Americans say “thank you” more than anyone else, and “sorry”, too. In America, “sorry” hardly means being ashamed or regretful about what happened. It usually just means ”too bad” in a passive, polite manner. Americans also smile more. We smile, and say “thank you” and “sorry” all day long.
You may be amused to know that these behaviors are uniquely American. Non-Americans muse about it and joke about where they come from, that “there’s nothing to smile about or to be thankful for.” Then they live here for a few years and find themselves doing the same. There are hypotheses to why Americans smile more, having to do with living in a multicultural society and smiling being the non-verbal cue to build trust and cooperation. Maybe it’s why we also care more about our teeth than anyone else.
It’s nice to have a holiday designated to being grateful. Thanksgiving is celebrated in late autumn, to be thankful for a bounty harvest. Inherently, it is tied with food – comfort food, soul food. And if we will be taking on the laborious task of cooking, I find it best to focus on a few key items, so as not to spread ourselves too thin. It’s better to do a few things well and rely on store-boughts otherwise, because no one wishes to end up like poor Mrs. Peel,
“There once was an old Mrs. Peel
Who cooked till her hands could not feel
A Thanksgiving feast!
One nap, at least.
Then she slept right through the meal.”
Beside the roasted turkey, Thanksgiving to me is cranberries and apple pie,
“Have you gathered berries from the vine
and fruits from the orchard trees,
Dew and scent from the roses and thyme
in the hive of the honey-bees?”
Perhaps to you, it’s chestnuts and pumpkin pie,
“What moistens the lip, and what brightens the eye?
What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?
O, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling;
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!”
Or perhaps this year, you decide to change that turkey tradition,
“If a turkey will make a wish
It would be a long, long list.
It will give you all sorts of reasons
To change that turkey tradition.
It will wish you change your mind
Of having a turkey when you dine.
It will wish you’ll crave for seafood
Or tell you crabs would be good!”
It will also be less intimidating when the cooking is spread out during the few days before Thursday. On the previous Sunday, I will buy a fresh turkey to dry brine it in salt and thyme for the next 4 days. The ratio is ¾ tsp of salt per pound of turkey, and make sure to shove the thyme in between the bird’s skin and its breast, its legs and thighs, and anywhere that extra crispy skin and flavorful meat is warranted.
While a few dishes are time sensitive, others can be made ahead and kept cold until the day of. If you will be roasting a turkey, making turkey gravy is a must, given the odds and ends already coming with it. The first part of the gravy is the stock. On Monday, I will take the salted turkey neck and wings into a stockpot, add celery, carrot, yellow onion, and a bay leaf, and fill with only enough water to submerge all. Once it comes to a boil, add salt to taste and simmer for no more than 2 hours in order to retain clarity. To make gravy, whisk wheat flour into melted butter over medium heat until golden and fragrant, then whisk in the filtered turkey stock until thicken. The ratio is 2 tbsp butter : 2 tbsp flour : 2 cups of stock. Reheat and thin the thicken gravy with water whenever needed.
On Tuesday, I will make cranberry jam. The cranberry is sour and high in pectin, making it a best berry for cooking. Cranberry jam is great on bread and biscuits, but its tartness gives it much versatility, not only filling cakes and tarts, but also dressing salads and sandwiches and flavoring meat stews. To make cranberry jam, only sugar and water are required, but adding orange juice and zest heartens that holiday feel. The weight ratio of sugar to cranberry can vary between 50% for a tart jam to 100% for a sweet one. Place fresh or frozen cranberries and sugar in a nonreactive pan, stir in the zest and juice of a couple of oranges, and add enough water to submerge the fruits. Simmer over low heat for about an hour until jammy consistency and avoid stirring to keep the fruits intact.
I will plan for a few items around it. One is a cranberry vinaigrette by simply whisking together cranberry jam, balsamic vinegar, salt, and olive oil to taste and thin with water. The others are to bake biscuits strewn with golden raisins and orange zest, and then making a salad of store-bought salad mix, golden raisins, and wedges or orange. It’s the way to build a meal – around a few key ingredients; and perhaps the way to build a life too – around a few very important things. Otherwise, how to keep from being overwhelmed?
On Wednesday, I will make the dough for the apple pie. It takes about half a day with a few in-between pauses for cold resting. Perhaps I will use these downtimes to finish chores and tidy up around the house. The best apples are those in the garden or along the roadside, for they are tart and very firm. Otherwise, use Granny Smith or Honey Crisp. I prepare the apples the same way as apricots, by dousing them with brown sugar and liquor and then draining them to dehydrate in the refrigerator overnight. Cinnamon spices will flavor the juice drained from the apples for cinnamon syrup.
For the apple pie: Peel and core 1½ pounds or 3 large honey crisp apples, dice into bite-size cubes, and then mix with ¾ cup brown sugar, 1 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp dark rum, and ½ tsp salt. Place the apple cubes into a strainer and refrigerate them overnight while collecting the drained syrup. On the next day, mix the apples with 1 tsp vanilla extract and ½ tsp lemon extract before baking.
For the cinnamon syrup: 1 tbsp butter, 2 tbsp honey, ½ tsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp nutmeg, ¼ tsp allspice.
On the day of, still there is much to be done, much depending on how many ovens you own. All revolves around the turkey, depending on how long the bird is to be cooked that all others must be scheduled around it. Take the bird out of the fridge in the morning to let it come to room temperature. This mom’s recipe roasts the turkey breast-side down, and it works. It takes ~3 hrs for a 14-pound turkey, thus the time to start cooking is 4 to 5 hours before meal time.
Next to a conventional oven, it’s efficient to own a toaster oven. It cooks most food and saves time and energy. A few times I use the conventional oven are for cookies, big bread loaves, and big chunks of meat such as the turkey. Without a toaster oven, the first to tackle is the biscuits. Save a counter space for working the dough because you will use it again for the apple pie. It takes about an hour to make biscuits. When the biscuits are done, have the turkey in the oven and start on the apple pie. Once the dough is rolled out, it can be kept cold or frozen until an hour before the turkey is done. Have the pie ready to bake by letting the dough come to room temperature an hour before. Then 30 minutes before, fill the pie dish with apple cubes, seal, and slash.
In between, make the cinnamon syrup by blooming the spices in melted butter over medium heat, then whisk in the drained apple juice and honey and reduce to a syrup. Reheat the gravy and mix the salad. Make the cranberry vinaigrette if you haven’t done so already. Set the table.
For crisp looking breast, flip the bird over once it is done cooking, slather some butter on it and broil for about five minutes to brown. While the turkey is resting, bake the apple pie. Perhaps you will adorn your table with a sweet potato casserole, corn bread, stuffing, or which that sings Thanksgiving to you. But we should also take time for reflection, to think of which that we have to be thankful for.
“Where am I going? The high rooks call,
‘It’s awful fun to be born at all.’
Where am I going? The ring-doves coo,
‘We do have beautiful things to do.’
“
It is a great mystery that at the moment of the Big Bang, only a little more matters than antimatters were made, but it is why our universe exists at all. In a corner of the universe, a supermassive blackhole pulls stars, dust, and gas into a galaxy called the Milky Way. Sitting on the periphery of this brilliant spiral of stardust is the Solar System. Rotating its Sun is a blue planet called Earth. And on Earth lives all of life that we’ve ever known. The chance that we’re born at all is tiny, almost zero. Yet, here you are; here I am.
hardlyplaying.blog 