Driss-A-Blog

I sent an invitation to everyone I knew on the UWS:

Avi, in association with It Can't Be That Hard Can It Productions, presents: Thanksgiving Dinner!

Thanksgiving is a time to be with family, to appreciate all the goodness we have. But perhaps you don't have family, or you can't get the time off to be with them, or perhaps being with them doesn't engender feelings of gratitude. At least you should have dinner with friends.

And barring that, come have dinner with us, and make new friends. You didn't need those other ones, anyway.

I'm hoping to provide the turkey-based food, along with some non-animal alternatives/side-dishes. If you're feeling generous, bring along something of your own to share. (The theme is ... um ... fleishig. And kosher.) Please, though, at least let me know if you're coming or bringing someone else along, so that I can plan to have enough food to keep everyone from starving like they did in Jamestown.

I went shopping on Sunday, and got all my ingredients:

And the turkey, sitting on the bottom shelf. Someone asked me, “So how did you get the turkey home?” It's just a short ride up the (1). And the bird was only 14 pounds.

Wednesday night, I opened up the turkey bag, and washed the turkey. I'd never had the carcass of a dead animal in my sink before.

Cleaned, it sat back in my fridge, awaiting its fate.

Now, the recipe for the green beans called for pecans. When I went shopping I got a whole bagful. What hadn't crossed my mind is that I'd need to shell them all. So I got a nutcracker, and cracked away.

My preparation done, I went to bed. The next day at 11:30 AM, I started cooking.

Whoever wrote the gravy recipe had the brilliant idea, “Oh, since we're making the gravy in a stock pot, let's do the sautéing of the turkey neck in there!” It's an incredible pain in the butt to sauté in a stock pot.

Meanwhile, the turkey got stuffed with some herbs, tied up, and brushed with melted margarine before going into the oven.

Cranberry sauce? 1 cup sugar, 3/4 cup water, and a pinch or two of salt. Boil, and stir until the sugar dissolves. Toss in a 12 oz bag of cranberries. Let boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. You start with this:

But end with this:

Meanwhile, the gravy is on the first stage. After the sautéing of the neck, adding of chicken consommé (low-sodium, powdered stuff; you can't find kosher chicken or beef broth) and some vegetables, we're getting somewhere.

Meanwhile, this is a roux-based gravy, so we need some roux.

Add to the gravy, and we're even closer.

While my gravy is thickening, and my turkey is roasting, I still need to clean up for the guests. I clear off the table while the Roomba vacuums.

Turkey's done!

With the turkey out of the oven, we can deglaze the roasting pan with some wine, and add it to the gravy. Meanwhile, it's time to get some of the other dishes done too. Green beans with shallots and orange, here we come.

And finally, mashed potatoes. I'd gotten a five pound bag of russets, so I doubled the recipe to accommodate. I'd put the potatoes up to boil, but the water refused to bubble at all. I prodded the spuds with a knife, and when the knife went cleanly and easily in, I decided that they had enough heat and it was time to mash them. Unfortunately, I had no masher, so I took each potato to the cutting board, mashed it with a fork, and then tossed it into the pot. Add two sticks of margarine, and one carton of creamer.

Enter guests stage right. The talented and lovely Elisa showed us her spokesmodel side.

And Leon and I posed as well for a photo op.

I carved.

The menu for the evening: Roast turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans with orange essence and toasted maple pecans, and cranberry sauce.

Leon was stuffed.

L'Chaim!

After it was all done, Leon trimmed the turkey down to the bones.

Elisa departed.

And we now have enough leftovers for a week or two.

The dinner was great fun. I had a blast cooking and hosting. Thanks to Leon and Elisa for coming. Maybe I'll do this again next year.