Overall our T-dinner was very good. Unfortunately, Mom's college roommate broke her leg a week prior to T-day and couldn't join us and our son's roommate decided to join a recently divorced friend for the holiday. Since preparations were already started when I learned that there would be only four for dinner I cooked for six anyway. which meant leftovers for Mom, son and the hubs and me. I have made turkey soup stock from the carcass which has been frozen into several 2-cup servings. Prior to making the stock I trimmed most of the meat off the carcass and froze the meat in meal portions to save for later (we have one of those food saver baggy gizmos which the hubs is nuts about but it does save a lot of space in the freezer. A portion of the leftover beans, some turkey and all of the leftover potatoes were featured in a delicious soup with an added leek and thinly sliced carrot. The remaining beans and more turkey were drenched with a quick gravy made from a portion of the stock thickened with cornstarch and topped with freshly made smashed potatoes (in my book - smashed potatoes are made with skins on vs. mashed potatoes without skins).
Will I repeat any of the recipes again? Some yes and others maybe not. The cheese and fruit plate came out at lunchtime and by the end of the first football game we packed up the cheeses but left the fruit and stuffing flavored potato chips out for game #2. The potato chips tasted just like their name and were really good (thank you son!). The splatchcock turkey was just a bit over baked because I could not believe that it would cook in less than 90 minutes. It was delicious but a touch dry. Removing the backbone was a chore that took both the son and I to accomplish (I am sure that he could have done it on his own). The beans with mushrooms and cipollini onions was good but in our small town I had to go to three grocery stores to find the onions and peeling them was a pain. Plus the different sizes and shapes of the beans/mushrooms/onions made it a bit difficult to get a fork-full of all three ingredients. The Hasselback potato casserole was delicious even though I didn't follow the recipe exactly (do I ever?) which was probably a good thing because I baked it with the turkey 50 degrees higher than the recipe called for. I poured in all of the cream and cheese mixture into the casserole instead of immersing just half of the potatoes in the sauce. I am sure that my error kept the potatoes from burning. But they tasted divine. By the way, making sure that all of the thin potato slices were covered with the cream & cheese sauce instead of stuck together was another time-consuming hassle. The casserole was really scalloped potatoes gratin vertical instead of horizontal. It looked cool but it was a chore to get all the thin potato slices standing upright around the dish. By the time dessert rolled around we could care less that it wasn't homemade. I discovered that vanilla ice cream is really good with a good dollop of tart cranberry sauce!
Don't get me wrong - our dinner tasted great but was it hassle-free? No. I heartily recommend the cheese and fruit combination - easy and delicious. Splatchcock turkey is a definite keeper (the son commented that I spelled "splatchcock" differently each time I emailed him, well it turns out that it is spelled numerous ways on the internet... I guess that I am not the only creative speller!)
Coming soon - an idea (or maybe two) for homemade baked good gifts and a wonderful idea for a holiday party. Plus I am already looking for Christmas dinner ideas.
Mary's Comments
Splatchcock - spatchcock...flattened bird by any other name. Whichever spelling you use it sounds good!! I'd probably have to borrow a chainsaw to remove the backbone, as I don't have a son with muscles handy. Maybe I could try a small chicken to start. I hear this is a great prep for a bird on the grill. I will work on this and report back when some grilling weather appears. Another variation on Hasselback potatoes that might minimize the stacking chore calls for slicing Idaho potatoes, but not all the way through, then drizzling oil or sauce between the attached slices.
