Fifth Annual Blackwood Street Thanksgiving

I've always had really good memories associated with Thanksgiving: long walks and bonfires in Tarpley, Texas (population: us), with my father's side of the family; formal dinner and frisbee marathons in Houston, Texas, with my mother's side of the family. Food galore and the comfort of friends and family -- nothing is better.

But now that we live so far away and it's not practical to travel for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, Melissa and I have developed our own tradition here in Boston. For the past five years, we have gathered together an evolving group of Americans who can't be with family, and non-Americans who may have never celebrated the holiday before, for a full day of food, wine and good company. It's an all-day extravaganza of eating and drinking that some of our dedicated guests look forward to each year almost as much as we do.

Like a kid on Christmas morning, Melissa woke up at 5:30 am and couldn't get back to sleep, because this is her favorite day of the year. I went to 7-11 to get some ice to chill the bubbly, then cleaned up the place while Melissa made the stuffing and prepped the turkey before any guests arrived. We always start with a champagne breakfast around 10 am, and some of our friends come by for the early meal before going to dinner with family.

This year we had 14 for breakfast, and Melissa's stuffed croissants were snapped up as soon as each batch came out of the kitchen. The filling of black forest ham, peccorino cheese, avocado, tomatoes and ground pepper was met with unanimous approval. The shortcut: croissants from a can. They smell absolutely heavenly in the oven, which is always a great way to greet early guests, and make for a quick and easy preparation at the beginning of a long day of cooking. The few who arrived after the croissants were all gone had to settle for the lemon crepes Melissa whipped up as a backup plan. We had orange juice and pomegranate to make mimosas with Lindauer Brut (non-vintage, New Zealand), a half-case of which was consumed well before dinner was served...

We were expecting a largely non-overlapping second wave of about ten guests for the big feast, and those who stayed through or arrived (as recommended) with plenty of time for relaxing and wine drinking before dinner were met with a reward of Wellfleet oysters I bought live the day before. The comfortable lull between breakfast and dinner was thus filled with oyster shucking and satisfied slurping -- all accompanied by New Zealand (Lindauer) and Italian (Prosecco) sparkling wines.

As soon as the breakfast preparations were finished, the turkey went into the oven. Melissa roasted the 13-pound organic turkey with a saffron-butter glaze and her pistachio and olive stuffing. After some experimentation in recent years, she has settled on this recipe, and the consensus is that it's a truly fantastic concoction. The saffron butter is the first aroma that makes it to the nose, well before the smell of roasting turkey wafts out of the kitchen, and the pistachios and green olives in the stuffing provide a great texture and flavor.

The trimmings for the turkey and stuffing included gravy that really held onto that saffron-butter flavor, a homemade cranberry sauce, blanched snap-peas and chipotle mashed sweet potatoes. The spicy potatoes are something we experienced a few years ago at East Coast Grill in Somerville, MA, and we thought it was such a great idea that we had to incorporate it into our Thanksgiving dinner as a variation on the traditional candied yams or sweet potatoes. Five large sweet potatoes were roasted whole in the oven until very soft, then peeled and mashed with one stick of butter, a splash of cream, a sprinkling of sea salt and three finely chopped smoked chipotle peppers, which come in a small can drowned in adobo sauce. The smokey flavor is divine, and there is just enough spice to sneak up on you after a few bites -- puts a nice kick into the plate.

We had a hodgepodge of wines open for the big feast: a couple of chardonnays, of which the Louis Latour 2006 Grand Ardeche was the star, a couple of pinot noirs, among which I really liked the Blason de Bourgogne 2007 Burgundy, and another bottle of the 2006 Paul Jaboulet Parallele 45 Cotes du Rhone we had with our midnight breakfast last Saturday. After that it was a free-for-all, and we had Aussie shiraz, Spanish tempranillo, German riesling and New Zealand sauvignon blanc, among others, as the night progressed.

For dessert Melissa made a trifle -- actually, twelve of them. The concoctions of mixed berries, angel food cake, dutch custard, whipped cream, Amontillado sherry and slivered almonds were assembled early that morning and placed in boxes outside in the cold to settle in and soak up the sherry. We know it's good when Amanda goes back for a second dessert...

When the feasting was all done (around 6 pm) it was already dark outside, but the night was young. With our bellies (and our glasses) full, we settled in for a rousing game of "Who Am I?" (See Etienne and Angelique trying to divine the names on their foreheads, below), followed by a few rounds of the more sinister game "Mafia". Turns out I'm not a very convincing Mafioso. Melissa, on the other hand...

Thanks to everyone who helped make the day a really great time, and we wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving.

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Recipes

Actually, for this post there are very few recipes for me to write. The "croissants" where Pilsbury cresent rolls, baked according to the instructions and filled with shaved cheese, ham, tomato and avocado when still piping hot.

The turkey was made from a recipe I saw in a cuisine magazine. It can be found here. The only alterations I'd make to the recipe is to continue topping up the liquid in the pan with water as the cooking proceeds and I preferred chicken broth here rather than wine. The liquids made a beautiful gravy at the end by just adding a tablespoon of cornstarch (corn flour) mixed in a little water and heating it through to thicken.

The cranberry sauce was simply 1 bag of fresh cranberries boiled with a small amount of water (just enough to cover the bottom of a pot) and 1/2 cup of sugar with a pinch of cloves and nutmeg. It takes about 5 minutes for the cranberries to pop and turn to mush.

For the trifle I simply layered the ingredients listed above in glasses. This is the first time I've made a trifle, but next time I think I'll cut the sherry with simple syrup, or maybe even melted peach jam to soak into the sponge (angelfood) cake and berries.

Midnight Breakfast; Roast Chicken Thigh with Roast Vegetable Gravy

Actually it was more like 2 am: Last Saturday we went out with an eclectic group of friends for Evan's birthday. We started at the Top of the Hub, a bar and restaurant on the 52nd floor of the Prudential Tower, a mere three-minute walk from our apartment. On such a cold, crystal-clear night, the view of the city was awesome. After a bunch of drinks there, we froze our asses off scouting the area for another bar and ended up at Azure at the Lenox Hotel on Boylston Street. We then had a bunch of drinks there, and when the bar was ready to close we decided to bring handful of the more dedicated revelers back to our place for a late-night breakfast.

We stopped by our local 24-hour grocery store (I love the city) to pick up some eggs and bacon, and then we let out our secret for the world's most ridiculously fantastic eggs ever made. Melissa taught me this recipe, and it's usually pulled out late at night when scrambled eggs are the only thing we are competent to cook and eat safely. Beat eggs in a bowl wth a splash of milk or cream, a generous dose of grated Parmesan cheese, a few cranks from the pepper grinder, a small spoonful of chicken stock paste or powder, and a dash of Thai fish sauce. Yes, fish sauce. To be more exact, it's anchovy juice. You would never know it's there, it just adds a salty, savory flavor that your body craves after a big night out. Scramble in a skillet on medium heat and serve nice and slimy. We added bacon, baguette and a bottle of Paul Jaboulet Parallele 45 Cotes du Rhone (2006; grenache/syrah) to round out a great night out. Happy Birthday, Evan!

The following day, I whisked away Amanda (and her car) to go wine shopping at Trader Joe's. Gotta stock up for Thanksgiving and all the holiday parties coming up. After fighting the ridiculous pre-Thanksgiving Sunday evening crowds to buy a couple of cases of vino, we forced Amanda to join us for dinner and a True Blood catch-up session (our new favorite HBO series about vampires).

Melissa made oven-roasted chicken thighs with a roasted vegetable gravy that had us all chewing the bone and licking the bowls clean. She first seasoned the chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on) with chicken stock powder and pan-seared them to cook out some of the fat. Then she roasted them in a large roasting pan (which is about to get a real workout on Thanksgiving) along with some chopped carrots, celery, onions and cubed potatoes. When the chicken was finished, she removed the meat and most of the vegetables, then made a pan-gravy by adding some chicken broth to deglaze the roasting pan, leaving in some of the roasted vegetables, and warming through on the stovetop. The final result was liquified with a hand blender to thicken and served under the chicken and vegetables in large soup bowls. Perfect for a cold night at home and some good TV.

We had both a Mondavi Private Selection 2007 chardonnay (Central Coast, CA) and a Matua Valley 2007 sauvignon blanc (Marlborough, New Zealand) open for this meal. The chardonnay was a much better match to the meal, but not everyone likes California chardonnay, and New Zealand sauvignon blanc is so good that we'll drink it with just about anything.

We're having a large Thanksgiving gathering tomorrow, so there'll be more to come very soon...

Chicken with Pomegranate Tartlets; Steam-baked Tilapia with Ribboned Zucchini

As colder weather sets in there is less fresh, in-season produce to get excited about, but Melissa manages to find inspiration nonetheless. A recent dish inspired by a leftover fruit from the pomegranate martinis we made for my birthday cocktail party featured marscapone and pomegranate tartlets as accompaniment to chicken thighs with Lima beans and green peas. Grilled boneless chicken thighs were seasoned with simple chicken stock paste and ground pepper. Melissa sauteed some chopped onions with coarsely chopped bacon to add to the soaked, boiled Lima beans and briefly boiled green peas.

The tartlets were a real treat. Not being very experienced with eating pomegranate, I've only sort of chewed the flesh off and spit out the seed. In this dish the seeds and flesh were together in the tart on top of a generous cushion of marscapone cheese. The result was a light crunch from the filo shell, a rich creamy base from the marscapone, a jolt of tart from the pomegranate fruit, and a coarse crunch from the seeds. A panoply of textures and flavors. Melissa baked these for about 12 minutes at 400F in a mini-tart pan.

We had a Sbragia 2004 Home Ranch Merlot (Sonoma, CA) that we already had open with this meal. Someone brought this wine around on my birthday (who are you?), and it was fantastic. What a rich, fruit-driven, velvety-smooth wine. Backed up by vanilla and oak, it was really nice with the tart and savory mix in this dish.

On another recent evening we stopped by the store on the way home to forage for some dinner ideas. Before even reaching the store we discovered we were both thinking fish. And since we were also thinking inexpensive, we brought home some tilapia fillets and Melissa made an old stand-by of ours: tilapia fillets (it works equally well with whole cleaned trout) are seasoned with sea salt and ground pepper, then wrapped up in foil pouches with lemon, garlic and tomato slices and a generous pat of butter. We often cook these on the grill (which is how I learned it while trout fishing in the Rocky Mountains), but it also works in the oven. Melissa served the fish with ribboned zucchini (cooked covered in the microwave for three minutes and seasoned with a sprinkle of chicken stock powder), and some fresh sliced grape tomatoes, the last remnants from our garden this season.

We had a bottle of Guy Saget 2007 Vouvray (France) with the fish. We were hoping for a nice dry chenin blanc here, but this wine is off-dry to sweet. It's a little frustrating that the bottle doesn't give any indication that it's "demi-sec," but I still have good impressions of Vouvray whites from the handful that we've tried of late.

I recently read that Australia makes some fantastic ultra-dry semillon, so I think we will soon be on a mission to try those out...

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A quick note on another great budget red we found at Trader Joe's a couple of weeks ago: Epicuro Beneventano Aglianico (2006) from Italy. A deep ruby-red wine; the nose was deceptively similar to gamay (think Nouveau Beaujolais with its light, red Jello aromas), but the flavors in this wine were all rich blackberries and black cherries, with a decent backbone of tannin and bit of pepper and earth to back it up. This was surprisingly good for a $6 bottle. Seriously -- I think I'll buy a case of it soon. It would probably even improve a little by sitting on the shelf for a year or three; not that it'll last that long at our place...

Halloween Party

The last three weeks have been a bit crazy, with two scientific meetings (and presentations to prepare for both), pretty heavy workloads in the lab, and a great costume/cocktail party for my birthday last weekend.



We had 22 people show up, mostly in costume, for a great party in our small apartment on Halloween. We had pomegranate martinis, strawberry daquiris, lots of wine and some great food. Melissa made her beef stew with polenta (previously posted), sausage rolls, homemade pate and bloody fingers (hot dogs with almond sliver fingernails).

Jawdat and Zee brought some great cupcakes which stood in as birthday cake, and a good time was had by all.

We were too busy playing hosts to take photos, so thanks to Jawdat, Zee and Uhn-Soo for keeping their cameras handy.

We'll soon get back to posting some new dishes now that things have settled down a bit for now...