Grandma's Apple Pie

A.L.E.'s take on Grandma's Apple Pie. Really, doesn't everyone make a moose-themed apple pie?

This is the pie that my mother cooked every day while her 4 little angels were napping. We'd wake up from our nap to enjoy fresh cinnamon pinwheels that she made with the scraps of crust.

The pie is great any time of year, and is one of the staples of our Thanksgiving table. Usually, it's J.D.E. who makes the apple pie (and A.L.E. bakes the pumpkin one), but this year J.D.E. was several thousand miles away, so A.L.E. baked both, in addition to helping with the Twofer pie. I made a chocolate pecan pie. Whew, lotsa pies!

Here's the recipe:

Grandma’s Apple Pie

pie crust for 1 two-crust pie (we used the Cook's Illustrated crust for this)

6 cups sliced, cored pared tart apples (about 2 pounds)
¾ c. sugar
1+ T. flour
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp. nutmeg
J.D.E. puts in a pinch of mace
¼ tsp salt
2 T butter – to dot the filling before putting the top crust on. I always forget this and have to stick it through the holes in the crust.

1. You mix up all the ingred.s and dump in bottom crust, dot with butter, and put on top crust.

2. Bake in 425° oven for 15 min, then turn oven down to 350 and cook for 40-45 min or so.

3. Grandma says the key is “lazy bubbles”

This time we pre-cooked the apple filling on the stovetop for about 5 minutes so it would already have compacted before we put the top crust on. For this, it's a good idea to throw some more apple in.

Unfortunately, I pulled the pie out of the oven too early. It looked great but hadn't thickened and the apples were a bit too firm for my taste. But my husband loved it, and since it's his favorite, it all worked out. I spent my pie time eating pumpkin!

Taking Stock

When I woke up today, I didn't think I'd spend the better part of the morning cleaning out our two freezers, although they desperately needed organizing (a fact that hadn't escaped me or anyone else who's had the misfortune of opening a freezer door.) There was lots of good stuff buried in those freezers and I need some more room for early Christmas baking (I need to fit a cheesecake in this weekend), so after eating my granola I found myself jumping right in.

Fast forward a few hours, and I have one freezer dedicated to ingredients - everything from grated citrus zests and cups of mashed bananas to a healthy supply of bacon and chicken breasts - and the other freezer has prepared food - quarts of soup, pans of lasagna and mac n' cheese, tamales, and chocolate pound cakes. My plan is to eat from the freezer and pantry during the busy holiday season. I've also set aside a shelf for scraps of cooked meat for the doggies, so everyone in the house will benefit!

One thing that I try to have on hand is a supply of homemade chicken or turkey stock. I keep a large zipper bag in the freezer for poultry bones, and when it gets filled, I put a pot on to make stock. The day after Thanksgiving I usually make a huge batch of turkey stock. For years I'd use that stock as a base for a lovely turkey soup that we could enjoy on Christmas Eve after the children's pageant and before we hung stockings and waited for Santa.

This year's turkey yielded 12 cups of stock. A.L.E. used some to make a delicious risotto over Thanksgiving weekend; the remaining stock is in the freezer. Here's the turkey stock recipe that I use, based on the one in Jane Brody's Good Food Book:

Turkey Carcass Stock

turkey carcass bones, and whatever meat scraps, drippings, giblets (except liver), even leftover gravy, you want to throw in
12-14 c water (enough to almost cover bones)
2 large celery ribs cut in pieces, plus all the celery leaves from the heart
2 large carrots, cut in pieces, around 1 1/2 cups
1 1/2 large onions, cut in eighths, studded with 6 cloves
2 cloves of garlic, smashed and quartered
1-2 bay leaves, broken in pieces
1 tsp salt
several sprigs fresh Italian parsley (or 2 tsp dried parsley flakes)
1-2 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried)
several sage leaves, torn in pieces (or 1/2 tsp dried)
12 peppercorns

Simmer on stovetop, partially covered for a minimum of two hours. It will get richer the longer it cooks.

Remove from heat, strain through cheesecloth, or in a fine mesh strainer, pressing lightly on solids.

cook's notes:

- I usually put in water to just below the level of the tops of the bones. The carcass will come apart and compact as it cooks.

- If you leave the pan less covered as it cooks, the stock will be more concentrated and flavorful, but you will end up with a smaller quantity.

- I freeze this in pints and in cups. You can also freeze in ice cube trays for those time when you just need a bit of stock, but I rarely bother.

{T-giving} Molasses Spice Pumpkin Pie

If you, like me, prefer your pumpkin pie to be dense, dark, and spicy, this is the recipe for you. I first made it several years ago, after finding it in The Spice Cookbook, a vintage cookbook from 1964. It is the single most important recipe of my Thanksgiving dinner.

The cookbook's title page

The book is packed with information, charts, tips, and delicious recipes made with spices from all over the world.

The cookbook's endpapers

Molasses-Pumpkin Pie

from The Spice Cookbook

¾ cup sugar
1 T. flour
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground black pepper
¼ cup unsulphured molasses
2 cups mashed cooked pumpkin
3 large eggs
1 cup undiluted evaporated milk
9 inch unbaked 1 crust pie shell (I used the Cook's Illustrated pie crust)

1. Mix together the first 6 ingredients.

2. Add the next 3 ingredients. Mix well.

3. Stir in milk.

4. Pour into unbaked pie shell

5. Bake in preheated 400°F oven for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

Enjoy the pie with or without whipped cream. It's great either way. We always make to sure to have lots of this pumpkin pie, and in the days after Thanksgiving I enjoy it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

This pie is a specialty of my daughter A.L.E., who said this year: "I don't know why everyone doesn't use molasses in pumpkin pie." Honestly, as good as the pie tastes, I agree with her.

{T-giving} Spiced Cranberry Sauce

Maybe it's my Massachusetts roots, but I really love cranberries. Cranberry juice, cranberry bread, and cranberry sauce. My usual recipe is made with cranberries, apples, celery, and plenty of cinnamon. I've always preferred it to the standard cranberry-orange, but it can be a bit sweet. So when I saw Carol Peterman's recipe for Spiced Cranberry Sauce on her blog (which, btw, is filled with wonderful food and helpful information), I immediately put it on the Thanksgiving menu.

cook's notes:

- The recipe comes together very easily.

- I ground my own allspice and cloves (with an electric coffee grinder that has become a dedicated spice grinder)

- Juicing the ginger in a garlic press was very cool.


the verdict:

This is good, good, good! I love how the ginger and vinegar cut the sweetness. It was good and spicy and filled with cranberry flavor. Thanks, Carol, for the fabulous recipe!

{T-giving} Turkey, Dressing and Gravy: a Hit, a Miss and a Stalwart [also: TFF]

It may be the Christmas season everywhere else, but on this blog it's perennially Thanksgiving! Or at least it will be that way for a while longer.

This year, for the second year in a row, everything, from soup to nuts, came from my kitchen. The fact that just three of us were there to eat the feast simplified the menu only slightly - there are a good many things that are practically required for Thanksgiving, and others that are really nice to have. I was very thankful for the able assistance of my talented daughter A.L.E.!

In contrast to last year’s focus on our old favorites, this year we cooked almost everything from new recipes. After all was said and done, this was the best dinner I've ever put on our table, and now we have some new favorites! I’ve already posted the pumpkin soup, brown butter sage sweet potatoes, and two pies (chocolate pecan and Twofer). This post will be the centerpiece of the meal: turkey, stuffing, and gravy. Still to come: two more pies, green beans, cranberry sauce, and cider jelly.

Turkey

Most everyone would agree that Thanksgiving = Turkey. After all, the holiday's second name is "Turkey Day". (That doesn't mean that everyone likes or eats turkey. Vegetarians and vegans, for example can partake of a special tofu-rkey, which I'm told is a reasonably tasty alternative -and of course a million fabulous non-meat-based recipes. The cashier I spoke with in the supermarket on Thanksgiving Eve was going with a ham only. And we had friends who were cattle ranchers in Oklahoma who never ate "bird".)

I am nothing if I'm not traditional on this question. I really like turkey, and I have a list of Requirements For Thanksgiving Turkey. According to my standards, a turkey must:

1. Be large enough for lots of leftovers - slices for another dinner and/or turkey sandwiches, scraps for soups, casseroles, and tamales - and have sufficient bones for 2-3 quarts of stock. [This only applies if I cook the turkey, although most people will be happy to hand over the bones, I've found]

2. Be well-cooked, tender, and especially not dry (because that puts a pall over the meal).

3. Taste great covered in gravy

4. Be a good complement to dressing/stuffing
Essentially, turkey is a necessary vehicle for two of my three favorite Thanksgiving foods: gravy and dressing (the third is pumpkin pie.) And an ideal source of several future meals.

Over the years we've prepared or consumed turkey in a variety of cooking methods. The bird is usually a fresh one, and we've had it: smoked, brined with Alton Brown's brine and smoked, brined with Alton Brown's brine and roasted, brined with a simple salt brine and smoked, brined with a simple salt brine and roasted, herbed and roasted, pre-basted. And, thankfully, the turkey has usually lived up to its obligations.

Since I've been on a sage kick lately, Tyler Florence's Oven Roasted Turkey with Sage Butter spoke to me. What did it say? "Cook me!" Who was I to argue with an insistent recipe?

cook's notes:

- Our turkey came from the farm box folks, who have a wonderful organic poultry supplier. The bird weighed in at 14.5 pounds; just enough for the three of us(!)

- I decided to make half the sage butter. I couldn't imagine putting 2 sticks' worth of butter under the skin of the turkey, especially since. . .

- . . . I wasn't sure exactly how to put the butter under the skin. I ended up buttering the turkey breast part only. (Was I supposed to put butter under the other skin? That would have been difficult.) I slid a sharp knife between the skin and the breast, and gently pulled skin loose with my fingers. Then I smooshed the butter all over the top of the turkey, under the skin. However, I think I should have left the skin attached at the breastbone, as the skin pulled back as the turkey cooked, and the breast meat was partly uncovered by any skin. After a while I figured that I could fashion a bard for that part of the turkey breast out of cheesecloth soaked in olive oil. It didn't hit me later that I could have barded the turkey breast with Benton's bacon!

the verdict:

I must say that this turkey stole the show, and relegated all of the side dishes to, well, the side. In fact, all three of us agreed that the turkey was the single best thing on the Thanksgiving menu (I've never even thought that was possible). The white meat was not dry and the dark meat was buttery soft. The simple flavors of butter, olive oil, salt, pepper, and sage combined magically.

No longer will I think of turkey as the necessary-but-not-exciting part of Thanksgiving. It has returned to front and center. This was, bar none, the best turkey I've ever eaten. I'm sure a huge part of it was that it was that fresh organic turkey straight from the farm. With due credit to Tyler Florence, for the perfect preparation.

The best part: Even the leftovers were tender and delicious.

This is my submission to a new group, Tyler Florence Fridays. Every Friday, you can go here to see a roundup of the Tyler Florence recipes that group members have individually chosen and cooked.

Dressing

I grew up calling it stuffing, and it was, indeed, stuffed in our bird every year. Now that I’ve lived in the South for over half my life, I’ve taken to calling it dressing, and cooking it outside the turkey, in casserole dishes. At any rate, I usually go with a bread cube type rather than a cornbread type.

I love my usual dressing, which is the Onion Dressing from the 1974 Joy of Cooking. But A.L.E. is not a fan of onions, so I thought I'd try something different. In addition to lots of onions, the Joy of Cooking dressing has a good dose of butter, stock, and eggs. I've lightened it up over the years, and it's always tasted great. But I was excited to try something new. I wanted a recipe that uses fresh sage, and bread cubes. I'd taken the cheater's way out and bought a bag of mixed dry bread cubes from the bakery department at Whole Foods. This dressing recipe from Saveur looked like it would fit the bill.

cook's notes:

- I neglected to read the part where the recipe specifies fresh bread crumbs.

- I like cubes of bread in my dressing, so I only made some into fine bread crumbs.

- There was not nearly enough stock, since my crumbs were dry not fresh. I just added stock until it was moist enough to put inside the turkey. For the leftover dressing, I added more stock and turned it into an oiled baking dish.

- I added some paprika and ground savory.

The verdict:

This was too dry and bland for me. It may have been completely different if I had used fresh bread crumbs rather than dried. I think it needed a few eggs, if not more butter and even more stock than I added.

I'll go back to my usual recipe or keep looking!

Gravy

This is my mother's gravy recipe, and I wouldn't think of messing with perfection! You can use this recipe with the drippings for any roast meat or poultry.

Drippings Gravy

3 T. drippings
2 c. stock or broth
3 T. flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp thyme
1/4 tsp dry sage
1/4 c. water

1. Remove the roast from the pan and keep warm. Pour the drippings from the roasting pan into a measuring cup. Let the fat rise to the top, and spoon it off. (Depending on the quantity of drippings you have, you can double or even triple this recipe for turkey gravy. For a roast chicken, pork roast, or roast beef, a single recipe is usually appropriate.)

2. Deglaze the roasting pan with the stock.

3. In small glass jar (like a jelly jar or mustard jar) combine all dry ingredients. Add the water and shake vigorously until there are no lumps. Pour slowly into the pan, stirring with whisk.

4. Cook gravy, stirring, until thickened.

{TWD} Linzer Sablé Cookies

The TWD bakers have received a wonderful Christmas gift: three of the five December recipes are cookies, and fairly straightforward ones at that. I mean, when the hottest issue in the week's P&Q is how many cookies the recipe yields, and how thin to roll the dough, you know it's a breeze! Thanks to Dennis from Living The Life for choosing this festive and delicious (and easy!) recipe.

Linzer tortes are typically made with raspberries, and they're really delicious. I was excited about making these. So I marshaled my collection of jams:

Hard to believe, there was not a jar of red raspberry anywhere in the lot. Dorie says apricot is an alternative, but I have no apricot jam either, a fact which led me to use grapefruit marmalade in the rugelach a few weeks ago. (By the way, see S-dog in the background? Doesn't he look like he's up to no good?)

Lacking Dorie's preferred jam varieties, I chose three substitute jams for my cookies: Seedless Black Raspberry, Cloudberry (a distant cousin of raspberry apparently)[edit: I bought the Cloudberry Preserves at IKEA], and a little bit of Four Fruit that was left in the jar when I finished making the Buttery Jam Cookies (which will be the subject of a TWD post coming in a week or two. Yes, it was a little confusing making, photographing, and taking notes on two kinds of jam-related cookies at the same time.)

These vintage aspic and hors d'oeuvres cutters are from the 50's or 60's, when people ate aspic regularly, and I guess cut it into tiny decorative pieces.

I had visions of using these mini-cutters for decorative windows in the middles of plain circular cookies. But my 1980's biscuit cutter set (from my early matrimony days) is missing the 2" cutter. So instead I used a 2" star cutter and a slightly larger scallop cutter.


I also used my 2.5" biscuit cutter and tiny angel and star cutters for the windows (those cookies are the ones at the beginning of this post).

cook's notes

- the dough warms up very fast. Especially if you forget to cut out the middles until your cookies are already in the oven.

- I rolled the dough slightly thicker than 1/8". After rerolling the scraps, I ended up with 20 or 21 sandwiches and the little cut out middles as tiny cookies.

- My cookies were done around 7 minutes.

- You can successfully cut window in the cookies right after you take them out of the oven, in case you forgot one.

- The longer you boil your jam, the thicker it will end up when cooled (even 30 more seconds in the microwave will make a huge difference.)

the verdict:

These cookies are really delicious. The almond-y dough is perfect with jam. A.L.E. and I enjoyed sampling the various jam and shape combinations. They're all quite good, I'm happy to report! The rest are going into the freezer for Christmas uses.

The tiny cutout cookies were perfect for a doll's tea party. I thought I'd treat Mr. Teddy, who always sits patiently in the room next to the kitchen.

I'll bet you can guess what happened right after I took this photo! Luckily, Mr. Teddy didn't mind sharing his cookies with S-dog.

If you want to bake these for youself, you can find the recipe on Dennis' post, or on page 134 of Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours. For further baking fun, check out the Tuesdays With Dorie blogroll and click on the blogs of 359 other bakers to see what they're baking up.

{Note: I'm celebrating my first 100 blog posts with a cookbook giveaway - to enter, go here and leave a comment before December 3}

{TWD} Thanksgiving Twofer Pie goes Zero fer Two

Dorie Greenspan's Thanksgiving Twofer Pie went into Thursday's pie competition round against some proven champions and a new challenger, and despite turning in a solid performance, failed to score a win in either of the categories: Filling, or Crust.

This recipe combines the flavors of pumpkin pie with those of pecan pie, all in one rich, butter-crust-encased package. I've got to say right here that I love pumpkin pie, and I love it best when it's deep, dark, and heavily spiced. I'm not a fan of pumpkin chiffon pie or pumpkin cheesecake - I end up feeling cheated of that intense pumpkin jolt. On the pecan side of the aisle, I'm not as passionate, but I do have a pecan/maple pie that is really good, and feel no need to search out a better recipe (although the Chocolate Pecan Pie I made on Tuesday was also amazing). I was very interested in seeing how the Twofer pie would stack up against the Thanksgiving competition.

I was lucky to be joined in cooking by my oldest daughter, A.L.E., who flew in on Thanksgiving morning. We set right to work baking the Twofer.

A.L.E. eyed the new bottle of Myers Rum, purchased for the 2 tsp of dark rum in the recipe's ingredient list. "If we had any ginger ale, we could make Dark and Stormys."

"Hmm, I think there's some old flat ginger ale in the back of the downstairs fridge."


So, fortified with a delicious taste of the islands (1 shot of dark rum in a glass of ginger ale; technically this drink should be made with Gosling's Black Seal Rum and Jamaican Ginger Beer), we carried on with the recipe. Dorie's crust and both fillings came together pretty well. We made crusts at the same time for the two other pies that we were baking at the same time: Apple and spicy Pumpkin. We used the Cook's Illustrated recipe for these other crusts; scroll down to the end of this post for a comparison of the two pie crust recipes.

The dogs really do eat the crumbs when A.L.E. is cooking!

It got a little confusing following all the different recipes (while enjoying our cocktails), and A.L.E. spooned pumpkin out of the can and into the pecan filling (she was able to fish it out). This prompted her to dispense this piece of sage advice: "Don't cook wasted, man!" Which, I assure you, we were not doing. But it was a bit surreal to have the little girl who began cooking with me at age 2 standing on a stool at the counter, now mixing me a cocktail as she deftly whisked and processed ingredients for a complicated pie recipe.

Our biggest dilemma was which pan(s) to use for the pie. We finally settled on dividing the recipe into two small-ish pies, since the P&Q contained reports of trouble with overflowing pie crusts with 9" single pies.

We chose a 7" foil pie pan and a 7.5" tart pan with deep sides, and aimed for a 1/3 - 2/3 split of the ingredients. It turned out that neither pie shell was completely filled. I probably should have stopped to do some volume calculations before I filled the pans, but I was too lazy.

I was surprised at how little of the pecan filling there was. Also, I didn't split the nuts very well, so I had a higher percentage of them in the shallow pan.

Based on the experiences of those posting on the P&Q, we did not blind-bake the crust. I adjusted the temperatures a bit and baked the pies at 425 for around 10 min, and then 325 until done - fairly quick for the small shallow pie, and somewhat under 45 minutes for the deep tart.

There was just too much going on - apple pie, pumpkin pie, cocktail hour - for me to make specific notes of the exact baking times. I'm just lucky I didn't forget them in the oven and burn them to a crisp.

the verdict:

Thanksgiving day tasting --

- We ate the shallow pie on Thanksgiving. It was OK. Pretty good, but didn't knock either one of us over. The filling was kind of bland, we thought.

- The pecans were distressingly soft for some reason. I'm blaming the nuts not the pie recipe, however. They were very fresh, and I attribute the softness to that (?). I did toast them in the oven before starting the recipe, and they seemed nice and crunchy.

- It is just as much work as making the two separate pies, and personally, I prefer my favorite pumpkin recipe and my favorite pecan recipe to this recipe.

- A.L.E. observed: "It wasn't worth the heartache."

second day tasting --

- We cut into the deeper tart. We thought the flavors were better the second day, and we preferred the deep pie to the shallow one.

- A.L.E.'s comment: "Now I understand the pie."

- I still prefer my pumpkin pie's spicy deliciousness, but I can see how Dorie's pie could be appealing to those less obsessed with pumpkin. So, while this was a good recipe, I preferred the fillings of the other three pies I baked for Thanksgiving, and the crust from the Cook's Illustrated recipe (comparison below, and see my Chocolate Pecan Pie post).


crust comparisons --

I grew up eating pie with an all-shortening crust, and I'm used to its sturdy flakiness. At this point, however, shortening gives me the willies. Actually, I have issues with using any large blocks of fat in cooking. But working with butter is (slightly) more appealing to me than shortening.

Here's where I admit that I've been using the Pillsbury All Ready pie crusts for years. It is easy. I haven't owned a food processor until this summer, and making pie crust has always seemed like a big hassle to me. And I don't mind the taste of the ready-made, especially given that my main interest in eating pie is what's inside the crust. In fact, most of the time I'd be perfectly happy with ramekins of cooked pie filling. And yes, when I pull the magic dough out of the box I'm not forced to confront the crazy amount of fat that pie crust entails.

Owning a food processor has made a huge difference for me, especially in the pie crust department. My first homemade crust in a long time was for the Summer Fruit Gallette - my first official TWD week, back in July. I loved that crust in that recipe. I made minis and froze some of them unbaked. We just finished the last one about a month ago, and it was delicious.

I knew that I wanted to make the Twofer Pie with Dorie's crust recipe, but I also was intrigued by the premise of the vodka-added Cook's Illustrated crust. Thanksgiving provided a perfect set up for a side by side comparison!

- Both recipes employ mostly butter + some shortening. Dorie's has a higher percentage of butter and just 1/3 c of shortening for 2 crusts, and Cook's Illustrated has 1/2 c. shortening for a double crust.

- Cook's Illustrated uses an extra bowl for hand stirring the ice water and vodka into the dough.

- When it came time for rolling, the Cook's Illustrated handled like a dream; it makes a silky smooth dough.

- Neither recipe holds an edge like an all-shortening pie crust - or the Pillsbury pie crust.

- Dorie's is softer, more delicate. A.L.E.'s reaction: "too buttery." It's amazing to see how much difference an additional few tablespoons of butter and a few fewer of shortening can make. We thought the buttery flavor distracted from the pie filling.

- The Cook's Illustrated crust was flakier, crisper, and more neutral in flavor. It didn't compete with the filling, but played its supporting role beautifully.

- Because of superior handling, and perfect blend of taste and flakiness, the Cook's Illustrated crust will become my new standard crust. I think that from now on I'll continue making pie crust from scratch (but there is a box of Pillsbury's in the freezer for crust emergencies!)

Vibi of La Casserole Carrée selected this week's recipe, and you can see her stunning Twofer Tart pictured on her post, and find the recipe - in French and English, no less - there too. Or you can pick up your very own copy of Dorie Greenspan's book Baking From My Home to Yours, where this recipe is on page 321. For further baking fun, check out the Tuesdays With Dorie blogroll and click on the blogs of 359 other bakers to see how they fared with the pie.

{Note: I'm celebrating my first 100 blog posts with a cookbook giveaway - to enter, go here and leave a comment before December 3}

{T-giving} Sweet Potatoes with Brown Butter, Sage and Parmesan, (plus a great way to precook sweet potatoes)

Pardon the terrible photo; in person this really looked good and tasted even better

To me, Thanksgiving dinner simply would not be complete without some type of sweet potatoes. Over the years, I've enjoyed them in many different ways, but all have been on the sweet side of the street: my sister in law uses a recipe that's lightly maple scented, my mother's involves layers of sweet potatoes with orange juice and dried apricots, while my mother-in-law's version is filled with butter, sugar and pecans.

This year I was up for trying something new. I paged through cookbooks and checked my online recipe bookmarks, and narrowed it down to two recipes:

1. Williams Sonoma's Sweet Potatoes with Brown Butter and Parmesan Cheese (recipe at end of this post) from The Best of the Kitchen Library, Holiday Favorites volume.

or

2. Saveur's adorable Sweet Potato Casserole (with marshmallow topping on one side and the other half with nuts and brown sugar)

I left the final decision up to A.L.E. She was heavily swayed by the parmesan cheese, and chose the Williams Sonoma recipe.

cook's notes:

- I made a quarter-recipe for the three of us.

- the Cook's Illustrated Fall Entertaining 2008 magazine has an article about making mashed sweet potatoes. In their usual obsessive way, they figured out exactly the best way to cook sweet potatoes so they don't get soggy, or lose their flavor. It turns out braising them on the stovetop is the best method. I decided try braising instead of the steaming that the recipe has for the first step. I put the tiniest bit of butter and water in the very bottom of the pan. The sweet potatoes took it from there, mostly cooking themselves without losing too much juice. This step added another dirty pan, but I served the potatoes in their baking dish, so I saved one there. (But, really, Thanksgiving is totally about using every pot, pan, and dish in the kitchen, isn't it? And covering every available inch of counter space with something.)

- I didn't read carefully enough, and put all the cheese in before popping the baking dish in the oven. It did kind of clump together, so it would have been better to grate some on top after taking it out of the oven.

the verdict:

This recipe is a keeper! I know the picture up top is not great, but take my word for it; these potatoes are really, really, really good. The brown butter and sage are a perfect complement to the flavor of the potatoes. I liked the Cook's Illustrated method of cooking the potatoes and will do that every time I need to pre-cook sweet potatoes.

It's a great recipe for Thanksgiving but unlike the marshmallow topped casserole, this one could be an appropriate side dish for a normal dinner.

Sweet Potatoes with Brown Butter and Parmesan Cheese

4 lb tan-skinned sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped fresh sage or 1 1/2 tablespoons dried sage
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 1/4 cups freshly grated Parmesan cheese
fresh sage sprigs, optional

Place potatoes on a steamer rack and set over a steamer pan of boiling water. Do not allow the rack to touch the water. Cover and steam until just tender when pierced with a fork, about 15 minutes. Remove from the steamer and let cool. (I braised the potato cubes on the stovetop in a little butter + water)

Preheat an oven to 400 F. Butter a 13-by-9-by-2-inch baking dish. Transfer the sweet potatoes to the dish.

In a heavy frying pan over medium-low heat, melt the butter and cook, swirling the pan occasionally, until the butter is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the chopped or dried sage and salt and pepper to taste. Continue to cook until the butter is a deep golden brown, about 2 minutes longer. Pour the browned butter over the sweet potatoes. Sprinkle evenly with 3/4 cup of the cheese. Stir to coat. Taste and add more salt, and pepper, if desired. Cover the dish with aluminum foil. (Oops, I put all the cheese in the pan)

Bake the sweet potatoes until heated through, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a warmed serving platter and sprinkle evenly with the remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan. Garnish with sage sprigs, if desired, and serve at once.

Serves 8-10

{T-giving} Chocolate Pecan Pie and a Fabulous Pie Crust!

Although I had planned our Thanksgiving pies: Dorie's Twofer pie and two of our all-time favorites: my mom's apple pie, and our dark and spicy pumpkin pie, I ended up with an unexpected opportunity to squeeze in another kind of pie. My sister-in-law became ill just before they were to host her side of the family for Thanksgiving. I offered to help with cooking and found out that what they really needed was pie.

My brother jokingly hinted for a chocolate pecan pie. He'd eaten one years ago, and really loved it. I did a bit of online research and found this recipe for Texas Chocolate and Pecan Pie - from the March, 2000 Bon Appetit.

cook's notes:

- I decided to try the Cook's Illustrated pie dough (I found it in the Fall Entertaining 2008 issue, but you can find the recipe online, eg., here). This crust has a secret ingredient: vodka. Apparently the alcohol keeps excess gluten from forming. The extra liquid makes the dough soft and pliable (it's a dream to roll). In the oven the alcohol evaporates and the pie is left with flaky crust.

- I substituted golden syrup for the light corn syrup. I do that pretty routinely. Golden syrup has a mellower flavor, and is not as sweet as corn syrup.

- My dark brown sugar supply was low, so I used 1/4 c. light brown sugar and 1/4 c. dark muscavado sugar

- Along with the butter, I melted 2 oz Valrhona semisweet (56%) and 2 oz Nestles semisweet chocolate chips.

- When I mixed up the filling, I snuck a little taste and thought it could use a bit more chocolate. To boost the chocolate quotient I sprinkled mini chips over the pecans before pouring in the liquid filling. Some of them floated to the top of the pie, which you can see in the photo above.

- I studded the top of the pie with a few tiny pecan halves.

- The pie baked 50 minutes (I think...)

- I saved enough of the dough and the filling to make 2 mini tartlets - I lined one tart crust with pecan pieces and one with chocolate chips. I placed tiny pecans on the tops. These baked for 30 minutes.

the verdict:

A.L.E. and I each had a tart as a Thanksgiving prelude, while we were cooking. This is a seriously delicious pie!!!

The last time I'd eaten a chocolate pecan pie I hadn't cared for it. I think the switch from light corn syrup to golden cane syrup was a good one, keeping it from being too sweet while adding a certain richness of flavor.

This may not replace my usual pecan pie, which is made with maple syrup, but it ranks right up there next to it.

And can I tell you how fabulous this pie crust recipe is? Wow, it was easy to put together, and easy to roll and handle. It is amazingly flaky, and very tender. All due to the vodka. I'll do a taste test with Dorie's crust when I post the Thanksgiving Twofer Pie!

[update: find the taste test at the end of the Twofer Pie post]

{T-giving} Pumpkin Soup

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We are having an unusual holiday; since A.L.E. flew in today, and our relatives were otherwise occupied, we only had the three of us for dinner. We decided to split the cooking and eating over two days, and have our Thanksgiving first course and desserts today (with mac n cheese from the freezer), and the turkey and trimmings main course on Friday (with leftover pies, of course!)

Here's a fantastic pumpkin soup that we first tried last year. It made such a big hit with all of us, we just had to repeat it. You can make this recipe in a snap, and it's low fat but so rich and creamy tasting that you'd never know!

Pumpkin Soup
This is my adaptation of a recipe from Epicurious.com, but I can't find the original cite.

2 Tablespoon unsalted butter or less if using a nonstick pan
1 cup chopped onion (I used pre-chopped)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 ¾ cups chicken broth (14oz can), or homemade (I used homemade)
1 16oz can pureed pumpkin (I used homemade)
¾ teaspoon brown sugar (packed)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or ¼ teaspoon dried thyme (I used fresh)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary or ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary (I used fresh)
½ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon salt
dash white pepper
dash red/cayenne pepper
dash nutmeg
1 cup evaporated skim milk or combined with 2% milk
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted

1. In a large saucepan, melt butter. Saute onion and garlic over medium heat for 7-8 minutes until lightly browned.

2. Add broth, pumpkin, and seasonings. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently.

3. Remove from heat. Stir in milk.

4. In a blender or food processor, combine soup mixture and pecans in batches at low speed for 1 minute. (I pureed in two batches in blender)

5. Return to pan and heat, stirring.

Today, I am overwhelmed with thanks that I have food to eat, a roof over my head, family and friends to share it with. I'm also grateful that I can enjoy cooking as an avocation, with such a bounty of resources and fellow cooks with whom to compare notes.

{Note: I'm celebrating my first 100 blog posts with a cookbook giveaway - to enter, go here and leave a comment before December 3}

Thanksgiving preview

Some of the goodies in this week's vegetable box - just in time for Thanksgiving cooking!

sweet potatoes, green beans, broccoli, scallions, 3 kinds of carrots, white potatoes

fresh pecans (and two disks of chilled pie dough)

{Note: I'm celebrating my first 100 blog posts with a cookbook giveaway - to enter, go here and leave a comment before December 3}

{Simple Soup Supper} Busy Day Chicken Tortellini Soup

This hardly qualifies as a real recipe, but busy times call for dinners with shortcuts! The original inspiration for this soup was on a label of Swanson's chicken broth that I came across years ago, and have significantly embellished. Depending on whether I use homemade stock and chicken (as opposed to canned or cubes of stock, and a rotisserie chicken) and freshly chopped veggies and herbs, this can be a little or a lot better than a can of soup. In this busy week before Thanksgiving, a little simple soup really hit the spot, combined with some hot multigrain bread and a green salad.

Busy Day Chicken Tortellini Soup

1 T. olive oil

1 large carrot, sliced (about 3/4 cup)

1/3 cup celery, chopped

1/3 cup onion, chopped

1 tsp. minced garlic

1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

2 qt. chicken stock, homemade or purchased

1 cup (weight: 4 oz.) dried tortellini, such as Barilla (or 1 package frozen tortellini)

1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken

1-2 tsp. chopped fresh herbs, such as Italian parsley, oregano, or thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried)

1. Heat olive oil in large saucepan, and saute carrot, onion, and celery for 3 minutes.

2. Add garlic and red pepper flakes, and cook an additional minute.

3. Add chicken stock and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

4. Reduce heat to medium, add tortellini, and simmer for 10-15 minutes until tortellini are cooked through and vegetables are tender. (If using frozen tortellini, follow the cooking time on the package, and let the veggies simmer in the stock for a few minutes before adding the tortellini.)

5. Stir in fresh herbs and chicken. Bring soup to a boil and serve.


{Note: I'm celebrating my first 100 blog posts with a cookbook giveaway - to enter, go here and leave a comment before December 3}