MITCH IN THE KITCHEN

thanksgiving recap

Last year I hosted Thanksgiving for the first time and told my friend Jamie it was going to be “the biggest cooking event of my life so far” (she snickered appropriately in response). It turned out fine and was pretty low-stress. No disasters, no drama, and the food was decent.

This year I stuck to the same procedure of doing as much as possible ahead of time, a little bit each day over 4 days or so. Thanksgiving seems to be the only time I am calmly ahead of schedule, which is remarkable and makes those close to me wonder how they can get me to treat all events like a big holiday dinner. Ingredient motifs this year were pork, apples, maple syrup, and pecans, which was nice because it kept the shopping list manageable.

Bacon-Wrapped Maple Pork Loin (recipe)
I was kind of traumatized by last year’s turkey leftovers (the meat and stock I made with the bones had this oily oniony flavor that I just couldn’t stomach for some reason… and I like onions a lot so that was weird) and confirmed that my in-laws are cool with alternative holiday meats, so I took the liberty of choosing pork rolled in pork. It smells as wonderful as you’d imagine, and tastes just as good.

Cranberry, Apple, and Pecan Conserve (adapted from this recipe)
I think cranberry sauce is one of the easiest things to make instead of buy, especially if you really like the stuff and want to have lots of leftovers. I really wanted to work in apples to go with the pork.

Herbed Cornbread Stuffing with Andouille Sausage (adapted from this recipe)
This was a loose, kinda dry stuffing that would’ve worked well with really drippy saucy things. I reheated the leftovers with extra jus from the pork recipe.

Maple-Glazed Sweet Potatoes (recipe)
Hard to go wrong with glazed sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving, even without marshmallows on top (which have never been my thing anyway).

Green Vegetables
As usual, there were Brussels sprouts, this time with carrots, honey, and thyme. There was also a salad with baby arugula, apples, celery, candied pecans, and a mustard vinaigrette.

Around 8:30pm, I blurted out that I felt ready to throw up, something all polite hosts should tell their guests. But I pushed forward.

For dessert we had homemade apple cider ice cream, aided by tips from my friend and ice cream entrepreneur Diana. Also, spiced pumpkin ice cream. And John made gingersnaps (which, several days into their staleness, are having a really good second life crushed up and mixed into either ice cream). And then I went overboard and baked some oatmeal cookies with raisins, cranberries, and walnuts. I know that at least half of my guests skipped breakfast the next day, which I will take as a compliment.

guacamole + holiday recap

Another year, another family-filled holiday in L.A., another bowl of guacamole. Every Christmas (or Christmas Eve), my entire extended family packs into my parents’ house. We have a potluck that usually requires a large appetite and three trips to the buffet if you want to try everything. I usually bake something bite-sized (this year: oatmeal cookies) and make a quick and easy bowl of guacamole: avocados, jalapenos (the hotter the better), minced white (must be white) onion, cilantro, lots of lime, and lots of salt. It’s tasty, but it usually gets overshadowed (rightfully so) by things like roast turkey with my aunt’s famous hot chili sauce, tea-leaf eggs, homemade potstickers, fried egg rolls, banh cuon, two kinds of chicken curry, and my mom’s famous spareribs.

In the days following the Christmas feast, we ate leftovers, hung out at museums, ate at L.A. favorites Umami Burger and Jitlada, had a magical night of all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue, briefly caught up with old friends, and enjoyed the hell out of the sunshine.

As for tonight, John and I are going to walk down the street to our friends’ apartment and drink a ton of whiskey and beer and champagne with them. It’ll be a low-key but fitting end to what has easily been the most exciting, emotional, heartwarming, and all around best year of my life so far (I really hope I don’t start drunk-crying). Goodbye 2010, hello 2011! Happy New Year everyone!

the thanksgiving post

This year John and I had the pleasure of putting together an early Thanksgiving dinner in our newly (finally) fixed up apartment with his parents. Yes, we are those newlyweds, straight out of a Target commercial as Nicole pointed out (minus the cute dogs and stylish exuberance). The smell of roasted savory things is still clinging to my nostrils, with visions of brussels sprouts dancing in my head. My obsessive-compulsive tendencies paid off, since advance planning (yes, I made a color-coded schedule) made everything less hectic than a typical weekday pre-class meal in this apartment. I will not go on too much about the provenance of my ingredients, but the turkey was a regular broad-breasted breed from my CSA that I was able to get a hold of a week early. Next time we’d like to save up and try a heritage turkey.

Marinated and Roasted Turkey (recipe)
I did not (and do not) have a stockpot or insulated cooler big enough to hold a 12-pound turkey, and panicked for about 5 minutes until I found some brining bags at the store. They’re basically giant zip-top plastic bags that can hold a large piece of meat and several quarts of liquid. And hey, they come in packs of 2, so I got to use the other one for the marinade. This was my first time cooking a whole turkey, but brining really kept the meat moist and flavorful. I am a little ashamed to say that we roasted the whole thing with the plastic bag of giblets inside, despite my TSA-approved search of the entire cavity. I hate making clichéd mistakes.

Simple Cranberry Sauce
1 pound fresh cranberries, 1 cup sugar, a dash of salt, and 1/2 cup water is all you need. Simmer in a saucepan until cranberries begin to soften and burst. I got impulsive and added the zest from one small lemon. I also ran out of sugar (I was about 1/4 cup short) so I made up for it with some honey. Basically, this turned into honey lemon cranberry sauce. It’s also an easy thing to make a couple days in advance.

Arugula, Frisee, and Fennel Salad
We used a cheap handheld mandoline to shave the fennel. The dressing was lemon juice, salt, pepper, and fancy expensive Nicolas Alziari olive oil that is totally worth it. I meant to add a little sherry vinegar but forgot. Oil cured black olives went on top and shaved hard cheese would’ve been good too.

Stuffing with Apples and Raisins (adapted from this recipe)
Stuffing is one of my favorite things that I had never made until this occasion. I don’t understand why the crust of the bread has to be removed, because it soaks and softens in all the other ingredients anyway. I used chopped prosciutto instead of sausage in the recipe (just added prosciutto to the pan while the apples were cooking).

Mixed Potato Gratin with Leeks and Manchego (adapted from this recipe)
Three kinds of potatoes went into this: orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, some kind of white potatoes, and red-skinned potatoes. I used whole milk in place of half of the cream, and added sliced leeks to the layers of potatoes. I also used manchego cheese instead of gruyere.

Brussels Sprouts with Chorizo and Almonds
Repeated from last year’s Thanksgiving potluck.

Pear and Apple Cobbler with Maple Bourbon Vanilla Ice Cream
Easier than pie. I tossed peeled and sliced apples and pears with a few sprinkles of flour and a little bit of cinnamon in a baking dish, then topped it with spaced-apart blobs of biscuit dough (I used really wet buttermilk biscuit dough). It sat in a 375-degree oven for about 40 minutes, until the topping was golden. Important step: letting it sit for 10 minutes before serving, to avoid ending a pleasant feast with burnt tastebuds and weird mouth blisters. I put scoops of homemade vanilla ice cream (spiked with Maker’s Mark and pure maple syrup) on top because this is definitely the season for food overkill.