For me, Thanksgiving in California has come to mean one thing: first-of-the-season crab! Originally we thought about doing cedar-plank salmon this year, but with Dungeness crab at $6 a pound, that seemed like the obvious choice. The sides were more traditional: pumpkin bread, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce. All of which go surprisingly well with crab!
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| Pumpkin bread |
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| Crab meat, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, pumpkin bread, cranberry sauce, and Firestone 14 |
I made the green bean casserole from scratch, really just meaning using a roux and broth instead of canned mushroom soup. I haven't had this dish a lot, so I don't have much to compare it to, but it was pretty well received. I used this recipe at For the Love of Cooking.
The cranberry sauce is one of my favourite Thanksgiving foods, and I love making it. It's so simple, so variable, and makes the kitchen smell awesome.
Fresh Cranberry Sauce
- 1 cup sugar (I used half brown sugar and half turbinado)
- 1 cup water
- 12 oz cranberries (1 package, usually)
- the fun part: orange zest or peel, chopped walnuts or pecans, chopped dried apricots or other fruit, cinammon, nutmeg, etc.
- Dissolve sugar into boiling water
- Add cranberries, bring to a boil; reduce heat, stir occasionally
- When cranberries begin to pop, stir in additional ingredients
- Continue to simmer until it is no longer 'soupy'
- Remove from heat, cool at room temperature, then chill in fridge before serving
The beer was Firestone 14, a special annual blend from Firestone Walker. It's a tasty beer but the alcohol taste comes on a little strong. Mark is aging a second bottle, we'll see if it mellows out.
All in all, a relatively low-stress, high-carb Thanksgiving-- as it should be! Happy holidays!
