Happy Thanksgiving!  

Thanksgiving is the North American holiday that celebrates the family, and the Thanksgiving dinner is the main event of the holiday. For some reason I had never contemplated preparing a Thanksgiving dinner, perhaps because we were never home on Thanksgiving. Well this year we were here and I felt ambitious enough to tackle the turkey -- the center piece of a classic Thanksgiving dinner.

Incidentally, the best Thanksgiving turkey I had, was oddly from a far-away place not normally associated with Thanksgiving dinners, namely the restaurant at Hotel Plinio in Manual Antonio, Costa Rica. We were both just recovering from a case of Montezuma's revenge, and were tentatively opening up our appetite. The restaurant was famous for its small plates and that was what we went for. We had forgotten the day was Thanksgiving day, and the restaurant was only serving Thanksgiving dinner. So we shared one order, starting with a delish pumpkin soup, followed by a huge plate of turkey, stuffings, and all sorts of fixings. Everything tasted so perfect, and yet the two of us with our delicate stomaches couldn't even finish half of the plate. We felt very tragic. Maybe it tasted even better because of our inability to enjoy it more -- what we cannot have, we always dream of more...

With that idealized turkey dinner in my mind (although I've long forgotten how exactly it tasted, or even what was in the stuffing), I start to work on my own. My first task was to buy a bird that is small enough for my dinner party (or four people) and would not produce so much leftover to last until...xmas. Luckily I found one at Whole Foods labeled at 7.3 lbs, and it was not even frozen so I did not have to thaw it. Then I started in search of a recipe, from my various cookbooks as well as a zillion choices on the web, I tried to formulate my own approach. My sister gave a couple of tips: brine the turkey, and cook the stuffing separately.

The big day dawned. I still had quite some shopping to do -- all I had at the moment was the turkey, which I put in a brine. I was in for a terrible shock as I pulled in my first shopping stop -- the parking lot was deserted, the store closed. I had not taken it for granted that stores would open on any given day, after all, the Chinese groceries are open on Chinese new year. But not all stores are so practical -- some chose to let their employees have a life. Luckily, my third stop was open, and bustling. It was not without problems though -- half of the things I wanted was sold out! Almost in panic mode now, I tried to concentrate on the positive and congratulated myself on my wise act I of getting the turkey early... After another 3 stores, each lacking some items I was seeking, my shopping list was finally almost filled. I shall remember this lesson well, if I ever make a holiday dinner again, DO NOT LEAVE SHOPPING TO THE LAST DAY!

I was planning to make a pumpkin pie (another staple). What I did not count on was that it would take quite a long time to prepare, as I learned from the expert (Matthew's mom) at the last minute. So no pumpkin pie for us. Another lesson learned (hopefully).

Anyway, the rest of the dinner plan went without incident, and the turkey was cozily tucked into the oven as we played a boardgame, sipping sangria and enjoying the aroma from the kitchen. Thanksgiving was cozy! Everything went without a glitch until the turkey came out of the oven. I sat it on a plate to steep in its own juice. The next minute, as I was ready to make the gravy, I couldn't find the turkey drippings (the main ingredient of the gravy)! My overly zealous dishwasher (a person who shall not be named here)had already washed the tray! Needless to say he incurred my greatest wrath, and hurriedly offered to squeeze the last juices out of the turkey. So our gravy was mostly chicken, with just a touch of turkey (can anyone really tell?).

The dinner was a success! (if I do say so myself) The turkey was tender, to my relief, although not quite as tasty as I hoped, and nothing to compare to that idealized memory, but was descent enough. The star of the dinner was the mushroom and chestnut stuffing (recipe attached). Matthew's squash also receive good reviews.

Here's the stuffing recipe (modified slightly from an online one):

Ingredients:
1/2 loaves old-fashioned white bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (or equivalent amount of dried cubed toast)
generous amount of butter (+ olive oil) [I used my leftover sage butter from my turkey rubbings: butter+sage+pepper+salt)
1 onion, chopped
1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
a couple of celery stalks, chopped
a medium sized carrot, chopped
3/4 pound fresh (or frozen) chestnuts, roasted, shelled, chopped
a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme leaves
a sprig of chopped fresh rosemary
dash of ground nutmeg
about 1/2 cup chicken broth
dash of dry Marsala [optional]

Directions:
[Skip this part if using dried toast] Preheat oven to 400°F. Divide bread between 2 large baking sheets. Bake until golden, stirring occasionally, about 25 minutes. Transfer to large bowl.

Melt butter in heavy large skillet (with olive oil, if using) over high heat. Add onions and cook for a few minutes. Reduce heat to medium. Add mushrooms; stir until mushrooms begin to soften and release juices, about 5 minutes. Add celery and stir 2 minutes. Mix contents of skillet into bread cubes. Mix in chestnuts, thyme, rosemary and nutmeg. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in chicken broth to moisten. Add a dash of Marsala.(Can be prepared one day ahead. Cover and refrigerate).

Spoon stuffing into buttered baking dish. Cover stuffing with buttered aluminum foil. Bake stuffing in a dish alongside turkey until heated through, about 45 minutes. [alternatively you can stuff the stuffing (at room temperature) into the turkey before the turkey goes into the oven]

Happy Thanksgiving!

posted by gz 11:28 上午 留言/

 Obama . La Rondine . Viola da gamba  

This past week, I saw two stars -- one political, the other operatic.

When I heard about Barack Obama's appearance at Google, I was quite excited to get a chance to hear him talk. After living all these years in 3 different countries, I'd never heard a politician talk in person! From what I hear and read about Obama, of all the presidential hopefuls, he stands out to be the one who represents change and hope for the future in a climate of fear. I was intrigued by his unique background (born in Hawaii by a mother from Kansas and a father from Kenya; raised in Indonesia and Hawaii; graduate of Columbia and Harvard Law; community organizer and civil rights lawyer, etc.) His speech in the stuffy and boring 2004 Democratic convention was a rare breath of fresh air. As a senator he has one of the most liberal voting records, yet he also has a reputation of being willing and capable of working across party lines to get things done.

The talk was scheduled at 3:30pm in Google's main cafe. At 3 o'clock, I arrived in front of the cafe, along with at least hundreds of others -- due to the popularity, the cafe had reached its capacity and no more people were allowed. I was lucky enough to find a space to stand in the crowd about 3 rows behind the close-off line and could just make out a bit of the stage (about 200 yards away) on tiptoes. The place was buzzing with anticipation -- it was an interesting experience standing in such a young crowd. When Obama finally showed up, he gave a short speech, focusing on technology. I thought the speech was ok, nothing spectacular. Then the question session began, and he became a lot more engaging in his answers, from why he is running now, to Iraq and Pakistan, to his take on education and the economy. He strikes me as intelligent and sincere, and managed to sound both passionate and cool at the same time -- that's what people call charisma I guess. At the end of the session, someone asked him to respond to a common charge that he does not have a lot of experience, his answer was perfect for this crowd: "Sergey and Larry didn't have a lot of experience starting a Fortune 100 company..." Watch thevideo of Obama's Google visit.

On a lighter (and more melodious) note, we went to another Puccini opera on Friday night. (Puccini's our favorite opera composer because pleasing melodies and melodramatic plots are just our thing.) La Rondine (the swallow) is somewhat of an aberration in his illustrious career -- the wrong story conceived at the wrong time and wrong place. As a light hearted little opera commissioned by the enemy in the time of war, it did not achieve success then and stayed thereafter at the fringe of Puccini's operas. Though not nearly as intense and dramatic as Tosca or Madame Butterfly, it is nonetheless a Puccini opera -- as evidenced by the fact that we liked it. We were lucky to hear the best soprano for the role of Magda, the diva Angela Gheorghiu. She was phenomenal. Before the opera I listened to a few renditions of the famous aria 'Chi il bel sogno di Doretta' by several different sopranos. While the other sopranos do a fine job, Angela Gheorghiu's version immediately caught my full attention. Her voice, expressive and richly textured, seems to have a vibrant quality, a life of its own. So I knew I was in for a treat to hear her sing on stage, and she did not disappoint! It doesn't hurt that she is good to look at too. Watch the clip from La Rondine.

 

A while ago we went to a concert of music by Bach, written for the viola da gamba and keyboard (played by one of Matthew's favorite pianist, Angela Hewitt and the German cellist Daniel Müller-Schott on the piano and cello). It was lovely. That was the first time I heard about the instrument viola da gamba.
A few days ago, Matthew borrowed a dvd from the library, a French movie named "Tous les matins du monde" (all the mornings of the world). A slow paced, yet captivating film about a 17th century musician, reminiscent in style to Barry Lyndon. The star of the movie (Gerard Depardieu aside) was really the music and the instrument that made the music, viola da gamba. It was hauntingly beautiful. The sound is similar to the cello, but has its unique shimmering timbre. This got us really interested in the viola da gamba.

The ancestry of the viola da gamba, or viol, can be traced to Central Asia, where bowed string instruments were first observed in the tenth century. Viol-like instruments appeared in Moorish Spain not long afterward. (Perhaps this is why Savall placed a naghma piece at the beginning of his series.) The viol looks like an ancestor of the cello, but it has more in common with the guitar or the lute. It is much lighter in construction, so that even the softest tones resonate handsomely, and its strings lie flatter on the bridge, so that a single stroke of the bow can produce rich chords. On the debit side, the viol has a hard time making itself heard in a large ensemble, which is why the more muscular cello began to supersede it in the Baroque period.

Along with the movie there is a documentary on the musician who played the music -- Jordi Savall, who is apparently a modern day renaissance man. A Newyorker article described him as:

...not only a performer of genius but also a conductor, a scholar, a teacher, a concert impresario (he founded the Hespèrion XXI, Le Concert des Nations, and La Capella Reial de Catalunya ensembles, all of which accompanied him to New York), a record-label director (his is called Alia Vox), and the patriarch of a formidable musical family.

Well, thanks to the movie, I'm sold on viola da gamba and Jordi Savall. I'd love to go to his concert (there's one coming up next February in LA, hmmm...). I imagine the Palau de la Musica Catalunya, in his native Barcelona, a stunning but intimate concert hall, would be a great fit for the music.

posted by gz 11:24 下午 留言/

 Lily's 9th Birthday Celebration  

 

posted by Rujing 5:29 下午 留言/