Thanksgiven

Here's wishing everyone out there a wonderful Thanksgiving! Er, well, I wish everyone HAD a wonderful Thanksgiving, since, you know, it was a week ago now. It's hard to believe that 2009 is almost over ... seems like I blinked and it was suddenly November, then Thanksgiving, and now it's December?! Whaaa?

Nick and I hosted the Brace family here in Dayton for the big Turkey Day weekend - Mom, Dad, Randy, Jenni, Kayla, and Derrick all made the haul from Chicago for the festivities. Just about everything turned out beautifully for the big smorgasboard, and the turkey was awesome, if I do say so myself. Instead of a saltwater brine in the cooler, we did a "dry" brine (courtesy of Cook's Illustrated, Nov/Dec 2009) in the fridge. Between the dry brine and the Cook's Illustrated-tested, Erin-approved method of starting the turkey breast-side down at a lower temperature for 2 hours then flipping upright and finishing the bird at 450 F for 45 minutes, the bird was juicy and flavorful and ah-maze-ing. Crispy skin, succulent white meat, lip-smackingly tasty. I also tried to recreate a cranberry-ginger relish that we'd sampled a few Thanksgivings ago - it turned out perfectly zippy and with a nice balance of sweet and tart. It was also one of the most simple things I've made in a long while! 2 bags of fresh cranberries, 1/2 cup evaporated cane sugar, 1 cup chopped crystallized ginger, 3 teaspoons of ground dried ginger, and a pinch of salt, all ground together in the food processor. I made A LOT (far more than 7 people could possibly eat) so it's made an appearance at dessert time several nights this past week. The garlic soup that started the meal and the brussels sprouts with bacon and figs seemed to go over pretty well, and the spent grain rolls that Randy contributed to the meal were ridiculously good. The only thing that got kind of mixed reviews was something that I'm truthfully relieved not to ever need to make again: a swiss chard and sweet potato gratin. Don't get me wrong - it was good! But not Thanksgiving Dinner good. Or good enough to justify spending an hour and a half washing, de-ribbing, chopping, cooking, and draining the chard. And despite all of the wringing out of the greens, it still ended up a bit watery. I loves me some swiss chard, and I'm a big fan of sweet potato dishes that aren't goopy with brown sugar and marshmallows, so as an idea, this gratin seemed killer. Just ... in practicality ... it was a lot of work.

We kept the post-Thanksgiving-Day weekend pretty low key from there on out. We hit the farmer's market, watched some football, cooed over my perfect little niece, ate some (much) lighter meals, headed out on Friday night for the lighting of the Christmas tree in Courthouse Square and the ensuing Children's Parade (which coincided quite imperfectly with the coldest day we've had this season), and made an abbreviated stop at the National Museum of Aviation at Wright-Patterson. And now, Nick is gearing up for finals and I'm getting into the holiday spirit! We bought and installed our Christmas tree just yesterday, hung up some mistletoe, and we're looking forward to seeing both extended families over the Christmas break!