Mme Diat: More of the Thanksgiving Marathon

A week later, another Thanksgiving. This time, I was heading over to my aunt's home in Palos. This time around, I wasn't expected to cook anything so I brought a few wine selections instead. I ended up with Gabbiano Chianti and Fat Bastard Chardonnay. As someone who isn't always a fan of white wines, I really have to say I enjoyed the Fat Bastard. I bought it because I knew my extended family, being Italian, and my immediate family, being German, Lithuanian & Bohemian, would appreciate the wine choice.

Even though I didn't cook a dish for my second Thanksgiving, I wanted to write about it because for the first time, I tried a brined turkey. I have to be honest, maybe it was the way it was cooked, but I was not impressed. The turkey seemed dryer than normal and there was really nothing special that would make me recommend it to anyone. Just to be sure, I am planning on brining my own turkey sometime soon. I've heard such good things and I don't want to give up on it just yet.

Now onto my final, and real marathon, Thanksgiving. Since my whole immediate family couldn't be at the "Official Family Thanksgiving" it was declared that we would have our own small meal the next weekend. I was absolutely turkey-ed out at this point, but I offered to make the dinner.

The Menu:
Turkey
Southern Sweet Potatoes [the same ones I made with Mme. Pépin]
Mashed Potatoes
Cauliflower
Peach Stuffing [Mme. Pépin's traditional contribution to the holiday meal]
Sausage Stuffing [a manlier alternative for the growing Diat boys]
Cranberries w/Pear [also a Mme. Pépin favorite]
Apple Pie

Since it was rainy that weekend, grilling the bird was out of the question. I opted for a nice roasted turkey with a vegetable & herb seasoning mixed with butter for under the skin and oranges stuffed inside for moisture and added flavor. The mashed potatoes were just the general variety, milk and seasonings for flavor. The cauliflower was absolutely fantastic. I was torn on whether or not I wanted to make it with bread crumbs, a family favorite, or baked with olive oil and Parmesan cheese. I opted to bake the veggie and was not disappointed. It's such a great way to spice up an otherwise boring vegetable.

For my dessert, I decided to go the classic pie route. I had been wanting to try my hand at pie crust and fruit pie for some time and I thought that my third Thanksgiving was as good a time as any. The only thing that I have to say was that I followed the recipe exactly, and wound up with entirely too many apples. I could have made about 3.5 pies with that recipe. Take a look at your recipes before hand an if 12 apples sounds a little intense, it probably is. Scale back some of the other seasonings and start with about 4-5 apples instead. I presume that would have been more than enough for my pie.

All in all, every meal was a success. A friend who had attended all 3 holidays with me remarked that my final masterpiece was the best of the 3. Everyone seemed to enjoy the meal and leftovers were gone within a week. My only request after all of it: that we not have turkey anywhere near our Christmas menu.

Mme. Pépin: Tortilla Pizza

Since this weekend was a tad all over the place due to holiday festivities, I didn't want anything too complicated for Sunday night's meal. It was to be a smaller gathering, so I decided that the Tortilla Pizzas would be appropriate for size and difficulty. Unfortunately, Mme. Diat had to cancel as she had family obligations. The number for dinner would be four.

They were really quite simple, and I highly recommend making them as a quick dinner. Mme. Poupée and myself stopped by Jewel to pick up the few ingredients that were required. Upon arriving home, we got another dinner guest involved (the fourth was running late) and formed an assembly line of sorts. I prepped the tortillas (flour as I'm allergic to corn) by coating them in olive oil on both sides and sprinkling on some parmesan cheese as Mme. Poupée sliced the tomatoes and the remaining guest grated the fresh mozzarella. We placed the tomato slices atop the tortilla, sprinkled it with cheese and then put it in the oven at 500° for 8 minutes. Upon completion in the oven fresh basil was cut up and placed on top.

It was a success (marking our second success that weekend) and was both simple and flavorful. Jacques also has recipes under that recipe for a salmon pizza and a seafood pizza.