Just 4 days to go...

Thanksgiving is by far my favorite holiday. You get family and good food without all of the crazy spending and gift-giving of Christmas (or Hannukah, if that's your tradition). The decorating is much more low-key and hassle-free, too. I realize that many people get stressed about the idea of hosting Thanksgiving and having to feed the multitudes. And do you stick with the same recipe every year, or try to vary it with some new ideas garnered from magazines? The same dilemma all those magazine editors face with every November issue... (Hire me! I'm up to the task!!)

Well, I absolutely love fixing Thanksgiving dinner. Granted, I say this after only technically hosting one such holiday—last year in the Manhattan apartment I shared with my sister and a friend with all of our parents sitting on the couch and floor around the coffee table. What the event lacked in furniture it made up for in good food and good times—even if the general concensus was I went a little too heavy on the lemon juice, which, coincidentally, might be the single most relevant event leading to the naming of this blog, but I digress...

I look forward to and thrive on the challenge of planning multiple dishes to be cooked with limited resources all timed so that everything is finished as close to the actual meal as possible. Some might call me a masochist, but I'm sure there are plenty others out there who get where I'm coming from. If it were up to me, I'd cook the entire meal myself or at least manage my brigade of family "staff" in whatever kitchen I happen to be in. I don't mind the responsibility. I love it, in fact. But I have to remember to balance my enthusiam with that o everyone else. Just because I recently graduated from culinary school doesn't mean that I have the right to take over (even if I want to).

This year I'm lucky. I'm flying home to Missouri and my parents are hosting the big event. And do you know what that means? I get to cook in a nice large kitchen and take advantage of two huge refrigerators, two large ovens, a 6-burner stove and a sink that's actuall big enough to wash pots in. New Yorkers, you know what a treat this will be! Oh, and bonus, my parents will be footing the bill! Does it get any better than this?

Now, I'm a member of Slow Food, but even if I weren't I'd still be cooking everything from scratch. This year I'll allow myself the exception of using store-bought chicken stock, but that's only becaue I'm not flying in early enough to make my own. There will be no powdered gravy mix, no just-add-water stuffing mix and no bakery-bought pies. Yes, a can or two of cranberry "sauce" will be opened, but I have to allow my family their traditions too. You can be sure, however, that I WILL NOT allow anything so utterly lazy and I-don't-care-enough-to-even-try as a Jenny-O Turkey In a Bag. "Goes directly from freezer to oven—no thawing!" Over my dead body! This product breaks just about every commandment of turkey cooking known to man and I want no part in it. (Although, I suppose it's at least a step above a Thanksgiving microwave meal....)

So what will we be cooking? Well, my mom bought an organic turkey of some sort and promises me she has it thawing in the fridge already. I'll probably stuff it with an orange, lemon and onion (all quartered) as well as some fresh sage. I'll rub the outside with olive oil and heavily season it with kosher or sea salt (no iodized table salt!) and start it in a 450°F oven for 30 minutes and then finish it at 350°F until it's ready. (This gives it a crispy skin without drying out the breast too much.) With that, we'll make a yet-to-be-determined bread "stuffing" that won't actually even be stuffed inside the turkey—it just slows down the cooking and greatly increases the chances of food poisoning. I'm also planning for brussels sprouts cooked with bacon and shallots, and maple roasted sweet potatoes. There will be pumpkin and pecan pies and cranberry-walnut biscuits. Probably a double batch of those since they'll be perfect for making next day turkey sandwiches. Of course, there'll be gravy too.

Other family members are bringing corn, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and an assortment of pre-dinner snacks. I'd be cooking more dishes and trying even more new recipes if the family let me, but it's a family holiday and the point isn't to cook a meal that pleases me, it's to cook a meal that pleases the family, and I'm happy to do that. I still manage to sneak in a new dish or two every year and, as long as the basics are covered, no one seems to mind. My hope is that eventually the fancier dishes will become the new family traditions, but until then, I simply have to get away with as much as I can. And it's not that I don't appreciate mashed potatoes, too, it's just that there are so many different things to try and only so much room on the buffet counter. (Or in my stomach...)

For now, I'm going to watch Iron Chef America: Battle Thanksgiving and see if I get any more ideas for the big day...

TONY's Eat Out 2007

Tonight I attended Time Out New York magazine's Eat Out 2007. It's an event to benefit the Food Bank for New York City while giving attendees an opportunity to sample food from 40 different New York restaurants. I tried my best, but I only managed to sample food from 17 of the restaurants. That's a 17 course tasting menu... And boy am I stuffed!

I think my favorite was the Spicy Beef and Pomelo Salad from Mai House Vietnamese. Another memorable dish was the Rabbit anticuchos from Palo Santo. Now, I've had rabbot before. Hell, I've even cut up a whole rabbit and cooked it. Multiple times... But I'd never had rabbit heart before. Luckily, I'd eaten various chicken organs growing up in the Midwest and the idea of eating an animal's heart doesn't horribly disgust me. Anyway, my point is that rabbit heart tastes just like chicken heart. In case you were curious...

For the record, anticuchos is a Quechuan word for kebab. And the Quechua people are an Andean ethnic group that lives throughout South America in places where the previous Incan Empire extended.

Slow Food Cocktails at Flatbush Bar(n)

Today I had a lot of firsts: my first trip to Brooklyn, my first time drinking rye whiskey, my first Slow Food NYC event. I'm sure there were a few others, but those are the highlights. So, for starters, Slow Food NYC is a local chapter of Slow Food USA, which is an offshoot of the larger Slow Food International. Follow that? Anyway, I'm a card carrying member and this is what the group stands for:

Slow Food New York City, the NYC convivium of the international Slow Food movement, identifies the varied and authentic gustatory and cultural experiences that are unique to our city and preserves and cultivates them through education, activism, and enjoyment. We support and celebrate regional farmers, artisans, and professionals who fill our market baskets and dinner plates with fresh, seasonal, and sustainably produced foods and traditionally crafted food products and beverages. We recognize and protect the many varied cuisines and food traditions that represent the rich cultural mosaic that is our city. In a town renowned for its fast pace, Slow Food NYC takes the time to savor, promote, and defend the slow traditions that make our city unique.

So getting back to the event, it was a focus on greenmarket foods that were used in farmhouse-style hors d'oeuvres and served alongside cocktails that were also prepared with fresh greenmaret ingredients. The cocktails were prepred by Alan Katz who, among his other credentials, is President of the New York Chapter of the United States Bartender Guild and has a satellite radio show on cocktails on Martha Stewart Living Radio.

We had five cocktails as follows:

• Cucumber & Mint Martini (muddled with gin and apple cider)
• Peach Thyme (muddled peaches with thyme, pisco, Cointreau, lime juice and egg whites)
• Black & Tan (muddled blackberries, lime juice, mint, rye whiskey and homemade ginger beer)
• Deep Mountain Daiquiri (dark rum, lime juice and maple syrup)
• Watermelon Smash (cahaca, homemade limoncello and watermelon

All were yummy, but my favorites were the Black & Tan and the Peach Thyme, which Katz sad would also work with figs. Now I have some ideas for the next time I get inspired to have liquor with my fruit.