Thanksgiving: VASGO-style

On Thanksgiving this year, my experience was not quite as VASGO as I would have liked.  Italy does not celebrate the holiday so it was just another normal business day.  As I have told on other pages of my site, I am heavily involved in my Roman community and of course I still had one of my group practices the night of Thanksgiving.

Interestingly enough, if you live in Rome and didn't have obligations that night, I found out there were efforts made by a few pubs locally, about three or four total in the entire city, that offered a Thanksgiving meal.  That was nice to hear about. My thanks go out to you fine folks who decided to keep the tradition strong even if you're not in your  homeland.

The good news is that even though I was busy that day, I still got my turkey fix.  Some of our expat friends got together this weekend to build a fabulous Turkey Day meal and we were happy to attend. We even got to share it with some Italians who had never experienced a Thanksgiving meal before.  My favorite comment from one of them as I carved the turkey was "I have never seen a whole turkey before!"

So this year was abnormal.

Lucy-Lou from Kentucky writes:
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Dear Vasgo, 


What's a normal Thanksgiving Day like for you?


Sincerely,
Lucy-Lou
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Great question, LL!  If I were living in the U.S. still, I'd be creating a delicious meal because Thanksgiving is the one day I get to be EXTRA particular about all the food I eat. Typically one goes to be with their family that day to cook, be thankful for many things, go through the chaos of being with multiple animals, children, aunts, uncles, and more and end it with a fantastic meal.

Since I didn't have the luxury of getting back to where my family lived, my expert and I would celebrate as if the whole family were visiting us and we would cook as gourmet a Thanksgiving meal as possible.  Here's the final plate from last year's for example:

The photo doesn't do it justice, so here's the real details from my November 2010 Thanksgiving.

My expert and I woke up fairly early and got straight to cooking. First, baking the stuffing, Rosemary Bread Stuffing with Speck, Fennel and Lemon.  

How was it?  TO. DIE. FOR. 

Here's the end result:
While that was baking, it was time to work on dessert: Pioneer Woman's Pumpkin Cake with Whiskey Whipped Cream. Here it is while mixing in the whiskey-soaked golden raisins:And straight out of the oven:

Probably the biggest job of the morning was assembling the Roquefort Potato Gratin. Using a mandoline to slice the potatoes made the job about a million times easier.

We had a last minute addition to the menu, but there was plenty of time for assembly and baking of the home made Brioche Rolls. So buttery and delicious!

If you could have smelled these, you would not have been able to resist them.  The sea salt on top of them REALLY made them outstanding.
The final step in the middle of the day was prepping the turkey, our Malt-Beer Brined Turkey with Malt Glaze. We brined it overnight, took it out of the fridge in the morning, got it prepped, got all of the aromatics ready to stuff inside, laced him up, and in the oven he went. Here he is, fresh out with his glaze shining:
In the background of that picture, you can see the broccolini, which eventually became Broccolini with Smoked Paprika, Garlic and Almonds. It was cooked just before eating, and unfortunately we didn't get any separate pictures of it.

A feast fit for two, or twenty-two:
Now you see this plate again.  Makes more sense doesn't it?
Then came dessert! The recipe is fantastic and the whiskey soaked raisins absolutely MAKE the cake a winner.  So moist, so spiced and flavorful.  And with the home made whiskey-whipped cream, you can't go wrong.

Yes, it may be a bit overboard, especially considering only two people could eat it.  But it's a new and fantastic tradition my expert and I have created for ourselves that is absolutely VASGO-style and I fondly remember it, and fondly look forward to it in two years from now.

Even though it's a few days past, Happy Thanksgiving everyone!