My First Turkey or Highland Park Cafeteria I Miss You!

Every family has their holiday traditions and up until 5 years ago, ours had a dinner tradition unlike most.   And because of this, I used to brag that I made it 50 years without roasting one of America's culinary icons.  True fact!

I live in Dallas - home of the famed Highland Park Cafeteria - why should I bother to cook a turkey?    When we "holiday-ed" in town we would just place our order with HPC.   You could order everything from just a turkey to a full blown meal complete with pies, tea breads and green bean casserole. Everything came in the best containers and the reheating instructions were included. I figured it up one time and by the time you bought everything you needed to make that one meal, it was actually cheaper to have HPC do the work for you. AND they had the best "toting" box for your dinner. Cardboard liner with cutouts for the smaller containers, nice and sturdy. That big box was re purposed for Christmas storage decorations. Sigh...it was heaven....

The day before Thanksgiving and Christmas we would trot ourselves down to the cafeteria parking lot, get in line, tell them our name and they would hand us a box with our order.  Visiting with the other "smart" people (aka other people who don't roast turkeys) was half the fun.  Occasionally you would recognize someone from the previous year and have a nice chat.  I like chatting up strangers in a line.  You never know WHO you might meet. 

Well, things change and eventually HPC stopped selling their meals.  But have no fear!  Central Market came to town!  With even more gourmet catering.  (Loves me their wild rice and fruit pilaf).   A few years ago I called in my turkey order to Central Market.  Thought that year, we would just order the precooked turkey and make the rest of the sides.  That's not too bad, right? 

Tuesday of Thanksgiving week, I march into Central Market and queue up in the Turkey Only line.  The line inches forward, but I am not paying that much attention.  I am mentally making my list, checking it twice.  I get to the front of the line, give them my name and out comes my turkey. 

Let me tell you what happened next is the God's honest truth.  They bring out my turkey.  I look at it and the first thought that crosses my mind is "How did they manage to get that cooked turkey back in the plastic bag?"  Which was quickly followed by the thought "Oh %@&.  I have an UNCOOKED turkey!" 

All I can say is thank goodness for the Internet.  I didn't even bother unloading my groceries.  Panicked I ran in the house, googled "how to cook a turkey".  Then I called my mother's bestie, Katherine.  She is a wonderful cook.  (Side note:  I once mentioned to her daughter Ellen that Katherine's stuffing was the best I had even eaten.  Ellen told me that stick of butter Katherine puts in might have something to do with it.  You have never lived until you have been a guest at Katherine's table.) But...I digress.

I will spare you all the details, but I realized cooking a turkey wasn't too hard and my first turkey didn't turn out too badly.  Life changes and so must we.  Making a new holiday tradition isn't always a bad thing you know.

Enjoy your Turkey Day. 

Martha Wasn't There and We Did Just Fine

Ok, so I didn't get Part II of Martha Ain't Comin' posted on Sunday.  Let's blame it on the time change.  Yeah, that's it.  I wanted to make sure I got my extra hour sleep.  After sleeping about 2 hours later than I normally do, which really made it THREE hours, I also had a 3.5 hour nap and then sort of just staggered through the rest of the day until I conked out at 9:00 pm.  So...here goes.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I too agree with fellow blogger, Carolyn Lackey that our homes don't have to be palatial, our tables decorated and set a la Martha Stewart to entertain friends and that we all should do it more.

We had my parents and another couple over to for a sort-of celebratory dinner for oldest one flying the coop for the second time.  Note:  I actually do miss him, but he is happy to be back in school.  So...  the table fit with the fall season, nothing like what Martha would do, but then I ain't Martha and besides, formal floral arrangements take up too much room and unless you get them low enough, you can't see across the table.

 

closeup of the napkin ring

No, I didn't iron the tablecloth - put enough dishes on it and the wrinkles are hidden.  Pulled out the pewter flatware and used some cute napkin rings I probably have used only once or twice - bought them at some home party.  I should use them more often.  I like the white dinner plates - they go with everything!  Round it out with a few pumpkins from the grocery store, fake leaves and "rodent" candles (yeah, there is a story behind that from oldest one when he was about four and wanted to have room service as he really liked the "rodent" candles that came on the cart.  Took his grandmother forever to figure out he really meant votive candle.  For our family, votive candles will always and forever more be called rodent candles.)



Some of the recipes I found on Pinterest and some were standbys I have made before.  We started the evening with a signature cocktail - a Ginger + Apple + Bourbon.  It was scrumptious - it works with or without the bourbon.  We also had Red Pepper strips with Hummus and Cranberry Brie Tartlets.  Easy-Peasy.  All three recipes came from Pinterest.  No, I didn't pipe the humms onto the red pepper strips and by pure accident I purchased pre-baked phyllo tart shells, which turned out to be the right things to do! 

The main course were porterhouse pork chops that I marianated for a few hours in Italian dressing.  You can either grill the porkchops, brushing them with apricot preserves or bake them with apricot preserves.  I chose the baking route.  Place the chops in a baking dish, plop a very generous spoonful of preserves on each one, bake at 350 for about an hour.  Sides were roasted (olive oil and salt) zucchini, baby carrots and yellow squash; mixed greens salad (with my special Crested Butte dressing - recipe and story below) and Sister Schubert rolls.  You can't beat a Sister Schubert rolls and you can pick them up in the freezer section of Sam's and your local grocery store. 

Now, every dinner party needs a good dessert and I tried out another Pinterest recipe - The Rolo Brownie Trifle.  I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to "Food In a Jar".  I have been dying to try out one of those recipes. 

 I served trifles in individual pint jars (purchased at Walmart).  Let me just say that if you fill the entire pint jar with a serving for one, your dinner guests will be in a diabetic coma by 9 pm.  Suffice it to say the dessert was a hit.  For an extra special touch, each trifle was topped by a sparkler and lit.  Note to self:  Next time you use sparklers, you need about 6 extra hands to light them all at once.  Maybe if you handed out jewel encrusted lighters as party favors, everyone would be willing to light their own.  Also, you might want to make sure you purchase sparklers around the 4th of July and keep them on hand.  I could only find number sparklers.  Why the number 5?  That is a story for another day!

Let's start a wave to bring back entertaining at home.  Nothing fancy - just good friends, good food!  We will have a blast!

Crested Butte dressing
1 c. oil
1/3 c. balsamic vinegar
1/2 c. sugar or Splenda - both work well

Mix thoroughly in blender and yes, the dressing is brown.  Who cares - it is really good!

Why do we call it Crested Butte dressing?  We skied at Crested Butte a great deal when I was growing up.  It had yet to reach the popularity it enjoys today, but we would always eat dinner out one night during the trip at a steakhouse there.  They had the BEST salad dressing.  After many experiments, we figured out what we thought was probably the recipe.  It was originally made with regular vinegar, but I like balsamic better. 

Happy eating!  And let me know how you plan to entertain!



 

 



Martha Ain't Comin'

So, read a post today from a FB friend Carolyn Kinzbach Lackey.  If you don't follow her blog, you should.  She is a gifted writer - always good for a pick me up.  Today she posted about Becoming Meems:  The Supper Table.  Meems is the name bestowed on Carolyn's mother by her grandchildren and believe me, Meems is a stitch.  I always look forward to posts about Meems and her affinity for wearing her red beret.  Loves me a kindred spirit (my red beret is my chapeau de choice when whizzing around in the Batmobile in the winter).  But I digress...

Anyway, Carolyn has embraced the idea of people coming over for dinner and in this post lists all the reasons she had for not entertaining and how she overcame them.  Solution #2 inspired the name for this post.  Martha Stewart and now Pinterest can make entertaining daunting, but isn't the important thing getting together with friends and family?  Have you EVER had a really bad dinner with your loved ones?  Ok, maybe the veggies didn't turn out so well, but conversation can more than make up for that. 

I love to entertain - cleaning house, not so much.  Inviting people to your home is such an intimate act.  And a generous act.  You are sharing part of yourself with them.  What could be a better gift for someone. 

Now that we are empty nesters (for the second time), it is much easier to keep the house, as we called it when the boys were growing up - company inspection - and with all the pre-prepped goodies you can find at your local grocery store, well entertaining is a snap.  It is probably a good thing I like/know how to throw a party since as a nonprofit fundraising, I have to throw a few shin digs during the year. 

Tonight we are celebrating oldest one getting out of the house and going back to school.  Nothing too fancy - we are eating in the kitchen.  I have my standby white dinner plates and black tablecloth and sparklers to make the dessert more festive.  Menu:  Cranberry Brie Tartlets  Red Peppers with Hummus, marinated pork chops, roasted vegetables, Sister Schubert Rolls (another standby) and a green salad with my homemade dressing.  I will post and share recipes and evening highlights tomorrow.

Party on dude!

PS Am breaking out the fancy glasses to use for the pre-dinner cocktail.  About 6 years ago at Thanksgiving dinner, youngest one said (of the "good" china)  "I didn't know we had these dishes.  I have never seen them before."  Use the good stuff!