Orphan Thanksgiving

So it was Thanksgiving yesterday. One of my favorite holidays - the relaxed time with loved ones, no pressure to buy/think of presents, the EATING! Last year, we flew home. And then, a month later we went home again for Christmas. It was wonderful to get to spend the time with family and be home for the holidays. However, our pocketbooks did not feel so wonderful. So this year, we decided to stay in New York. Luckily, our friends Yee and Huy were also staying, so we decided to join together to have an orphaned Oregonians Thanksgiving. And now that we have our new apartment, there is plenty of room for four people to gather together!

On Wednesday, Neil and I headed out into the wet, Portland-esque weather to gather provisions and to check out the Macy's parade balloons being inflated. The day before the parade, they inflate all the balloons around 4 blocks on the Upper West Side, and they open the whole thing up to the public to watch. Christmas music was playing, it was cold and crisp out, and kids and families were everywhere, enjoying the gigantic balloons. It felt like a quintessential New York activity to take part in.

We saw Snoopy, the Energizer bunny, Ronald McDonald, a Smurf, Spiderman, Hello Kitty. These balloons are just gigantic, and the number of people it takes to get them blown up is crazy! Some fun facts about the balloons and the Macy's day parade - the first year they had a balloon they inflated it, but didn't have a plan to deflate it, so they just released it at the end of the parade. They continued the tradition of releasing all of the balloons at the end of the parade for a few years. They would give rewards to people who returned the balloons if they found them. Some were never found. Then, one year, they released the balloons at the end of the parade, and one of them got tangled in the wing of an airplane and it crashed. Macy's ended the practice after that. Some times the balloons still get away, though. They lost Garfield in 2005.

The wind was cold, though, so after the first block of balloons, we decided to skip the rest of the route and head out to gather our last-minute Thanksgiving provisions. We took a little Thanksgiving Eve tour of Manhattan and Brooklyn, to Union square for wine, West Village to go to Murray's cheese shop (where I didn't actually buy anything because there were SO many people there and all the cheese is held behind the counter. It was just too stressful), and Park Slope for a chicken and cheese, meat and olives. Everyone was out picking up their pre-ordered fresh turkey's from the meat shop. And even though the lines were long, everyone seemed to be in pretty good spirits.

Our Thanksgiving menu looked like this:

Appetizer: 

Cheese/Meat/Olives 

First course:

Butternut Squash and Apple soup
Buttermilk Dinner Rolls (I substituted whole wheat flour)

Second course: 

Chicken Bacon Roulades

Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Bacon

Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing

Third Course:

Rabbit fricassee with Tagliatelle

Browned Butter Mashed Potatoes, 

Garlic Butter Roasted Mushrooms

Quick Sauteed Kale with Toasted Pine Nuts

Dessert:

Cranberry Upside down cake

There was also plans for an Apple Cider Cream Pie, but I totally killed the pie crust - burned it beyond recognition - so that got jettisoned early in the afternoon.

I decided to go "course-style" because we just don't have the space to lay all that food out at one time, and stuff gets cold. So this way, we ate a little bit, kept the other stuff in the oven, warming, and then got to go back for another round of warm food. Except for the cream pie, there was really no fail in the entire  menu, which was quite a victory for me - I almost always completely fail at something. Probably because all of the dishes were tried and true. The soup was the only real brand new recipe in the group.

We did a tour of all places that we've lived in our cheese plate. We had a Rogue Creamery (from OR) Crater Lake blue cheese that was the favorite, Humboldt Fog goat cheese from CA, a Talleggio which was a cheese that Neil had on a pizza when we first moved to NY and then a triple-cream cheese that had no connection to anywhere we have lived, but it looked super yummy.

All the food was pretty tasty but the standout for me was, surprisingly, the soup. This was the only dish that I had never made before and it turned out absolutely delicious. I think I could have eaten only that with the rolls for the whole meal and been perfectly satisfied. It was a little bit spicy, a little bit sweet, there were just so many layers to it. I usually have a problem with pureed soups, I need something to chew, but this one was quite thick and perfect with the dinner rolls to scoop it up. I anticipate making this soup a LOT this winter. One butternut squash made a huge pot, too. And I made it the Sunday night before Thanksgiving and froze it and it thawed perfectly. I linked to the recipe above, but in case you don't click it, because you TOTALLY should, here it is again:

I didn't bother with the gremolata, and I personally don't think the soup needs any garnish. There is just so much flavor already in the soup. I also just used ground ginger instead of fresh and I omitted the chili  and hit the soup with Sriracha sauce after I pureed it. That gave it plenty of spice, along with the curry powder.

spicy winter squash soup with apples & orange scented gremolata
1 T butter (or Smart Balance or olive oil, if you want something non-dairy)
1 small onion, diced
2″ knob of ginger, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 birds eye chili, seeds removed & diced
1/2 t salt
1 t freshly ground pepper
1 heaping T curry paste (I used Patak’s Jalfrezi paste – curry powder works too!)
2 1/2 c cooked winter squash
2 apples, skinned & diced (I used russets)
6 c vegetable or chicken stock or water
a few shakes of your favorite hot sauce (optional)

In a large heavy pot, heat butter over medium-high heat and add in the onion and ginger, letting it sweat and get wilty – about 4 minutes. Add in the carrot, fresh chili, salt and ground pepper and stir around to get fragrant. Stir in the curry paste, along with the cooked squash and apples. Pour in the water or stock and give everything a good stir. Put on the lid and let simmer over low heat for 20-30 minutes, checking at the half way point to add in additional liquid if needed, and stirring occasionally.

Use an immersion blender to puree the soup and taste it to see if it needs more seasoning – I always add in some hot sauce here (vinegar based or sriracha, your call). Pour soup into bowls and top with gremolata. Makes 4-6 servings.

And now it's time to turn on the Christmas music and start getting ready for my favorite holiday!!! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!