Hope my American friends had a tasty and relaxing day! We were four and it was really nice. I learned you can always make something else (oh? Bourbon-laced sweet potatoes? Why not! Cream biscuits? Sure!), thereby turning a meal for four into something more like dinner for nine.
I had a chance to test the Hockey Puck Biscuit Theory.
Previously, I have been embarrassed and annoyed that any time I tried to make cream biscuits for a holiday meal, they were epic fails. Hockey puck biscuits. While my more private baking adventures are not uniformly good, I often manage to produce tasty and flaky biscuits.
Until yesterday, I figured the tension and pressure of putting out a dinner for a crowd foiled my efforts. But yesterday, we were four. There goes my theory.
So what, then? A post-turkey oven is not hospitable? Sitting on a cookie tray for three hours jinxes the dough? Anyone? Maybe the cut dough needs to be refrigerated until oven-time.
I mean look at that thing! It’s practically two-dimensional.
Everything else was good, I’m happy to report including the cookies (talk about going overboard. I’d already made a pumpkin cheesecake).
It’s cold. It may or may not be raining. If not, it will be raining soon.
Lastly, I came upon two share-worthy creators this morning. The poem by Bernadette Mayer (below) offers a master class in the use of repetition and captures my mood of late. The collage artist, a 75-year-old woman living on one of the barrier islands along the South Carolina coast, takes my breath away. Some of her pieces are huge. Aldwyth.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49736/failures-in-infinitives
Yummy that’s a good looking Thanksgiving meal. I can see why that someone hung close to the cook. That turkey looks to be cooked to perfection.
It was good, the bird and now we have enough for sandwiches on sour dough and turkey tetrazzini. Hope your gathering was wonderful!
What a lovely table, the colors of the table cloth so inviting and since the old adage of “we eat with our eyes first” , looking at your table, sure jump starts the appetite…
Plans to drive to CA not doable, (in no way did we want to brave airports and connecting flights with rising flu, covid and rsv even though our kids had purchased the tickets.) So the decision to drive but after careful thought and considerations,we decided too taxing a drive for us old folks given that a predicted snow storm would be encountered on the way back to New Mexico. It is already snowing in eastern and southeastern New Mexico. SO, a meal was quickly put together: the usual, turkey, stuffing inside the turkey because that is how I grew up eating it and that is how R likes it; mashed potatoes, peas with pearl onions in homemade white sauce with a grating of nutmeg, whole berry cranberry sauce from a can. Used to make luscious brandy orange infused cranberry sauce until one Thanksgiving, R said he preferred store bought so it made my cooking easier but to me, not as tasty as my version. No cranberry Nantucket Pie Cake, my go to Thanksgiving desert from the late author and food writer Laurie Colwin, this year as I forgot to buy the Splenda blend as this desert has a lot of sugar. Did get store bought pumpkin pie or I should say, whipped cream with a but of pie; . truth: this was the second pie cause when I realized that the trip to CA was not gonna happen, I ate half a pie by myself!
So this time of thanks and giving, I am thankful for the invention of the phone that enabled our loved ones to chat away with us yesterday. Equally grateful for the invention of the internet, because coming here, seeing photos, reading your words, over the many years, has been such a wonderful , informative, joyful, connective experience Dee.
Today, due to the influence of my British son in law, all of our households will be tuned into the World Cup, England vs USA. While you might think that I am rooting for USA, well, no, it’s England all the away as I learned all about soccer from, Adrian, my son in law, years ago and of course, the first team that I became aware of was England. Besides the usual snacks to accompany this viewing, did I mention that there is also more whipped cream with pie…!
I love the pie-eating admission buried in this comment.
Sorry you couldn’t make it to California, but it sounds like you pulled together a festive meal on the fly. The pea and onion dish sounds especially delicious! I put the stuffing in the bird too. I was reminded by COOKS to zap the stuffing until it’s too hot to handle before inserting in the bird. Helps with achieving safe temps.
We’re headed to California in a couple of weeks and already I feel that Covid-worry. I mean three hundred people a day are dying from it in the US.
And speaking of my brother, he’s a huge soccer fan. I’m sure it’s been World Cup around the clock in his house.
Oh and I am enormously grateful for the friends I’ve met and continue to learn from and enjoy and feel supported by here too!
I nuked 2 sweet potatoes and we finished some humus and string bean salad. And we split a beer.
Now that’s what I call keeping it simple!
It was perfect.
Oh that Finney-Boy!! The lurking around the table, the look on his face as he eyes the turkey = hysterical! What a gorgeous spread of foods and table setting. A lovely cloth for a festive Thanksgiving table. Plus, art and poetry to boot! I am grateful for all of your offerings and for your friendship. May your season unfold in the most amazing ways and may you have safe travels to CA. ❤️
Well Finn knows where the action is and knows when he’s been bad! I am grateful for your friendship as well, Nancy.
Had to look up Turkey Tetrazzini .. definitely a recipe I will make. Although I do mostly stay away from creamy pasta dishes I will save this for a day when comfort food is a must have.
Oh it is sooo good and definitely qualifies as comfort food.
Must’ve been super-YUM!! and what a food presentation!
That Finn is a riot. (I am so grateful though that our dog came trained not to touch human food. She does lick the floor nicely and that I do appreciate 🙂
Dog photos are adorable.
I cooked for four, too, and I had fun.
I didn’t even cook half of what you cooked, and I was wiped out yesterday – and you had no sleep?? Jeez, I gave up on biscuits years ago. I will never considered trying GF bicuits. My mom was a master of dumplings, biscuits and pie crust – and I learnt nothing.
I was proud of my turkey: 14 lbs in 3 hrs. Crispy skinned, moisty meat. I made cornbread dressing with chestnuts, baked outside of the bird. The bird was I stuffed with onion, lemon and fresh herbs. Poured 2 bottles of some horrid kombucha beer into the roasting pan (tried it and hated it, some 5 years ago). Maybe that was the secret of success? Never throw anything out 😉
Love the Aldwyth collages! and yours too, as always. Thanks for all this. The poem reminds me of my own journaling, so, honestly I just couldn’t get through this Bernadette Mayer one. Hmm.
Have you seen the film “ICARUS” (2017)? We got 1/2 way through it last night (due to too much left over T-giving food). It won an Oscar for Documentary. Quite fascinating; excellent. I can’t wait to finish it tonight.
Good reading in NYker on Climate Change. Great Louise Erdrich short story, too. I took the time to indulge in reading it at the kitchen table yesterday.
BTW, I’m so happy that you have a new reviewer/reader for your book (“reviewer”? what’s that proper job title). I hope it’s going well. I really want to read your book – in it’s final glory, of course.
Time get back to making more art 🙂
xx M
I am thoroughly to blame for Finn’s lack of manners. All I have to do is pull out cheese and sliced chicken packs from the fridge to make a sandwich and HE’S THERE!
We watched Icarus the summer of the Charlottesville Hate March. I remember because we were at an Airbnb in New Hampshire that week. It is so damning of Russia and a stark companion piece to the Mueller Report, really. I just picked up a New Yorker after your comment and read the fiction piece. It was great (it almost always is), but it wasn’t by Louise E. I’ll look for it and for the article on climate change. I love having The New Yorker on my phone. It’s the difference between reading some of it and none of it. A few weeks back, BTW, The Daily podcast did an interesting piece about Florida and how the coming inability to insure houses is a frightful prospect — even before the entire peninsula is washed over by the sea. I recommend it. Maybe you already heard it?
I’m about to finish the final episode of Rachel Maddow’s podcast ULTRA. Holy shit. Are you listening?
Just read the Louise Erdrich story in The New Yorker. Wow it was good. Thanks for alerting me.
Your table looked beautiful and your meal delicious! I have exactly the same trouble with biscuits and I can’t figure it out. My extremely accomplished cook/daughter-in-law showed me exactly how she does it. Hers turned out and mine didn’t.
I thought of you Dana as I set the table. I think I do with every holiday preparation now. How was yours?
Last year my brother-in-law gave me five pounds of White Lily flour. It might seem strange, but it was one of the nicest gifts I’ve ever gotten. That produced the most tender biscuits I’ve ever made. So I guess the test would be to use the special flour the next time we’re entertaining.
LOL re: Finn. He’s a dawg and so sweet!!!
I do want to listen to ULTRA. Haven’t been doing many long drives in the car tho’ which is the only time I listen to podcasts. Rachel is at her best when she does these research projects.
I think I need cliff notes for ICARUS.
Yup, I too read much more of the New Yorker on my phone.
Floridah? forgettaaboutit.
But, seriously, my god – where are they all going to go? and then where are we all going to go when they get here? :->
I’m so happy my great nephew who was in FL just moved to Boston, and my niece and my oldest sister to the mountains of GA. How about a vacation to Antarctica? nooooooo.
Hey, I’m back on IG – and I’m following you again 🙂 🙂
and searching for all my other old favs. Now for the switch to POST. Thanks for that tip. I will be spending less time on Spelling Bee?
bfn
Will look for you in IG