Thanksgiving Dinner

I hope you're all having a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend with friends and family. I decided to post a few pictures and some traditional family recipes from our early Thanksgiving feast Wednesday night. I'll start with the table. Whenever Dad mentions "Someone should set the table," I always seem to get this suggestive nod saying "Get to it Mona." I usually enjoy it because it means I get to organize/decorate to some extent. Here are some pix of the final product.

This Thanksgiving we welcomed Swimster and my Uncle Brian (of Quatorze Bis fame) to early Thanksgiving. We had a great time and per usual, ate way too much. This year I was too busy playing with my new toy (my parents bought me a Powerbook G4 as an early Christmas present-Thanks Mom and Dad!!) so Dad ended up doing most of the cooking, minus a few exceptions: Mom always does the potatoes. And even when Dad has nothing to do and thinks he should get started on the potatoes, he better not. Mom also made the delicious cookie cake, stuffing and asparagus. And though she usually hands off the gravy to me to watch over, Uncle Brian busted in this year and will now be official gravy-master. See below:
Recipes:

Squash Soup, made from Squash Puree courtesy of William Sonoma

Light & Silky Mashed Potatoes -keepin' it simple and tasty, courtesy of Gourmet Magazine

2 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, preferably large
1 ½ tsp salt
2/3 cup whole milk
½ stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
¼ tsp white pepper

*Peel potatoes and cut into 1-in cubes. Transfer to a 3-quart heavy saucepan and add 5 cups cold water and 1 tsp salt, then bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer partially covered, until potatoes are tender.
*Drain potatoes in a colander, then return to pan and cook over moderate heat. Transfer potatoes to a bowl and keep hot and covered. Heat milk, butter, and white pepper and remaining ½ tsp of salt in saucepan over moderate heat until butter is melted.
*Force potatoes through food mill into hot milk mixture in pan and gently stir with a large heat-proof rubber spatula just until combined.

Sally Lunn Bread -a gargantuan favorite this year and courtesy of The Williamsburg Cookbook

1 cup milk
1/2 cup shortening
4 cups sifted all-purpose flour, divided
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp salt
2 pkgs active dry yeast
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees 10 minutes before you're ready to put the dough in the oven.

Grease 10- inch tube cake pan or bundt pan. Heat the milk shortening and 1/4 cup water until very warm-about 120 degrees. Shortening does not need to melt.
Blend 1 1/3 cups flour, the sugar, salt, and dry yeast in a large mixing bowl.
Blend warm liquids into flour mixture. Beat with an electric mixer at medium speed about 2 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally.
Gradually add 2/3 cup of the remaining flour and the eggs and beat at high speed for 2 minutes.

Add the remaining flour and mix well. Batter will be thick, but not stiff.
Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until double in bulk-about an hour and 15 minutes.
Beat dough down with a spatula or at lowest speed on an electric mixer and turn into prepared pan.
Cover and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until increased in bulk 1/3 to 1/2 about 30 minutes.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes at 350 degrees.
Run knife around the center and outer edges of the bread and turn onto plate to cool.

Asparagus with Swiss Cheese -the best ever. The secret is not to overcook the asparagus.

2 lbs cooked asparagus
salt and pepper to taste
3 tbl mayo
2 tsp lemon juice
1/3 cup parmesan
1/2 cup Swiss cheese
1/4 cup butter

Arrange cooked asparagus in oven-friendly dish with salt and pepper. Spread mayo over asparagus and sprinkle 1tsp of lemon juice on top. Add parmesan and Swiss cheese together over asparagus. Pour melted butter and 1 tsp of lemon juice together over top.

Heat oven to 350 degrees until cheese is melted. Broil in oven for an additional 1-2 minutes until cheese is browned.

Cookie Cake-the biggest we've ever seen

Stuffing- Pepperidge Farm style. Last year I tried to be adventurous in the stuffing department and it was a big disappointment. So this year we're back to the basic and family favorite-bag o' stuffing. Mom learned this year to never stuff the turkey with warm stuffing. It should go in cold, and wow was it good!

Secret's in the Sauce-We always make the gravy in the pan we take the turkey out of. First we empty most of the drippings into a container. Mom then adds a couple tablespoons of flour and mixes with small amount of drippings in pan until bubbles and thickens. We then alternate water (or turkey stock) and more drippings VERY VERY slowly until each new batch bubbles and thickens, thickens and bubbles, like a witch's brew. Inevitably someone always loses patience doing this and we end up doing it in shifts. As I mentioned earlier, Uncle Brian took the helm this year and he'll now be stuck doing it every year.

Turkey-courtesy of Milillo Farms in Ridgefield, CT. We discovered this place last year and decided to get our turkey from there every year. In addition to their apple pie. Produce and poultry come from their organic farm.

Enjoy! As you can see I had plenty of good reasons to be thankful this year :)