Gifts for people who like good food

Sustainable Bainbridge just released their holiday gift guide, which has wonderful handmade, local gift ideas. (Yes, some of them are edible.) You’ll find particularly sweet ideas at Sweet Life Farms. They always have spectacularly beautiful and delicious gift packs available. They’ll have an open house this weekend as part of Christmas in the Country.

BI Vineyards has strawberry dessert wine out now. It’s priced and sized right to just fit right down there in the toe of a stocking. It won’t last long, so find them at the winter market or stop by the vineyard soon. While there, check out Laughing Crow Farm’s garlic braids. Everyone appreciates a beautiful and functional gift.

Eat local. Shop local. You’ll feel happier about spending money this December. Really.

Kentucky Hot Brown Recipe

What is a hot brown? It’s the ultimate comfort food – so rich that you should only make it once a year. It’s a deliciously decadent way to serve leftover turkey. Essentially, it’s an open-faced sandwich that you brown under the broiler. How can you go wrong with a cheese sauce, crispy bacon, cool tomato, turkey – all on toast?

The hot brown is a KY tradition which originated in Louisville at the Brown Hotel. It’s perfect to make for lunch on the day after Thanksgiving (especially if you’ve scheduled a long walk in the morning.) This year, I planned ahead to make it easier to assemble. When I made bread for stuffing, I saved some for toast. Our winter market miraculously still had tomatoes, and we had just smoked some homemade bacon. Yum.

sauce (more than enough for six hot browns)-

8 tbls. butter (Yes, that’s a whole stick of butter.)
1/2 c. flour
3 cups whole milk
1 egg
1/2 c. Parmesan cheese
salt, white pepper

roasted turkey sliced
crispy bacon
toast
tomato

1. Cook your bacon. (We like to bake it at 400F on a foil covered baking sheet until crispy.) Prepare the toast. Cut into triangles and place in the bottom of a small, single portion sized baking dish. Slice your turkey and lay a few pieces on top of the toast. Lay a slice or two of bacon on top of the turkey. Slice the tomato thinly and add to top. Set aside while you prepare sauce.
2. Over low to medium heat, melt butter in a large skillet. Whisk in the flour and allow this roux to absorb all of the butter.
3. Whisk in milk until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste. Whisk in cheese.
4. In a separate bowl, beat egg gently. Whisk into the sauce. (Egg is safe to eat at 145F, so if your sauce is showing some small bubbles, you’re hot enough. Don’t allow it to boil.)
5. Pour the sauce over the hot brown. (If your sauce has waited a little while and become too thick, whisk in a little extra milk at the last minute.) Place each portion under the broiler until the top is brown.

Apple Pancake

Here’s a quick and lovely dish to serve up to guests for breakfast. It falls somewhere on the taste spectrum between a pancake and french toast.

Serves 4-6

1. Peel, core, and slice 4 medium apples. In a large cast iron skillet, melt 1 1/2 tbls. butter. Add apples. Cook apples over medium-low heat for a total of ten minutes.

2. In a large measuring cup or bowl, add in this order:

2/3 c. milk
2/3 c.cream
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
3 large eggs

3/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tbls. sugar
3/4 c. flour

3. At this point, you can hold the apples and batter until the rest of your meal is done. When ready, pour the batter over the batter, starting at the edges and pouring towards the inside. Bake at 425F for 17 minutes.

Notes:

• I served this with scones and bacon for a full meal. You can dress it up with an apple or maple syrup, but it is fine by itself.

Fullproof Roll Recipes

Fact: No one eats bread on Thanksgiving. Fact: If you don’t have bread, everyone will ask, “What? No bread?” So, make some quick and easy rolls and enjoy them with leftovers. Here are my favorite recipes.

• Parker House Rolls – Light and a little chewy, these rolls have a a squirt of butter in the center. Dress them up with garlic or herbs or just leave them plain. They’re easy to make and taste best when fresh from the oven. You can freeze them, however, just undercook them a little and then heat them in an oven on a baking sheet when ready to eat.
  
• Whole Wheat Rosemary Rolls – These rolls, despite being made with whole wheat, are not too heavy to eat at the end of the meal. Be sure to pinch the bottom of the fans together before you place them in the muffin tins. If you do not, they will peel apart in the bread basket. Again, these can be dressed up with any herb you like.

Just Pumpkin Pie

There’s a lot of ways that you can dress up pumpkin pie. Recipes are always trying to entice you with odd ingredients. But, on Thanksgiving, what’s really needed is just plain and simple tradition. Here’s a pumpkin pie that is exactly that – fullproof, reliable, and delicious.

Makes 1 9-inch pie, about 8-10 slices.

sugar pumpkin, about 2 pounds
your favorite pie crust recipe, one crust

Filling:
2 eggs, plus 2 more yolks
2/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
3/4 c. milk
3/4 c. cream

1. Rinse pumpkin. Remove stem. Cut it in half, horizontally. Remove seeds and filaments. Cut the pumpkin into about 2-inch chunks and remove the rind from each piece. In a large baking dish, cover the pumpkin pieces with water and cover with lid (or foil). Bake at 350F for 1 hour. Cool. Puree.
2. Roll out your crust and place in a buttered, 9-inch pie plate.
3. Whisk eggs into the pumpkin puree. Whisk remaining ingredients in, until smooth.
4. Pour the filling into the crust.
5. Bake at 350F for 1 hour in the center of the oven.
6. Cool and refrigerate until dessert time.

Notes:

• Save your pumpkin seeds for a crunchy snack.
• Pumpkin puree can keep for several days, stored in the fridge.
• Serve with sweetened whipped cream, of course.

Cranberry Chestnut Dressing

I’m posting a dressing recipe now so that, if you haven’t already done so, you can take this as a reminder to start saving your ‘dead bread.’ Dry out any bread ends you have, cube or tear to your preference, and throw in a bag in the freezer. Come Thanksgiving, hopefully you’ll have enough. If you’re cooking for a crowd, you’ll have to intentionally bake some loaves and dry them out a few days ahead of time.

Dressing/stuffing is a very personal matter. There have been Thanksgivings at my house where we’ve had more than three different kinds, based on peoples’ traditions and preferences. This is my version. I think it’s very pretty and the chestnuts give you something extra to chew, but get soft, so they don’t distract you with crunch.

Chestnuts are the hardest ingredient to source locally at Thanksgiving. Unless some show up at a Seattle market, I’m using some from PCC grown in Oregon. At least that’s better than Italy.

enough bread cubes to fill a 12X18 baking dish (about 2 loaves or 20 cups)
6 tbls. butter
2 onions, diced
about 5 stalks celery, diced
about 5 fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 bunch parsley, leaves chopped
5 c. chicken stock
1-2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. pepper
1 – 1  1/2 pounds chestnuts (peeled, see below)
1 cup cranberries, chopped coarsely

1. Melt butter over medium-low and saute onions and celery for ten minutes.
2. Add stock. Cook for 5 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, mix remaining ingredients with bread and pour over stock. Add your stock a little at a time, so that you can evaluate the wetness of the stuffing. You may want to adjust the liquid according to your preference.
4. Bake covered at 350F for 25 minutes. Uncover and bake until brown, about 30 more minutes.

Notes:

• To peel chestnuts, carefully score each one with an x on the flat side. Drop in boiling water for 20 minutes. Cool and then peel of the skins. You can store this in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 2 to 3 days.
• Usually, traditional along with Thanksgiving, is the event of me slicing my fingers while trying to score chestnuts. (This makes the rest of the preparation extremely not fun.) This year I splurged and bought “The Chestnutter” at City Kitchens. Yes, it’s a gadget that I will potentially use once a year, but hopefully it will save me from stiches. (And who knows, maybe I’ll take it home for Christmas and roast chestnuts over an open fire. Security had enough problems with my pasta roller last time I flew, I bet they’ve never seen The Chestnutter.. ..)