Leftovers

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, here in the States. We celebrated with my Gram at her retirement community. The meal was typical, turkey with stuffing, candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, Brussels sprouts and some form of cranberry something. All followed with your choice of pumpkin, pecan or mincemeat pie.  The company was extraordinary.  There are few topics  my Gram cannot intelligently converse. At ninety-two, she is still learning her art of watercolor, and told us about a painting class she recently attended. It make me happy to know her in my adulthood,  and I can't help but think that if she and I were peers, we would have been cohorts mischief. 

I recently told my dad about a story Gram shared with me. She attended art school in Boston during the Depression. She and her rebel friends were called into the dean's office for smoking corncob pipe at one of the public fountains. Dad said he had never heard about any of this. Not really something you tell your kids, no.  But your grandkids? Heck yes!

Today I singlehandedly made a complete turkey dinner for three. I'm good. I'm really good. All my prep time was about two hours, scattered here and there. I even brined the bird and made my own stock for the gravy.

The food was really good, and even reduced fat and sugar free. Some tricks I picked up in my prep: 

Don't mash the potatoes. Serve them whole, boiled, with the gravy you'd be serving with them anyway. No salt, cream or butter- we did not miss it.

Yams: pre bake and peel them. I squeezed an orange over them and melted a tablespoon ( or two) of butter in a saucepan. I added chopped pecans, toasted unsweetened coconut and a couple minced dates. That mixture went on top of the yams while they reheated. Best candied yams I have ever eaten.

Stuffing: I added fresh chestnuts this year and a handful of dried cranberries to my traditional stuffing. It was amazing what a difference that addition made. I also used less than half the butter of my usual recipe.

Turkey: it brined for an hour in two cups of kosher salt, two cups of white wine, and about a gallon of water. Then I dried it and basted with butter. The gravy from the dripping turned out really well.

Brussels: I treated them the way I treat my collard and chard: sauté onion, bacon, and garlic. Add balsamic and stock, bring it to a boil and add the sprouts. Cook until tender.

Pumpkin pie: sprinkle 1 tsp unflavored gelatin over 2 tablespoons water and microwave for 30 seconds.  Whip one package low fat cream cheese with half a cup of Stevia in the raw, one teaspoon vanilla, and 3/4 cup pureed pumpkin. While beaters are still blending, add the gelatin, all at once.  Fold in whipped cream (from 1 cup whipping cream, whipped). Pipe into pre baked mini pie-shells. Refrigerate for a few hours before serving. I took these down to Gram's as a sugar free option for dessert. They need to sit overnight, so the Stevia can mellow a bit.  I also made pecan tarts using date syrup and coconut sugar, but I cannot vouch that they were really glycemically sound, but they were damn good.

So much for no-moving movie day. While the turkey roasted, we all went shopping and picked up a large area rug for the now movie room.

Thanksgiving bellies are stressful. So much rich food and nowhere for it to go. JE and I waited a few hours and went for a 10k run. My time per mile is down half a minute per mile. Partly because he took time-outs when I walked--less than half a mile. Awesome. We each burned over a thousand calories. Nice.