i believe in yesterday

[kirkcudbright]

Yesterday was my birthday. To celebrate, I had a dinner party - specifically, Thanksgiving in April. Turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and strawberry rhubarb pie. Okay, that last isn't traditional for Thanksgiving, and it was the only thing I didn't make.

The turkey was butterflied, spice-rubbed, and grilled, which worked fabulously - nicely browned, light smoke flavor, and done in about 2 hours. I'd never tried this before, largely because I wanted the drippings to make gravy. Instead, I roasted the back, neck, and giblets with a few veggies, then boiled them to produce both the fat and the stock for the gravy. Intense!

The guests included a family of vegetarians, so everything that wasn't meat wasn't meat. Meaning oven-baked stuffing with no drippings and no sausage. But it was okay. The green beans were from sunspiral's family recipe, with red onions and balsamic vinegar. The garlic mashpots were good, but I think everyone was inspired more by everything else. Except one of our young vegetarians, who made quite a bit of theater out of consuming a tablespoon of potatoes, with five glasses of water. OTOH, she luvved the sweet potatoes.

The pumpkin pie was from a back-of-the-can recipe, and it was surprisingly good. I pride myself on my pecan pie (recipe from Cook's Illustrated, of course), but this time I tried the maple-pecan variation, and it surprised me by sucking all of the custard into the pecans, so there was nothing holding it together. It tasted fine, but I think I'll make the traditional corn syrup recipe next time. But the runaway favorite of the pies was wereterrier's strawberry-rhubarb.

It wasn't less work than hosting the ordinary sort of party for 75 or so, but it's nice to do this sort of thing once in a while. I'm just sorry that lyonesse had to miss it, because she had to be on a plane to LA and points south.

---

Today I went to the circus - my god, I have some talented friends. Also, everyone (I mean, seriously, everyone) was there, so there was no need to have a big party yesterday, because I saw everyone today.

Comments

[bouncingleaf.livejournal.com]

Thanksgiving in April

*jawdrop* THAT is brilliant. If my birthday weren't so close to Thanksgiving, that is totally what I would do for my next birthday.

Granted, some of my awed reaction to this post is because I'm hungry and right now food sounds GREAT, but still. :)

[foms.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday, friend.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Oh, bugger. I knew it was your birthday. sunspiral gave me an excellent reveiew on the dinner and I'd planned to send you a Happy Happy email. Then I got mired down in CSS and fonts and...I'm sorry.

Happy late happy. :-}

[kirkcudbright.livejournal.com]

S'okay, I totally understand about CSS and fonts. (Actually, I don't understand as much as I should about CSS, but y'know.) Anyway, I know how you can make it up to me. ;)

[ceo]

It was, truly, a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat. Thank you, and Happy Birthday again!

[gosling.livejournal.com]

What he said. :-)

It was just fabulous, both for the wonderful company and the wonderful food.

Happy, happy, happy birthday!

[kirkcudbright.livejournal.com]

But you forgot your damn tupperware. Again.

[klingonlandlady.livejournal.com]

That sounds delicious, and what a good idea! Happy birthday!
*hugs*

[kirkcudbright.livejournal.com]

Thanks. It was delicious, and it was a good idea. I sounded out P about y'all's schedule while the plan was still forming, but he said you were going to be at a Burner event that night. But I'd like to have you guys over at some point, for something smaller than a general fooforaw.

[mrw42.livejournal.com]

Wow, that sounds great! And Happy Birthday!!

[coraline]

i've had luck when making maple pecan pie with 3/4 maple 1/4 corn syrup... never had the problem with the custard vanishing into the pecans...

[kirkcudbright.livejournal.com]

Cook's has you warm the custard to 130F before putting it in the pie shell. I've developed the habit of adding the pecans to the custard at the start of the warming, because then they absorb a *little* of it, and don't *all* float to the top, forming an inpenetrable shield. But Something Happened this time. And the kicker is that I can't even taste the maple.

[coraline]

that sounds complicated and irritating. i should try it sometime, but it's hard to beat the recipe i use now for simplicity :)

that's sad about the maple -- did you use grade B?

[kirkcudbright.livejournal.com]

I used Grade A Dark Amber (formerly known as Grade B - they re-did the grading system about 10? years ago). We went out to western MA about a month ago to have breakfast at a maple farm (http://www.hangingmountainfarms.com/), but they weren't going to be making grade B until the following week (but the grade A dark was already bordering on B). Anyway, having bought a half gallon of syrup, it's hard to get upset over the fate of a cup of it.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday, I'm glad it was special.