"The New Thanksgiving Table: An American Celebration of Family, Friends and Food"
by Diane Morgan
Photographs by Leigh Beisch Chronicle Books -- 2009 Buy it on Amazon
Thanksgiving may be all about tradition, but that doesn't mean there isn't room for a bit of experimentation.
In Diane Morgan's follow-up to "The Thanksgiving Table," she looks to new culinary traditions on the American Thanksgiving table. While there are old favorites like deviled eggs and giblet gravy, they share the spotlight with linguiça sausage stuffing and hazelnut popovers. This is not a T-day cookbook for your stodgy grandmother.
From stuffing to pumpkin pie, Thanksgiving's traditional dishes are rich and heavy. To complement these big flavors, the wines you choose should be full-bodied and tinged with acidic and fruit-forward notes.
As far as whites go, you'll want heavy wines with legs and complexity that can dance with Thanksgiving sides such as sweet potatoes. Reds are fair game too as long as you choose pairings that partner up with each dish.
Here are some of our $10-and-under favorites with their Thanksgiving dish match-ups.
Still, depending on whose statistics you trust, there are at least 10 million Americans making reservations for their Thanksgiving dinners this year, which means at least that many food and beverage workers will be spending their holidays away from home too.
I generally don't mind working on holidays: The festive hubbub of a room filled with revelers is often preferable to spending the evening with squabbling relatives. And the staff camaraderie that makes the indignities of restaurant work bearable is never quite so pronounced as on Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.
The gap between tamales and the Thanksgiving table is continuing to narrow as an increasing number of Mexican-Americans are stuffing their holiday masa with pumpkin and sweet potatoes.
Tamales have been a festive food ever since the Aztecs and other early Meso-Americans served them in conjunction with their religious rituals, says Claudia Alarcon, an Austin-based writer who's kicking off the University of Texas' Foodways of Mexico speaker series this week with a talk on tamale history. While tamales aren't associated with winter holidays south of the border, Alarcon says "I'm pretty sure in every U.S. state where Mexican-Americans live, they have tamales for the holidays."
Need a way to spruce up those turkey leftovers? Top the traditional day-after open-faced turkey sandwich with a decadent mushroom and white wine gravy.
Get this turkey recipe along with many others after the jump.
While the holiday season is all about tradition, here's one to break: serving wine with dinner. Craft beer's varied styles and flavors mean you can match any festive meal to the perfect brew. Here's our hop-filled primer on Thanksgiving entertaining.
As guests snack on crunchy crudités and crackers and cheese, crack a pleasantly hopped pale ale such as the release from San Diego's Stone. The brewery's version contains a malty, reserved bitterness that complements the hors d'oeuvres without overwhelming them. If Stone's unavailable, Stoudt's American Pale Ale is a great biscuity, citrusy selection. (The appetizer can apply to every holiday.)
She had a ham named after her at Costco last year, now fans of Martha Stewart can complete their Thanksgiving menu with her vegetarian-fed and antibiotic-free turkeys from Plainville Farms.
Twelve and 18 pound turkeys are available for purchase online and must be ordered by Nov. 18 to ensure you have your turkey in time for Thanksgiving (turkeys are shipped via 2-day delivery.) Skip the shipping costs if you live near one of these retailers:
Heinen's Fine Foods (Greater Cleveland)
Kings Super Markets (New Jersey)
McCaffrey's Stores (Pennsylvania and New Jersey)
The holiday wouldn't be complete without her expert turkey and stuffing advice. Each turkey is packaged with "Turkey 101," complete with cooking instructions and recipes.
The classic Thanksgiving menu -- which has become so standardized that nearly 90 percent of Americans report eating turkey to celebrate the holiday -- is a virtual parade through the food pyramid, with nearly every known food group admirably represented. Looking for grains? Try the cornbread stuffing. Craving fruit? Have some cranberry sauce. In a vegetable mood? You've got your pick of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes and green beans (mixed with mushroom soup, for an extra veggie bonus).
But, for the last half-century, one food group has been conspicuously missing from the typical Thanksgiving table. Confronted by the usual festive spread, a Pilgrim would no doubt ask: "Whither the shellfish, Prudence?"
Lobsters, clams and mussels were almost certainly served at the 1621 feast that's come to be commemorated as the First Thanksgiving. While the Pilgrims weren't especially fond of seafood -- Plimoth Plantation's culinarian Kathleen Wall says the community considered shellfish "the last of God's blessings" -- the settlement's proximity to the sea meant waterborne creatures were a staple of harvest meals, alongside earthy corn porridges, turnips and grapes. Pilgrims and Wampanoags supped on seal, swan and extravagantly large crustaceans.
"They talk about these lobsters that fed three sailors," Wall marvels.
Stuffing doesn't have to be cooked inside the turkey. It also doesn't have to be made with chicken or turkey broth. Entice vegetarian guests with this fragrant, flavorful vegetarian adaptation of traditional stuffing.
Get this stuffing recipe along with many others after the jump.
Nearly every cook has their own take on the iconic sweet potato casserole. Do you sprinkle it with brown sugar or top it with marshmallows? Do you put pecans in it or go without? Despite the variations, the sweet sweet potato dish tastes more like dessert than a side vegetable.
Get this sweet potato casserole recipe along with many others after the jump.
Even though the crust of your pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving turned out flaky and buttery, consider everyone "pie"-ed out. Try these non-pie ways to use up leftover disk of dough.
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