Normally I make an excellent Thanksgiving dinner. Beautifully roasted turkey, a moist and flavorful bread stuffing, gravy from homemade turkey stock and pumpkin pie to die for, with real (not canned) pumpkin. And I’ve been making this meal for years, so it’s a snap, right? I was even going to change it up a little, making sweet potato ravioli with browned sage butter (see recipe in a previous post).
My brother and Val are visiting Val’s family for Thanksgiving so it’s just going to be me, Mom, Gram, my uncle Stuart and his girlfriend, Roberta. Only 5 people so it’s a cinch, hardly anything at all. Then last night my uncle leaves me a message, asking what time dinner is, what do they need to bring, etc. And at the end he tells me that Roberta is allergic to sage, so I need to make accommodations for her.
No sage?!? In a Thanksgiving dinner? But there is sage in the stuffing (just try to find poultry seasoning that doesn’t contain sage, I dare you). And I make an herb butter to inject the turkey with (yup, sage in that). And the Browned Sage Butter DEFINITELY contains sage.
My brother and Val are visiting Val’s family for Thanksgiving so it’s just going to be me, Mom, Gram, my uncle Stuart and his girlfriend, Roberta. Only 5 people so it’s a cinch, hardly anything at all. Then last night my uncle leaves me a message, asking what time dinner is, what do they need to bring, etc. And at the end he tells me that Roberta is allergic to sage, so I need to make accommodations for her.
No sage?!? In a Thanksgiving dinner? But there is sage in the stuffing (just try to find poultry seasoning that doesn’t contain sage, I dare you). And I make an herb butter to inject the turkey with (yup, sage in that). And the Browned Sage Butter DEFINITELY contains sage.
Now I’m the first one to understand what it’s like to have a food allergy. I’m allergic to caffeine (as most all of my friends know) and I’m used to drinking water, never ordering tea out and passing up the “Coca-cola cake” on the buffet table. I even question waiters relentlessly as to what kind of rootbeer their restaurant serves (Barq’s has caffeine, Mug and A&W don’t). So I understand and I’m very sympathetic. I will do all I can to keep Roberta safe. No sage shall even enter the house, lest she come into contact with it! But it’s definitely going to be a challenge.
Okay, so my herb butter will be sage-less and I’ll make my own poultry seasoning for the stuffing. It’s back to the drawing board for the sweet potato portion of the meal. I’m sure it will all be fine, this just threw a bit of a wrench in my plans, that’s all (okay, a really BIG wrench, but we’ll adjust)
Confession time…for the past few years I have been using store bought pie crusts for my pumpkin pie. I know, and I’m ashamed. But the Marie Calendar’s brand is pretty good and I’m not a huge crust fan so it really doesn’t matter to me. But a co-worker’s wife is attending pastry school at Le Cordon Bleu and she sent in a pumpkin pie (I love you Jocelyn!). The filling was good (not quite as good as mine since she used canned pumpkin and it had ginger in it which my family doesn’t like, and I agree, ginger is too strong against the subtle pumpkin flavor). But the crust was phenomenal. And I don’t like crust all that well. But this was flaky, crisp and just ever so slightly sweet. Gosh it was good. Now I used to make pie crust all the timeand it was pretty good, but nothing like this. So I’m going to make pie crust for the first time in years. I googled away and couldn’t find anything that specifically said it was Le Cordon Bleu’s recipe but I found one by a Cordon Bleu trained pastry chef and the recipe does contain sugar so I’m going to try it.
Here is the timeline for this week’s dinner.
Saturday night – stew down pumpkins (ask and maybe I’ll teach you my secret method!)
Sunday – make stock for gravy.
Monday – make cranberry sauce (not only is it delicious with dinner, but put some over cream cheese and serve with Ritz crackers as an appetizer, yum)
Tuesday – grocery store, make herb injection
Wednesday – bake pies, rolls, prep vegetables for stuffing, make mashed potatoes
Thursday – make the stuffing, stuff and roast turkey, make gravy, whip cream, collapse.
I’ll let you know how it goes!
Okay, so my herb butter will be sage-less and I’ll make my own poultry seasoning for the stuffing. It’s back to the drawing board for the sweet potato portion of the meal. I’m sure it will all be fine, this just threw a bit of a wrench in my plans, that’s all (okay, a really BIG wrench, but we’ll adjust)
Confession time…for the past few years I have been using store bought pie crusts for my pumpkin pie. I know, and I’m ashamed. But the Marie Calendar’s brand is pretty good and I’m not a huge crust fan so it really doesn’t matter to me. But a co-worker’s wife is attending pastry school at Le Cordon Bleu and she sent in a pumpkin pie (I love you Jocelyn!). The filling was good (not quite as good as mine since she used canned pumpkin and it had ginger in it which my family doesn’t like, and I agree, ginger is too strong against the subtle pumpkin flavor). But the crust was phenomenal. And I don’t like crust all that well. But this was flaky, crisp and just ever so slightly sweet. Gosh it was good. Now I used to make pie crust all the timeand it was pretty good, but nothing like this. So I’m going to make pie crust for the first time in years. I googled away and couldn’t find anything that specifically said it was Le Cordon Bleu’s recipe but I found one by a Cordon Bleu trained pastry chef and the recipe does contain sugar so I’m going to try it.
Here is the timeline for this week’s dinner.
Saturday night – stew down pumpkins (ask and maybe I’ll teach you my secret method!)
Sunday – make stock for gravy.
Monday – make cranberry sauce (not only is it delicious with dinner, but put some over cream cheese and serve with Ritz crackers as an appetizer, yum)
Tuesday – grocery store, make herb injection
Wednesday – bake pies, rolls, prep vegetables for stuffing, make mashed potatoes
Thursday – make the stuffing, stuff and roast turkey, make gravy, whip cream, collapse.
I’ll let you know how it goes!
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