Thanksgiving Traditions

I had a wonderful Thanksgiving at my Nana & Pa's house in Claremont. I spent the day with my grandparents, parents, 2 brothers, and my Aunt Janet. We had Nana's traditional Thanksgiving dinner, which consists of: turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potato casserole (my favorite, a concoction of mashed potatoes, cream cheese, sour cream, and butter), creamed onions, peas, cranberry sauce, cranberry ice, rolls, olives, and cream-cheese stuffed celery. I was in charge of the stuffed celery, not a culinary masterpiece, but rather a quirky tradition that happens to be delicious. Basically, I spread pumpkin flavored cream cheese inside celery. Everything was delicious. Our beverage of choice was Beajoulais Noveau (another family tradition.) My dad carves the turkey.
The food on the table.
My parents serving their dinner.
We finished the night with pumpkin, apple and pecan pies while watching Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (not a tradition...but no other good movies were on).
Bright and early the next morning, my mom, Aunt Janet and I voyaged to South Coast Plaza for our traditional "day after Thanksgiving shopping trip". Nana did not join us this year since she was not feeling well, but she gave us her list and we shopped for her..it's fun spending someone else's money! Our trip is very fine-tuned, from years of day-after shopping adventures. We arrive at 8:30, park right up front. Then we try to hit all the big stores before noon, when they have store-wide specials like "25% until noon". We successfully navigated these sales at H&M, Macy's Anne Taylor, Nordstrom, and others. At 12:30, we break for lunch. This year we ate at Marche Moderne, a new French Bistro in the mall. Scott and I had an amazing dinner there a few months back. The lunch was awesome too. I had mini burgers with carmelized onions, truffle oil, and some sort of cheese on a brioche bun. My mom and aunt had tarts with proscuitto, gruyere, and other goodies on it. We enjoyed lunch with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc. After our pampering meal, we were ready again to fight the crowds and and hit a few more stores before heading back to Claremont. This year, in addition to xmas shopping, my mom bought a mother-of-the-bride outfit (not one of those horrible dress/jacket things they sell at bridal shops), Aunt Janet bought a dress for the wedding, and we checked out Bridesmaid dresses at Ann Taylor (Devon...take note). Once back in Claremont, Pa made us martinis to calm our tired feet, and we ate leftovers for dinner.
I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Lara...she lives!

Last weekend, Lara came out of the woodwork and made a trek to southern CA. She came out for a nerd convention (ok, really some nueropsychology thing in Long Beach, but even Lara admits its pretty nerdy). Actually, its pretty impressive, she presented a poster on a study she did about memory. She flew in Thursday and left Monday, spending Thursday and Sunday nights on my couch. We did a lot of catching up on Thursday while cooking pollo saltado (a Peruvian dish of chicken, rice AND french fries) and drinking Parducci wine, and on Sunday we couldn't resist the call of South Coast Plaza, so spent the day there, and upon Lara'a request we went out to sushi for dinner (she says Boston sushi does not compare to CA). We have some lovely pictures of stuffing huge sushi rolls into our mouths...coming soon.
Rumor is that Lara will re-start her blog this summer...

Mille Crepes

With the season changing to fall, the kitchen beckons to Scott and me. Actually, it is NOT fall here with the 90 degree weather, and the reason the kitchen is beckoning is because we are too poor to go out and eat. Anyway, after flipping through the new Dean & Deluca holiday catalog, we were inspired to make a "chestnut mille crepes" cake. This cake is featured in Dean & Deluca year after year ( www.deandeluca.com ), selling for $110. It is made at an exclusive bakery in NYC called Lady M Confectioners. They do not like to give out the recipe, so after some internet searches and cookbook references we came up with a recipe that supposedly is very similar to Lady M's (although we will never know since we have never tasted the real thing.)
Basically, the cake is 20 layers of crepes, with a chestnut pastry crem filling between each and every crepe. When finished, the top is torched ala creme brulee style for a crunchy caramel layer. It is a lot of work, but well worth the effort. First we made crepe batter and let it sit before making 20 perfect crepes. Scott was the official crepe-maker (and they were all perfect). Then we made chestnut pastry cream. First I boiled and peeled the chestnuts and pureed them with a little oil. The pastry cream is a super healthy mixture of butter, egg yolks, sugar, millk, and vanilla. After heating the cream and cooling the cream and adding the chestnut puree, we then added a whole load of whipped cream to it (I know, you can feel your ateries clogging). So next we meticulously layered crepe/cream/crepe/cream twenty times, making sure the cream layers were thin and even. Whew! The result was worth it...it was awesome, definetely more pastry-like than cake-like. Mmmmmm...we'll make it again soon!

How to make a Muffaletta...by Holly & Scott

This is the second installment in "Scott & Holly's How-To Cooking". First we showed how to make a pork roulade, and this time we are making a muffaletta. A muffaletta is a traditional New Orleans sandwich. Scott says the best place to get one is at The Central Grocery in the French Quarter (talk to Frank). This sandwich is huge and meaty and cheesy and has an olive salad on it. This recipe is pretty close to the original Scott remembers.
First, you need to make the salad. The salad consists of 2 tall skinny jars of green olives, 1 can black olives, 1 jar cocktail onions, 1 large jar gardiniera mix (this is an Italian pickled mix of cauliflower, carrots, and peppercinis...it is sold in the olive section), and about 1/4 cup rinsed capers, 1 large carrot (chopped) and 2 stalks celery (chopped), garlic (8 cloves chopped), dried italian seasoning mix (1 1/2 Tbsp), and olive oil (1/4 cup).
Take the green olives and gently smash them in between fingers (you want them to be whole, but slightly flattened). Next, add the black olives, onions, gardineira mix (reserve the juice), capers, carrots, celery, garlic, and italian seasoning. Break up the cauliflower in the gardiniera mix with your fingers so it is roughly the same size as the olives. Add a steady stream of olive oil and mix everything together. To balance out the oil, add a little of the reserved gardiniera juice (a couple tablespoons). If you like spicy food, add some tabasco sauce now. Let the salad sit while you prepare the rest of the muffaletta.
For the sandwich you need: swiss cheese, provolone cheese, french-style ham, and mortadella. We bought all the meat and cheese pre-sliced at the deli. For the bread, find an Italian loaf. We used a large flat ciabatta from Boudins. Slice the loaf in 2 and spoon some liquid from the salad onto 1 side. On the same side, layer the provolone and then the swiss cheese. Next comes the ham and mortadella. On the other slice, pile on the salad (it won't all fit, you will have some salad for leftovers). Carefully flip the cheese/meat side onto the salad side. Slice and serve. You don't need a big slice, it is very filling. Our loaf could feed 8-10 people. Scott says Barq's rootbeer is the perfect pairing. Have fun and enjoy =)