A Redneck Foodie Thanksgiving....

Have you ever noticed how different Thanksgiving Day menus are between families? Nearly everyone thinks that theirs is "traditional," but the minute you grow up and visit other families, you realize that there's no such thing as "traditional" really. As a child, Thanksgiving in my house always started with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and a pan of Pillsbury cinnamon rolls. The day progressed with the preparing of a large turkey...no frills. The bird was cleaned, giblets removed, inside rubbed with salt, and placed in a flour dusted roasting bag for the allotted time. I've had some really dry turkey in my day (no names...) and seen a lot of fancy, shmancy stuff done to a bird, but for me, nothing tops my mom's traditional version. The bag never lets it get dry, and the flavor speaks for itself. It's really what turkey was meant to be in my opinion. Along side this prince of poultry, which incidentally is called "suka ta" in the Osage language -- literally translating to something like "meat chicken," was always a spread of baked stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole with a scattering (not smothering) of marshmallows, gravy (both giblet and plain), green bean casserole, cranberry sauce (both gelled and whole berry), whole kernel corn, and rolls. My apologies to Dr. Atkins.... At some point during the preparation of all this, the men in my family usually came back from hunting to skin things on the back porch before cleaning up and sitting down to the meal. Last but certainly not least, we ritualistically finished the festivities with my grandmother's world famous pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and my mom's pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing.

Since I moved away from home, I've had a couple of different versions of the "traditional" Thanksgiving. My in-laws celebrate this particular holiday at deer camp, a tradition I really enjoy. Being in the woods lends itself to this particular day. Being a house full of guys plus my sainted mother-in-law, the spread usually consists of fewer sides and at least three different kinds of meat. The thing I like best about Thanksgiving at deer camp (other than the nature) is that leftovers rarely make it out alive.

Since moving further away from our families, my husband and I have enjoyed a couple of Thanksgivings just the two of us. This has the charm of being romantic and very low key. The first year I roasted turkey legs and made smaller portions of several of the usual sides. The next year, we had steak....THANK YOU. Despite enjoying these forays into the noticeably nontraditional, it was nice to digress a bit this year. We returned to some old favorites while enjoying a few new comers to the table...both people and dishes. Part of my new step family joined us this year and brought with them a couple of new requests that made very nice additions to the feast. This year's menu in all of its gluttonous glory included -- Turkey made mom's way but rubbed down with a little butter on the outside for flavor and color. Mashed potatoes and gravy, both plain and giblet as before. Baked stuffing with fresh sage added to onions while they were being carmelized. The green bean casserole had to compete head-on with a crispy green bean and bacon combo of my stepbrother's. In cooking as in business...a little competition proved beneficial to the consumer. The usual sweet potato casserole took a different turn by being topped with marshmallows on one half and brown sugar and pecans on the other. What was the vote for the official topping? Right down the middle! My previously blogged about cheese grits made an appearance. They were a nice addition that worked well for breakfast leftovers to boot. My only caution is that I forgot how grits expand....they're like those sponges you put in the water that just keep growing and growing and growing. You never need to cook as many as you think you do. Two kinds of cranberry sauce and rolls topped off the meal. There was a sad little bowl of corn, but I don't think anyone ate it at all.

As you can guess from this list...the food was wonderful, but we could have fed ourselves four times over. That, of course, did not deter our dessert love: pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and Italian cream cake. A couple of notes about desserts, I did forget that layer cake has to cool before being tipped out of the pan. Please learn from my mistake so you will have a lovely three layered cake rather than our vertically challenged version. Having said that, the recipe below is the best Italian creme cake I've ever had. The icing alone is amazing if you need a cream cheese icing for anything. I tried to get fancy with the apple pie by cutting leaves into the upper crust. The good news is that the left over leaves were beautiful on the pumpkin pie. The bad news is that the leaf holes were too big and caused the top of the apple pie to wilt. Thankfully, slouchy apple pie is still apple pie... The pecan and pumpkin pies were pretty much perfect.

(As a postscript...you can find my recipes for pecan and pumpkin pie on my Thanksgiving 2011 blog.)

Italian Cream Cake
1 stick butter
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
5 egg yolks
2 cups flour
1 tsp soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cups coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
5 egg whites

Cream the butter and shortening. Add sugar and egg yolks beat well. Sift and combine flour and soda and add slowly to creamed mixture alternating with buttermilk. Stir in vanilla, coconut, and nuts. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks (I like to add a little cream of tartar to make this work better). Divide the egg whites into three portions. Fold the first portion into the batter until well blended. Fold the second portion into the batter mixture being careful to maintain as much "fluff" as possible. Fold the last portion into the batter mixture using the fews number of folds possible to thorough combine.

Pour batter into three greased and floured 8 inch round pans. Bake at 350 F for 25 min or until done. COOL cakes, turn out, stack and frost with...

Cream Cheese Icing
1 8 oz package of cream cheese
1/2 stick butter
3 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
chopped pecans
milk

Beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add sugar and mix well. Add vanilla and beat vigorously until smooth. Spread on cake and sprinkle the top with pecans.

The Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace
Where there is hatred, let me show love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is doubt, faith
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
and where there is sadness, joy

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console
to be understood as to understand
to be loved as to love
For it is in giving that we receive
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life
Amen

A Quick Entry

It's been a while since I've been able to post something to my blog. My redneck foodie ways have not faded, have no fear. I'm just a little crunched for time these days preparing for my Board Examination (all prayers welcome). So, just a quick recap...the redneck foodie menu for the week has included:

1. Wild turkey and dumplings: this is of course a reference to the gallinaceous bird and not the famous bourbon...that would be a weird combination. In the intended form, it's a wonderful comfort food to celebrate the coming of fall. I did discovered that boiling the turkey in a chicken broth rather than water adds richness and depth, but even at a 1:1 broth/water ratio, it risks being a bit salty. I'm voting for a 1:2 ratio next time. I'll let you know how it goes.

2. Wild duck wrapped in bacon and grilled: a really nice way to celebrate a special occasion (Filet Mignon with a little twist). You can hold it together with tooth picks for an appetizer or put several in a row on small kabob skewers for an entree. We tried adding cheese but most of it melted away. Canned jalapenos on the other hand, stick around just fine and add a little spice (as my old Tech wildlife buddies may remember). Great with a red wine...

3. Deer Meat Pizza: as always, I live by the motto that where beef works, deer works better. It's a lean, organic alternative that is easy to come by in my house. On this occasion, I used it in place of ground beef on two Chicago style deep dish pizzas (baked in a cake pan with a thick crust and fresh mozzarella on the bottom. Deer meat, mushrooms, goat's cheese, and spinach made up the middle; and I topped it off with pizza sauce and sliced tomatoes from the local farmers market). Naturally, the toppings are your choice, but the style creates a very different pizza experience.

Bon Appetit!

Invictus
William Earnest Henley

Out of the night that covers me,
black as the pit from pole to pole.
I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
my head is bloody but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
looms but the horror of the shade,
and yet the menace of the years
finds me and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how straight the gate
how charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate.
I am the captain of my soul.

Legends of a Redneck Foodie...Recipes that Make You Say YUM!

This week my husband and I received an unexpected gift from our southern homeland...shrimp. Ever since moving to the Midwest, one of the things I've missed most has been fresh, reasonably affordable seafood. I can't deny that Arkansas is a landlocked state, but it's still within a day's drive of the gulf...Missouri, not so much. To celebrate this unexpected ambrosia, we revisited a southern classic that I have been working to perfect for some time now: shrimp and grits. My mom happens to be known for her world famous cheese grits. Unfortunately, the type of cheese that made her recipe so unforgettable has been discontinued by the Kraft company (tsk, tsk). I've been working on something comparable, and this week, I came darn close.


Southern Cheese Grits:
Preheat over to 350 F
Prepare 3/4 cup of instant grits as directed on the package

When the grits are cooked, remove the sauce pan from the heat and add:
2/3 lbs of Velveeta Cheese cubed
Note: This is 1/3 of a normal 2 lbs block, and the kind made with 2% milk works fine to help with calories
1 Tbs unsalted butter or margarine
3 Tbs sour cream (light works fine here too)
4-5 dashes of Tabasco Sauce (or to taste...)
Salt and black pepper to taste

Stir the ingredients until they are thoroughly blended, and then, transfer the mixture to a square baking dish. Add a light sprinkling of paprika across the top for color and bake until the top has a thin skin across the surface and a light crush around the edges. Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool until reasonably firm. It should have the consistency of pudding not soup. Don't try to dish it up too early! This service 4 people for a meal (breakfast or dinner) or 6-8 as an appetizer.

Southern Barbecue Shrimp:
In a large saute pan, heat:
4 Tbs unsalted butter
4 Tbs canola oil

When the above are melted and hot, add:
2 Tbs mince garlic
2 canned green chilies, chopped
2 Tbs dried rosemary (thoroughly chopped/pulverized - whole leaves ruin the texture)
1 Tbs dried thyme
1 Tbs dried oregano
4 leaves fresh Thai basil, chopped
1 Tbs ground paprika
1/4 Tbs ground Cayenne pepper
Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
1 lemon - squeeze the juice out over the pan and then thinly slice one half and add the slices

Cook the above ingredients until they are well combined and then add:
1 lbs of shrimp deveined but shells on (the larger and fresher, the better)
Cook until all shrimp are pink through and then remove from heat

This recipe is a modified version of one by Cheryl Smith posted to foodnetwork.com. Thanks, Cheryl, for getting us started!

We like to combine these two dishes for a dinner, but it can get a bit rich.  I recommend a good vegetable and some plain bread to balance it out.  They are also great the way my friend Beth served them for her wedding reception: a dollop of grits in the bottom of a martini glass and a couple of shrimp perched on the side...gorgeous appetizer!

Hope ya'll enjoy this Southern classic. More recipes, book reviews, travel blogs, and reflections on life are on their way. In the mean time, I want to see your best recipes. Show-me what ya got!