A busy 7 days of food food food! Did i mention food?

The december holidays are a day away (if you count advent), and we have kicked off the season with 3 dinners for thanksgiving, and our own tomorrow afternoon.

What started out as a relatively small family get together has morphed into dinner for 13 (yeah, i know the superstition, but i don’t think it will bother anyone.)  So we are having it at e&T’s, which can easily accommodate that many, whereas our tiny abode would not.

In the past, I have made big dinners for Das and the moth that last all day, starting with salads around 11am, and culminating in something sweet around 9p.   One year i served 18 courses, but it took that long to eat them.

This year, i’m going as traditional as i can bring myself to do so, turkey was out of the question, i didn’t talk to many people who really actually liked it other than on thanksgiving, so I’m making game hens and a pork shoulder, with cranberries, sweet mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes, and stuffing.  I’ve never made 3 of those, so im awake and nervous, a little bit.

The only person i really really want to impress is Das, and then after that is the moth.  Ideally, i would like everyone else (starting with the rest of the quad) to enjoy it immensely as well.  For Das’ birthday, i cooked for a lot of the same people, so I know i can do it : )

One thing that is hard is distinguishing a good dish when you don’t really eat it.  I don’t eat cranberries except in juice, and i don’t even like sweet potatoes, so those go by how well emmie likes them.   She was asleep when i made the cran, so let me share my recipe with you for that

4c cran

1c sugar

1c water

1tsp lemon zest

1/2 tsp pepper

Make a simple syrup by dissolving sugar in boiling water.  Add cran and zest and pepper, stir.  Return to a boil then simmer for 10 mins or til cranberries burst.

That’s it!

Here’s the simple steps to the smashed sweetatoes.

5lbs sweet potatoes, baked til they peel easily.

*i have found that this takes waaay longer than an hr at 350: i baked an extra 30 mins on 400, and then they were perfetto*

2tsp vanilla extract

several handfuls of brown sugar

splash of cream (maybe 1/3 cup)
put together and then Mash.   I am hoping to whip them in a food processor if there’s one available tomorrow, but if not, it will be no hardship, they are very soft and not terribly lumpy.

I have been having quite a time figuring out the stuffing.  I didn’t want it to sit all assembled overnight, so i put the chopped veggies in one container and the bread crumbles in another, and will combine tomorrow before baking.  I am thinking about using bacon grease for sauteeing the veggies, to add to the sausage flavours.  I haven’t decided

I am going to refrain from including this recipe til I know how it comes out.  I hope it does well, it’s going up against some serious stuffing competition (m of m & W; Master O, i mean you!)

One of the things i love about this holiday is the tradition of sharing it with friends.  And it means so much to me that so many people have touched our lives in the last year, and that i had a hard time keeping this list reasonable.  The community (and my only vanilla, the moth) has been so supportive of us, and has reached us in so many ways.  Thank you to all of you who will break bread with us, again, and here is to many more meals and warm hearths together.

mitda