Southern Cornbread Dressing

Thanksgiving in the South, at least in my family, always includes cornbread dressing to go with the turkey. Traditionally, Southerners don't stuff the bird but cook a cornbread-based mixture in a pan. When I was growing up, my mother told me this was because cooking stuffing inside the turkey was dangerous -- it could lead to ptomaine poisoning.

This isn't just an old wives' tale. It's true that the stuffing can get soaked with turkey juices but not cook to a high enough temperature to be safe as it's buried deep inside the bird. Besides, there would never be enough stuffing to go around to give everyone an ample portion (not to mention seconds and leftovers).

My family frequently duplicated the basics of Thanksgiving dinner for Christmas dinner as well, and I always welcomed the opportunity to have turkey and dressing in December, too. We've gotten away from that habit, but really you can have turkey and dressing -- or chicken and dressing -- any time of year.

My mother did not have a written recipe for her dressing. She worked with some basic ratios but this was mostly a recipe that she made by look and feel. I've continued in this vein, but given that I only make this once per year at best, I decided to document what I did last year. So, with a few tweaks, this is essentially my mother's dressing. We frequently prepare a double recipe so that we can enjoy leftovers the next day, and have enough for guests to take some home if they like.

Marjorie's Sugar Cookies - Christmas Cookies from Tupperware

This year I made our family Christmas cookie -- an unusual cutout sugar cookie -- for the first time in a long time. The recipe was a standby during my childhood and teen years, but I'd gotten out of the habit of making them. They are still, however, my favorite sugar cookie and are one of those tastes that says "Christmas" to me.

My mother spent a few years in the '70s as a Tupperware rep. She had two huge (and I mean huge) cardboard suitcases full of samples, and when she stopped repping, they were integrated into our kitchen. One other thing we had as a result of her Tupperware years was a cookbook. Naturally the recipes always featured using Tupperware products as equipment. Don't laugh -- Tupperware made (and makes) a LOT of products beyond storage bowls. We had Tupperware salt and pepper shakers, popsicle molds, and on and on. 

But I digress. The cookbook had two sugar cookie recipes, and the one titled Marjorie's Sugar Cookies were an instant hit in our household. They became the go-to cookie for Christmas -- cut out, of course, with Tupperware cookie cutters. The Christmas shapes included a Christmas Tree, a Santa Claus, and a Candy Cane. Not only did Mama make the cookies for us to have at home, but often made many batches to provide to our classrooms and to the fire station where Daddy worked. I often helped with the production, and even made them on my own as I got older. 

I'd gotten nostalgic for them and made a batch to share with friends and family. I'm very pleased to share them here.

Thanksgiving Soup Bar: Potato and Corn Chowder

There are many philosophies regarding corn chowder. The same applies to potato chowders without corn. Many recipes include bacon, using that as the source of the fat. Others include red peppers, for color and flavor. I'm a purist, though. While a sprinkle of crispy bacon on a chowder is wonderful, I don't want that smoke throughout the soup. The same with peppers -- great as a garnish on occasion, not something I want dominating this soup.

Still, the different schools of thought show what a great base a dish like this is. If you want to punch it up with other flavors, it can take it. Bacon or peppers, sure, but also a little crushed garlic or curry powder. If you want to make it more substantial by adding some leftover diced chicken or ham, it's cool. In the spring, change it up with leeks instead of onion. If you like a thicker base, increase the amount of flour. You can use whole milk or cream instead of half-and-half. Etc.

Another point about this chowder is that while it was featured in the Thanksgiving Soup Bar, it's something I've been making for years. This is the first time I've written down the recipe, though, because I've always made it by feel, and based on what I had on hand. I don't worry too much about measurements, I just shoot for general proportions. It's all good.

Thanksgiving Soup Bar: Black Bean and Tomato Soup

The next feature from the Thanksgiving Soup Bar is the Black Bean and Tomato Soup. This recipe has been in my repertoire for a couple of years. I'm not a huge fan of legumes, actually, but I try to eat them occasionally because they are cheap and nutritious. I like it best when the beans are pureed, as in hummus or as in this soup. The other thing I like about this recipe is that it has a lot of flavor going on -- it's not just "bean soup." It is so good that I actively like it rather than just tolerate it. That says a lot!

This was another pantry soup -- I had (nearly) everything on hand to make it. I didn't have the chipotle or serrano pepper called for, but I did have an Anaheim chile. That's a larger pepper than the chipotle or serrano, but milder, so I thought the heat level would be roughly equivalent. It worked out fine and I provided minced jalapeno as a garnish for the soup bar for those who might want more heat.

This recipe calls for cooking dried beans without soaking beforehand. Soaking doesn't shorten cooking time that much, so the extra step isn't really worth it. Just be sure that the beans are fresh. Many supermarket beans can be several years old, and old beans can fail to cook. If your beans don't cook up right, or you just don't want to risk it, you can substitute canned beans; see the end of the recipe for details.

Thanksgiving Soup Bar: Red Curry Butternut Squash Soup

The Thanksgiving Soup Bar idea started with the idea of doing a pumpkin soup, but I decided to do a butternut squash soup instead. I liked the idea of warming the soup flavors with curry. I could make a basic soup without a recipe, and I'd added curry powder to soups before. I flipped through cookbooks and web sites, though, to see if I could find a specific recipe. Curry and winter squash is a popular combination, and there were a lot of recipes to sift through. I settled on this one from Williams Sonoma. It appealed to me because it went beyond just adding yellow curry powder to a standard soup, but other than the squash, the ingredients were things I already had in the refrigerator and pantry.

I tweaked the recipe a bit, adding lemongrass to the already Thai-style flavor profile. Fresh lemongrass and ginger are wonderful, and I often have a knob of ginger on hand, but didn't last week. I keep tubes of Garden Gourmet pastes on hand as well, though, and using them here saved me a shopping trip. Because I was traveling for the holiday, I made the majority of the soup ahead. After the squash was cooked, I cooled the mixture and transferred it to a zipper bag for transport in an ice chest. Just before serving I pureed the squash mixture, added the remaining ingredients, and turned it over to my sister to man the strainer while I prepped the other soups. You can skip the straining step if you like - the little bit of remaining texture can give the soup a nice heft.

The soup was a little thin after straining; if I'd had more time I would have simmered it a bit to reduce as I prefer a little thicker soup. It was fine as it was, though. I could also see adding more coconut milk or even cream or half and half to make it a truly creamy soup; the amount of coconut milk here is enough to give it a little lightness, but not enough to make it creamy.

Next time I make this I'll add more than the designated 1 tsp of curry paste. I could barely tell

Thanksgiving Soup Bar

For the Thanksgiving gathering at my sister's house this year, I volunteered to provide the appetizers. I've done this for many of the family holiday gatherings, typically making any number of a variety of dips, crudites platters, cheese plates, and the like. This year I wanted to do something a little different, and was hit with the inspiration of soup. Providing a single soup morphed into two soups, then three, and it went on from there to include homemade crackers and various garnishes.

I got the idea from an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats that I saw recently. He used a small cooking pumpkin to create a pumpkin soup. The pumpkin was hollowed out and seasonings, stock, cream, and goat cheese were added and the whole thing was baked. The cooked pumpkin and additions were then blended with a stick blender and the soup was served in the pumpkin shell.

The idea was appealing, but this time of year pumpkins aren't plentiful. I started thinking about butternut squash instead, but obviously cooking inside the vegetable wasn't going to be an option. I'd recently had a curried corn chowder, and thought about doing that instead. Once the Soup Switch had been turned on, I started thinking about other soups I like or have wanted to try.

I ended up with three: A plain corn and potato chowder that I created many years ago; a curried butternut squash soup, and a black bean soup. I settled on these three choices because the star ingredients in each were important New World foods, even if some of the flavors might be borrowed from other parts of the world. 

To accompany the soups I provided yogurt cream, minced jalapenos, chopped cilantro, and lime wedges. I also made two kinds of homemade crackers. I'll be posting the recipes for both crackers and all three soups in the coming week or so. 

One dilemma I was faced with was providing warm soup for leisurely noshing when a busy Thanksgiving kitchen would not have any stove space to spare. I indulged in a last-minute splurge and snapped up a triple slow cooker from Bella. Other manufacturers have triple slow cookers meant for dips, but the crocks in this device hold 1.5 quarts rather than the usual 0.5 quarts. I really only wanted a warmer -- I didn't need an actual slow cooker, but it was inexpensive (less than $30 at Target, although the MSRP is more than double that), and was also surprisingly well-designed and sturdy. I was a little hesitant to spend money on what could turn out to be a specialized, rarely-used device, but the quality for the price made me happy I got it. I can see using it at many future holiday gatherings and other occasions. 

The Recipes

Red Curry Butternut Squash Soup
Black Bean and Tomato Soup
Corn and Potato Chowder
Black Pepper Parmesan Crackers
Thin Wheat Crackers

'Tis the Season

Thanksgiving is behind us, and religious/cultural holidays, as well as New Year's, are ahead. For most of us, this means special-occasion foods, family heirloom foods. Feasting and snacking. Food gifting (store-bought or home-made). Increased cookie consumption, at the very least. I've been buried in work and other things, and probably will not be making much of a deal of the High Holy Days of Food this year. If I do, watch this space.

I am returning to Vivek's Supper Club this week (if you are in Nashville and would like to attend, some tickets are still available as of this writing: http://www.viveksepicureanadventures.com/supperclub. Obviously my hobby blogging content has been low, but I've been blogging for work (here and here), so the writing muse has been stretched thin. I fell down on the job with my promised topics from late summer ... just delayed, not abandoned.

In the meantime, enjoy this Ian Frazier classic on the feeding of children, read by Peter Sagal of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, among other creative endeavors:

Quickies, Part 1

While Kellie & Leroy were in town, we enjoyed more than a few good meals and culinary adventures after the outing at eastland cafe. Here's a recap of Sunday and Monday.

Tavern

Lunch on Sunday was a sojourn to Tavern, an interesting midtown spot. It's a hyper-masculine space -- enormous chains hanging ceiling-to-floor, dark woods, concrete, many many TVs showing various sports channels. Because the decor is minimalist and modern, and the food is creative and goes beyond bar food and beer, however, thankfully it escapes the "sports bar" vibe. On the weekends they only serve their brunch menu until 3pm, so while I was able to get a burger, Kellie & Leroy opted for egg dishes and hash, which they enjoyed. The service at Tavern has never been very speedy, and that was compounded on this visit by the fact that they held some tables open while making us wait. This made our wait inordinately long; we stood there fanning ourselves, staring at empty tables, and parties who walked in after us get seated. On the one hand I can understand wanting to maximize seating capacity during a busy time, but on the other hand, holding up a party of 3 while numerous parties of 4 are seated makes said party of 3 a bit cranky.

Cookout

Sunday evening we gathered at the home of Mark & Barbara for a holiday weekend cookout. I brought some pre-dinner nibbles with a decidedly Spanish theme -- manchego and murcia al vino (drunken goat) cheeses, water crackers, and olive oil & salt almonds, plus those bread-and-butter pickles. Our hosts provided delicious bratwursts & cheese-stuffed burgers with all the trimmings, a nice green salad, and a decadent, cheesy hash brown casserole. Leroy and Kellie brought fixings for margaritas, and Leroy the former pastry chef also made a Gran Marnier sorbet to go with the cake he brought -- four thin chocolate layers with a hazelnut buttercream, finished with crushed almond brittle. It was quite the meal!

Chuy's

Monday, Kellie's actual birthday, was pretty low-key. Emergencies at work meant that Leroy had to work remotely from their hotel room, so we had lunch, then Kellie & I relaxed at my house for the afternoon. Lunch was at Chuy's Midtown, where I always sample waaay too much of the by-request-only creamy jalapeno dip with chips. I enjoyed the special enchiladas of the day:  Fresh pulled chicken inside, and an avocado-green-chile sauce that packed a punch. K & L enjoyed flautas and a sampler platter, respectively. For a chain restaurant, Chuy's does a pretty good job, and offers much more variety and innovation than your typical American-Mex joint. The food is fresh, the tortillas made in-house, the chips are perfectly thin and warm, and that Creamy Jalapeno Crack will always call me back.

Edley's

For dinner, I decided to show them my most recent discovery, Edley's. In addition to BBQ being American-holiday-appropriate, I knew that K & L would enjoy the high-quality sides as well as the quality of the main attraction. The joint was hoppin'; we were lucky to get a table. When we were in line to order, I heard one of the staff say they'd just pulled some chicken off the smoker, so that decided me: I had the chicken sandwich, which is garnished with both the red BBQ sauce and an Alabama-style white sauce. I opted for the potato salad again, and went for the carb trifecta with the macaroni and cheese. The chicken sandwich, again on that stellar bun, was terrific; the chicken was very moist. The mac and cheese was excellent as well. Kellie had the pork sandwich, and Leroy went for the enormous basket of fried pickles (a personal favorite of his), plus the pork dinner, with spicy cornbread, cole slaw, and Brunswick stew. Everyone declared their meals awesome.

P.S. Not long after we left, Edley's tweeted a photo of a sign they had just posted on their door. It had been so busy that day that they had run out of all their smoked meats, and had only wings, shrimp, and catfish left!

Next time: A day trip, plus tapas, and a mid-week brunch