We celebrated Thanksgiving with Primanti Bros. sandwiches and watched a kind of silly movie – Robot and Frank, with Frank Langella playing a retired jewel thief with memory loss, whose son hires a robot personal assistant for him. Great cast – Langella, Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler is the daughter and James Marsden is the son. Peter Saarsgard is the robot’s voice.
I didn’t work on my systems analysis final, or bake any cookies all day (just made the Moravian thins dough).
I gave myself the day off from cookies and systems analysis again on Friday. John and Megan arrived at about noon, after I had put the bird into the oven and was thinking about trying to get out for a walk. Al and Emma had been here since Wednesday night.
We had 17 for dinner. We ate:
The turkey and stuffing. I tried to restrain myself on stuffing amount, because there was still a bucket of extra from last year, uncooked, in the freezer. I think it worked. Even with the bit from last year blended in, the amount of stuffing left I think will be eaten over the holiday weekend. There’re two ziploc bags of white & dark meat – the white bag is way bigger. Matt must be breeding his heirloom turkeys to have big breasts.
The gravy came out really good this year. I skimmed the fat and thickened it with flour and cornstarch. It was smooth and brown.
Brûléed sweet potatoes with chile & lime – they were particularly good this year, too. I did not repeat the meringue topping I tried last year. It got too weepy the next day.
Corn pudding – some of it in, or really sort of ON – delicata squash rings. That was really good too.
Brussels sprout salad – good too, just a bit too much of it.
Susan brought garlic mashed potatoes, everything from their garden. They were the perfect match for the my gravy.
Pumpkin mousse, a nice fluffy one this year, and turkey cookies to go with.
Cranberry-pear lattice pie for the “real” pie. And, who knew – all these years, I thought Al didn’t like pumpkin pie – this year he says he doesn’t like the mousse, but he likes regular pumpkin pie. So I guess next year I’ll have to make a regular pumpkin pie.
Cranberry pear lattice pie
Deena brought Laurie Colwin’s cranberry pie/cake – also called Nantucket Cranberry Pie.
Belinda brought a chocolate pistachio tart.
Lesleigh brought a box of ruggelach from Manna Bakery.
So altogether a for real, over the top, too much food, Thanksgiving feast. Al ate the first official leftover turkey sandwich as soon as he got up, about 9:00AM Saturday – with Siracha mayonnaise. And he & Emma are already on their way back to Chicago.
