Thanksgiving for two...

Let's face it, all of us, without fear, without reservation...turkey is the most boring part of any thanksgiving meal...it is the side dishes that we are thankful for on that day...

Daisy and I would have our first TG-day-for-two. Yet nothing, not being away from friends, not even the fear of the blandness of the bird could stop us from having a real feast. Yes, we decided to go all the way, roast a turkey breast and compliment our courage with fascinating side dishes... After all, a thanksgiving day without a bird would be a very boring day...

Picking the menu was as much work and fun as cooking it. We went through many recipes on the internet before settling down on the menu. Our picks somehow reflect our appreciation of the new American cuisine. And the whole thing evolved around the simple idea of making an exciting dinner out of some bland meat. It worked perfectly well, so well that I am not sure if I would change anything in the menu in the coming few Thanksgivings unless I am forced to do so...

Here is our menu, all recipes from internet, and don't forget to click on the pics to enjoy the dishes in larger scale:

Cream of Butternut Squash and Apple Soup from Williams-Sonoma:

This soup is an amazing start. It is bright and refreshing. The sweet butternut squash mixes pretty well with the sour apple, some cream smoothens it out, and a touch of nutmeg gives high spirits. Our sommelier Daisy picked an equally brilliant wine for the soup, a 2006 Burgundy, a medium bodied choice, nicely acidic, fruity and bright.

Green beans, mushrooms and walnut with brown butter and mashed potato with roasted garlic are again from Williams-Sonoma. This green bean recipe turned out to be a hit the first time I prepared it for a TG dinner with friends. Our TG parties and that green bean dish have become a tradition since then. This is an excellent dish that can be served any time any day, no need to wait for a year... The mashed potato. Roasted garlic, a nice mix of rosemary and chives, butter, milk, salt&pepper, and yes I can just have that mashed potato any time as well. We did not have the time and oven space for the garlic, I pan roasted it on low heat instead.

Two sauces for the bird, cranberry sauce and gravy. The cranberry sauce is from Whole Foods. Although we cooked everything together, the cranberry sauce was Daisy's exclusive this time. With the spices, zest, berries and pine apple, this is hedonistic. I have saved the leftover to have it on a slice of bread in the mornings.

The gravy comes with lemon and parsley and it is from Williams-Sonoma. In fact it is part of the turkey recipe we used, brined turkey breast with lemon-parsley gravy.

First, brining worked pretty well and the breast meat turned out to be quite juicy. However, it was the gravy that made the trick. With the lemon zest and parsley, it really brightened up the meat. After having that gravy, I cannot think anything better with the bird any longer.

Stuffing is one of the things that Daisy cannot do without on a Thanksgiving day. That is why we assume the responsibility of stuffing every time we cook TG dinner with friends; we just cannot risk it...Our stuffing is oven-baked separately, from Williams-Sonoma, the recipe is on the box...

And another excellent wine pairing by our sommelier, a pure delicacy from Rhone, that was a very balanced wine with red fruits, pleasant tannins and earthiness. A full bodied wine, an excellent match (click on the pic to get the name).

For the dessert, we picked pumpkin panna cotta, inspired by one of Daisy's friends. The recipe is from Mark Bittman of NYT.

I served it with a topping of whipped cream with a little bit of sugar and cinnamon. The dessert turned out to be so surprisingly good, I think much better than what Bittman was heading for in that recipe. The trick is a simple mistake and an amended correction afterwards. We would prepare half the recipe, 4 servings. The recipe you find in the link above has a prelude in which Bittman tells you to steam the raw butternut squash. Well, the printed version does not have that prelude. So I tried to puree my raw butternut squash in a food processor. Unless you have a professional food processor, having a smooth puree from raw butternut squash is an impossible task. Also, you are not supposed to boil the panna cotta. So I was uneasy with the fact that the butternut squash pieces would not cook by the time panna cotta was done. Then I decided to pass my puree with some milk through a fine chinois, which gave me a very fine and smooth milk-squash mixture. After throwing away the solid parts, I had to cut down the remaining of the recipe by another half -- so we got our two servings eventually. The raw-butternut-squash-milk mixture cooked a little more than half way through by the time panna cotta was ready. This gave a magical flavor to the dessert, a gentle candied butternut squash melon flavor...

It was a happy yummy feast...and we look forward to roasting the next bird just to get the sides...and to get together with friends again...