palace of winds

Thanksgiving is over and so the Christmas season may officially begin without my wrath. The world has chosen to kick it off with snow. Lots of steady, sorta fluffy snow. Not the big huge gorgeous floaty flakes, but we’re getting a respectable accumulation, and as far as I’ve noticed it’s been coming down very steadily since before I woke this morning.

The holiday went well. Our reduced menu was just right, I think. We had the turkey, of course. We did stuffing in the crock pot — and I have to say doing one of the dishes in the crock pot was a stroke of genius that I hope to remember every holiday, since fitting everything in the oven is always an issue. We did our own this year; just a ridiculously simple recipe, since no one likes the ones with fruit in it — or with lots of anything in it, really. So it was just the bread and onion and sausage and spices. (My mom and I now secretly use vegetarian sausage in everything, since it’s insane the calorie difference between even it and turkey sausage. So far no one’s caught on, or if they have they haven’t said anything about it.) The green beans were done on the stove top — it was a dish with bacon and cocktail onions, and while it was quite tasty I think it’s far superior as a summer dish. It had a bright, fresh taste, and on Thanksgiving in particular I’m always looking for things that are a bit richer, with heavier, warmer flavors. Then we did the excellent acorn squash with cranberries and apples. It’s one of my favorite dishes, I think; it’s simple, pretty, and delicious. Missed by no one: rolls (stuffing is mostly bread, after all), mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes (the squash was our other starch), corn (again, we had plenty of starch, plus green beans), cranberry sauce (we had cranberries with the squash), heaps and heaps of extra fat.

For dessert we had the crustless pumpkin pie that almost wasn’t and an apple pie. The pumpkin pie I made Wednesday night after my mom and I returned from our traditional night-before-Thanksgiving-shopping. It was, in retrospect, not the time to bake. Luckily the pie had been in the oven for only just under ten minutes when I realized I’d forgotten to add the sugar. I was a little concerned that the texture wasn’t as smooth when I poured the batter back in the pan, but I thought it came out with a lovely texture and tasted good, and my mom and sister both said it tasted exactly like other (much much higher-calorie) pumpkin pies they’d had (minus, of course, the crust). (I’ve actually never had pumpkin pie before — not counting this one, now — so I didn’t have anything to compare it to.)

The apple pie turned out well, which was a relief since it’s the first pie I’ve made from scratch. Well, first good old-fashioned crust really, with flour and butter and shortening. I found it delicious, though next time I’ll add something to make the filling more liquidy. I do like apple texture but I want more mushy gel-y…stuff, around my apples in a pie. I kicked the crust’s ass, though, which was the important part.

As my dad carved the rest of the turkey after the meal (we bought a big 22lb-er even though we only had 5 for dinner, so we’d have lots of leftovers), I was struck with the thought that we should make stock out of the bones. We very rarely have whole birds in our house, and it seemed the perfect opportunity to try it with something that was just going to go to waste anyhow. We didn’t have as many different sorts of veggies and spices as I would’ve liked to try with it, but we had enough on hand to make it worth a go. I made two big pots of it and it’s even now in the fridge waiting for skimming. I have my fingers crossed that it will soon turn into some excellent soup.

I’m (sort of freakishly) looking forward to planning a Christmas menu now. I’d like to do stuffed mushrooms, I think. Traditionally we just do heaps of appetizery stuff for Christmas Eve. It started out as my mom putting out lots of fun appetizers before the Christmas meal. For years we’d eat of the appetizers and get ridiculously full and then everyone would sort of laze around the table picking at their plates. We finally got wise and stopped doing Christmas dinner altogether, and just have appetizers. Christmas Eve we do lasagna, since it’s easy to make ahead of time. My mom’s all about simple. I’m kind of wanting to try a big fancy vegetarian lasagna of some sort.

Also, I’m making a gingerbread house. I’ve already decided it’s going to be gorgeous. I have books on order from the library for ideas and techniques and all that, because it’s not going to be just any old gingerbread house. I haven’t decided yet what I want to do with it. I’m torn all sorts of ways — castle, Victorian mansion, fairytale cottage, farmhouse-style with a big old porch, church (to justify the stained glass windows I’m planning). Pirate ship. Part of me wants to make a replica of my favorite tinyhouse. We shall see.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving, and that no one’s out in the insane shopping crowds right now. Or if you are, that you’re the sort of person who has a ball with it.