Feast Week Recap
After last week’s intense feasting extravaganzas, we’ve been fasting here “on the ranch” in Alpine. We all loved the Thanksgiving dinner leftovers the day after, starting with pie for breakfast, but multiple plates full of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and gravy eventually weighed us down to the point of lethargy and palate fatigue.
We welcomed our visitors with a Monday night Beaujolais Nouveau dinner of sausages (not French saucisson, but the local Bratwursts from The Block which were fine cooked in red wine and shallots) and potatoes and the Onion Jam that elevates the dish. Al imported the Beaujolais Nouveau from Miami; none was available on the frontier.
The next day, after a soak at Astoria hot springs, we had an Indigenous Peoples Harvest dinner with Corn Pudding, Wild Rice Pilaf, Stewed Beans with Juniper, Shortribs cooked in the crockpot, Roasted Squash and Turnips, Roasted Beets with Greens, and Indian Cornmeal Pudding. Feeling full yet?
On Wednesday the kitchen was closed except for some side work to prepare for Thanksgiving Day and we had our local, excellent Driftwood Pizza with some salads and wings. John made a bonfire in the yard and the kids roasted marshmallows for S’Mores which was a big hit and a bit scary for Iris, the littlest member of the family at 9 months, who has not been out very much at night much less with a roaring fire that people were poking sticks into. She didn’t last long ringside
Our visitors from Miami were treated to their first snowstorm on Thanksgiving Day. I woke up to windows pelted with snowballs by grinning people outside at 8 am. They were excited!
Thanksgiving Day was a classic feast, though we did use a smoked turkey from The Block which was delicious but did not create the pan drippings for a perfect gravy. I made a gravy from turkey stock I had prepared ahead and tried to color it with caramelized onions that I cooked until really dark brown but there was not enough turkey flavor (IMHO; everyone else was quite satisfied.) For the record, I would roast the turkey pieces I used for stock first so there are pan drippings to create the perfect gravy—but it will be a year before I face another turkey. I hope I don’t forget my own lesson.
Our Friday morning breakfast was a Pie-fecta of Rose’s pies that most of us were too full to look at after the feast on Thursday. That was a breakfast of champions!
After our long day driving up to see Grand Teton National Park and exploring Jackson, we all were glad to come home to a Thanksgiving buffet on the table in a flash.
The smoked turkey carcass did make a delicious stock over the weekend in a couple of hours on a slow simmer and I strained it and made the quickest turkey noodle soup with frozen egg noodles, frozen mixed vegetables, and a couple of handfuls of chopped turkey. (Only two more pounds to go!) A favorite with kids and parents alike, it felt like cheating but that was ok after so many days of intense cooking.
The next day I made Turkey Tetrazzini, tossing cooked spaghetti in a cheesy Béchamel with sauteed mushrooms and peas. Now there’s only one pound left of the turkey and I put it in the freezer for a rainy day—when we are hungry for turkey and want to relive the happy memories of Feast Week.