November Musings

“…an artist should only eat good things, and should flee from ill food as much as from ill sights.” – Paul Poiret, King of Fashion (1931)

Thanksgiving is coming, tra-la, tra-la!

This means an amazing sense of organization, good smells, and too much eating. I look forward to the holiday at the beginning of November and reach a crescendo of sorts the week before the holiday. This year, we’re drifting away from the usual turkey to roast chicken. I know – that’s almost a no-no, but we really don’t like turkey and have finally reached the point where self-sacrifice is unacceptable.

However, there’s the issue of stuffing. In my head, that was always what made Thanksgiving a feast. Stuffing, as far as I’m concerned, should be easy to make, tasty, and even better on the second day! So, this year, we’re making stuffing along with the roast chicken. Years ago, when I was a youngster, I was allowed to help my father make the stuffing for the holiday. Mind you, we always had a lot of people over for Thanksgiving. It was a large family, with my grandmother’s sisters, brothers, and their families. Helping to make stuffing became an honor because it stuffed the large turkey and filled two more 9 x 13 casserole pans. We had a large wooden chopping bowl and a chopper. Being old enough and tall enough to try chopping was a rite of passage in our house.

Meanwhile, my mother had been letting bread get stale for several days. On the appointed day, she’d tear up the bread and put it in the chopping bowl. We used about two loaves of bread altogether. My father preferred a combination of white and French bread. We also used the giblets from the turkey. Dad would throw that into the chopping bowl as well.

The following is the recipe as I remember it:

INGREDIENTS:

2 loaves of stale bread torn into about 1-inch bread cubes, white and/or French (2 loaves)
2 large yellow onions, diced
2 large bunches of flat-leaf parsley
2 cups medium-diced celery (3 large stalks)
2 Granny Smith apples, unpeeled, cored, and large diced
1 1/2 teaspoons minced fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme leaves
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 large eggs, beaten
1 cup chicken stock or dry sherry (I prefer the latter)
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup of softened unsalted butter

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Beat the eggs.
3. In a large sauté pan, melt the butter and add the onion, rosemary, thyme, nutmeg, salt, and pepper. Sauté for 10 minutes until the mixture is somewhat soft.
4. Combine the bread cubes, eggs, and cooked vegetables in a large chopping bowl or food processor, and add the liquid of choice with the celery, parsley, and chopped walnuts.
5. Chop or process until the stuffing’s consistency is to your liking.
6. Place the stuffing into the turkey's central cavity and the bird's neck. Cook a 12-pound turkey for about 2 1/2 hours at 350 degrees F in a preheated oven. Use a meat thermometer to ensure the turkey has reached the proper temperature. Ensure the stuffing in the cavity is secured by wrapping the legs tightly with string.
7. Whatever stuffing is left over can be baked in a buttered baking pan (I use a Pyrex 9” x 13” pan) on the rack below the turkey. It will take about 30 – 40 minutes.

Many of the grown-ups drank a Burgundian Pinot Noir with the meal. The fruity flavors seemed to enhance the turkey flavors – so they said to each other while the young ones had grape juice. The grape juice enhanced our upper lips. After a very long affair, the women all fussed with cleaning up in the kitchen after dinner. It was a large one, and they loved to gossip with each other. On the other hand, the men stayed at the table and drank an after-dinner drink, usually a mixture of whiskey or scotch and a liqueur. The Rusty Nail is as close as I can remember:

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 ounces Scotch whisky
3/4 ounce Drambuie
Lemon twist
Dash of Angostura bitters

DIRECTIONS:
1. Gather the ingredients.
2. Pour the ingredients into an old-fashioned glass with ice cubes.
3. Use a dash of bitters if desired
4. Garnish with a lemon twist