USA Thanksgiving at Katharine's, featuring Tuberfest!

Thursday 27 November

Despite the fact that it was a normal working day here in Canada, and a teaching day at Brock, Katharine kindly invited us over for a down-home south of the border style Thanksgiving.
Holt made:

Stuffin' muffins. The wonderful cornbread recipe, but with no cheese but lots of onion, celery, and sage (see below) baked in muffin tins. The colossal amount of butter makes them very moist.

Side dressin'. There was a little more cornbread batter than the muffin tins could hold, so we baked it in a pan, crumbled it up, and took it to Katharine's. There we just mixed it with enough chicken stock and a egg to get it wet and popped it in the oven for a bit.

Pumpkin clafouti. On something of a clafouti binge, and this one is a real keeper. We had a tupper of frozen pumpkin flesh (from Canadian Thanksgiving—because of the earlier harvest). We added a shot of brandy and pumpkin pie spices ("cinnamon and ginger, nutmeg and cloves," as the old song goes; except we didn't have any nutmeg, but Katharine provided fresh grated nutmeg on the spot). The recipe is here, but you needn't do all that draining if your pumpkin puree is already rather solid.

We also provided a turnip gratin (warning for next time: a little lighter on the salt) as the first part of what would turn into Tuberfest 2008.

To drink: Flat Rock chardonnays, a quasi vertical tasting of 2004 & 2006. Verdict: 2006 will get you more horizontal.

Katharine made:
Stolichnaya vodka with hand-picked rowan berries

Zakuski of bread, butter, 3 kinds sliced meats, fingerling potatoes (Tuberfest II), coarse salt for dipping, sour cream with maple syrup for ditto

Organic chicken: crisp, brown skin and moisture!

Cranberry sauce: her sister's recipe (thank you, sister!)

And then Tuberfest III and up: mashed potatoes, roasted sweet potatoes, and baked squash.

To drink: Cave spring gamay (Katherine lives just down the street from this winery) and 2006 pinot noir (a touch light).

And as Holt's grandfather used to say after any similarly enormous and delicious meal:
Mighty good eatin', what there was of it.