Thanksgiving 2011 - Part 1

Happy Thanksgiving! A lot to be thankful for at somerville kitchen today and everyday.

And what is better than to celebrate with close friends. While some were enjoying our last dry day for a while, smoking and catching up in le jardin, others were joining hands to produce a feast worthy of the company and the occasion. 

Guests gathered around the table close to 7:30 welcomed by three distinct salads.

From left to right: (1) cucumber and avocado salad sprinkled with dried shredded kelp and dressed with soy sauce, vinegar and lime; (2) Kimpira - a salad of burdock root and carrots with sake, soy sauce and sweet wine, all sprinkled with Japanese original sesame seeds; (3) cucumber and yellow peppers salad with sour cream-yogurt-dijon mustard dressing. 
 
Other appetizers included a massive jardin tomato that all admired but no one wanted to cut.

And freshly made asparagus wrapped with beef and marinated in a warmed-up sauce of soy sauce, ginger, cooking wine and lime.

The star chicken was then brought out after being convection oven roasting for 2.5 hours. 

Stuffed with simple bread-mushrooms-celery-onion stuffing and rubbed with butter, it was, humbly stating, roasted to perfection.





And of course the basic accompaniments of mashed potatoes, mashed carrots-turnips, green beans & white asparagus, home made gravy and popovers. 

The popovers are from Janice Wong's Chow recipe which work out perfectly only if you follow the recipe word for word. Even cats enjoyed them despite having no butter in them.

The evening ended with more rich food, this time sweet and decadent. Rather than the conventional pumpkin pie, I made Better Homes & Gardens marbled chocolate-pumpkins brownies from the following recipe. 

Happy Thanksgiving from somerville kitchen!