Thanksgiving Leftovers

If you are looking for something to do with those turkey leftovers, check out this recipe for Turkey Risotto from my archives. 


Hope you had a great feast!!!!

Food and Happiness

In December 2010, Psychology Today posted “Top 10 Psychology Studies of 2010” written by Dr. Heidi Grant Halvorson. The article describes psychology study findings that could improve your life: i.e. breaking bad habits, making things seem easier, time management, gaining willpower, etc. One of the tips, “how to be happier,” validated something I’ve always known. That being a foodie improves my life.

Beyond the usual reasons of eating better or being more mindful of the food I eat, the study, entitled “Money Giveth, Money Taketh Away,” said that the secret to being happier is learning to savor life. Halvorson phrases it that “Savoring is a way of increasing and prolonging our positive experiences.” When you eat a great meal, enjoy it. If you see a beautiful sunset, take a picture. Instead of waiting for great things to happen, you rejoice in what you have.

Savoring life is why being a foodie enriches my life. Even the word “savor” rings so strongly with the rhetoric of the foodie world. Being a foodie means rejoicing in a unique beer from a microbrewery, a new twist on a classic dish, and a vivid plate with texture and depth.

In this line of thought, even being a food blogger enhances and enlivens the every day. Having a food blog encourages me to take the time to write about the meals I’ve eaten, the dishes I’ve made, and relive those meal, turning each bite into each word and savoring the experience. To make my write-ups accurate, I have to eat slowly, thoughtfully, so I can take notes about what I taste, smell, experience. Plus, the blog creates an archive of meals worth reliving through the act of being read and re-read.

When you sit down to dinner this Thanksgiving, take the time to really savor it. It just might improve your life.

The Height of Flavor Season

I look forward to October, November, and December as the yearly appearance of so many of my favorite seasonal dishes:  pumpkin spice soy milk, pumpkin spice lattes, peppermint lattes, gingerbread coffee creamer, mint chocolate everything.    

However, it feels like companies, when it comes to flavor creativity, shoot the wad this time of year.  For three months, the aisles are pouring with seasonal things.  The dairy section can’t contain all the coffee flavorings.  Starbucks menu can barely transition the overlap of pumpkin spice to eggnog latte to gingerbread.  Pumpkin loaves and bagels fight cranberry packed breads for space on the counters. 

And, oh yes, the eggnog.  If you can put eggnog in it, it will be there.

I even saw on Huffington Post that you can get seasonal flavored seltzer water in Eggnog, Candy Cane, Pumpkin Spice, and Granny Smith.  I’m sure there are great cocktails out there using such seltzer flavors, but does the world really need Pumpkin Spice flavored water?

If the stores aren’t bursting enough, the recipe machines are at their height.  Everyone is generating Thanksgiving and Christmas must have dishes.  Magazines and food sites are overflowing with pictures and ideas.  Everyone is rushing to get you ready for the season.     

Then, January will come.   On the arrival, it will be like the air goes out of the flavor production factory. We go back to the standards of hazelnuts and French vanillas.  Starbucks used to launch their Cinnamon Dolce Latte in January, but now those are year round.  Is there even a post-Christmas seasonal drink in Starbucks?

Although, in all fairness, the Fall is a great time for flavors.  Pumpkin and Fall squashes have so much adaptability.  Sweet, savory, spicy, filling, they do whatever you want them to.  Fall also lends itself to the warm spices of ginger, sage, cinnamon, thyme, rosemary--all such strong and familiar spices.    Then, there are the December seasonal favorites of peppermints and eggnong and gingerbread that are so completely tied to Christmas that it feels like heresy to have them any other time. 

I say enjoy it all while you can.  Get your fill of pumpkin and cranberries.  Relish the burst of cinnamon and rosemary and thyme.  Take in the creativity and nuances and variety. 

Because come January, you better have you tastebuds satiated.  When December ends, the weight loss begins, and the flavors sleep-off the three month bender until the next holiday.  

Thanksgiving Zen

So it is the week of Thanksgiving, and foodie fear is probably mounting.  Today, Food Network is hosting a live special to help deal with last minute panic.  Blog sites are filled to the brim with recipes and advice.  To help you with this Thanksgiving performance jitters, I’d like to offer a different perspective. 

That of a Zen priest and chef. 

I recently watched a documentary, How To Cook Your Life, by Doris Dörrie.  As a documentary, I have mixed feelings; but, in terms of great advice for chefs, it was well worth the watch.  The documentary is a series of interviews and documentary surrounding Zen priest and chef Edward Espe Brown who wrote, The Tassajara Bread Book, Tassajara Recipe Book, and a couple others.  Brown was the chief chef, or tenzo, at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in San Francisco.  Now he does cooking classes that offer one part cooking, two part Zen teachings.   

Given how much stress Thanksgiving places on all the poor foodies and cooks attempting to take on the food event of the season, here are some quotes and paraphrases to help give some perspective: 

1.  When cooking, be in the moment: When you are washing vegetables, wash the vegetables.  When you stir, just stir.  When you chop, chop.  Instead of thinking of everything and dividing your mind, embrace the task at hand. 
2. “When you’re cooking, you’re not just cooking food, you’re also working on yourself, you’re working on other people.”
3. This one is an excerpt from the chant the tenzo recites in the morning to remind him/her of the tasks of the day: “treat the food as though it were your eyesight . . . treat food as if it was that precious, as if it was your eyes. . . handle it carefully and sincerely.  . . don’t waste even a single grain of rice.”  The documentary and Brown argue that because food is such a commodity, it is no longer like eyesight, it is no longer precious.  So, when enjoying the meal you spent so much time making, really think about how cherished it is.    
4. In discussing the types of mind, Brown discusses the stages of mind in relationship to cooking:  “When the cook is joyful then you know everyone relaxes. . . when the cook is anxious then people will get anxious . . .and the food will taste better when the cook is joyful.”

Brown leading a cooking class. 

Lastly, and the one that just might take the stress out of your day, is the understanding that blemishes are a form of sincerety.  Brown tells the story of trying to make biscuits in Tassajara.  He was experimenting with proportions and the biscuits never came out just right.  He finally asked “right compared to what?”  Brown was trying to model the biscuits of his childhood, which were done by Pillsbury.  Instead, he decided to “taste the  biscuit of today” and discovered how wonderful each batch in each day was.  So, if you are fretting about the turkey coming out right, the stuffing being moist enough, remember “Right compared to what?”  Eat the Thanksgiving meal of the day and know that all blemishes and imperfections are just a form of sincerity. 

I hope this helps give a new perspective on Thanksgiving that will help you enjoy the day, enjoy the meal, and enjoy all the food you make. 

Thanksgiving Recipes: Cucumber and Apple Pickles

I love the carb, fat, butter, sugar fest that is Thanksgiving.  Sometimes, though, I wish I did have something to break-up the heaviness and brighten things up.  To help provide divergence from heavier dishes, I put together a combination that takes some of the flavors of Thanksgiving and turns them into a tangy “pickle.” 

Ingredients

½ fennel bulb, cut into slivers

1 apple, with skin and chopped into small cubes

½ English cucumber, with skin and chopped into thin half slices

¼ cup red onions

¼ cup mixed peppers

¼ cup celery

2 tablespoons fresh dill

1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes

1 tsp celery seeds

1 tablespoon salt

½ tsp pepper

2 cups fennel or chamomile tea

3 tablespoon honey

1 cup apple cider

1 cup rice wine vinegar

Directions:  

In the measuring cup where the tea is seeping, dissolve the honey.  Let cool.  

 

Place all the vegetables, dill, and apple in a large bowl.  Toss together.   Then, place in a sealable glass container.      

In the measuring cup, combined tea, vinegars, and spices.   Pour liquids in the glass container over the vegetable and apple.  Close and shake to mix everything together. 

Let sit in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

Thanksgiving Recipes: Sausage and Apple Wine Stuffing

Last time I was at Hill Top Berry Farm and Winery, I bought a bottle of their Mountain Apple Wine. Since I had so much fun playing around using beer to make seasonal scones, I decided to see what I could do with the Apple Wine.  After playing around with dessert ideas, I did a 180 and started thinking about how to use the wine to brighten a stuffing/dressing recipe.   Since so many stuffing recipes pair sausage and apples, I thought a Sausage and Apple Wine Stuffing would be a natural match. 

Ingredients

1 lb. ground sausage

1 tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

½ tsp red pepper flakes

1 small onion sliced into slivers

1 tsp. fennel seeds

1 tsp fresh thyme

1 tsp. rosemary

2 tsp. sage (about four leaves)
8 cups sourdough bread, cut into small cubes

2 cups chicken broth

½ cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup apple wine

1 cup celery

½ cup dried cranberries

1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and chopped into small cubes

2/3 cups walnuts

Directions

1. In a large ovenproof pan over medium-high heat, add sausage, salt, black pepper, and fennel seeds.  Cook till nice and brown.  Then, remove from heat and drain on a paper towel.
2. Reduce heat to medium and then, in the same pan, cook the onions in the sausage grease.  If there is too much grease, then sop up with a towel—if not enough, then add a little olive oil.  Keep stirring the onions and continue to cook until caramelized, about 30 minutes or so.  When done, remove from heat.  
3. In a bowl, throw in the bread crumbs, thyme, rosemary, and sage.  Then, add the broth, vinegar, and apple wine.  Stir till all the bread is moist. 
4. In the bowl, add celery, cranberries, apples, walnuts to the moistened bread.  Then, add the drained sausage and caramelized onions.  Stir to incorporate. 
5. Remove mixture to the original pan.  Place in a 350°F oven and cook for 1 hour.  Stuffing will be brown on top.  

Thanksgiving Recipes: Warm Pumpkin Pie Cocktails

This cocktail is a like warm, melted pumpkin ice-cream with a bourbon kicker.  

The idea for this cocktail came about because of a comment I posted on a Huffington Post article on bourbon.  In a post reply, someone passed along a recipe for a pecan pumpkin bourbon pie.  She said it was her favorite pumpkin recipe out there and I joked that all someone had to do was turn it into a martini. 

Although a playful comment, I began to wonder if I could turn it into a warm cocktail. 

The execution issue I had was that in doing research, all the pumpkin recipes I found used a pumpkin spice liquor or pumpkin spice.  I don’t see the point of using an artificially flavored liquor and pumpkin spice has too much clove for my taste.  Plus, to me the secret of making this a really exciting drink had to be the use of pecans. 

Incorporating the pecans was the challenge.  I thought about crumbling them or making a simple syrup out of them.  What I finally landed on was infusing the bourbon itself, allowing it to carry the bulk of the flavor nuances of the drink.

To do the infusion, you need one week, preferably two.  So, if you want to make this recipe in a hurry, I’ll provide cheats along the way (but it is worth the time and wait).    

The ratio of this infusion is 3 to 1: three parts bourbon, one part pecans.  First, toast the nuts.  Then, using a pan or a mallet or a rough coffee grinder, break the nuts up into pieces.     In an airtight glass container, put in the pecan pieces, one cinnamon stick, and the bourbon.  Close tightly.  After one day, remove the cinnamon stick because it can overpower quickly. Then, let the pecans and bourbon continue to infuse in a cool space for a week

After one week, run the infusion through some cheese cloth to remove the pecan pieces and pour bourbon back into original bottle.*  In a pan, reduce 1 cup of water and ½ cup maple syrup till it is a thick syrup.  My original infusion was 1½ cup bourbon, and I used about 4 tablespoons of the syrup.  Because of that, I didn’t have to add sugar to the cocktail.  You might like yours less sweet or even sweeter, so  go according to taste. 

If you can, let the bourbon and syrup hang out for a week to settle.  This isn’t required, but it somehow helps. 

*If you feel experimental, after the infusion is done, then sauté the pecans to cook off the excess bourbon.  Possibly throw in butter or brown sugar.  Then, you can use those pecans in stuffing or sweet potato casserole.

I like easy to remember numbers and ratios, so I made this one easy: 1 to 1 to 1 to 1.  I made it by glass, but you could make a large batch that hangs out in a crock pot for your guests.

For one serving, I went with . . . 

¼ cup canned puree pumpkin

¼ cup boiling water
¼ cup pecan bourbon
¼ cup Sweet Cream creamer (I used International House’s Breve Crème that is half cream and half milk)**
1 tsp. brown sugar (optional for if you haven’t used bourbon with syrup.

**If you don’t want to go through the trouble of infusing your own bourbon, I’d recommend using a hazelnut flavored dairy creamer