Thanksgiving roundup

Thanksgiving was wonderful this year, truly a holiday of giving thanks for us.

Just two years ago Rob and I were alone for Thanksgiving dinner and I was still recovering from my ankle reconstruction surgery. He had been laid off just months before. I made the whole big dinner anyway, even though it was us and we decorated because to not do it would have been even more pathetic. But when it came time to serve the big meal and it was just the two of us, like every other day, it was just sad. We ate quickly and were glad to just put it behind us.

Later that night Dena and Tresa came over and I gave them some vegetarian food I'd made -- I always stuff squash for Dena for the main dish and there are so many side dishes that she had plenty to eat. We had a great time with them and were able to stop feeling so sorry for ourselves.

On the other hand, this year we had everybody back -- Sean, Gen and Kaia, Lindsay & Ryan, Dennis (Kim had to work), Tresa and her boyfriend Dylan, Dena and Chris and Colin came later when he got off work. There were eight dogs underfoot, as well as the two cats, who were avoiding everything. It was just the insanity I crave for a great holidays=.

Here is my report from Chowhound reposted: Topic, good, bad ugly of Thanksgiving dinner:

For me the good was the locally grown, free-range organic turkey, which was great. It was a lot bigger than I wanted, almost 25 pounds, but we ended up with more people, so alls well... The cranberry sauce made with merlot was really quite delicious. I made well over 7 pounds of potatoes and people were fighting over them. Amazing. They're clamoring for more.
The bad: I used King Arthur white whole wheat flour for my pie crusts and it was a battle the whole way. I had to resort to wax paper to even get them to stick together when I rolled them out. Then they looked really dark to the point of being burnt when they cooked. The taste, however was very good and they weren't burnt. The pie filling was the **Cooks Illustrated pumpkin pie recipe with sweet potato, which I doubled, and I don't blind-bake the crusts as recommended because I'm not very good at it. They came out amazing, even though Cooks Illustrated recipes are written by people who have never had to wash their own dishes -- seriously could they make you take more steps with more bowls? We had a young man from Australia here who had his first pumpkin pie ever and he scarfed the whole slice. My nephew, who professes to hate pie (how can you hate pie? It's like saying you hate sunshine?) was converted by my apple pie ala mode (had to give him a familiar taste to bridge to the pie. I used pink lady and granny smith locally grown organic apples and they were amazing.
The ugly: creamed onions started well but ended up brown looking. They tasted OK if you didn't look too hard.

**Here is my adapted Cooks Illustrated pumpkin pie recipe. I've changed so much that I need to write it down b/c each year I spend half my time trying to figure out what I meant.

I changed it substantially because I disagree with some of the postulates -- like the cutback on pumpkin pie spices to "let the taste of the squash" shine through. Um no. I eat pumpkin pie FOR the spices, and I want the filling to provide a custard-y squash-y background. I also like to make double recipes. And I rarely blind bake my crusts because I've never been successful no matter what I've done.
What's really cool about this recipe is that the filling is much creamier and doesn't crack, making for a really lovely silky pie.

No-crack pumpkin Pie (Heavily adapted from Cooks Illustrated)

Crust
2 1/2 cups white unbleached flour
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 stick unsalted butter cut into pieces
1 cup lard cut into pieces
2 tablespoons cold vodka (this is a Cooks Illustrated innovation that works wonderfully and doesn't leave any taste in the crust, but leaves it crumbly and melt-in-your-mouth delicious)
2 tablespoons cold water

Filling
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups whole milk
5 jumbo eggs plus 2 yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large 29-ounce can pumpkin puree
1 small can candied yams, drained
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) dried ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (or more)
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon table salt

1 cup heavy cream
vanilla and almond extracts to taste
2 tablespoons sugar

For the crust: Process flour salt and sugar in food processor, add butter and lard until it homogeneous and it's just starting to come together in lumps about 10 pulses. Scrape bowl down with rubber spatula and pulse again a few times. Add vodka, pulse then add water. Turn out and pull together into two equal size balls. Shape into 1-inch thick discs and refrigerate at least an hour. Roll out and line pie pans, crimp edges.

For the filling: Whisk cream, milk, eggs, yolks and vanilla in a medium bowl. Combine pumpkin puree, yams, sugar, maple syrup in heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to sputtering simmer stirring over medium heat 5 to 7 minutes. Continue to simmer pumpkin mixture, stirring constantly, mashing yams against the sides of a pot for 10 to 15 minutes or until the mixture is thick and shiny.
Remove pan from heat and stir in cream mixture until thoroughly incorporated. Blend with an immersible blender until smooth. Divide filing between the two crusts. Bake in 425 oven for 15 minutes and reduce heat to 325 for about 25 to 35 minutes or until the pies are set on the edges and are just a little jiggly in the middle. Cool overnight and serve with heavy cream whipped and flavored with sugar, vanilla, almond (or bourbon) spread over the top (although we used to do this to hide the cracks and I don't have to now, but I still like the whipped cream spread evenly in a layer. it's the way my dad id it and it reminds me of my childhood.