November 20 – November 26, 2023

Monday:                   Spicy Roasted Mushrooms and Tomatoes with Polenta

Tuesday:                   Chili Mac – Stuffed Mushroom Appetizers

Wednesday:            Tuscan White Bean with Red Onion, Salami and Tuna

Thursday:                 Roast Turkey, Beez’s Dressing, Spicy Cranberry Sauce, The Best Mashed Potatoes You Ever Had, Kale Salad, Spicy Sweet Potatoes Gratin, Stuffed Mushrooms, Pumpkin Pie, Stilton Cheese with Walnuts and Raisins

Friday:                       Leftovers with tomato, arugula and ham flatbread

Saturday:                  Margherita Pizza

Sunday:                     Turkey Shepherd’s Pie

Eating Light – Balancing Excess

At Thanksgiving, the early American colonists had a rare feast.  In their lives, food was not usually abundant.  These were men and women who worked pretty much from dawn to dusk, often had to go without adequate nutrition and went to bed exhausted.  We still eat that feast, featuring turkeys that are larger and fatter than the scrawny things they chased down through the woods of New England.  And we, my friends, do not work from dawn to dusk.  And the work we do rarely involves bodily exertion.  And, in spite of our good intentions, an hour in the gym can’t really make up for all of that.

But I am not suggesting that you take it easy on Thanksgiving.  On the contrary, you need to be as lavish with your diet as with your thanks and gratitude.  Have seconds – have thirds.  Come on, there’s some pie left and you won’t be eating again like this for some time. 

But then, there is the day before Thanksgiving.  The day after will be full of dietary land mines – leftovers from the giant feast you had on Thanksgiving Day.  So the time for restraint is clearly the day before Thanksgiving.

And I am as proud as Jane Fonda of herself in a body suit to announce that we had a most continent meal on the day before the feast, and, since the excess of Christmas is staring us in the face – you can use the same meal before whatever it is you ruin your diet with on Christmas and Christmas Eve.*

*What is this nonsense of putting up Christmas lights before Thanksgiving?  I give managers of chain stores a pass on the kitsch they junk up their aisles and windows with – they’re just following orders.  But who told the guy down the street to cover his eaves and roofline with Christmas lights?  The guy on the corner with Santa Claus and his reindeer in the yard has young children and, just like those chain store managers, may be forgiven – he is not his own man.

Are people afraid we’re going to forget about the holidays if they don’t continually remind us of what we need to buy from them to have a merry Christmas or celebrate Hannukah or have a joyous Festivus?  [I know that Festivus was Larry David’s spoof on the commercialism of Christmas for the Seinfeld Show, but I prefer it to other made-up holidays and, to be honest, I just like the way that George Costanza, with that wonderful, frantic, whining, self-centered and juicy voice, says the word.]

Oh – I almost forgot – here is that minimal dinner you might want to have on the day before the day before Christmas.  I mean, you cannot substitute this for the Seven Fishes or whatever you cook to celebrate Christmas Eve, and if you serve this on Christmas your friends and family will never come to your home again – a consequence that may have some appeal for you – but come on, it’s Christmas.

(Alas, no picture of the Tuscan White Beans)

Tuscan White Beans with Red Onion and Salumi

(adapted from Lynne Rossetto Kasper, The Italian Country Table)

Perfect cleansing dinner to be eaten before major holidays which involve eating and drinking to, if not excess, far beyond anything that is healthy.

So, we cheated and used canned white kidney beans (cannellini), but you can soak a pound of dried beans overnight and then cook them the next day with garlic and sage. You would then move to that step in the recipe which calls for them to be mixed, while hot, with vinegar.

Timing:                                         30 minutes

Ingredients:

Two cans of cannellini beans, one drained, one with its liquid

2 tablespoons of chopped fresh sage leaves or 1 tablespoon of dried sage

½ cup red or white wine vinegar (we used champagne vinegar)

½ medium red onion cut into thin slivers

2½ oz. of salumi cut into thin sticks – we used less than 2 oz. of a hot soppressata

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook:

Heat the beans with the sage in a small saucepan over medium or medium low.  When they are hot, you can drain (we didn’t, we rather like the bean liquid) and toss with the vinegar.  [Casper adds some minced garlic, but we think that makes this a bit off-putting.]

Fold in the salumi and onions.  If you want more substance, fold in a can of drained and flaked tuna.

[Note:  Casper advises cooling this for a least two hours before folding in the onions and salumi.  She likes to serve it cold.  We made the mistake of not reading that part of the directions when we first made this and have continued serving them hot since we like them that way.

Serve:

Add some crusty bread and you have a fine meal on the night before the night before.

Here is Murph, undecided on whether he can cadge more food from me carving the turkey, or Beez handling the side dishes