Wednesday, November 28, 2012
It’s the Sunday after Thanksgiving: I Can’t Wait to Cook!
Whereas most people are tired of cooking the weekend after Thanksgiving, I was chomping at the bit to get back in the kitchen. I can only go so many days eating out, you see, even if “out” means at someone’s home. This year, I spent the holiday with friends and family in New York and didn’t get to prepare nearly as many dishes as I would like. (And by that, I mean all of them.)
Happily, a college friend visiting from out of town provided me the opportunity to have an impromptu dinner party upon our return back to Boston, allowing me get my Thanksgiving on in my own small way. Nothing too fancy, as we had just arrived back home several hours prior, it was a typical P.K. soup and salad meal taken up a notch with grapefruit martinis, oysters, and a fabulous dessert to make things special. Here’s the menu and food porn photos.
Course 1: Oysters on the half shell with a sweet and spicy mignonette. (More on why I love oysters here.)
Course 2: Spinach salad with pomegranate, roasted pepitas, scallions, and a pomegranate-honey vinaigrette.
Course 3: Thai pumpkin cashew soup with coconut and curry.
Course 4: Pumpkin bread pudding with caramel and vanilla-scented whipped cream
Dinner Notes and Thanksgiving Musings
Just for the record, serving pumpkin soup followed by pumpkin bread pudding is not something I’d usually do: that’s a gratuitous amount of squash in one meal, not to mention the pumpkin seeds. (To avoid the redundancy, I considered pulling my lobster bisque from the freezer but it didn’t seem very Thanksgiving-y and I hadn’t any fresh lobster on hand for a proper garnish.) I actually made the soup on Wednesday prior to share with my family over the weekend; Sunday’s version built off that base, as I can only cook so much in a few hours’ time and needed to run to the store and prepare the other dishes. So let’s just call it a theme, in an “I’m going to hit you over the head with fall flavors” kind of way.
It wasn’t the full-on feast I hope to create one day, alas. But between these dishes and the few others I made on Thanksgiving, I almost feel like I hosted my own holiday supper.
Almost.
I envy any lucky guests who get to attend your dinner parties. This menu looks exquisite! And in my book you can never overdo it on the pumpkin.
Awww, shucks. No (oyster) pun intended.