Small on Numbers and Big on Love

 Last year we hosted Thanksgiving, taking on the role of "adult" for the first time. Well we were more of "adults" on training wheels as Mimi held our hand through the entire prep.  Our Thanksgiving of four last year at our new home turned out to be great.

When we decided to host Thanksgiving this year at our place again, I didn't really give it much thought at first. It would be similar to last except we would be removing our training wheels and prepping all by our selves. But then it suddenly hit me. This was going to be our first Thanksgiving as a married couple! Our first Thanksgiving as a true family.

We started planning our menu last Saturday. I had my Cooking Light magazines strewn across the table,  the clippings from New York Magazine's "Global Thanksgiving" article from two years ago, and a phone close by to consult Mimi. We needed to have a menu that reflected our past traditions but we also needed to include new menu items, ones that we could call our own. Food is the centerpiece of tradition, and if we were going to start our Nowicki family traditions off right the food had to be great.

We finally settled on the following menu:

Appetizer: Nonni's Shrimp
Typically a New Years specialty, these shrimp are to die for. Instead of going through the torture of de-veining the little fuckers, we opted for the short cut and bought cleaned frozen small shrimp. After they are defrosted, you simply coat them in flour and toss them in a pan of  sizzling butter, cook them a few minutes on each side and dust them with some garlic salt and they are ready to serve. They were a perfect appetizer. Simple and yet so delicious they left us wanting more.

Main Course: Garlic and Rosemary Slow Roasted Turkey (Cooking Light Dec. 2009)

This was our first time cooking a whole turkey. Last year we decided since it was just the four of us we would make Turkey wings since none of us are really crazy about the white meat. Let's just say that was another lesson on why we shouldn't buy meat from FineFare. Learning from our mistake last year , we decided to go big or go home. The best part of preparing this bird was watching Joe as he separated the skin from the body and rubbing both the inside and outside with the delicious rosemary rub. Gross process but spectacular finish.  The rub was ours but the magic turkey roasting pot was a Gregory contribution. Both combined created a perfectly cooked turkey. Joe and Chuck got all manly on that Turkey and carved it up into scrumptious pieces.

Sides


Mimi's Famous Stuffing Unfortunately I missed out on years of this delicious stuffing because once when I was little and my mom was in the hospital for her first hip surgery, I stupidly tasted the stuffing and it ruined my stuffing eating experience for years. It was only a few years ago when I gave it another shot and realized what I had been missing out on. Oh and I also learned from Mimi that there is only one way to cook and that is big. So whether there are four or fourteen you end up cooking the same.

To make this stuffing you chop up a head of celery and about 4 big onions. After the chopping ordeal you cook them in a big pan with about a 1/4 inch of water just until the onions and celery get tender then you add a stick of butter (Let's make Julia Child proud) In another pan saute chopped mushrooms in.....you guess... more butter. Add the sauteed mushrooms to  the celery and onions. When finished place them in a large bowl and start adding torn up pieces of Wonder Bread (about 10 slices total) Now you brown about 3pounds of chopped pork in the same pan you did the onions and celery in. When that is down browning you add that to your big bowl stirring in more bread if necessary, fresh thyme, salt, and pepper. If the stuffing is too dry you can add chicken stock.

Mimi's Cranberry Sauce To think that I ever liked canned cranberries. Fresh cranberry sauce is as simple as can be. Bring a cup of orange juice to a boil for a package of fresh cranberres and stir in about a 1/4 cup of brown sugar. Cranberries begin to explode which is always fun watch. Continue to stir as cranberry sauce thickens.

Pureed Butternut Squash  (New York Magazine Holiday Food 2007 Italian) Although it is sad to admit, I have outgrown candied sweetpotatoes. Although our candied sweetpotatoes never resembled anything like those overy sugary marshmellowed trays of disasters, we felt that we didn't want to keep that tradition alive in the Nowicki household. We debated about doing a sweet potato gratin but opted something a little more easy. While at first, we thought it appeared to be more of a soup after letting it simmer on a low heat he thickened up quite well and was a fantastic new addition to the Thanksgiving meal.

Cippollini and Apples with Bacon (Cooking Light December 2009) This choice of side was chosen to prove my independence. It was a snipping of the umbilical cord. Or it was me just being an nudge, trying to prove to my mom that fruit and savory work well together. They turned out great and the best part is that we have Mimi on tape saying that she actually liked them! All I know is that we have the evidence!

Cauliflower in a Bechamel sauce (A Gregory/Gulotta tradition) If we must credit anyone for this dish it is Diana. Mimi's brother's ex-wife, who we still share some holidays with. It is a sinfully delicious dish loaded with butter and parmesean, its simply unbeatable. This dish took two attempts. Unfortunately I didn't follow Mimi's vague directions very well and my first batch went down the drain. With a little help form Batali I was able to create a successful Bechamel sauce. Can't say I quite nailed Diana's version but it was pretty damn close.


Simple Green Beans We figured we needed to throw in a simple dish so we steamed some green beans coated them with butter, salt, and pepper and goodbye and goodluck as Chuck and Mimi like to say.


Pumpkin Bread with Fresh Pumpkin Puree It's really just this year that Joe and I have discovered that you can actually eat all those vegetables you decorate your house with for the fall season. It's like fucking magic! We took our hand picked pumpkin from Greig's Farm in RedHook roasted it and pureed it. Then my amazing husband found a recipe for pumpkin bread and baked us some fresh bread Martha Stewart style...MMMMMM

Dessert: Pumpkin Pie from Make My Cake Honestly a tradition I intend to keep from the Gregory/Gulotta family is the fact that desserts are better when you buy them. Last year as an adult in training I made the mistake of buying a pie from some stupid expensive bakery on the UWS which turned out to be quite dry for the steep price of $26. This year we went with a Harlem bakery and it was sensational. We are now loyal customers. They have baked my birthday cupcakes, Chuck's 80th B-day Red Velvet Cake, and now have a place on our table for Thanksgiving.

Now that I have documented the food portion of our first Nowicki Thanksgiving, let me go back to that very important realization that this was in fact our first Thanksgiving as a married couple. Holidays are an important part of family and although I come from a relatively small family, creating shared traditions are really important to me. Through the years are small family has gotten even smaller, from the loss of my grandmother, to well realizing that certain family members are full of shit. This loss has saddend me. How was this new holiday going to compare to the ones of my memories? So it was, as I said before, just the four of us. But as we shared delicious food, raised our glasses of champagne, laughed, drummed, and even created a little fire on our small terrace(that's a story for another time), I realized a very important thing. Our family may be small on numbers but we are certainly big on love.

To many more Nowicki Gregory Holidays!