Thanksgiving Dinner- Food Nerds Unite

I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving!

I really like the concept of the Thanksgiving holiday- giving thanks for all we are blessed with while stuffing your face with as much food as possible in a twenty-four hour period. Praise the Lord and pass the biscuits.

However, for food nerds like myself, Nicole and Ling, the traditional menu of turkey, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole and candied yams was not nearly enough of a challenge. So, we set out to create a Thanksgiving themed meal, using traditional ingredients but in unexpected ways. Here is what we came up with, and yes I have considered a career in food porn- I mean, photography.

(By the way, I happened to catch a Top Chef episode where there challenge was exactaly this and I personally think our meal was much more creative then theirs.)

Brunch

Cranberry-orange buttermilk pancakes- fresh orange zest and whole cranberries, covered in real maple syrup. Bacon and eggs on the side.
Beverage: Nicaraguan shade-grown coffee and pomegranate mimosas.
Entertainment- Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade

Dinner

Amuse Bouche

 

Smoked salmon with dill-lemon sauce and baked brie with fresh rasberries, rosemary, and raspberry preserves, wrapped in puff pastry. Beverage: At this point, we added citrus vodka to the pomegranate mimosas, thus creating pomegranate champagne punch.

Entertainment: Babe. Cute, talking animals on TV seems to be a staple of Thanksgiving entertainment.

Salad Course and Soup Course

A delightful salad of escarole with dried currants and roasted hazelnuts, accompanied by a Roasted butternut squash soup with cider and chive cream. This soup, I kid you not, was like Thanksgiving in a bowl. It had the nutty flavor of squash, the sharp taste of leeks, and the sweet taste of apple cider, all at once. Possibly the best of the 5 courses.
Beverage: the first half of the bottle of Little Penguin White Shiraz
Entertainment: Love, Actually on DVD. A holiday classic which all three of us can recite without prompting.

Palate Clenser
Not really a course, just a break for the taste buds between the rich soup and the flavorful main course.

Homemade cosmopolitan sorbet, with pleanty of vodka and tripple-sec to leave a mouth feeling fresh. Plus, a sprig of fresh mint. Yum.

Entree
Cranberry and thyme crusted salmon- The crust was bright and flavorful with dried cranberries and fresh time mixed with bread crumbs- stuffing without having to stuff it anywhere. Accompanied by buttermilk mashed potatoes, oven roasted carrots with fresh dill, fresh green beans with roasted shallots and sweet potato biscuits, made by Nicole, the expert biscuit maker.

I am half proud, half ashamed to admit that I was unable to finish half of what is shown on my plate before my overstuffed stomach forced to lie on the floor in the recovery position for half an hour. I am quite pleased to say that I did eat the other half for dinner the next night and it was just as good reheated as it was on the day.
Beverage: Pinot Noir
Entertainment: Billie Holliday, followed by Frank Sinatra.

Dessert
After an hour in a coma, we moved on to dessert.
Maple-walnut-date cake with maple syrup glaze.
Beverage: More Nicaraguan coffee, with foamed milk and Irish cream- as close to homemade cappuccino as you can get.
Entertainment: Grey’s Anatomy

Decisions, decisions, decisions

I cannot decide if I am a decisive person.

In fact, lately it has been difficult for me to decide on what decisiveness really is.

The actual definition of decisive is as follows: (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/decisive)

de‧ci‧sive  [di-sahy-siv] –adjective
1. Having the power or quality of deciding; putting an end to controversy; crucial or most important: Your argument was the decisive one.
2. Characterized by or displaying no or little hesitation; resolute; determined: The general was known for his decisive manner.
3. Indisputable; definite: a decisive defeat.

To be a decisive person, one must make decisions with little or no hesitation, and in a way that is indisputable and definite. In other words, permanent. To be a decisive person, one should be determined to make crucial, definite decisions while displaying little or no hesitation.

Seriously?

It is a common occurrence with my friends to be indecisive about simple decisions, such as where to eat dinner or what coffee shop to go to. In many cases, it feels like a mental game of hot potato- the one stuck with making the ultimate decision loses- yet a decision is reached. Once that decision is made, we stick with it and follow though. While the brainstorming and hot-potato portion of the process may take some time, the ultimate decision is definite. It takes time to weigh criteria like menu options, hours of operations and ambiance, the ultimate question of where to eat resolves itself in a definitive way. It is when conclusions are leapt to that we often find ourselves standing outside of Taqua Ria del Sol on a Monday night, facing an unflinching “Closed” sign. A quickly reached decision does not always turn out to be the right one.

When it comes to big decisions, like “What do I want to do with my life,” or even, “what should I do next year,” are we really expected to jump straight to a conclusion, displaying no or little hesitation, just to avoid the brand of indecisive? There are people out there who can say, “I’m going to be a doctor,” when they are in high school and then work for years to follow though. It seems to me that many of us are looking for that kind of determination and definitive plan.

However, more often then not, I have watched as people make these kinds of definitive, “decisive” plans, but leap from plan to plan, prospect to prospect, city to city, without following though on any of them. They decide they want to go back to school, then to a different school, then quit school to pursue a different career, move to a new place, then another in seach of something better that they might be missing. While it is true that their decisions are often made in a fast and resolute manner, they are rarely permanent. Is it possible that this brand of “decisiveness” is just a more spontaneous, less cost efficient way of being indecisive?

Maybe the larger question is, when does careful consideration, pro-con lists and trying on a decision and “wearing it around for awhile” cease to be a positive and noble part of a decision making process and become the negative trait of indecisiveness?

I can’t decide.