence.livejournal.com]

HOLY HELL. That is a LOT of (amazing looking) food.

Damn gluten allergy. I'd eat all of it if it weren't for that :)

[stoopid-silly.livejournal.com]

Mmmmmmm this all looks scrumptious!!! And I made that cranberry cocktail and it was definitely a success! :)