2010 Thanksgiving

Sharon really surprised me a coupe of weeks ago when she said: "How about we make something other than turkey for Thanksgiving this year?" You have to understand that Thanksgiving is Sharon's favorite holiday and that while not particularly conservative, she is a traditionalist when it comes to holiday food matters.

Joining us were John and Clark (who come every year and bring awesome pies) as well as Melinda (Sharon's sister) and Rachel (her daughter), who also join us every year.

The evening started with some appetizers wile we cooked dinner. A triple cream goat brie served warm with crackers was an immediate success. Also keeping us from starvation were chilled asparagus tips with home made aioli and Dukkah (a mix of crushed hazelnuts, pepper, cumin, sesame and coriander seeds, and salt) with home baked bread and extra virgin hojiblanca olive oil.

The main meal included balsamic roasted vegetables (sunchockes, carrots, cipollini onions, green onions and beets). These came out perfect. Sweet and earthy expertly caramelized by Sharon.

A staple of our Thanksgiving that survived the change in menu was Sharon's stuffing made this year with home made croutons, pork sausage and lost of sage. The gravy was a last minute addition from the pork drippings, which included some walnut pieces from the crust (see below).

The other starch of the evening were smashed potatoes with Crème Fraîche and fresh chives. Smashed potatoes are very small potatoes that have been parboiled, then smashed on a cookie sheet over parchment paper and finally crisped in the oven with salt, pepper and lots of extra virgin olive oil. The result is s-p-e-c-t-a-c-u-l-a-r.

We opted for two main proteins (in case you felt we didn't have enough food so far). Sharon made a grilled leg of lamb glazed with a pomegranate reduction. This was cooked to 135 degrees to make it nice a rare (and tender).

The second protein (pictured at left) was a pork loin, stuffed with wild mushrooms, spinach, chèvre and shallots and crusted with walnuts.

The recipe (for the crust anyway, since the final dish was the result of several recipes combined as well as some ideas of my own) called for browning in olive oil before placing in the oven. To protect the integrity of the crust and not loose too many walnuts, I opted to skip this step.

If I were to do this again I would have at least browned the loin prior to applying the curst but probably do it with the crust. The size of the loin once stuffed made this quite difficult, however.

Dessert was pie. Three of them, of course so we could feed all six people. John made the crusts and Clark the fillings. As requested, we got a pumpkin pie (which looked picture perfect), an apple pie (also beautiful with a nice golden color crust) and a pecan pie (my hands down favorite this year). All three were awesome.