It's been a little less hectic in the food preparation department because everyone is doing a substantial part of the cooking. I've only got the mashed white and sweet potatoes, the turkey and the gravy. Plus I decided to make a vegetable since I was inspired.
Potatoes
White's are flavored in the style of my Mother with butter, milk, and schmaltz
(the little one omits the schmaltz for Wife)
Sweets were baked first and flavored with butter infused with allspice, cinnamon, cardamon, nutmeg, and cayenne pepper
Corn
Onions, with green and red bell pepper cooked in bacon fat in a cast iron pan to ensure carmelization form the flavor base. On the right is crisp bacon that will be added at the very end.
However the real culinary star of our contribution will be the pies. I saw an article in Saveur magazine about kicked up pies. I was a bit devious in saying to Wife that I would like to try my hand at making these. This threatening to go into Wife turf is like waving the red cloth in the face of a bull. Wife informed me that she would be making these. Thank goodness because it turned out to be a substantially bigger project than we thought.
Salted Caramel Apple Pie
This is the level of concentration that Wife had from about 1 in the afternoon to about 8 in the evening when the two pies were done.
She made the pastry from scratch using resting techniques that are supposed to ensure a flaky crust
This pie called for three types of apples (golden delicious, granny smith, honey crisp). Plus some unusual flavorings like Angastora Bitters.
Home made caramel going on top followed by salt
A lattice top with sugar sprinkled on the top
The finished product!
Browned Butter Walnut Pie
I was doing my own cooking so didn't have time to take step by step pictures of this one. This is like a kicked up pecan pie.
I really wish we had made two of each so we could have tried them last night :(
4 comments:
Many thanks for hosting a wonderful
Thanksgiving dinner! The pies were outstanding!
wait, did you not get to try the pies?? They look awesome! Also, I love mom's hair tied back. Think that's the first I've seen her hair in a pony tail in a long time.
YUM! Looks like a delicious menu. And those pies- wish I could taste through the screen!
P.S. highly recommend the vitamix.
I had to look up schmaltz. Had no idea what it was.
I was responsible for sweet potatoes this year too (in addition to other things.) I wanted to do something different and found a recipe in which you roast the sweet potatoes and some bananas. Then scoop them all out and mash them together. The topping was pretty typical - chopped pecans, butter, flour and brown sugar. I didn't admit to the bananas before anyone tried them. They were well received and everyone was surprised about the bananas.
Now those pies... oh my... they look like they could win competitions. I am all about salted caramel anything. I'm tempted to ask for the recipe, but judging by Wife's concentration, this one is way beyond my level of patience.
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