How Thanksgiving Really Went . . .
The day after Thanksgiving is traditionally a HUGE shopping day in the U.S. Stores have sales that start at 7 a.m. in the morning, some even reward customers who get there at 6 a.m. People start putting up their Christmas decorations. Almost everyone is in calorie overload – no matter how much you tell yourself you are going to go light, you end up eating more than you intended.
The really good news is that leftover turkey and cranberry sauce make dynamite sandwiches. Pies are great the second day.
I didn’t do the pecan pie. When I went to make it, I didn’t have any Karo syrup, and you can’t make a pecan pie without corn syrup. We made an early trip to the Sultan Center, where they DID have those gorgeous huge Kuwaiti shrimp, (they were yummy) and I bought some corn syrup, but by the time I got home, I needed to focus on other things and didn’t have time to make another pie. I had made a plum pie the day before when I discovered I didn’t have corn syrup, and that would have to do. As it turned out, my friend had made THREE pies, two stunningly beautiful pumpkin pies with little leaves of pastry crust on them, and a cranberry/lemon pie that was a tart surprise, and a welcome change from all the sweet stuff. She also baked three kinds of bread – she is one talented lady. She made it all look so easy. Whew!
Pumpkin Pie with Autumn Leaves
My friend did the turkey, and it was PERFECT. She also did the gravy, and it, too, was perfect. I will have to learn her secret. She also made a smokey black bean soup that was to die for.
Balsamic Sweet Potatoes
Mom’s Roquefort dressing was a big hit, the cranberry jello was great, all the side dishes were great – something for everyone.
But I have to get the recipe for that smokey bean soup from my friend. . . WOW.
Best of all – good conversation with good friends, people you can be comfortable with.
My parents are doing OK, and were baking a turkey when I called and would be sharing Thanksgiving Dinner with my youngest sister and her husband. I give thanks they still have the drive to do their own Thanksgiving.
Enough of the Thanksgiving. . . time to move on. I want to thank all of you who had fun with this meal, who tried making even one dish – you inspired me. And I guess there is a need for easy recipes, because once I had put those recipes online, I was getting huge hits every day – the day before Thanksgiving, I had almost 700 hits. . . it was a huge shock.
I especially want to thank 1001 Kuwaiti Nights for her inspiration, and her questions. I don’t even know what I know, until I know what you don’t know! See her first Thanksgiving dinner at that link. What courage! To try a Feast and to bring it off! I especially love the after photo of her first Pecan Pie! Woooo Hooooooo, 1001!
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what a feast! I can’t wait for the winter-time recipes …!
Hey. Little D. Sorry the photos are fuzzy – had the camera in my purse and it flipped to manual focus. Couldn’t realize why the camera wasn’t focusing and was afraid the camera was broken – didn’t see the problem until I had tme to sit down and check things out. Aarrgh.
You took pictures!! Great! Thanks Intelxpatr. I was especially happy to see that your balsamic potatos looked a lot like mine so Im glad I didnt go wrong. Your recipes were amazing and not too difficult at all and teaching me the pecan pie…Im gonna be thankful to your for years for that you dont understand how delicious it was!
Now moving on, we still have the turkey leftovers refrigerated. Should we throw it away or is it still good?
By the way, did you ever think of giving a class on American Cooking in Kuwait? This would be amazing because a lot of people would want to have the occasional American meal but may worry that they dont have the right ingredients in Kuwait. I would definitely be willing to pay for a class like that. Think about it!
1001 – OMG, the turkey leftovers are the best part! It tastes BETTER the second day.
1st, turkey sandwiches: two slices bread, mayonnaise, slices of turkey and a little cranberry relish if you have it, and some leaves of lettuce, salt and pepper. Tomatoe if you like (yep, they get stacked pretty high) and/or slices of sweet pickle.
2nd, turkey fajitas, turkey burritos, turkey tacos . . .turkey in macaroni and cheese . . . this is where you use all the pieces that are not good sandwich slices.
3. Bring a big pot of water to boil, turn it down to simmer, and simmer the turkey carcass with some chopped celery and onion for about three hours. Turkey pieces will fall off the bone.
(messy part) cool down and pull out all the bones.
Chop up any parts that are too big – you are looking for soup spoon size, here. Add some kind of pasta, small, like alphabets or stars, and some seasoning – garlic, sage, thyme, salt, pepper – to your families taste.
Go Martha, GO!
1001 – part 2
If my Mother knew I am blogging and saw your suggestion, she would probably die of either laughter or a heart attack. I have taught cooking, but only as a means to teaching English. . . and I get all fragmented trying to deal with the cooking process AND different people. I wrote a small cookbook for all the newly independents and newlyweds in our family, though, and that is how I happen to have so many of these recipes already in the computer.
But you really have given me the grin of the day, thinking of me trying to teach a cooking class. I am really good at a lot of things. . . but at cooking, I have really had to work on just a few good recipes. I’m just not that great, and my attention is elsewhere . . . :-(, which is why all of my recipes are EASY. Thank you, dear one, for your encouragement (still laughing . . . )
See that’s the thing, your recipes really ARE easy and I think that for people who are busy or are novices at cooking it’s great to know these things.
BTW I just got a couple of the Australian Women’s Weekly cooking magazines from the Book Fair in Mishref. You might be interested in going there because one of the magazines is specifically for Middle Eastern cooking and it has relatively simple recipes for amazing Morrocan dishes. What I liked is that they also had a glossary! (Oftentimes I don’t understand the vocab for food and this is in Arabic and in English so it helps to have a description of some of the funkier ingredients.)
1001 – Thanks for a great recommendation! I collect cookbooks! I bought one in Qatar, locally authored, in which one recipe has “4 cups flowers”.
But here is why I admire you so much – there are things you can’t teach, things you only learn after seeing it, maybe helping with it, year after year. Most of us learn our cultural cooking at our mother’s knee. Others can learn, but it is much more difficult.
For you to master pecan pie on your first try – holy smokes, I am so impressed. And you also had the enterprise to find a ready made piecrust. I am SO impressed!
Baker – Are we talking technical problem adding, or not liking a recipe?
This year my wife decided to have a dry run thanksgiving day to test out her recipes. We soaked the bird in a brine solution she got at William Sonoma, it really kept it moist. OMG, the turkey was so good and I get to do it again in a few days!
Retro – it sounds wonderful! I just recently heard about brining, and how it makes the turkey so juicy. You’re turning into a regular Martha Stewart!