Much Meandering About Food, Seeking Comments On Same

We got a Share box, courtesy of my mother, including a small turkey and all the traditional stuff to go with it.  I just had to pick it up first thing in the morning yesterday, then take it home before I could go to work an unusual sixth day in a row (I ought to go today but it’s not urgent enough and I’d like to be fresh to get there by about 8:00 in the morning… more of the story behind this perhaps another time, but let’s just say the big client finally has a 100 mb network, site antivirus, VPN capability, and current servers, server OS, mail server, and MS Office deployed, and no more 95 or 98 machines). 

Included in the produce box was a bag of spinach, prominently labeled as east coast in origin.  Heh.  I found myself driving home and working out a recipe in my head to use it baked with cheese, almost dip-like or creamed and then baked, and was amused that I was so confidently creative.

When I looked up recipes, I found such things exist, but they prepare the spinach in a way I’d not thought of, use an unfamiliar cheese or two, and use paprika and nutmeg, which I’d not have thought to include.  Otherwise the variants are similar to my mental image.

Later yesterday I found myself doing something similar.  I was thinking about how much I’d love a ham (and I finally have cloves in my spice cabinet for such things), which made me think about my grandfather’s raisin sauce.  It was traditional to have raisin sauce with the ham, though not everyone ate it, and it was his specialty to make it.

I found myself deconstructing and picturing how to make the stuff.  That was inspired by gravy.  I have yet to make my own gravy successfully (my one attempt became jell from too much corn starch), but I am planning to attempt it this week.  I looked up how to make gravy online and perused a few sites the other day.  One of them noted it’s not that it’s hard or there’s a special trick; just that most people don’t do it regularly, where in some places in the past it was a matter of course, sometimes at every meal.  Which from a food optimization perspective makes sense, because you’re turning something you might throw away into added caloric value to the meal at little extra cost or effort.

Anyway, raisin sauce seems to me like really nothing more than an odd form of gravy.  That’s what made me start picturing how I might make it if I never learned how from Google or anyone.

Since I’m firmly on the topic of food, let’s talk about stuffing.  I am also planning to make my own stuffing for the first time, much as I like Stove Top, and despite there being a Bell box in the stuff we got.

The recipes I’ve seen, mainly over at Jeff’s post, involve cubing bread and letting it sit some length of time to dry to some degree.

Am I crazy to be picturing including some Portuguese sweet bread in the mix?  Offhand I’d think maybe 1/3 that and 2/3 regular bread, which I am thinking of making from a loaf of French or Italian bread rather than sliced bread.

I’m thinking the bread, some apple or pear, onion, garlic, chicken broth, a little sage and maybe some other herbs, maybe some raisins, maybe some sausage to be different.  It feels like one of those blank canvas foods, where who needs a recipe.

I’ll be making my now traditional candied sweet potatoes.  The biggest problem I have with those is the logical pan for the second stage of cooking isn’t big enough.  Especially if I have company and want a massive amount.  Last time I made them, I ended up using both the deep, covered frying pan, and the cast iron frying pan.  In any event, this year I’ll be smart and steam the sweet potato the night before.  Less moisture by the next morning, as well as saving time at the height of cookery.

Speaking of pans not big enough, I need a big roasting pan.  Great minds: Both of us have been thinking of the same thing and noticing them on sale.  Otherwise the turkey goes in a disposable pan, and I continue to barely fit chickens and hams into a pyrex pan not as deep as it could be.  The right tools are always better!

Indeed, I can’t believe how long I went with such a minimalist spice rack.  And how long I went without using real garlic rather than garlic powder.  I have real ginger in the house now, and may use it today to make pork fried rice.  Since it’s only good for so long, I might try making homemade crystalized (candied) ginger, which then keeps that much longer and can be eaten or used in cooking.  The spice thing is getting out of hand.  The other day I saw a sale on jars of stuff for 80¢ each and got cloves, cinammon sticks, chocolate and multicolored jimmies (sprinkles), and chives.  Not counting liquid extracts and the sprinkles and salt, there are 45 containers of spices or spice mixes.  I think three overlap, so 42 items in all.  And I have at least two specific items on my “to get” list yet.

The guest we are expecting for Thanksgiving doesn’t do pie, so we may get or make one, but otherwise I am thinking a cranberry pie, which isn’t pie, and a “bread” like pumpkin or banana.  I happen to know our guest loves pumpkin bread with cream cheese, so I lean toward that.  Any recipe suggestions apart from what I can obtain from Chef Google?

1. spinach artichoke dip is yummy too.

   Posted by wayne  on  11/19  at  06:26 PM  from  Ohio

2. Regarding bread for stuffing - any bread will work. My mother used to use a combination of cornbread with regular bread. Letting it stale up a bit is the key - keeps it from getting too gummy when mixed with liquids.

   Dessert idea: I’m making a pumpkin gingerbread trifle - a Paula Deen recipe found at foodtv.com. It looks easy, has the required Thanksgiving pumpkin, but isn’t too traditional.

   Posted by jen  on  11/20  at  10:12 AM  from  Northern Virginia

3. Here’s a link to the recipe - http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_29116,00.html?rsrc=search

   Posted by jen  on  11/20  at  10:14 AM  from  Northern Virginia

4. stuffing needs yellow cornbread!  and using chicken broth and then broth from your turkey, and some sage and salt and pepper - not sure what else mom puts in it, oh yeah, celery and onions.  It’s kinda basic, but very yummy.

   Posted by Beth  on  11/20  at  01:30 PM  from 

5. Nutmeg works very well with spinach when used with a light touch. I reckon it offsets the bitterness. We first encountered the combination at one of Chicago’s better=known neighborhood restaurants, and have succesfully approximated their creamed spinach by seasoning to taste and have also used it other ways. Go for it.

   Posted by triticale  on  11/20  at  09:42 PM  from  the you know house

6. What is this cranberry pie that isn’t pie?  I am a huge cranberry fan and anything that involves them sounds yummy to me.
   ~L

   Posted by  on  11/21  at  08:06 AM  from 
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