So once again it has taken me forever to post, and i'm about two weeks late but my thanksgiving dinner as amazing! My parents have recently moved to Oregon, and it was time to visit to their new house. My brother, sister and even their friends have been to my parents house, but this was my first trek to the southern Oregon coast to the little town, Sixes with Allison.
I've always helped my mom in the kitchen, but i've never taken a huge part in cooking until this year and I now know what my mom has gone through for years and years. We were in the kitchen ALL day: literally. Among my sister, Allison and I, we cooked the entire meal minus the turkey.
Just about everything we used for dinner came from my parents garden or neighboring gardens. Allison and I started off early on the desserts including: pumpkin pie and pecan pie. For the pumpkin pie, we got the pumpkin from a neighbors garden. It was ginormous and for some reason we decided to cook the whole thing. We boiled the pumpkin, and next time I will bake it instead. It retained too much water in the boiling process making the pie a little more soupy than it should have been. The crust however was pretty good. It was just like a graham cracker crust but instead of graham crackers, we used gingersnaps. My brother could eat a whole box of those in one sitting, so that crust was for him. Overall the pumpkin pie was good but nothing note worthy (sorry Paula Dean). I think that that is a problem in cooking sometimes; you set your expectations too high and in the end your not satisfied even if it does taste good. Next was the pecan pie, which was pretty good. I love pecan pie, its so simple but its so good! Eggs, butter, corn syrup, pecans….Adding little bourbon in it did the trick.
Next was the cranberry sauce. Usually you're going to buy this in a can at the store, but I was determined to do as much as I could from scratch. We got our cranberries from the cranberry bog (yes ocean spray commercial status) that is literally 20 feet from the house. Thanks to cooks illustrated (and I think Jake can agree) this was far better than that from a can. It calls for cranberries, water, and sugar and a little simmering time.
Collier, as always, made the mashed potatoes. She used mostly red potatoes from moms garden, and in the end result they had a pink hue. I don't know what she does but they are absolutely amazing. My mom likes to say that she got the "potato gene" in the family. I must say that it is quite the gene to have. I don't think I will ever be able to replicate the taste. She also made one dessert that my family can never go a holiday without having and that is the blackberry sour cream apple pie. I know right upon reading that, a lot of you thought “ugh sour cream”, but trust me when I say it is the best pie I have ever had. We used to go to this little place called Apple Hill where they made them and one day the little pie shop closed down. Ever since then we have been messing with this recipe and I think this year we came across our closest match.
The rest of the meal consisted of steamed asparagus, rolls (which my mom made) salad (with my brothers delicious candied pecans) and of course the turkey.
I'm excited for Christmas and to put some new items on the menu (and keep some old ones). Unfortunately my sister wont be around this Christmas so we wont have her mashed potatoes, and I will have to do my best to match hers. I'm up for the challenge. Wish me luck. I'll be reporting how they turned out.
~Mel
