I'm a big fan of Thanksgiving. I've missed it two times in the last seven years and was pretty bummed both times. Fortunately, we decided to close the office for Thanksgiving and have a proper feast. We spent several hours on Wednesday doing prep and cooking and managed to sit down for dinner at 4pm on Thursday.
I find that cooking really helps me to unwind, so I signed up for four dishes. The first was a chocolate-zucchini bread (cake is probably more accurate) from my old Peace Corps cookbook. It did not start off well. As I grated the zucchini, I quickly realized that I had actually bought cucumbers. Ah well. I asked someone else to go to the vegetable stand and get the correct produce. It came out pretty well (the zucchini makes it very moist), although it tastes better when it has more orange zest. I was surprised by how poor (and expensive) the oranges were.
I also made mangosauce, which is basically applesauce except that it uses sour (unripe) mangoes. This one was pretty straightforward (after peeling, chopping and then boiling the mangoes, you just add sugar and cinnamon) and I liked it. Normally I would add more sugar, but the desserts were already pretty sweet.
The only non-dessert that I made was the mashed potatoes. Since one of our party is lactose intolerant, I replaced the milk/butter with coconut cream (canned, which is a little hard to find here). It gave the potatoes a nice texture, but had a hint of sweetness that was somewhat out of place. Still, I added enough garlic to even it out.
And then it was time to prepare the most important dessert: the apple pie. I found Granny Smith apples which was a big break (there are plenty of apples, but most are mealy and not great for baking). I made the pie crust, which I hadn't done in about four years, but it turned out pretty well (I made the base and cover for the apple pie as well as a base for the pumpkin pie, but I didn't do much for the pumpkin pie other than the crust).
Whoops, I guess I should have made a little more pie crust. Still, it had a nice finish after baking.
All in all, it was quite a feast. We had a guest from the US who brought canned cranberry sauce (though we also found some frozen cranberries which meant that we got homemade cranberry relish as well). The turkey came out really well and the stuffing was wonderful. We even had green-beans in a sesame sauce (well, there's always one semi-healthy dish at Thanksgiving). And the first course (pumpkin soup) was a great way to start the meal after many hours of cooking.
I think that I'm still full from the meal. Oh, and I was way too tired to get a picture of the dessert table with seven desserts (to feed nine people). I made one mistake on the apple pie, which was not adding anything to thicken the juice from the apples, which made for a lot of liquid in each slice. I guess I'll just have to keep making pies until I get it right.
I find that cooking really helps me to unwind, so I signed up for four dishes. The first was a chocolate-zucchini bread (cake is probably more accurate) from my old Peace Corps cookbook. It did not start off well. As I grated the zucchini, I quickly realized that I had actually bought cucumbers. Ah well. I asked someone else to go to the vegetable stand and get the correct produce. It came out pretty well (the zucchini makes it very moist), although it tastes better when it has more orange zest. I was surprised by how poor (and expensive) the oranges were.
I also made mangosauce, which is basically applesauce except that it uses sour (unripe) mangoes. This one was pretty straightforward (after peeling, chopping and then boiling the mangoes, you just add sugar and cinnamon) and I liked it. Normally I would add more sugar, but the desserts were already pretty sweet.
The only non-dessert that I made was the mashed potatoes. Since one of our party is lactose intolerant, I replaced the milk/butter with coconut cream (canned, which is a little hard to find here). It gave the potatoes a nice texture, but had a hint of sweetness that was somewhat out of place. Still, I added enough garlic to even it out.
And then it was time to prepare the most important dessert: the apple pie. I found Granny Smith apples which was a big break (there are plenty of apples, but most are mealy and not great for baking). I made the pie crust, which I hadn't done in about four years, but it turned out pretty well (I made the base and cover for the apple pie as well as a base for the pumpkin pie, but I didn't do much for the pumpkin pie other than the crust).
Whoops, I guess I should have made a little more pie crust. Still, it had a nice finish after baking.
All in all, it was quite a feast. We had a guest from the US who brought canned cranberry sauce (though we also found some frozen cranberries which meant that we got homemade cranberry relish as well). The turkey came out really well and the stuffing was wonderful. We even had green-beans in a sesame sauce (well, there's always one semi-healthy dish at Thanksgiving). And the first course (pumpkin soup) was a great way to start the meal after many hours of cooking.
I think that I'm still full from the meal. Oh, and I was way too tired to get a picture of the dessert table with seven desserts (to feed nine people). I made one mistake on the apple pie, which was not adding anything to thicken the juice from the apples, which made for a lot of liquid in each slice. I guess I'll just have to keep making pies until I get it right.
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