Thanksgiving 09

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. To me there is no better way to start the Holiday season than to gather with friends and cook copious amounts of great food. After moving to Reno it seemed our Thanksgiving spirit diminished year after year to the point that we didn’t even bother anymore.  We were left with distant memories of how we use to celebrate with our friends in Miami.
However this year the spirit returned to us, perhaps because we had returned somewhat to our roots. Bon Appétit magazine had arrived and I leafed through it with great anticipation. This year I went with the Farm to Table menu, it could not be more perfect considering our surroundings. Knowing we would have friends staying and joining us for dinner brought all those wonderful memories of past Thanksgiving dinners back to me. Surely all was not lost, and we would once again create great moments! I was confident we got our groove back. The setting could not be more perfect, a large kitchen table in an old farmhouse, fires blazing!

Tom, Karen and the kids were here for the week, great helpers! While Tom took the kids out for the day, Karen and I settled in the kitchen Wednesday, to prep. Space is limited, and only one oven made planning imperative. I had picked up our bird from Bolton Farms, which was quite the scene, the store was completely reconfigured to allow for all us lemmings to enter, be handed our bird and exit after paying, into the parking lot which had a Mormon family selling baked goods. Sugary cinnamon cakes could not be ignored, especially when having a nine year old  in tow!

I put Karen in charge of chopping and dicing, while i attended to making stock for gravy, making stuffing and blanching veggies. Our intention was to make as much of the dinner as possible, so we would have a relaxing day of it, and only have to cook the bird and make gravy. We would make use of the open fire to heat up our sides. Gina and Mike were bringing pumpkin gnocchi and a chocolate pumpkin pie. Hannah would help me make a four layer pumpkin cake with orange icing.








That night exhausted from all the work, we all piled into the car to get pizza at the local joint in Frenchtown. Followed by a quick stop at the Frenchtown Inn to get dessert!

Thursday morning Karen and Tom went for their usual morning walk. I suggested they follow the trail behind our house which would take them into the woods up a nice hill and loop back down. Hannah and I finished the cake with her making the icing and decorating the cake. That girl will make a great baker some day! 20 minutes later Karen and Tom returned with Karen visibly shaking and upset. Apparently lots of gunshots were going off (I forgot hunting season had started) and she was convinced she would be mistaken for a deer and be gunned down. After calming Karen down with the help of a mimosa it was time to cover the turkey with a butter and white wine soaked cheesecloth (a Martha Stewart trick) and start the roasting process.

David was frantically running around the house getting it in order and putting his final detailed touches on it to make the place look "magazine cover" perfect. All of a sudden he stopped in his tracks, much like a Keane Reeves moment in the movie Matrix, he seemed suspended in mid air...... "This peninsula of shoes must be removed and stored elsewhere!" He yelled! I could not help but laugh hysterically (inside of course).

The day progressed nicely, basting the turkey every 30 minutes, Gina, Mike and kids arriving with their goodies. Of course thanksgiving can’t be complete without its normal hiccups. No sooner had I turned on 2 burners and the heat detection alarm went off on the hood. Beeping rapidly in a high pitch range piercing through my brain as I tried to finish making dinner, not the ideal relaxing comforting feeling I had in mind. The only way to remedy this was by getting a fan and directing it at the hood to disperse the hot air. So there i was holding the fan in one hand at an angle while stirring with the other hand, and trying desperately to live in the moment and not letting that awful beeping sound get to me. Luckily it only lasted for about 10 minutes and normalcy returned to the kitchen'.

Dinner was served, we all gathered at the table and devoured what took 2 days to prepare in less than an hour. At least I had made enough to make creative left over dishes for days. by the time dessert came around we were all pretty well relaxed with the help of red wine, so it didn’t take us long to trash Gina's dessert, that unfortunately was a little burned, and we referred to as the astray tart. She's such a good sport; we all got great mileage out of it for days! Hannah's cake was scrumptious!

A nice walk after dinner with glasses of wine in hand, dogs and kids in tow, was a perfect ending to a perfect day! Yes I think it is safe to say that we definetly got our groove back, and look forward to many more Thanksgiving dinners!