We hosted Thanksgiving on Thursday for my mom and her husband and two friends of ours from Seattle and Port Hadlock. We had:
Turkey from Olympic Pastured Poultry
SMASHYpotato (Lauren’s name)
Buttermilk biscuits with homemade buttermilk
Glazed carrots
Green salad with pomegranate dressing from Butler Greens
Stuffing from our friend Skip.
Some sort of cucumber/dill salad from Finland that I don’t remember the name of.
Reactions to the menu:
Pastured turkey is something else. It’s more like duck than conventional turkey. There was a layer of fatty tissue on the front of the breast and the dark meat was a deep red like a fine duck. The drumsticks were shot through with heavily developed tendons that, I can only assume, arose from the bird running around doing turkeyish things. While I’m skeptical of Farmer Theo’s somewhat eccentric methods, I’m impressed enough with the product to start burying the occasional cow horn in my garden.
SMASHYpotatoes are, as they’ve ever been since we learned the recipe from Lauren’s Aunt Bonnie, just lovely. Potatoes and sweet potatoes combined with garlic and parmesan are such a satisfying alternative to marshmallow-coated orange potatoes.
I forget where Lauren got her recipe for biscuits, but there’s nothing like buttermilk biscuits to use up the leavings after making butter.
Green salad. What can I say? Every heavy meal needs a light course. Nom.
Stuffing a la Skip. He made two stuffings. One a conventional and delicious stuffing with mushrooms and sausage. The second had quince and cranberries and pecans. It was fantastic.
As I mentioned, I can’t recollect the name of the Finnish cucumber/dill salad, but it also was great. It was sliced cukes, dill, sugar, and vinegar. The fun part of this dish was that, in addition to being awesomely good, we got to discuss how cucumber salad with vinegar and sugar was reinterpreted in Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, and Thai cuisine. Some things have cross cultural appeal, I guess.
Sounds like a wonderful meal experience. Great food, good company and fine conversation! Win, win, win!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Smashy potatoes – yum! I make sweet potato smash so often, but never thought to add in garlic. Do you roast it first, then add? I agree, sounds like a successful meal with friends.
Happy (belated) Thanksgiving to you as well!
Yes, I roast the garlic first. The potatoes are diced and then boil, then the whole thing is combined and bakes for a while with parmesan on top. I suppose you could do it with minced raw garlic, which would cook when the whole mess bakes. That wouldn’t really save any time, though, since the garlic roasts while the potatoes are being chopped and boiled.
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