Thanksgiving dinner, this year...
...will be less than traditional, thanks to my mother's and my nonchalance over turkey and my decision to remain "Home for the Holidays" (good movie, by the way). Here's the menu:

• Pot roast with a spirit sauerbraten accomplished by adding some apple cider vinegar to the roasting liquid. This is one of my yesterday inspirations that sounds promising, don't you think? I don't think I'll go so far as to add sour cream when I thicken the roasting sauce, but, well, we'll see how it "feels" when the time comes.
• I'll be adding a variety of vegetables, including russet potatoes, carrots, Bermuda onion, green pepper and celery, to the roast as it cooks, adding times dependent on how long it will take for the vegetables to soften a bit but not fall apart. I considered cabbage but my mother nixed this. She likes sauerkraut, she says (she actually loves it), but "not with her pot roast, please."
• The recipe I have recommends flavoring the liquid with, among other things, finely diced onions, carrots and celery. On a whim as I shopped for dinner, yesterday, in the produce department, I purchased a large, dark green chili and will add this, as well; maybe forget about the carrot, then again...green chilies aren't hot, but they have a taste tone that should perfectly compliment the roasting liquid. As well, I will be browning the roast, pre-simmering, in bacon fat left over from breakfast.
• The roasting liquid will be thickened into a tangy gravy.
• Although I considered baking a pie from scratch, this year my mother suggested cherry pie. I'm not interested in using canned cherries, so I bought a frozen pie with which we've had mother-success, Marie Callendar's Dutch Crumb Cherry Pie. I also asked her what sort of a la mode she wants and she replied, "Ice cream, of course!" So, I picked up a choice at Baskin Robbins (her favorite): A pint each of Rum Raisin and Eggnog. She'll probably opt for "a taste" of both.
• I still have some rosemary bread left from last week. I figure, if she wants bread, I'll grill some garlic/cheese bread out of that.

    Considering the size of the roast (it's the smallest one I could find of it's quality), I'm expecting roasting time to be between three to four hours. Pot roast "works" best when you turn it frequently, as well; every 30 minutes or so. Prep time will probably take about an hour. Since I won't be using the oven, I'll slip the cherry pie in there about halfway through dinner so it will have time to bake and cool to an acceptable, ice-cream-half-melt temperature.
    My mother is very excited by the menu and even more excited about how fragrant our house will smell while the pot roast is sauerly simmering away. My guess is that we'll probably eat only two meals tomorrow, since dessert will probably be preferentially served an hour or two after dinner, so I'll make sure that breakfast is hardy.
    I might take stats in the morning...then again, I might forget about stats for the day. At any rate, if this meal doesn't raise her HA1c a little, I can't imagine what would!

Labels: Thanksgiving

- posted by Gail Rae @ 13:15   email...this post