Thanksgiving "Sides"

I had issues trying to find a vegetable casserole to bring our host for Thanksgiving. All the recipes seemed to be rife with cream, cheese, and a can of mushroom soup. I love cream and cheese as much as the next person, but with mashed potatoes, gravy AND stuffing, you can go a little overboard. I want to try one of the lower-cal broccoli recipes at home first. Wasn't sure if it was take-worthy. I have a a Brussels sprouts recipe with craisins and mustard, but need to try out that one too. Many people are not fond of Brussels sprouts. My children, for example.

What I decided to cook is a made-from-scratch green bean casserole. Fresh beans, fresh mushooms, a home-made white sauce and then, well-not-quite-from scratch, the Durkee Onions. Very little cream. Hard to beat the onions. Roche Brothers had nice-looking green beans for 99 cents a pound.

For a dessert I'm taking something called a pear/cranberry butter crunch. Sounds like a winner.
At least it's got fruit.

Tonight we're experimenting with two different varieties of squash and a new recipe. Also making chicken that calls for fresh sage. I have a SAGE bush, in spite of the fact that I divided it in the spring.

I have some great holiday recipes and more to try. Used to make orange shells stuffed with sweet potatoes, but that would get a little pricey with oranges a buck apiece. The supermarket no longer carried Mrs. Paul's frozen sweet potatoes. No frozen sweet potatoes, in fact. WTF?

Well, this is New England where everyone likes center entrance colonials, flour tortillas and squash. Whatchagonna do? On Saturday, I'll pick up some squash at the prepped food counter. They do a good job on it. Butter, anyone?

I found a recipe for stuffed escarole. Sound rather intriguing. We finished up the goulash soup last night. After sitting for two days, it was perfecto-garcia. My "secret" is 1 teaspoon of sweet paprika, one of hot and one of smoked. We're a paprika friendly household. And always a teaspoon of caraway seed.

The people at the banquet last Saturday who thought the carrot soup too spicey would have howled in pain when they tasted my goulash soup. Again, spicey seems to be a condition a lot of New Englanders can't tolerate. The home of the bean and the cod, both somewhat bland. Clam chowder anyone? I love a meal where you keep the Kleenex on the table and a pitcher of water at hand. Ole!

Regional differences still abound. Someone referred to the airy spaces of a local hotel as a "fishbowl." Aha! Thought I. Another New Englander who likes small windows, chopped up dark rooms and Cape Cod style houses. We are the only house in our neighborhood who popped out the faux window dividers. Now instead of 6 panes, we have one. I love modern architecture. Living in the wrong area. Even living in the wrong century.

Enough New England bashing. After all, I have the slough, the Scottish Highland Cattle, a lot of neighborhood "burying grounds," and Old Ironsides. Whale watches. Newport. There's a lot to like. Happy Thanksgiving.

Reading, Writing and Arithmetic

Yup! I've been reading. Three novels on the trip. The Last Trip since I've been home, also finishing up Hallie Ephron's book, 1001 Books for Every Occasion. Lots of good suggestions. And for about a year I've been struggling to get through The Guermantes Way. Almost done. Don't think Hallie recommended Proust. He's a bear, but so rewarding.

Writing, yes. Always writing. More rejection. One that particularly stung yesterday, because the editor didn't like the characters, thought the main character unbelievable and the beginning forced. This was the book which my writer's group favors.

I admit I have plenty of unlikeable characters in my books, which is odd, because in life I tend to like most everyone. There are a few exceptions of course, but if I think back over jobs and organizations, most of the folks were all right.

The beginning of this book originally started much earlier in the story, but there is always, always, the advice to get to the murder, the action, no back story, blah, blah, and obviously the advice "shows." Forced beginning. How to make the character believable? My character is much different from me, so how to get into someone else's head? Dunno. Struggling with that in the current opus. So, suck it up, as usual. Currently, that book is nowhere. I'm wondering if I should try non-fiction. Short stories? Poems? Put down the pen forever. Then what?

Arithmetic, you ask? Always the calculations about the month and the money in this time of diminished value of investments. We have been through hard times before, and are used to scrounging, so it isn't so bad. The shock and adjustment were the worst things. So . . . suck it up there, too. Life is a series of suck-ups, isn't it? Or periods thereof.

Goulash soup last night. I stopped at Shaw's and bought one potato and one stalk of celery. . . everything else was in house, and then I discovered, whoops, no pepper. Used the rest of my jar of dried peppers. Couldn't tell any difference. My trick is to use 1 t. sweet paprika, 1 t. hot paprika, and 1 t. smoked paprika. Generous but not obscenely so toss of carraway seeds. Plenty of onion and garlic. I used some cheapy round steak that became tender in cooking. Plenty left for lunch today. I also used a mixture of beef and chicken broth.

Next topic today: competitive cooking

Goulash Soup Revisited

Note the meat is lean and not copious, and the selection of healthy veggies and seasonings. This soup won't bust anyone's diet. Use low-fat sour cream if you like.

This is the goulash soup template I use.

¾ lb. boneless sirloin or shell steak
2 T. oil (lard is traditional for “real” goulash)
2 cups (or more) chopped onion (small cubes)
2 cloves minced garlic
1 green or red pepper, chopped small
1 t. sweet paprika, 1 t. hot paprika and 1 t. smoked paprika
1 t. caraway seeds
1-2 carrots, finely chopped
1 can (14.5 oz) chopped tomatoes with their juice
Salt and pepper
Beef broth and water (2/3 to 1/3) go easy on the salt if the broth is salty
1 large boiling potato, peeled and cut into ½ inch cubes. .

Trim any fat from the meat and cut into smallish ¼ to ½ inch cubes. Heat the oil in a large flameproof casserole. Brown the meat, stirring often until brown. Add the onions, garlic, carrot and pepper. Cook and stir for five minutes. Add the paprika (all sweet will do just fine) caraway seeds, and seasonings. Sprinkle in a bit of dried thyme if you like. Add the tomatoes in their juice and enough broth to make a soup. The potato will thicken it some, and it will cook down some, so be judicious.

Cook for an hour, add the potato, and cook until the potato is done.

Serve with sour cream if desired. The mixture of various paprikas will add resonance and complexity to the flavor.

4 to 6 generous servings. It gets better with age.