After Thanksgiving
2001-11-24 @ 11:36 a.m.
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Thanksgiving day is always a mixed blessing for me. Since I work in retail, it is usually the only day I get off that week (except Sunday - liquor laws being what they are in the south). I look forward to cooking traditional foods, and I always cook enough for tons of leftovers. Which is good because Badsnake goes to her mother's for Thanksgiving and doesn't get to eat my food until she gets back. Thanksgiving dinner is usually me, Jake, Sara, my mother and Jim (a neighbor around the corner).
As much as I love to cook, however, a couple of days before Thanksgiving I begin remembering a Thanksgiving of years past with longing. One year before Jake and Sara came into our family, Bad went to her Mom's and I was left home alone. I slept late. Got up to coffee and the newspaper. Sat on the front porch with my book. Ate dinner at Shoney's, with my book and went back home to relax some more. I enjoyed that as much as I enjoy cooking for my wonderful family.
This year I tried something new with turkey. I brined it according to instructions from Cook's Illustrated magazine. I soaked it overnight in salt water (1 cup of kosher salt to each quart of water). The turkey was very moist and tasty. I highly recommend it if you have the refridgerator room.
I also made cornbread dressing, green bean casserole and angel biscuits from a Nathalie Dupree recipe. For me and Sara, I opened a can of the gelled cranberry sauce and sliced it into thick slices. My mother brought a fruit salad. She isn't much of a cook, but she makes a great fruit salad. It's one of the few things I remember fondly from my childhood of family Thanksgivings that she made. My grandmother was the queen of family dinners.
Wine for Thanksgiving is tricky (same with Christmas). There tend to be so many different flavors on the table, it's easy for the wine to clash with something, making the wine and the food taste bad (especially the wine). A medium-bodied fruity red or white is your best bet. Try Pinot Noir or a German or Alsatian white.
Today my baby is on her way back home from her mother's. I'm looking forward to having leftovers with her and the girls tonight. Our family will be back together and I get to sleep with my girl instead of just the dog.
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