Clik here to view.
_________________
Happy day after turkey day. Although Chez Foie was quite turkey-free this year. We had made the preemptive decision not to travel this year because of an extenuating familial circumstance. And while I have been known to make a full on Thanksgiving feast for as few as 2, it didn’t seem wise or necessary this year.
Instead, I got all of my poultry and stuffing urges out by doubling down on the Xmas turkey planning — if you were wondering there will be 2 stuffings, 9 sides and 3 pies, and no that’s not too many — and decided to treat Thursday cooking as just another Thursday. I had the vague thought of perhaps trying to create the world’s best turkey burger — patties of ground turkey thigh and turkey sausage, topped with jalapeño cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts slaw, on maybe some sort of stuffing inspired bun— but when market day dawned as a snowy/rainy/sleeting mess, we hunkered down on the couch, thankful for the fact that the extenuating circumstance had had an excellent result, the fact that we can work from the couch in pjs, that we didn’t have to drive or fly though winter storm Cato, and that due to my normally overly enthusiastic market visits, we had array of non-holiday specific meats, fish and veg to subsist on for the long weekend ahead. Which has weirdly meant that as everyone else is indulging in the meal of the year, here it has been lots of grilled fish, kale salads, and chia and flax on everything. Not a plan to be contrary, just the way it sometimes works out when I dig deep into the pantry. And realize that all of the chia seeds that I had so earnestly purchased last fall are quickly reaching their best by dates.
But all of those pie photos you all were posting all evening on Instagram got to me, and I woke up craving something sweet today. I pulled out the pears and apples, the brown sugar, and the flour. Only to abandon the pie plan as overly ambitious before my first cup of coffee. As I was putting the ingredients back where they belonged — or maybe just pushing them further back on the counter — I thought about maybe poaching the pears. Or baking the apples. Sweet, nutty, cinnamon infused baked apples it was. I took 2 Pink Lady apples, scooped out the core, and placed them in a high-sided baking pan. Then I mixed together about 1/3 cup of cooked bulgur (I think any grain would do, even oats), a handful of raisins, a small handful of crushed walnuts, some shelled pistachios, a scant spoonful of brown sugar, and a very healthy sprinkle of cinnamon. I stuffed as much of the filling as would fit into each apple, and bunged them into a 350 oven for about 40 minutes, until the apple walls were soft but not quite collapsing, and the whole thing was fragrant.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.Clik here to view.
