Combining Two Memories

This was our first Thanksgiving cooking at home. Because I am the primary cook in our household, it fell to me to try to create a Thanksgiving meal that recalled our fond memories of childhood, but still satisfied my need to make it unique. The argument begins over the stuffing...

We both love stuffing, but we have very different memories of what is the perfect stuffing. Ray's is very sweet, with apples, currants and roasted chestnuts. Mine is very simple, with celery, onions and sage. So, we combined the two, and miraculously, they worked together ! Here it is:

Chestnut,Sausage,Apple,Cranberry and Sage Stuffing

3 medium onions, diced
1 bunch celery, diced
1/2 cup butter
4 cups turkey or chicken stock
2 pounds mild turkey breakfast sausage, browned
One package fresh poultry herbs (sage, rosemary and thyme), chopped fine
1 1/3 pounds roasted chestnuts (weight before roasting), shelled
3 small Granny Smith apples, peeled and diced
6 ounces dried cranberries
12 cups dried, cubed wheat bread

Saute onions and celery in the butter until soft. Add the stock, and cook until bubbly. In a large pot or bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients. Pour the stock mixture over the bread mixture and combine well.

We like the stuffing in the bird, but this will increase your baking time a bit. Or, put the stuffing in an oven proof pot and bake for about a hour. This will give you the nice crunchy bits on the outside, and a nice moist stuffing on the inside.

Oh, and for the record, brining a turkey is awesome, but contrary to a lot of web advice, the Alton Brown method of roasting a turkey was not very effective for a stuffed bird.

More to come on leftovers, and "the morning after" breakfast.

The Fiadone Incident

Technical difficulties prevented me from posting the pics of this beautiful Italian pie. But, you need to read the story.

Since Ray and I have known each other, he has been talking about this pie from his childhood. The first effort was a search for candied citron, which you only find around the holidays. So we stocked up on this last year, and I never got around to making the pie.

I don't like to make things I need to roll out, like pie doughs, sugar cookies etc. But, I promised, so I finally sat down with this recipe. The crust isn't really like a pie crust, it is more like a cookie, so it didn't need to be rolled out quite as thinly as a regular pie. It also has anise seed in the crust, which gives the actual pie a very distinctive flavor.

The filling is very simple, it is two pounds of ricotta cheese (yes, two pounds!) eggs, candied citron, raisins, eggs, salt and sugar. Then you mix it up and bake ! It originally called for a lattice top, but to save time I cut some maple leaves out of the dough with a cookie cutter. Baked, and done ! It really did not take as long as I thought it would, so I procrastinated for no reason.

There are those times when you bake something for someone you love and it doesn't have any impact. This was NOT one of those times. Ray ate almost half of the pie at the first sitting. The remaining pie lasted only two more days. I will make it again, and Ray promises next time to share with others, as it is really too wonderful not to do so.

Next, the foodie Thanksgiving !