Roasted Rainbow Carrots with Miso Butter

Organic Rainbow Carrots
Roasted with Toasted Sesame Oil
Splash of Tamari
Miso Butter with Ginger and Garlic
Sesame Seed Garnish

Who could pass up these beauties at the market?

Looking for a holiday side dish? Something colorful, tasty, not too complicated, unique, not too rich, that complements a variety of foods? Try roasted rainbow carrots with miso butter!
Preheat oven to 350°. Peel the carrots. Toss lightly with toasted sesame oil. Roast on a sheet pan or oven-proof dish in a single layer. (I found it is best to roast the purple carrots in a separate pan to keep the color from bleeding onto the other carrots).

Miso butter:

  • 1 stick softened butter (I used Challenge Butter)
  • 2 – 3 T. white miso (depending on saltiness)
  • 1 1/2 t. garlic minced
  • 1 1/2 t. fresh ginger minced
Mix all ingredients in the small bowl of a food processor. You can make the miso butter ahead of time and keep it on hand. It is great on vegetables, fish, noodles, and oh, please try it on a grilled rib-eye steak!

Melt some of your miso butter in a saucepan.

When the carrots are al dente, after about 25 minutes or so, remove from oven, add a splash of low-sodium tamari. Arrange on a platter. Then drizzle with melted miso butter, and finish with a black and white sesame seed garnish. This side dish has the lovely depth of umami flavor yet is not too heavy.
A Chance To Win

Last month, the folks at Challenge Butter sent me an email: “We are running a sweepstakes for a chance to win a 7-day/6-night vacation to the Mountain Sky Guest Ranch in Montana. It’s sure to brighten some spirits!” The sweepstakes runs through December 31st.
I purchase Challenge butter all the time. Happy to endorse their excellent product. 

Bonne chance mon ami!

Gratitude Soup

Maybe you’re a little bit tired of turkey by now? I didn’t want to scare you away by posting another turkey leftover dish. But alas, that is what this is…and then some.
Roasted Turkey Soup
 With Pearled Barley and Dinosaur Kale
As I made this soup, I reminisced about Thanksgiving week…
I took the turkey carcass and made a very flavorful stock. And rather than me go through the details, I would like to refer you to Cajun Chef Ryan’s recent post, he details turkey stock perfectly. Cajun Chef Ryan’s blog is awesome.
I added about 1 cup+ of pearled barley to the strained stock, along with a bay leaf, and simmered until al dente, a little over one hour.
Meanwhile, I browned quartered mushrooms in a small amount of olive oil. Also in a separate pan sautéed celery, shallots, and carrots in olive oil until tender, lastly added chopped garlic.
Dinosaur Kale

Remove the main rib from the kale, and tear into bite-sized pieces. Lacinato Kale, also known as Cavalo Nero, Tuscan Kale, and Dinosaur Kale – in honor of my nephews I am sticking with the DINOSAUR nomenclature. 
I added the vegetables including kale to the soup. Simmered until the kale was tender, about 15 minutes Added salt and pepper to taste. 
It was very satisfying and delicious! Especially so, seasoned with a big dose of gratitude:
I had a wonderful week with my family and friends. Thanksgiving is a beautiful holiday, thank you Pilgrims, Native Americans and President Lincoln! 
Thank you to my mother, Joyce, for well, just about everything, but today for being who you are – a very special lady, the family matriarch, and a wonderful role model. My grandparents aptly named you JOY.
Oh, Ma, and thank you for lending me your gorgeous antique Franciscan Apple dinnerware.
Thank you to my brother Don, there is absolutely no one in the world that has a more generous, smart, kind and fun little brother than I.
And to my sister-in-law Kristy, I could not ask for a better one. You are so dear to me, thank you for all your help, and laughter, and sisterhood. I love you.
And to my nephews, Stone who is now seven years old, and Jett who is now five. You are the light of my life. I adore cooking with you. Your visits to California are the highlight of my year. And boy oh boy are you both getting good at basketball! 
Last year I installed a basketball court in my backyard, and we sure have great fun there. Any of you playing basketball during the holiday season, consider our good idea: We play T-U-R-K-E-Y instead of H-O-R-S-E. 

A Savory Life Indeed

To my entire family and all my dear dear friends and colleagues. I wish you a wonderful upcoming holiday season. I am truly grateful for you all. Oh how very fortunate I am to have you in my life. Thank you.

Thanksgiving Day

THANKSGIVING DAY
It is one of my greatest pleasures to host
Thanksgiving Dinner
in my home year after year.
Here is my brother Don at the outside bar.
Don, Kristy and the kids travel here to LA from Chicago.

Wendy, Jett, Mom, Stone and Lisa in the backyard.
Wendy is from Scottsdale, Arizona.
Mom lives in Santa Barbara, California.
Lisa is from Germany.

Getting ready to serve dinner, buffet style.
Appetizers are on the counter.

Wendy wrote the menu for me on a platter.
Very artistic!

Lil’ Smokies, because everyone likes ’em, especially the kids.
They disappear every year. Haha.

Steve and his son, Kyle

26 Pounder.
My “Do Nothing” recipe for cooking a turkey:
1. Loosely stuff the cavity with roughly chopped onions, carrots, and celery, lots of butter and salt and pepper.
2. Rub the entire outside of the bird with soft butter and salt and pepper.
3. Put more roughly chopped onions, carrots and celery in the bottom of the roasting pan with enough chicken stock so that the pan does not dry out.
4. Roast at 325° for a total of about 5 hours. Leave the bird alone, don’t baste, don’t cover, just “do nothing” and then marvel at the beautiful bird when it reaches 165 degree internal temperature. Use a remote thermometer to monitor the temperature.
5. Remove from oven and let it rest.
6. Have a Skin Party.

I believe the secret is to start with a great turkey. This is a fresh Diestel Turkey Ranch Premium Range Grown Broad Breasted Young Hen Turkey.

Tom makes canned cranberry sauce look gourmet.
I had an idea to make a cranberry gelée, but ran out of time.
Tom improvised for me.
I love it!

Tom’s Sushi-style (ahi) Cranberry Gelée.

Getting ready for our tradition: THE SKIN PARTY

I guess that skin-lovers will like this ritual, others may cringe. But hey, this is all family and the best of friends. So we can pick the skin together. Nice crispy skin, help yourself! Don’t be shy!

Mom and Chip kick off the Skin Party.

Stone and Don.
I think this is the first time Stone participated in the Skin Party.

Mom, Kyle, Stone, Tom, and Lisa
During the Skin Party, I make the gravy.

Once we finish the Skin Party, Chip carves the turkey. Kyle is stirring the creamed corn and Linda and Tom are heating the mashed potatoes.

Pat’s heavenly popovers (my personal favorite).
They are also great for breakfast the next day, with a cup of coffee.
Right, Mom?

Mushroom, Leek, Sage Stuffing
I make it with Ciabatta Bread.

Chip serves gravy to Mom.

The Feast!
Red roses from my garden.

Stone makes the place cards the day before.

Gratitude Sharing
We put a place card at every seat at the table and scatter some pens about. During the beginning of the meal everyone is encouraged to write on their card the things they are grateful for this year. We save these cards so friends and family that have been coming to Thanksgiving at my home now have several cards at their setting. It is fun and poignant and sometimes sad to read what we were grateful for in past years. We read our current card out loud and some from the past. We also cherish the cards that have been written by those who are no longer with us.

Gratitude Old and New

“I am grateful to have two nephews and the opportunity to cook with them.”

“I am thankful for everything my parents have done for me.”
“I am thankful for all the experiences this year. I thank my family and my best friends for all the support they give me, for spending beautiful days with them and for all the love they give me. And I want to thank Kristy, Don, Stone, and Jett for being part of their family, sharing their American-way-of-life, and for giving me the best year of my life. I love you all. Thank you.”
“Here’s to a healthy 2010.”
“I am thankful for my family and friends. I am also thankful that my college applications are almost done. “
“The freedom we have.”

“Good friends.”

“Good health and old age.”

“Having exciting happy moments, lots of them, with my family.”

“I’m grateful for my family and friends.”

“I am grateful for my lovely daughter-in-law.”

“I’m grateful for my job and my life.”

“We are thankful for fresh air from the ocean, good earth to grow vegetables, clean water for seafood, and friends to share with.”

“I am thankful right now to be sitting among all these lovely people.”

“Great food!”

“Thank you for yesterday, today, and tomorrow.”

“I am thankful for God.”

“I am thankful for this great opportunity to get to know a different country and new people and to be part of a traditional Thanksgiving in America.”

“I am thankful to be able to watch the kids grow.”

“I am thankful for the lives we live and all our loving friends and kin.”

A Thanksgiving Poem

Thanks to all for being so dear
And I hope to see you again next year.

The same faces have again appeared
Along with some new ones which we cheer.
With our friends and family we remain very close
As we celebrate Thanksgiving
With those we love the most.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Later that night, Tom and Jett with Wilson.
Thanksgiving Day Humor: My brother-in-law once shared with us about a year in the past when he was reluctant to eat the Thanksgiving turkey because there were two necks in the cavity. He assumed it was a two-headed bird.

Leftover Day

LEFTOVER DAY

We are not done yet! It’s our traditional Leftover Day. We put all the leftovers on the buffet, add a honey-baked ham and bread for sandwiches, and voila, we have another party on Friday!

Gail brought her famous grilled shrimp.

Put all the leftovers on the buffet. Help yourself! No rules, eat in any order.

Roasted cauliflower with mustard lemon butter, is good at room-temperature too.

The Ham.
Served in this beautiful new platter, a gift from Wendy.
Thanks Wendy, I adore it!

Buffet on Leftover Day

Turkey Sandwich, of course.

We are so fortunate to have such great weather. Leftover Day is from 1 -5 PM, we eat outside in the backyard.

Don, Scott, Lauren, Jett, Mom, Wendy, Gail, Kristy, Tori, and Tom

This year I bought a stack of take-out containers to send everyone home with all the leftovers.

Wilson’s Thanksgiving Treat
A Toy Drumstick!
Thanks Lauren!

The Absinthe Ritual

Absinthe is distilled from a mixture of whole herbs in alcohol. These herbs include grande wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), green anise, sweet fennel and other culinary plants.

Created as a medicinal elixir by a French doctor living in Switzerland around 1792, it achieved great popularity as an alcoholic drink in late 19th- and early 20th-century France, particularly among Parisian artists and writers where the drink was said to act as an aphrodisiac and stimulate creativity.

The Absinthe Fountain
“Rimbaud’s Poison”
“The emerald hour when the poet’s pain is soothed by a liquid jewel held in the sacred chalice, upon which rests the pierced spoon, the crystal sweetness, icy streams trickle down. The darkest forest melts into an open meadow. Waves of green seduce. Sanity surrendered, the soul spirals toward the murky depths, wherein lies the beautiful madness – absinthe.”

The bar at Chaya Downtown in Los Angeles, and our Absinthe Guide (bartender) Victor.

He pours ice water into the absinthe fountain.

Then pours 1 oz. absinthe into the special glass. Places a sugar cube over an absinthe grille or spoon in a saucer and soaks the sugar cube with absinthe.

Traditionally, the sugar cube is not ignited, as purists believe the caramelized sugar detracts from the herbal flavors. Apparently the use of fire in the absinthe ritual is a newer phenomenon was not a part of the custom during the Belle Époque. Sugar is used to cut the bitterness of the strong herbal spirit.

The spoon is placed over the glass and the sugar is lit on fire. As the sugar begins to caramelize, the absinthe water drip is begun.

Ice water from the absinthe fountain spigot slowly drips over the sugar into the glass, extinguishing the flame and melting the sugar and sweetening the absinthe.

L’Absinthe
Edgar Degas
1876
Oil on canvas

The cold water releases the oils from the absinthe, unlocking the powerful anise bouquet, and causing it to louche or cloud up into a light opalescent green. Absinthe is usually diluted in a 1:3 or 1:5 ratio to water. La louche has a symbolic meaning as well – As the water transforms the absinthe, so will the absinthe transform the mind.
La Fee Verte
The Green Fairy is the affectionate French nickname given to absinthe.

Can you spot the green fairy?

Absinthe had been portrayed as a dangerously addictive psychoactive drug. The chemical thujone, present in small quantities, was singled out and blamed for its alleged harmful effects. By 1915, absinthe had been banned in the United States and in most European countries.
Although absinthe was vilified, no evidence has shown it to be any more dangerous than ordinary spirits. Its psychoactive properties, apart from those of alcohol, have been much exaggerated.
Absinthe’s popularity grew steadily through the 1840s, when absinthe was given to French troops stationed in North Africa as a disease preventative. When the troops returned home to Paris, they brought their taste for absinthe with them. It became so popular in bars, bistros, cafés, and cabarets that, by the 1860s, the hour of 5 p.m. was called l’heure verte (the green hour).
A revival of absinthe began in the 1990s, when countries in the European Union began to reauthorize its manufacture and sale. In 2007 French absinthe “Lucid” was the first authentic absinthe brand to be legally imported to the US since the ban in 1912. The absinthe must contain less that 10 mg/kg of thujone to be legally imported. Also that year, the first batch of legally produced absinthe was made in California.

Absinthe produced for consumption outside the US can contain up to 100 mg/kg thujone, like Century Absinth. Some aficionados claim that this is the true absinthe which creates the “effects” cherished by famous absinthe drinkers of the day: Edouard Manet, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Oscar Wilde, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Pablo Picasso, and Ernest Hemingway.
(some information for this post from wikipedia.com)