A Cooking Life

Notes on Thanksgiving

I cooked Thanksgiving here again this year, and had some great successes by doing a few things a little differently: I mostly boned the turkey and roasted it flat, fiddled with the creamed onions, and figured out how to bake a custard pie without a soggy bottom crust (and perfected a buttermilk pie while I was at it). I just wanted to write up some notes for posterity.

Apple Custard Tart

Given the current economic climate, I count myself beyond lucky to be so loaded down with work. I've even undertaken the unthinkable: training someone to take up some of the slack. This is not an easy proposition for so controlling meticulous a person; it's much simpler to do everything myself. But I've found someone with a suitable skill set, and having a helper will spare me having to let whole projects go to another supplier.

I miss blogging. And I've let inertia keep me from it more than is necessary. C'est la vie. I'll blog when I can, and hope that I still have an audience.

None of this means I've stopped cooking. It's been canning season, and I've put up plenty of good stuff from the garden. TJ and I together have been getting the hang of smoking (with the Weber Bullet), and we've had some great successes with it. And with houseguests here and gatherings there, I often enough have a requirement to make something a little special.

Portuguese Almond Tart

This lovely, simple tart has a rich, buttery base, somewhere between a butter cookie and a very dense pound cake. The topping is caramelized, crunchy and nutty. It's an excellent dessert for those who like their sweets rich but not cloying. And it pairs beautifully with some of the golden dessert wines; I’ve loved it with Muscat de Beaumes de Venise and Trockenbeeren Auslese.