Thanksgiving and the Day After and the Day After That 2011

Tony and I hosted Thanksgiving this year for the Gerbers and Tony's friend Rich, who ate with us last year, and his boyfriend, Vince. Tony took the lead on the turkey, and he made two different kinds of homemade cranberry sauce, one with onions and balsamic vinegar that I wasn't crazy about but Vince, Rich, and Mike really enjoyed and the other with Cointreau and Mathilde Framboise Liqueur that Matt and I thought was fantastic. (I wrote about Tony's and my visit to Astor Wines & Spirits, where we got the framboise liqueur, last weekend over at Queer New York.)

Tony also made three kinds of roasted nuts, including walnuts with maple syrup and almonds with cocoa, to serve as appetizers. Surprisingly, I enjoyed the third kind better than even the chocolaty ones: cashews with rosemary, which he made using an Ina Garten recipe that was inspired by a Union Square Cafe snack, only he used oil instead of butter. Tony bought a cute little dome-lidded tray the other day from Pier 1 to serve them in.

We did a whole turkey, and David was happy to get a leg to chew on. We Hawleys prefer white meat, so there's usually only turkey breast at our family gatherings.

Tony had gotten a Martha Stewart–branded fresh turkey, and it was quite good, even though the chunk of plastic that had been stuffed inside to help it retain its shape gave Tony fits when he tried to remove it. Tony shoved fresh herbs under the skin and, with a halved lemon, inside the cavity. And we put olive oil and salt and cracked pepper on the skin. 

Rich, who doesn't do much cooking, made stuffing using my sister's recipe, which was really awesome of him. Tony had wanted the Gerbers to have some of the foods they were used to having. Because they went to see the parade before coming here, we asked them to bring something easily transportable: wine. I liked both of the wines Tracey had picked out after having tried them at a wine tasting: a California pinot noir and a California blend of chenin blanc and viognier.

I contributed garlicky roasted cauliflower and romanesco and roasted butternut squash that the 'phews helped me spice up with ground pumpkin spices. I had made both of those dishes for M&M, with Mike's help, when they came to visit Tony and me two weekends ago; I'll write about that visit in my next post.

Tony's dessert was a big hit: dairyless but completely rich and satisfying chocolate mousse. He had made it for me before, and I would have sworn I'd blogged about it at some point but I couldn't find a mention of it when I searched just now. He gave an extra-big ramekin of it to chocoholic David, who made a game effort but couldn't polish it off.

My dessert didn't turn out so well. I made Pumpkin Spice Latte Ice Cream, but the contents of only one of my two ice cream makers solidified enough to bother with putting it in the freezer to completely harden. And that batch of the ice cream wasn't aerated enough to make the texture satisfying. But the flavor was quite good. I made another double batch of the base yesterday and am processing it in the ice cream makers now as I finish this post so I can take the ice cream to the Game Party this afternoon. It's turning out fine. I think part of the problem with my first attempt was that I had inadvertently left the freezer door open a bit when I removed the coffee beans I'd been storing in there, and so the chemical in the canisters I use in my ice cream makers wasn't supercold like it needed to be to do its magic. The base itself also probably wasn't cold enough. Because our fridge was so full, I relied on the air in our greenhouse to cool the base down after cooking it and it wasn't as thick as it usually is after chilling in the fridge for a few hours.

I was very pleased with the Pumpkin Spice Latte Syrup I created. I've been drinking it in my coffee with whole milk the past few days, and I think it's terrific. I'll add the recipe after some more photos and before the "day after" part of the post. I added a cup of the syrup to my regular coffee ice cream base (made using two cups of coffee beans and the usual three pints of half-and-half) to make the PSLIC base.

Tony, Rich, and Vince posing for me after dinner

The bird just before it went into the oven

And my favorite photo of the day: Tracey making gravy with a glass of red wine in her hand, with Tony at the sink behind her

Pumpkin Spice Latte Syrup

One 15-ounce can of organic pumpkin
Two canfuls (almost 4 cups) of water
1 cup brown sugar
6 whole cloves
7 allspice berries
One 2-inch piece of ginger, skinned and cut into coin-sized pieces
1 nutmeg, hit with a hammer
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons salt

Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Lower the temperature and simmer for a half hour, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool slightly, strain, and chill.

The amounts and types of spices could be tweaked, of course. Next time, I would use more allspice, ginger, and nutmeg and less cinnamon. I would ideally use a short stick of cinnamon, which was the only whole spice we didn't have on hand.

***

On Friday, Tony and I visited the Gerbers. It's become a tradition for me to go out there on Black Friday to help them decorate their Christmas tree. This year, they got a live one.

After Tracey, Mike, and Matt picked us up at the train station, we got lunch at Pizza Fusion, where Tracey got that big-ass salad back in March, before the boys' play.

At their home, before we went to pick out the tree, Mike, Matt, and I played Donkey Kong's Jungle, one of three board games based on the Mario Party video games that Mike had made up. It was a lot of fun. Mike said the most time-consuming part was making all of the game pieces, which can be used with all three of the boards.

I failed to get a picture of the tree after we'd decorated it. But I did get a picture of the guys posing with the wreaths Tracey bought at the same place where we got the tree, a nicely rounded fir.

We all had dinner at GAO Thai Kitchen in Ramsey. Tony enjoyed the chicken larb he got for his main course. And he enjoyed saying larb. I had the pleasingly hot-and-spicy Red Curry Chicken.

***

And speaking of pleasingly hot-and-spicy, Tony cooked a second turkey—one he'd bought frozen—last night that he had seasoned liberally with cajun spices. Man, was it ever good. Tony had intended to cook it on Wednesday evening so the Gerbers would have leftovers to take home with them on Thursday, but it wasn't thawed in time.

Comments

[Mark H.]

RICH!

[Richard Bretan]

T'was a wonderful meal and day. Vince was very happy to join in a traditional Thanksgiving meal (not many of those in Vietnam). I'm going to try the Pumpkin Spice Latte Syrup recipe so Vince doesn't have to pay $567,957 for it at Starbucks!

[tracey]

Bill - You and Tony are great cooks! Everything was wonderful!