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We couldn’t have ordered up a more beautiful Thanksgiving Day if we had tried.  LJ and I had 6 friends to the lake with us for dinner.  The sun was shining, it was about 68 crisp degrees, and the wind was calm - just perfection. 

We drove down Wednesday afternoon, and I was able to get the Italian Cream Cake done the night before.  I had made the cornbread for the dressing on Wednesday morning, and we bought a 15 lb. Kosher turkey the Sunday before and it had been thawing in the fridge and was ready to go.  We had things so under control that we were able to sit out on the deck and enjoy the lake on Wednesday evening.  It was a beautiful start to the holiday.

Thursday morning I put the turkey on a bed of onions, carrots and celery and put lemons, onions, carrots and celery in the turkey cavity.  I seasoned it up well and massaged it with olive oil.  In the oven for its 3 to 3 1/2 hour roast.  LJ helped with the house cleaning (Helped is an understatement.  He did it all!), while I was in the kitchen.

  Friends started arriving about 2:00.  By that time I had my potatoes simmering in the half and half infused with garlic, and the turkey was pulled from the oven to rest.  I used the turkey drippings to finish off the cornbread dressing and got it in the oven.

What a feast!!! Patrick brought his always wonderful roasted Brussels sprouts with pancetta, a delicious yankee type stuffing with leeks, cranberries, sausage, and white bread, and whole cranberry sauce.  Keith brought his green bean casserole and perfect pecan pie.  Pam made homemade bread (which she thought was overdone, but it wasn’t) and sweet potato casserole.  Lynn made a luscious fruit salad, and Bobbie brought a wonderful dip and crackers, and we all proceeded to make pigs of ourselves.

This Thanksgiving was particularly special this year.  It’s the first Thanksgiving Day that I have ever spent without any family.  Mom and my sisters and their families were together in Kansas City, and I called and it sounded like they were going to have a special one, too.  My brother and his wife were having a small one together.  We were all missing Dad, but we all recognize that we have so much to be thankful for.

This year I am especially thankful for all our loving friends.  We have so many and they mean so much to us. 

This past weekend we celebrated LJ’s Aunt Deedy’s 90th birthday.  Think about it - 90, n i n e t y YEARS old.  And I assure you, she is a pistol.  She still drives to Westminster Presbyterian Church every Sunday morning.  It was a lovely celebration, with all four of her children and their spouses coming to town, her grandchildren, nieces and nephews, in-laws and out-laws, not to mention friends from the aforementioned Westminster church and Grace Presbyterian Village.  It was glorious, and so was she.

For the occasion, LJ’s sister Janet, with whom we traveled to Italy, came into town from Olympia.  Since she was here so close to the actual date, we decided to have her and LJ’s Mom over Sunday to celebrate an early family Thanksgiving.  I think the dinner turned out beautifully, and if any of you are doing a small celebration, I would recommend these dishes.  Unfortunately, we put out the camera and still forgot to take photos so I don’t have any pictures.  Use your imagination.  The colors were beautiful. The menu:

Pumpkin Soup

Apricot Glazed Cornish Hens

Italian Sausage Rice Pilaf

Broccoli with Sage Brown Butter

Italian Cream Cake

I’ll post the recipes for the Pumpkin Soup and the Apricot Glazed Cornish Hens and stuffing.  The Hen recipe is adapted from an Emeril Lagasse recipe, and the Pumpkin Soup is my own. 

Cornish Hens with Apricot Glaze

And Italian Sausage Rice Pilaf

 

2 Cornish hens, halved

1 tablespoon olive oil

¼ lb. Italian sausage, casings removed

½ cup diced onion

¼ cup diced carrot

¼ cup diced celery

2 teaspoons chopped garlic

2 teaspoons orange zest

1 cup long grain rice

1/3 cup golden raisins

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

1 ½ teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

½ teaspoon cinnamon

Salt and pepper

2 cups chicken stock

1 cup apricot jam

½ cup fresh orange juice

 

Preheat oven to 375.

 

Heat oil in a heavy 2 quart saucepan over medium heat and add sausage.  Cook until the fat is rendered, about 4 to 5 minutes.  Add the onions, carrots, and celery and cook until onions are translucent.  Add garlic and 1 teaspoon of the orange zest.  Add rice and cook stirring constantly for 3 minutes.  Add the raisins, parsley, thyme, cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon salt, ½ teaspoon black pepper, chicken stock and bring to a boil.  Cover the pot, place it in the oven.  Check after 30 minutes, and remove from oven if all liquid is absorbed.  Leave covered and let rest until hens have finished roasting.

 

Combine the apricot jam, orange juice and remaining zest in a small bowl and whisk to blend.  Place in a saucepan over medium high heat, and boil, reducing by about half.

 

Season hens with salt and pepper.  Spread glaze on hens and place in the oven with rice.  Remove and reglaze every 15 minutes for a total of 45 minutes or until thermometer in thigh registers 160°.

Pumpkin Soup

Cynthia Jackson

 

1/8 teaspoon each of:

Cinnamon

Cumin

Cloves

Ginger

Cayenne

2 cloves garlic, minced to a fine paste

2 tablespoons butter

1 15 oz. can pure pumpkin

2 cups chicken broth

½ cup half and half

2 tablespoons real maple syrup

Salt and pepper

 

Melt the butter over medium heat in a heavy saucepan.  Add the spices and garlic stirring until toasty, about 1 to 1 ½ minutes.

 

Add pumpkin puree, broth, half and half, and syrup and thoroughly combine with a whisk.  Bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally, and cook for 10 minutes.

 

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

 

4 first course servings

For LJ’s birthday, we did the coolest thing.  We took the Texas Heartland Flyer (Amtrak) from Ft. Worth to Oklahoma City for the weekend.  We met our friends in Ft. Worth on Friday afternoon and had late lunch at the Flying Saucer.   Then we boarded the train at the station and it pulled out right on time at 5:25PM.  The train was wonderful.  The seats are large and the leg room is enormous.  Even LJ can stretch out.  You can walk around, go get drinks or a snack in the cafe car, and relax and enjoy the scenery.  It’s MUCH more comfortable than a plane.

We arrived in Oklahoma City at about 9:15 as scheduled, and walked a short 3 blocks to the Skirvin Hilton Hotel.  The hotel was built in about 1910 or so, and renovated and expanded in 1945 and it is a grand place!  The lobby ceilings are at least 3 stories high and the fortieres would make Miss Ellen jealous.  The rooms have been completely updated and are just sleek and elegant.  We picked the right place to stay.

Saturday morning we all had a scrumptious breakfast in the hotel, and then we set out for the Oklahoma City Memorial.  As we were walking along, a city bus driver stopped and asked us if we were going to the Museum.  When we said yes, he insisted on giving us a lift because it was chilly and windy.  What a friendly thing to do!  We weren’t more than a couple of blocks away.  The memorial itself was just awe inspiring.  None of us could keep the tears from falling looking at the chairs, one for each life taken.  Of course the small chairs for the children were especially painful.  What a lot of people don’t know is that in addition to the outdoor memorial, there is a museum on the site which is a 3 story exhibit.  It’s broken into chapters such as Confusion, Chaos, Survivor Experiences, and Rescue and Recovery.  It was all quite moving and beautifully done.

We left the Memorial and walked next to the Oklahoma Museum of Art.  What a wonderful Museum!  I was so pleasantly surprised.  The first floor is for special exhibitions which is currently The Dutch Italianates.  These were Dutch painters who travelled to Italy to live and study with those masters.  We were not familiar with any of the artists (which felt really weird for us), but the paintings were interesting.  The second and third floors house the permanent museum collections, and for us the most exciting was the Dale Chihuly glass collection.  His blown glass pieces of flowers, sea shells, boats and other beautiful creations was amazing.  We took a few pictures, but it must be seen to be truly experienced.

After the Art Museum, we walked through the parks of the Myriad Botanical Gardens. 

By then it had warmed up a little, the sun was shining, and it was just beautiful.  We just sat on the benches and took it all in for awhile, until we realized how hungry we were for lunch.  We walked on to Bricktown, which is the area of downtown Oklahoma City which they’ve revitalized and through which they’ve built a canal.  Restaurants and shops are beginning to build up along the canal, as well as some condos and hotels.  It’s on its way to becoming really special. 

We ate lunch at a New Orleans style eatery which was fine, nothing to blog about, and then we took the boat ride along the canal.  The boat “guide” (did we need a guide?) was full of bad jokes and regional put-downs and nearly drove us batty, but the scenery was interesting.  There were some pretty fantastic sculptures of people on horseback and in covered wagons depiciting the rush to Oklahoma to stake your claim to land. 

I would recommend the boat ride with a different guide, but I guess you don’t get to pick.

By the time we finished, we were all ready to head back to the hotel for a nap.  We all met up in the evening, for drinks and dinner, and the Skirvin kindly gave us gratis transportation to our restaurant in the hotel limo.  We went to a beautiful little restaurant called Nonna.  We started in their bar which is upstairs and looks out onto Bricktown and the canal.  After drinks, we went downstairs to dinner.  The specials were steaks, which some of us had, but LJ had a sausage lasagna and I had duck breast with blackberry sauce.  It was all good and we were all quite happy, and pretty exhausted from our day.

The next morning we caught the train back at 8:25AM.  It left on time, and returned us to the Ft. Worth Amtrak Station about 12:15.  What a weekend.  If you’re looking for something a little different, I highly recommend it.