On Tue 29 Nov 2005 10:31:04p, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Damsel in
dis Dress?
Quoted message said:Wayne Boatwright said:Well, it sounds like a *wonderful* dinner, Carol! So, what/why the
disappointments in food?
The dressing was blah. I think I used too little poultry seasoning
and should have used salted butter. I prefer Beard's original
seasoning with tarragon, but Crash doesn't care for it.
Reminds of the year I was guilty of the other extreme. I used so much
poultry seasoning and sage that the dressing was *green*. I was a little
disappointed in mine this year because I had run out of Penzey's poultry
seasoning and sage and had to buy some at the supermarket. I have been
spoiled by Penzey's. It was still good, but not excellent. :-(
Quoted message said:The smashed potatoes were good, but a whole head of roasted garlic
overpowered the 10 pounds of potatoes. Hey, anyone need some leftover
potatoes?
I make mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving but I don't eat them. I only eat
the candied yams. David eats the mashed. He doesn't like any extra
flavoring in the potatoes beyond salt, butter, and cream. I did sneak in
one raw garlic clove while boiling the potatoes. He seemed happy. To me,
a whole head of roasted garlic is a *lot* of garlic, except when I'm
spreading it on bread. :-)
Quoted message said:The gravy was a little runny and I forgot to salt and pepper it.
But you could have repaired that. Although gravy is last minute and you
probably ran out of time. My gravy was actually perfect this year,
except... When I first tasted it I thought I had used too many carrots in
both the stock and under the turkey while roasting. The gravy had a kinda
sweet taste. By the time it had simmered for a while and got to the table,
it had mellowed down nicely.
Quoted message said:We experimented with adding cinnamon to the cranberry orange relish.
It was delicious, but not what we're used to. We'll go back to the
original next year.
I understand perfectly. For years I always made a rather elaborate
cranberry-fig chutney that was spiced and many other "things" in it. It
really was delicious. The past couple of years or so, I've taken to
preferring either the relish like you made or a simple homemade whole
cranberry sauce (cooked).
Quoted message said:
Jill's turkey cottage pie ... the gravy was too runny and we had to
add more to our individual servings. The frozen peas had previously
been used as a cold pack, so they were kinda dry and weird. Then
those mega-garlic potatoes on top. : (
I don't like turkey well enough to make a pot pie or anything else out of
it after the first day of eating it sliced. David has eaten most of the
leftovers.
Quoted message said:Our biggest problem was lack of sufficient salt.
We had no lack of salt. :-) I think it was just about right this year, but
I've been know to be heavy-handed with it at times.
I think it's rare with such a multi-dish meal as Thanksgiving or Christmas
to have absolutely everything go right. This was one of my better years,
but by the time I got to the table, I was too tired to eat it. I picked at
it, but then later in the evening had another plate that I really enjoyed.
--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
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A chicken in every pot is a *LOT* of chicken!
