Thanksgiving: no joke in the Renery household

I have missed Thanksgiving at my house for the past 3 years.  This year I was home and took advantage of having access to EVERY ingredient necessary for an over-indulgent feast.  My family had a 25 pound turkey for 8 people.  We had an average of 4 sides and desserts per person.  It was NO JOKE, but soooooo delicious that I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and eat all the leftovers!!  Sadly, we were all so hungry that I couldn't get pics of the ham, creamed corn, stuffing, or cabbage.

I'm very thankful to be home this year and with my family and friends.  Happy holidays everyone!!

Pre-meal prep

Mozzarella, sundried tomato, and basil bread

Recipe

Pumpkin, feta, sunflower seed muffins

Recipe

Banana bread

 Recipe

Green beans, cherry tomatoes, almond, pancetta

TURKEY

Roasted veggies

Cranberry sauce with Meyer lemons

Anna's plate #1

Food coma

Unnecessary addition of cupcakes

Cherry Pie

Ice cream and coffee

Anna's dessert plate #1

Guest post: Colombian Specialties from my Roommate!

La linda Joanna

I'm lucky enough to live with my fantastic Colombian friend Joanna.  When she gets herself in the kitchen, she GETS in the kitchen and whips up some of the best Colombian treats ever.  This week, she's done a guest post in memory of her recent cooking adventures.  Here's what she had to say (P.S. she wrote this entirely herself in English and I didn't change a thing, which makes me feel slightly bad about her having to put up with my Spanish after all these months!)

Joanna's Culinary Adventures:

Distance makes you do things you never thought you would. I always refused to cook; if there was anything in the house I used the least, it was the kitchen. Well, now it’s not any different, but because I miss my food, my flavors, my variety, and am tired of the same Argentine food, I decided to try a little harder and make something by myself. The result: success!

So this is what I did:

For Saturday’s lunch: Ajiaco Santafereño
For Sunday night: Patacones with cheese, tomato, ham and boiled corn

Wait, what is that you ask?

Well, it’s Colombian food. Ajiaco Santafereño is a typical soup of Bogotá, Colombia. The original Ajiaco is a potato-based soup and has three varieties of potatoes: criolla, sabanera and pastusa, but it’s not easy to find all those potatoes in Buenos Aires (I'm pretty sure they don't exist in here), so with the basic potato you find in Disco is fine. The other main ingredients are: chicken, guascas, cream and capers and accompany it with rice and avocado. If guasca is not added, the flavor changes a bit. Here’s a good recipe I found in the Washington Post.

Ajiaco Santafereño

Then I found green Plátanos (plantains) at Disco and I had to buy at least one, because that doesn’t happen very often. Sundays are dedicated to studying, so Anna and I are at home studying hard (sure) and we eat a lot (true). “We need energy to do it” Anna always says.  She is the chef, she loves doing it and she makes veeeery tasty dishes. But this time I made the dinner. Nothing special, but very Colombian: Patacones, cheese, ham, tomato and boiled corn.  Plantains become sweeter and less starchy as they ripen, but they also lose their firmness, so I like them better greener.  It’s fast and easy to do, here is a good recipe and don’t forget to sprinkle with salt when they are still hot. Patacones are a good fit for almost everything; you can eat them with rice and meat; as a snack with sauce; with fish and salad, or just the patacones with cheese if you have antojos. 

Patacones

Roast beet, green bean, panceta, and corn salad

 So not the best photo for this one, but this salad was pretty delish in my opinion.  It's simple, colorful, and fresh.  I added a chipa on the side for a little treat!

Ingredients:
- Panceta, diced largely
- Beets, peeled and sliced thick
- Green beans, trimmed and cut in half
- Fresh corn
- Dressing of choice (I think I just did some lemon, honey, rice vinegar, and salt)

Directions: Place the beets on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt, pepper, some honey, and olive oil.  Roast until cooked through.  In the meantime, bring water to a boil and add green beans when ready.  Blanch the green beans for about 3 minutes and immediately strain into an ice bath.  This keeps them crunchy and bright green.  Add the panceta to a pan and let the fat render off until the pieces are crispy.  Drain excess fat and let cool on a pan.  Cut corn off the cob and set aside. 

Once the beets are ready add all the ingredients to a salad bowl.  If necessary, add a touch of dressing and salt.  I like to serve the salad warm, but any way is good. 

Curried squash, lentil, feta, and almond salad

 

This is one of my favorite meals when you want something spicy, not spicy hot, but spicy-flavorful.  It's healthy, hearty, and makes you feel good afterward.  I like to eat it as a salad or even better, in tortillas with a little extra cheese.   In this photo, I made the salad without any greens, but I usually put some rucula in with the mix to make it a little more fresh and colorful.

Ingredients:

1 Cup of dried lentils

1 package of cut squash

100-200 grams of feta (goat cheese is good too)

100 grams of almonds, chopped

Spices - curry, cumin, condimento para aves, garlic powder, salt, and pepper

2 Bay leaves

Honey

Olive oil

Directions: Rinse the lentils and let them soak for 15 minutes or so.  Once done soaking, rinse them again.  Bring them to a boil in a pot with tsp of salt, garlic, and the bay leaves.  Once they start to boil, let them simmer covered until cooked through.  Watch them because it can take 20-45 minutes and you don't want them to over cook and fall apart.  Although I've done it and lentil soup is a good backup dish!

Spread the squash onto a baking sheet and sprinkle with about a tsp of curry and 1/2 tsp of the remaining spices.  Drizzle a tsp of honey and tsp of oil over the squash and mix them all around with your hands until evenly coated.  Place sheet in a HOT oven and let roast, turning the squash with a spatula after about 15-20 min so both sides brown.  Cook until done and let them cool.

On another baking sheet, spread out the almonds and roast them for about 10 minutes.  Be careful that they don't burn.  Once they are done, take them out of the oven and drizzle with a touch of honey and salt so that they candy slightly, but aren't too sweet.  Let them cool and the honey harden.  

While each element cools down, chop the feta into little pieces and prepare the rucula.  Drain the lentils and put them into the serving bowl.  Add the squash from the baking sheet, scrapping off any of the juices and browned parts (there is no dressing, so make sure the get all the honey and olive oil goodness). Add the cheese, almonds, and rucula.  Mix all together, adding salt to taste.  Sometimes I squeeze a lemon onto the salad for an extra punch.

Beet, green bean, panceta, and walnut salad

 

This salad is my favorite salad of all time.  Well that's a lie, but it's damn good.  So good in fact, that I even convinced a die-hard non beet eater to convert to eating beets.  Honey roasted beets, crispy blanched green beans,  crunchy panceta pieces, and candied walnuts with a citrus mustard dressing.  Yes please!  Add it to the arsenal folks, it's a keeper.

Ingredients:

- 6 large beets, peeled and cut into large bite-size pieces

- 1/2 kilo of green beans, cut in half

- 100 grams of walnuts

- 150 grams panceta en un solo trozo, cubed

- dijon mustard

- juice of a lemon, orange, or grapefruit

- honey

- olive oil

- salt, pepper, garlic powder

Directions: Lay beets on a baking sheet, sprinkle with garlic powder, salt, pepper, large tbsp of honey and olive oil to coat each beet.  Roast in oven on high for 20-40 minutes until they are done.  Take them out, sprinkle with more salt to taste and let cool.

On a separate baking sheet, place the walnuts in the oven.  Roasted for about 10 minutes, constantly checking that they don't burn.  Take them out and drizzle over a teaspoon of honey and mix for about a minute or two to coat each walnut.  Sprinkle with a bit of salt and let cool and harden.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  While it's heating, get another large bowl ready with ice water.  You want it really cold.  Once the water is boiling, add the green beans and cook for 3 minutes max.  Strain them into the ice water to shock them and stop the cooking process.  This also keeps them bright green.  Let them hang out until you're ready to combine.

Add panceta to a pan on the stove top.  Cook until the bacon begins to crisp and get nice and brown.  Remove from heat and place panceta on a towel to drain the excess fat.  Save the bacon grease for soups, breads, or something tasty!

Now make the dressing with a tbsp on mustard, tsp of honey, the juice of a lemon etc, olive oil and salt to taste.  Mix to combine and add more of whatever ingredient to get the flavor you like.  Add all the elements of the salad together minus the walnuts.  Drizzle some the dressing over the salad and add the nuts to the top.  Delicious!