Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Twas the Night before Turkey


The sweet potato pudding is defrosting in the refrigerator; the pie crust is resting in the freezer and the cranberry/orange relish is getting damned tasty after its week-long marinade in Tripe Sec. Despite a day spent here at the beach house last week getting a head start on the Thanksgiving preparations, tomorrow will be a marathon -- and despite my joy at spending the day with people I love, the meal itself probably won't be proportionately tastier than the one I fixed tonight in about 15 minutes, start to finish.
J and I rarely eat steak anymore, but sometimes a New York strip just calls our names. Besides, steak, broccolini and salad was the simplest meal I could think of. To jazz it up a little I made a quick compound butter: minced shallots marinated for 10 minutes in red wine vinegar and then blended into soft butter along with some minced parsley. Dolloped generously onto thick slices of black-on-the-outside-and-ruby-red-on-the-inside steak, it was fabulous.
A few weeks ago I used a blood orange (from J's beloved little tree) in a butter to top grilled fish. Minced shallots, again, this time marinated in a little blood orange juice for 15 or 20 minutes, then blended into soft butter along with a generous amount of grated rind. Twas lovely as it melted over the hot sturgeon.
If I were more organized I'd make a variety of savory compound butters into logs and store them in the freezer.
And, if I were really organized, I'd have taught my daughters to cook and I'd be watching them fix Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow while I sipped champagne and nibbled almonds. Instead I'm immensely thankful that they are angelic about doing the dishes. And equally thankful that I have reservations for dinner out on Friday.
Happy Thanksgiving.

3 comments:

Katie Zeller said...

I'll happily cook if someone else does the dishes! Enjoy your day, sip the champaign anyway, and your dinner out on Friday!
Happy Thanksgiving!

Dorie said...

I think Katiez is right -- we should all sit around and sip champagne whether we've cooked the dinner or not. Actually, we should sip MORE champagne if we've cooked the dinner. Besides, 'fess up -- given the choice, wouldn't you rather cook than do dishes? I know I would. Hope you and yours had a joyous holiday -- I know you had a delicious one.

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

I agree with Katie and Dorie -- give me cooking duty over clean-up duty any day! Don't we all fantasize about having people following us around to wash up? But the most fun is sitting down to share your meal with whoever is at your table. The meal could be hot dogs, and it wouldn't matter.