Thanksgiving in May

Hello long lost blog-readers! My hiatus is just about ending. After a couple-month break, I am feeling the yen to get back into the kitchen again. Okay, I haven't exactly left the kitchen, but you know, into it more regularly.While I decide exactly what form that will take, allow me to regale you with a little tale of Thanksgiving in May.

In most places, spring means a calendar full of things like weddings and graduations. Here, spring means skunks and foxtails.

The former live in my yard and like to spray my dog, apparently in the spring, as this is the second year in a row that Josh and I had a peaceful evening of TV interrupted by a burning stink filling the basement, punctuated by the dog tear-assing up the stairs in a bolt of horror. Last year it was a normal skunking, after which Big was properly horrified--so much so that he wouldn't go out into the back yard at night for a long time.

And yet, he got skunked again last week. Josh thinks in the spring the baby skunks with hair triggers are out, and somehow they always get him. We were settling into a nice night of Pizza Buona and the John Adams series from HBO when Big came shooting in, the recipient of a direct shot in the eye. The night devolved into baking soda baths and a trip to the emergency vet to make sure he was okay (he was).

As a skunk veteran, I can give the following tips:
1. Do not wash your dog in tomato juice. I hear it doesn't work, and it stains your dog pink.
2. Do wash your dog in a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and baking soda or else use some of the special Nature's Miracle skunk-be-gone stuff.

We've gone those routes, and Big smells fine. Except when he's wet--then the skunk smell is refreshed. Poor guy.

The other spring peril for Los Angeles dog owners is foxtails, a type of evil grass that gets stuck in their ears, noses, throats, paws, what have you, and can often can only be removed surgically and/or cause infections, etc. Vets basically spend the entire spring extracting them from dogs, and hey surprise, my dog sadly is no exception. Big got one stuck in his throat last year--as you will recall from the bran muffin entry. This week, he got another one in his throat, plus a bonus one in the eye. What is it with his eyes this year?

The throat one we resolved at home, but the eye one yielded a trip to the vet (done by the angelic Josh, as I couldn't bear to see the dog freak at the vet one more time) resulting in the extraction of a TWO INCH FOXTAIL from his right eye. Again, his eye is fine. That dog is a trooper.

Oh, did I mention that both Stripey and Big got chlamydia of the eyes? I don't even know how they got that, but obviously someone wants me to have blind pets. Moving on.

Given what spring usually means here, I'm not exactly sure why we should herald the coming of spring, but herald it we do. Josh is a big fan of celebrating May Day. I guess it was a big thing in Ames to do the ring and run, so usually on May Day Josh leaves me a basket of some goodies at the front door. It's very sweet.

 Josh and my May Day bouquet

And this year we rounded May Day out with Thanksgiving in May. Last November, my friend Leslie noticed that turkeys were on sale super cheap at the ghetto grocery, so we both bought one and put them in the freezer. We decided to crack our her turkey and give it a proper Thanksgiving in May.

Leslie was in charge of the turkey, gravy, and a broccoli casserole. She used this turkey recipe from epicurious and good lord did it come out well. She did a different gravy recipe, but so far I have been unsuccessful at worming either it or the broccoli casserole recipe out of her, which is a shame because they were both also really good. Feel free to take it up with her.

As for me, I did a combo of some of my favorite things from my family and some new things. For my family favorites, I did my mom's twice baked potatoes and her stuffing. My mom does a mean Thanksgiving, and both of those are my faves. Would you like to know how to do them? Here you go:

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Gordon Family Twice-Baked Potatoes

(serves 2)

2 lg baking potatoes (Idaho or Russet)

2 tbsp margarine or butter

milk

paprika

salt & pepper to taste

Bake potatoes @ 485 for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until they wish
they weren't potatoes anymore. Let cool. Cut in half lengthwise,
scoop out the potato innards and combine in a bowl.
Make sure to LEAVE THE SKIN IN TACT! 

Set skin aside on baking pan. Mix the potato innards with the
margarine or butter, and a small amount of milk and salt and
pepper to taste, i.e., make mashed potatoes. Refill the potato
skins with the mashed potatoes (or you can just overfill two
halves, but I prefer filling all of them normally).
Sprinkle with paprika.
Bake uncovered @ 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. 

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Rechelle's Ridiculously Awesome, Made-Up-Herself Thanksgiving Stuffing

(serves 12 w/ leftovers)

1 bag (16 oz) Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing
(ah, my mom and her hilarious brand allegiance)

1 1/2 cup Progresso Italian style bread crumbs (ditto)

1 lb butter (yup, 1 lb)

1 1/2 cup pecans (broken into halves or thirds before measured)

1 cup dried apricots, quartered (measured after quartering)

1 3/4 cup cooked mushrooms
(i.e., a container of halved mushrooms from the grocery)

1 cup water

Cook mushrooms in butter and garlic salt in a pan on the stove.
Set aside. Put stuffing and breadcrumbs in a large bowl and mix.
Melt 1 stick of butter and mix. Add pecans and mix.
Melt another stick of butter and mix. Add apricots and mix. 

Melt another stick of butter and mix. Are you beginning to
notice a pattern? Add cooked mushrooms and mix.
Melt and add the last stick of butter. Mix. 

Put entire stuffing mixture into oven-proof serving dish.
Pour 1 cup of water over, but do not mix (shocker!).
Bake uncovered @ 350 degrees for ~ 30 minutes
or until lightly browned. Serve, keeping 911 on speed dial
for the heart attack you will have from
eating this delicious concoction.

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The other things I made were recipes I hadn't tested before. I am pretty sure I tried the cranberry sauce from scratch recipe from How to Cook Everything. It's very easy--basically just sugar and water with cranberries and then either you strain it or not and maybe let it set or maybe let it be saucier. Whatever you dig. It was very good, and I was more than a little proud of myself. Plus, displaying it in a dog-bone shaped bowl, cute, right?

 It helps that I also made that apron myself in sewing class. 

I am the original renaissance woman.

For dessert, I tried my cousin Tracy's raspberry pie recipe that I poached when she submitted it to the recipe book I put together for my cousin Sara's wedding last summer. I am pleased to say, it i did not disappoint.

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Tracy Weiner's Deep Red Raspberry Pie

Store-bought crust

2 1/2 pints fresh red raspberries

3/4 cup sugar

4 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp creme de cassis

1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Combine raspberries, sugar, cornstarch, liqueur, lemon zest and lemon juice in a bow. Fold together. Press dough onto bottom of baking dish. Spoon in fruit mixture, spreading evenly, but mounding slightly in center. Put second crust on top and fold or pinch edge to seal. Cut 4 small holes in center and bake for 45 mins-1hr, until crust is golden brown and filling starts to bubble through slits. Cool at least 30 minutes.

NB: I varied this by using my
mother-in-law's recipe for a graham cracker crust
on the bottom. It was a good choice.

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In any event, Thanksgiving in May was a huge success, and splitting the cooking between two people made it totally manageable. We ate until our eyeballs nearly burst. Spring may bring a lot of horrors here in LA, but I think Thanksgiving on May Day might need to happen again.

The full spread. Jealous?