Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is awesome because it's all about the feast. It seems like this year in our family everybody did something. Tracy made a delicious turkey and stuffing. Megan made dessert, key lime pie and helped with the sweet potatoes. Rachel made dip and heated up veggies. And my mom, grandma and I made appetizers and dessert. For apps we bought things like salami and cheese and crackers, hummus and pita chips, pre-cooked and peeled shrimp. I added the "klein touch" to the purchased cocktail sauce. I feel the best way to do apps is buy some and make 1 or 2. So I decided to make crab and artichoke dip. Mom and Grandma did the shopping for all the ingredients for all the apps so making the dip was super easy. I also got to make pumpkin pie and crescent cookies. Both these recipes are on here in previous blogs but I did something different to garnish the pie. I made leaves out of extra pie crust. I'll describe that below. Normally I wouldn't do this but since it was a holiday I decided I should make it look extra pretty.

I also had a turkey day disaster. I was in charge of the gravy and my first attempt was horrible and burned and just disgusting. I wanted to deglaze the roasting pan the turkey was in by adding wine and scraping up all the brown bits. Then I was going to strain the contents of this pan and add them to a roux (equal parts butter and flour that is used to thicken liquid). I did these steps and I started to reduce the liquid and let it thicken. As it reduced I started to smell burning. It was my gravy! It was literally black and smoking. I realized soon after that there were burned bits on the bottom of the pan and not brown bits. The burned bits ruined the rest of the liquid and turned my gravy into a mess. So now I had to start over. Here was the new and successful plan. I wasn't completely satisfied with this gravy and I am going to work on it for the future so look for it to come soon.


Shrimp Cocktail Sauce:
purchased cocktail sauce (trader joe's)

When I tasted the sauce it seemed a little sweet so I added some prepared horseradish sauce (for some kick) and lemon (for a little acidity) these two additions really boosted the sauce and it was nice because we happened to have those things.

Crab and Artichoke Dip:

1 10 oz. can of crab
1 14 oz. can of artichoke hearts in water
1 lemon
1 1/2 cup mayo
1 1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (divided)
1 t. chili powder
1 t. red chili flake ( could also use hot sauce, just want a little spice/kick in dip)
salt and pepper
garlic and onion powder if you have it but it's not necessary

1. Drain artichoke hearts and then chop roughly into bit size chunks, place in a large bowl

2. Drain crab and place in same bowl

3. Add rest of ingredients (saving 1/3 of cheese for topping) and stir together. Feel free to add more chili powder/red chili flakes if you want dip spicier. Add more lemon for a brighter/fresher taste. and Add more salt and pepper if you think it needs it. Feel free to customize this dip to your/ your family's taste buds.

4. Place dip in an oven proof dish and sprinkle top with rest of grated cheese. Bake in a 400 oven for 10 minutes then turn oven to broil and cook another 3-5 minutes or until crust is bubbly and slightly golden brown.

5. Serve with either french bread slices (cut on diagonal/bias for easier eating)or crackers, pita chips, or bagel slices.




Gravy:
5 tbs. butter
5 tbs flour
1 cup water
1 cup red wine
about 1/4 cup of juices from resting turkey that collected (not burnt pan drippings!)

Directions:
1. melt butter in a medium size sauce pan.

2. Whisk in flour and cook for 3 minutes. This allows the "flour taste" to be removed.

3. Whisk in water, wine, and turkey juices. Lower heat to medium low and keep liquid at a low boil

4. Keep whisking occasionally and keep cooking gravy until it is a gravy like consistency. It should coat the back of a spoon.

5. When it reaches this consistency season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Then pour into a nice gravy boat and serve with your dinner.

-other ideas about this recipe: if there isn't much turkey juices then go ahead and use chicken or beef stock as well as wine and/or water. If you want a more flavorful gravy go ahead and add bay leaves and dried herbs like rosemary and thyme or whole black peppercorns. Then strain the gravy before serving so there's no chunks and the gravy is nice and smooth.

Pumpkin Pie Garnish:

1. Roll out extra pie crust ( could use store bought crescent rolls or puff pastry)

2. Using a knife cut out a oval/leaf shape.

3. With the back of the knife blade (un-sharp side) make an indentation down the middle, tip to tip. Then make diagonal indentations from the middle line toward the outer edges. You can then roll these on your finger to give a little 3 dimension effect.

4. bake on a cookie sheet at 425 degrees for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them after 4 or 5 min because they can get dark really fast! I suggest making extra because you'll probably lose a few.


Overall this thanksgiving was delicious and the cooking will continue into this weekend when we make ducks and dumplings which is our Czech traditional thanksgiving!