We hosted Thanksgiving again this year, and it was both a lot of work and a lot of fun. I was lucky to have the help of my friend Jude who made a good portion of the dishes, because cooking for 14 people is quite a feat! There were some hits and misses (misses on my part), but that's the challenge of cooking something new.
I'll share a few of the high points and low points:
Starting with appetizers, I tried a new recipe for an artichoke dip that turned out great. It was so easy to make, because you just blitz the ingredients in the food processor, put them in a baking dish, and bake for 20 minutes. What made it stand out was the texture - kind of like hummos, and very uniform. I loved that I could prepare it the night before and just heat it up the next day, too, and it did well as leftovers. This one is a keeper:
To counterbalance the heaviness of Green Bean Casserole (we had not one, but two!), I thought a nice clean side of Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts sounded great. I bought fresh chestnuts and followed the directions on the package for roasting them, which I thought sounded much better than boiling them, as called for in the original recipe. What a huge mistake. I let them cool too much and then could not get them out of their shells, resulting in a huge crumbly mess. I got a new batch of fresh chestnuts, and boiled them instead. Again, I drained them and then tried to peel them, which went great at first, and then got progressively harder as they cooled. So finally I put them all back in the pot and removed and peeled them one at a time. Finally, I had something that I could use, but what a frustration! My dish did not look like the one in the picture, by the way. They were ok, but not worth all of the trouble - will revisit this one.
For dessert, I attempted both a Pumpkin Pie and a Bourbon Pecan Tart, thrilled because they used the same crust recipe. The Pumpkin Pie filling was a success (using Trader Joe's Organic Pumpkin - nice custard and not too sweet), but the crust was a disaster! As I baked it alongside the Pecan Tart crust, it shrunk and the butter melted and it turned into a sad pile of mush. I had to quickly recover and use a refrigerated ready-made crust, which worked out ok. The Tart crust, on the other hand, was perfect - maybe it was better suited to a tart pan - who knows. At any rate, it was a great dessert, even for people who don't normally like Pecan Pie - courtesy of Bon Apetit magazine. I served it with Creme Fraiche ice cream, which was delicious with Jude's Guinness Gingerbread cake and Bourbon ice cream. Yay, bourbon!
Of course, the best thing about Thanksgiving is being able to share all of this with people you love, and that is truly what makes this holiday one of my favorites.
