cartoonpolitics:

Oh well that’s alright then ..

So sad.

Leftover Cranberries?

I remember the day when my mother decided to get all sophisticated on us and switch from canned jellied cranberry sauce to the canned whole berry kind. I thought my Thanksgiving world was going to ruins. I liked that cylinder of shimmering, quivering jelly with the can indentation lines on it. I liked the way the pieces flopped onto the plate when my mother cut it into thick, velvety slices. 

The whole berry kind was somewhat too grownup for my then 8 or 9 year old self, but I had to admit that it was good too, not the disaster I anticipated.

But the best was when she got a new recipe for baked cranberry sauce. It’s the one I make every year, although sometimes I add on a second version. Then I know there will be leftovers.

Everyone always talks about the turkey leftovers. But there’s so many delicious things you can do with cranberry sauce leftovers! Like fritters to go with that turkey sandwich!

Cranberry Fritters

1 cup all-purpose flour

1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs

1/3 cup milk or coconut, almond or soy milk

1 cup whole berry cranberry sauce

vegetable oil for frying

sifted confectioner’s sugar, optional

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sugar into a bowl. In a separate bowl beat the eggs and milk together until well blended. Add the flour mixture and mix until well blended. Fold in the cranberries. Heat 1/2-inch vegetable oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot enough to make a bread crumb sizzle, drop the batter by the tablespoonful into the hot oil. Leave space between the fritters so that they cook crisply. Fry for a minute or two per side or until browned and crispy. Drain on paper towels. Serve plain or with sifted confectioner’s sugar. Makes 6 servings

Polishing silver the easy way

Polishing silver? Ugh on the hours you need wiping each little tine of each fork with polish and cloth and having to wear rubber gloves and all. My cousin Leslie gave me a terrific tip to make it incredibly easy easy easy. Here it is:

Line a glass or ceramic (nonmetal) pan with aluminum foil. Add about a cup of Arm&Hammer Washing Soda. Place the silverware on the foil. Cover the silverware with boiling water.

Watch the fizz! When it stops fizzing you’re done!. Rinse the silverware in soapy water, rinse, dry an that’s it!

How easy is that?!

Roasted Asparagus

Need  quickie vegetable for Thanksgiving?

Try roasted asparagus. It’s among the easiest of side dishes you can make. It looks good. Tastes good. You can make it in advance. Serve at room temperature. 

This is one of my go-to fall back dishes whenever I am stuck for an easy, veggie side dish, no matter what the occasion.

Roasted Asparagus

1 pound asparagus

1/2 tablespoon olive oil

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Wash the asparagus and remove the woody portions at the bottom. Peel if very thick. Coat the asparagus with the olive oil. Place the asparagus on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 6-10 minutes, depending on thickness, or until barely tender. Let cool to room temperature. Sprinkle with Balsamic vinegar. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving. Makes 6 servings

You can serve this hot too: sprinkle the just-roasted asparagus with a squirt or two of lemon juice.

You can serve this topped with thin shavings of Parmesan cheese.

Farro Pilaf with Winter Squash

Vegetarian Thanksgiving Guests?

Every year I hear about people who go nuts because they have vegetarian guests coming for Thanksgiving dinner and they don’t know what to cook for them.

Maybe they’re truly flustered. Or maybe they’re actually upset that their teenager, who, like all other teenagers is otherwise the model of good manners and propriety, has just given up meat. Or they’re annoyed because their daughter-in-law (of course) has “turned” vegetarian on them.

Or something like that. 

But really. I know change is difficult for most of us and the Thanksgiving turkey dinner seems almost sacrosanct, but there is always so much food on the table, most of it meatless, that a vegetarian can skip the meat and eat everything else, right?

It’s not as if you have to make an entire extra dinner.

All you have to do is heavy up on the sides. That means the usual mashed potatoes and/or sweet potatoes, plus a bunch of vegetables. And if you add a rice or pasta recipe or a recipe for a whole grain casserole that should do it. 

Then everyone is happy. The turkey lovers (I confess to be that) can have their turkey and the vegetarians can be satisfied too.

Suggestions for recipe that make good side dishes and that will also nourish and please vegetarians: Spinach Pie, Mujadarah (a bulgur wheat/lentil dish), brown rice and mushroom pilaf, eggplant Parmesan, Bulgur Wheat Casserole with Dried Apricots and Pistachios, Macaroni and Cheese. Dozens of others.

And try this one, for Vegetarians. Meat eaters will love it too.

Farro Pilaf with Winter Squash

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

2 teaspoons chopped fresh ginger

1 cup diced winter squash (such as butternut)

1 cup farro

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1-3/4 cups vegetable stock

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 2 minutes or until the onion has softened slightly. Add the garlic, ginger and squash and cook, stirring occasionally, for another minute. Stir in the farro, parsley and thyme. Season with some salt and pepper. Pour in the stock. Bring the liquid to a boil. Boil for one minute. Turn the heat to medium-low, cover the pan and cook for about 25 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed. Makes 6 servings

No Pecan Pie on Thanksgiving

Our family Thanksgiving dinner always used to end with apple pie, because it would have been unthinkable not to have my mom’s perfectly perfect apple pie, and also pecan pie, because my sister-in-law Eileen, who claims she isn’t a good cook, nevertheless makes one spectacular pecan pie.

Unfortunately, my daughter Gillian is allergic to pecans, so we haven’t served pecan pie on Thanksgiving for decades. 

No problems. I love to fuss and fix recipes. So I came up with nut pie versions that didn’t cause a health problem and were also really tasty. Like this one for Honey Hazelnut pie. Which you could also make with cashews or pistachios.

Honey Hazelnut Pie 

• 3/4 cup honey

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 3 large eggs

• 3 tablespoons melted butter, margarine or coconut oil

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1-1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1/8 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup chopped hazelnuts

• 1 cup chopped dried apricots (or use more nuts)

• 1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the honey, sugar, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract in a bowl and blend them thoroughly with a whisk. Stir in the flour, salt, hazelnuts and apricots. Pour the mixture into the pie crust. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the top is golden brown and crusty.

Makes one pie serving 8 people

Memories of Pumpkin Pie

Anyone over a “certain” age and living in the New York Metropolitan area will remember Horn & Hardart Automats, those grand cafeterias where you could get on the usual line and buy the usual stuff from the steam tables. But it was always more fun to buy the individual portions of food that were set in little alcoves on the wall, each covered by a glass window. You would put the required number of nickels in a slot and poof! the glass window would open and you would take your food and before you knew it the window closed, and another identical portion of food would circle around and take its place.

If you didn’t have enough change you could get some from the “nickel lady,” in charge of the change booth. As I recall, the nickel ladies were always plump.

My Aunt Roz and Uncle Mac used to take me and my cousin Leslie to the Automat when we went ice skating in Manhattan. The two of us always had the vegetable plate: macaroni and cheese, hash browns and spaghetti.

Dessert depended on the season, but in the autumn I always picked pumpkin pie.

I remember Automat pumpkin pie as a miracle. It was tender, moist and not too spicy. It had a golden sheen on top and nice, crumbly crust. It was the best pumpkin pie ever, even better than my Mom’s.

And so, even after the ice skating days were done and trips to the Automat over, I would sometimes make my way over to one to pick up a slice of pie. 

Then the Automats closed, pushed out of the gastronomic mainstream by the likes of the McDonald’s and Burger King of the world.

Neither of those eateries have pumpkin pie.

Wow, do I wish I had that Automat recipe.

I make a different pumpkin pie every year. I don’t know if the one below is better than the Automat’s. Memories can be deceiving. But I can say it is delicious. Tender, moist, and with a glossy sheen on top. Perfect for Thanksgiving.

Pumpkin Pie

• 1-3/4 cups mashed pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

• 2 large eggs

• 1-1/2 cups coconut milk, half and half cream, evaporated milk or nut milk

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Beat the pumpkin, sugar and brown sugar with a whisk or electric beater set at medium for a minute or until well blended. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the coconut milk until well blended. Add the cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt and beat ingredients for a minute or until well blended. Pour into the pie crust. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 45 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Makes one pie serving 8 people

Mayonnaise or Ketchup? Turkey Sandwich.

I came from a mayonnaise family. My husband Ed’s family was all about ketchup. Honestly, his parents used to buy bottles of Heinz in bulk long before anyone ever heard of Costco and BJ’s. And so did he, based on what I spotted in the cupboards of his single-guy apartment the first time I looked.

Opinions run high on stuff like this, just like with politics.

Imagine Michelle Bachmann discussing Hellman’s versus Heinz with Al Gore.

It’s not really such a big deal though because when it comes to something like a roast beef sandwich we can each put whatever we want on the bread, right?

But no, right after we were married and might be making sandwiches on a Sunday afternoon, we would each slather the bread and then taunt each other about how the sandwich we were eating was so much better than the other one’s.

Over the intervening years for one reason or another we have each cut down on our favorite condiment. Although I still love a summer tomato sandwich with mayo. And he still pours a blob of ketchup on his plate when I serve grilled steak.

He has tried to convince me that olive oil tastes better on that summer tomato sandwich, but I am not convinced.

I think there ought to be a law against eating ketchup with a good grilled steak.

We both agree that you have to use mayo, not ketchup, for egg salad, but that ketchup, not mayo, is best for meatloaf.

And of course, we can always choose that loving combo of — ketchup PLUS mayo. 

A nice compromise. It often works to the good.

Like on a hamburger.

Or in this turkey sandwich recipe, which you might want to consider for your leftovers after Thanksgiving.

Turkey Sandwich

6 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 tablespoons ketchup

1 tablespoon finely chopped jalapeno pepper

1/2 teaspoon finely grated fresh lemon peel

6 sesame seed buns

6 pieces of lettuce or a bunch of watercress

sliced, leftover turkey

2 avocados, sliced, optional

12 tomato slices

6 slices Monterey Jack cheese, optional

Combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, jalapeno pepper and lemon peel in a bowl, mix well and spread equal amounts of this mixture on one side of each of the sesame seed buns. Cover with lettuce or watercress. Top with slices of cooked turkey, optional avocado, tomato and cheese. Cover with the remaining bun half.

Makes 6 sandwiches

Petit-Fours

Petit-fours are the new “big thing?” 

That’s sort of what I read here.

Okay, I get why chocolate chip cookies, doughnuts and cupcakes became so trendy. But petit-fours?

The last time I had a petit-four was during the 1960s when I was the activities chairman for my sorority house and ordered petit-fours for when the alums were coming to see if the house and all of us undergrads were doing things properly.

To tell the truth, now that I am recalling this for the first time in over 40 years, those petit-fours were fabulous. They looked gorgeous and tasted oh so wonderful. I could pop a few into my mouth even now and although I wouldn’t relish a flood of memories of sorority life, I could spend some lovely thoughts on the memory of those tiny little cakes.

In case you aren’t familiar with them, petit-fours are mini cakes. Little rectangles (maybe 2-inches by 1-inch) or ovals, rounds, etc. of scrumptious layer cake, frosted in fondant and usually decorated with piped icing bells and ribbony effects and little dots and so on. 

I am never going to make petit-fours. They are too labor intensive and it’s just too much trouble (but if you’re interested, you can find dozens of recipes online, including a decent sounding one from Land O’ Lakes (see below). Petit-fours are beautiful desserts for bridal showers and afternoon tea.)

The article raves about the petit-fours at Duane Park Patisserie in NYC’s Soho, so if you live anywhere near there you can try them for yourself. 

I think I’ll check it out and maybe find some other store bought ones and see if they are as good as I remember.

These dainty icing-coated miniature cakes add a special touch to showers, open houses or teas. Try this easy Petits Fours recipe.

2:00prep time3:50total time

4 dozen petit fours

Cake

3 cupsall-purpose flour

1 tablespoonbaking powder

1/2 teaspoonsalt

1 1/2 cupssugar

1/2 cupLand O Lakes® Butter, softened

6Land O Lakes® All-Natural Egg whites

1/2 teaspoonalmond extract1 cupmilk

Icing

3 cupssugar

1/4 teaspooncream of tartar

1 1/2 cupswater

1 cuppowdered sugar, sifted

1 teaspoonalmond extract or vanilla3 dropsfood color, if desired

Garnish

Candy flowers, if desiredFrosting flowers, if desired

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 13x9-inch baking pan; set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in large bowl. Set aside.

Beat sugar and butter in large bowl at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until creamy. Add 1 egg white at a time, beating well after each addition. Add vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition just until mixed.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until toothpick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool on wire racks 10 minutes. Loosen edge of cake by running knife around inside edge. Carefully remove cake from pan; cool completely.

Trim edges from cake; cut each cake into 24 (1 1/2-inch square) pieces. 

Combine sugar, cream of tartar and water in 3-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until mixture comes to a full boil (12 to 14 minutes). Cover; boil 3 minutes. Uncover; continue cooking until candy thermometer reaches (228°F. to 234°F.) or small amount of mixture dropped into ice water forms a 2-inch soft thread (15 to 20 minutes). Remove from heat; cool to 110°F. or until bottom of pan is slightly warm to touch (do not stir) ( 1 hour). Stir in powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon almond extract and food color, if desired.

Place wire cooling rack over waxed paper. Place 1 cake piece on fork; drizzle icing over top and sides of cake, making sure each side is covered. Place onto wire rack; let stand until icing is set. (If icing becomes too thick, reheat over low heat until thin consistency and easy to drizzle (2 to 3 minutes)). Garnish each petit four with candy flowers or frosting flowers, if desired.