Thanksgiving

I hope everyone is "recovering" from Thanksgiving... Ha! As if we need an excuse to eat a big meal, to loosen our belts, etc. In QC, all the professors always say corny jokes before Thanksgiving about the weeks of prep that go into it, and that they should all expect us back after the weekend having gained a few pounds. Please, they have nothing on our 3 day Yom Tovs, and weekly Shabbos meals whipped up on Friday!

Our Menu
-"Orange" soup with sage served with roasted garlic & sage crostini, ala me :-) (see below)
-Fresh cranberry sauce (mom)
-Sweet potatoes with fresh rosemary (brother Gavi)
-Cranberry Apple Crisp (Shifra)
-Mashed potatoes with caramelized onions & chives (mom)
-Herb & Apricot Turkey (mom & dad)
-Minute Steak Roast with basil, garlic, & tamari sauce (mom)
-Roasted Green & Purple Asparagus with Balsamic Reduction (I made the reduction: bring 1 cup of balsamic vinegar with 1-2 tbsp. sugar to a boil, then let simmer for 20-30 minutes until reduced by more than half, and syrupy. It definitely doesn't smell pleasant but is delicious on vegetables or even chicken!)

-Roasted carrots (mom)
-Flaxed Brussel Sprouts (sister Shifra)
-Apple Cake (mom)
-Flourless Chocolate Cake (me)
-Pumpkin Cheesecake (Shifra)
-Pumpkin Pie (Shifra)

I'm sure I left some things out but nevertheless, everything came out great, and a perfectly carved turkey thanks to my father!

Anyways, we had an amazing Thanksgiving meal, collaborative effort by my parents, brother, sister, and myself! I made the soup (see previous post about soup, it was that recipe) but this time I made it with 2 lbs. of peeled, cubed butternut squash, & then realized that it probably wouldn't be enough for everyone, so I added 4 sweet potatoes & 3 carrots. I garnished each bowl of soup with a sage leaf, because I put sage into the soup itself. And- I took a picture this time!

I also made Roasted Garlic & Sage Crostini:

**Roasted garlic spread on bread, if you've never had it before, is AMAZING. 

-My mom roasted elephant garlic (huge cloves), but you can do this with regular garlic as well. If using elephant garlic, go ahead and peel the big cloves, put in foil, drizzle olive oil & wrap up. Roast for 30 minutes on 400 degrees. If using regular garlic head, cut horizontally across to form 2 halves, sprinkle with olive oil, and wrap in foil & roast. It's just more tedious to individually "unwrap" each clove. This makes it easy to scoop out once roasted.

-Once finished, let cool. scoop out all the garlic into a bowl. Add 3 finely chopped sage leaves and mash with a tbsp. of olive oil.

-Spread onto toasted slices of ciabatta bread.

I could have eaten the entire plate. Too bad we had 9 other people I had to leave for!!!

-Obviously the soup, asparagus & crostini was not the crux of the hearty meal (-turkey!!!-), it definitely added to it! I just wanted to share some of the highlights of our meal!

Hope everyone had a nice long weekend full of food food food!

Good night,

E