Turkey Day Trials – Day 2

The countdown is in full swing – 5 days until the big day!  The biggest foodie day of the year!  The day of golden, crispy, poultry-driven naps!!  And – my favorite thing to eat at this time of year – pumpkin pie!

For the last couple of weeks I have been thinking about what traditional dishes, new dishes, and most of all, immensely flavorful dishes I can make for Thanksgiving.  I have already tried the turkey, tonight I perfected a dressing (stuffing without being stuffed – but I’ll refer to it as stuffing from here on out), and I already have plans for a brandied pear mouse trifle with gingerbread and cranberries.  The last thing I thought I would need to really perfect is the pumpkin pie – it is so easy!  Just follow the directions on the side of the can: pumpkin, spices, eggs, and evaporated milk.  Use the shortcut of frozen pre-made pie crust, and the star dessert is done without a fuss.  So I thought.

What happened to my pumpkin pie parallels what happened today while I was driving north on the 101.  We have had on and off rain and thunderstorms, but one of the coolest things about the southern Oregon coast is how quickly the weather changes.  It will be sunny one minute, and a huge gust of arctic wind will bring in a thunderhead and your bones will be soaked by sleet in a matter of minutes.

Well, as I was driving and passing Coos Bay (the actually bay) and looking up, to the right of me was sunlight and blue sky.  To the left were dark, ominous clouds.  And the road in which I was driving on was being drizzled by rain from, what seemed like, an invisible cloud.  Since physics and natural wonders work in an odd relationship to create beautiful things (kinda like Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones), a giant rainbow formed.  I, like most people, have seen my share of rainbows, and the reaction is always the same: “Oh!  Look! A rainbow!  Ahhh, cool!  So, about that Obamacare…”  But this rainbow literally made my jaw drop.  First of all, it was a perfect half-circle, so bright it almost looked fake, and I could see the “end” of the rainbow (there was unfortunately no gold.  Nor any little green men running around.  Only cold bay water with some Chinook salmon).  Despite the fact that I was driving, I watched this rainbow, and it was continually changing.  The light would refract in different ways, making it lighter, dimmer, and even seem to move a bit.  I had a bit of time (relatively) to watch this rainbow dance around in it’s nature, but as quickly as it appeared, it was gone.  Being that I was driving through town, I looked at the road and looked up again only to see a rainbow fading.  Then, once again it came back.  I blinked, and it was gone.  I looked up from driving and it was back again.  Once I even caught it flickering like a French Quarter gas lamp.

Eventually, those thunderous clouds covered up the sun, blocking the light, dropping more rain, and making the fleeting moment of colorful beauty go back to just being a humble bay.

At that point, I got thoughtful and started thinking about the science behind how that rainbow appeared, flickered, and reappeared only to disappear for good.  Then, with Christmas music aptly playing in the background, I started to think about the sentimentality behind watching a rainbow disappear.  Wasn’t that sad?  It was so beautiful, and now it’s gone.  But, to be honest, it didn’t make me sad.  It just made me thank nature, fate, and science for being at the right place at the right time.  This is the season for thanks, right?

So, after my traveling today (another trip to Eugene), I came home to make pumpkin pie, stuffing, and Cardamom Shortbread Cookies.  Rob, being on duty, was awaiting a yummy dinner, so I made the stuffing extra hearty with chicken sausage to complete the meal in one dish.  The stuffing was a hit.  The combination of sourdough bread and cornbread added texture, sourness and sweetness, and the sauteing of leeks and celery perfumed the whole house.  I added some apple and white wine chicken sausage, some fresh herbs, and it was completely second serving-worthy.  The pumpkin pie, however, was a different story.

I followed the recipe exactly!  Being a true purist when it comes to pumpkin pie, I did not do anything fancy, nor put my own twist on the classic – I simply read the can!  And like the rainbow, it started out beautifully.  Within the first 15 minutes, the kitchen started to smell of cinnamon and ground cloves, and after a few peeks in the oven, I started seeing the top of the pie start to solidify and form.  But then, also like the rainbow, it started having fleeting moments – one second I thought it was done, but then I realized the middle was still liquidy.  When the top was done, the bottom wasn’t.  And just when I thought I had cooked it long enough and had made the perfect pumpkin pie, I pulled it out of the oven only to be met with a mixed emotion – it smelled right, it looked right (except for a couple of overdone brown spots), but it’s beauty disappeared within the first cut.  The pie hadn’t set at all.  It was runny, the texture was off – almost grainy, of all things – and just plain not right.  It still tasted like pumpkin pie, but the texture was obviously not what it should have been.  I started to feel defeated, then, blamed nature (baking is never easy in a moist environment!), but then realized that was ridiculous.  After that, I blamed science – the chemistry of baking is a delicate and finicky art!  But that wasn’t the reason either.  My shortcut of using a pre-made pie crust had turned into a unpaved road of disaster since I hadn’t defrosted it all the way.  The heat from the oven created steam from the bottom of the crust, which rose into the pie, and did not escape.  I wonder, did Tyler Florence ever make such a silly mistake?

Nevertheless, I still had one more desert to redeem myself – my Cardamom Shortbread Cookies.  Being a crunchy cookie fan, I have a higher butter to flour ratio than other shortbread recipes, and slightly – purposefully – overbake them.  They do not taste like overcooked cookies, but rather nutty, with the warm spiciness from the cardamom breaking through the sugary shortbread sweetness.  And the cute leaf cookie cutters also seem to add a fall flare to boot.

Try and enjoy the stuffing, and definitely have fun with the cookies.  And learn from my mistake on the simplest recipe I had tonight – nature and science matter.  Completely defrost your dough.

Northwest Stuffing (serves 4-6)

• 3 c diced cornbread (about 1 inch pieces)
• 3 c diced sourdough (about 1 inch pieces)
• 2 leeks, rinsed thoroughly and chopped
• 4 med. celery stocks, rinsed thoroughly and sliced
• 4 links chicken, apple, white wine sausage (can find at Trader Joes, premade.  Otherwise brown 1/2 lb ground chicken, and add 1 Granny Smith apple when sauteing, deglazing with 1/4 c chardonnay)
• 3 leaves sage, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
• 1 c low sodium chicken stock
• 1 beaten large egg
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• s&p
• Butter, to line the 9 x 9 baking dish

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat olive oil over med-high heat in a large saute pan.  Add leeks and celery, s&p, and saute until soft, but still has an bite (you want to keep the integrity of the veg).  Add the sausage, and heat until warmed through.  Add herbs, and taste for seasoning.  Turn off heat.

In a large bowl, combine the 2 breads, the beaten egg, chicken stock, and the veg and saute saute.  Mix very well to combine, and let the bread soak up the added liquid.  Pour mixture into the prepared baking dish.  Bake for 30 minutes until top is slightly browned and middle is soft but combined.

Serve on top of greens, squash soup, with your favorite prepared turkey, or by itself!

Enjoy!

Cardamom Shortbread Cookies

• 2 c room temp butter
• 1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
• 1/4 c all purpose flour
• 1/2 c sugar
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, or a silicone baking mat.

Cream the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer.  Meanwhile, combine flour, sugar, and cardamom.  Add vanilla extract to the butter sugar mixture, and then add the dry ingredients 1/3 at a time.  When dough comes together, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a disk.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes (if you wanted to freeze the dough, now is the time to do so).

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until the disk is 1/8 inch in thickness.  Using whatever cutter you prefer, cut out cookies.  Re-form and re-roll dough to make more cookies out of the initial scraps.

Bake for 20-25 minutes until browned on top and crispy on the bottom.  Let cool.

Enjoy!

Tags: apples, bread, butter, cardamom, celery, cookies, corn bread, leeks, sausage, shortbread, stuffing