Thanksgiving 2013

Darn! I thought we were going to do something different this year for Thanksgiving: a turkey and smoked sausage paella. Now wouldn't that have been fun? But alas, it wasn't to be. After agreeing to the paella, Ann changed her mind and decided we needed to cook the same old meal that I have been doing for about 30 years. I don't really mind the traditional Thanksgiving, but it is no longer something that excites me. Maybe because Ann doesn't cook all that often, she gets excitement and satisfaction from the once-a-year big feast. Speaking only for myself, I regularly cook for lots more people than we have over for Thanksgiving and so not only is it not a big feast, but I am bored with the menu, something we avoid at the restaurant by changing the menu nightly. Alas, maybe next year....

Lest you think I am complaining, I am not really. I had a wonderful time with all our friends and family and enjoyed getting in the kitchen with Ann and making it happen.

Here are some people shots. My camera is useless indoors if there is any motion and people, unlike food, just will not hold still. I couldn't even get a single decent photo of Mary, of the seven or eight frames, not a one was worth a damn. I dislike my camera. My cell phone does a better job.

Love the Light on the Place Cards

Found Centerpiece: Pampas Grass, Juniper, Leeks

Mark and Kelley Brought Huge Antipasti Trays

Cindy Brought Awesome Cheeses

Mash, Half Sweet Potato, Half Potato

Ann's Spinach Salad with Hot Bacon Dressing: Amazing and New!

We did actually have a new dish this year: a spinach salad with caramelized red onions, crispy shiitakes, bacon, and blue cheese with a hot bacon vinaigrette. I think Ann set out to make sautéed greens but picked a salad recipe by mistake. What a great mistake!

Ann's "Burnt" Sweet Potato Torte

Ann called me on Wednesday afternoon to say that she had burned her sweet potato torte and asked me if I could bring a dessert home, so I threw together a quick sweet potato cheese cake to replace it. It turned out she was freaking unnecessarily and her torte was excellent, if a tad brown on top. And so we had two sweet potato desserts, though my cheese cake was two thirds cheese and only a third sweet potato, just to give it some color.

My Sweet Potato Cheese Cake

Another delicious Thanksgiving with friends and family in the books. You should have been there!

Sona and a Wedding

My friend Shiv Kumar, chef and owner of Sona Restaurant here in Winchester, just got back from a month in India where he got married. So Ann and I just had to go visit him to see the wedding photos and while we were there, have a spot of dinner. We are waiting for his wife Sunitha to get her visa to come to the States. No doubt it will be a big party when she gets here!

Channa Chat, What's not to Like?

When I eat Indian food, I most appreciate the non-meat dishes. There is something about Indian vegetarian cooking that makes me happy, probably because it is such a mainstream part of their culture and is never treated as second-class food. And no doubt also in part because it is based largely on dal (beans, legumes, and lentils) some of my very favorite comfort foods. Speaking of legumes, one of Ann's favorite (and mine too) starters is channa chat, a classic Indian street food, and she ordered it for us. I think what I like best about channa chat is the chat masala made with amchur (powdered mango) that gives the dish its sweet and sour component.

Heywards 5000, a Nice Change from Taj

Even though it belongs to the SABMiller portfolio, Haywards 5000 made an appearance on our table, and I was happy to see it. Our local Miller distributor seems to have some difficulties keeping it in the warehouse. At 7.5% though, knocking back a deuce of this can be a bit work. In any case, it's a good change up from Taj Mahal which tastes a bit cheap and vegetal at times.

Saag or Liquified Chile Powder?

After the channa chat, we didn't order dinner; Shiv ordered for us and he knows my predisposition for vegetarian fare, so out came a saag for me. You might note the brownish deviation from its usual deep green color; that's from all the chile powder they added to it trying to hurt me. It didn't work.

Murgh Makhani

For Ann, Shiv sent a dish of murgh makhani, chicken in tomato-cream sauce because he knows she likes it. I really can't do dishes with all that much cream, but I noticed that they held way back on it. Thanks guys!

Makhani Dal

And for me, no Indian dinner is complete without dal and some bread to scoop it up. So I really appreciated this dish of makhani dal along with the basket of regular naan (on the left) and spicy naan on the right in the photo below. Though, Shiv, if you're reading this, I really do like the much less expensive and more plebian dal tadka better. It's less rich and for me, more comforting; I like toor dal and moong dal slightly better than urad dal.

Double the Naan, Double the Pleasure!

After the dinner dishes were cleared away, we looked through the massive photo album from the wedding over beers. If you've never seen or heard tell of an Indian wedding, it puts anything in the western world to shame. It is quite the production! Looking very forward to meeting Sunitha when she is able to get here.

Sona, Winchester

Taking advantage of our time off to catch up with friends, we made our first trip in a long while to see our friend Shiv Kumar at his restaurant Sona on the south side of Winchester.

Ever the fantastic soup maker, Shiv brought us each a bowl of his fiery red chicken soup before we had ordered dinner. To help wash down the Taj Mahal beers, we started with Channa Chat, a chickpea salad, and then went on to plates of lamb Seekh Kebab, ground lamb skewers traditionally cooked over coals but roasted in the tandoor in this case; a saag, braised greens; and a braised bone-in chicken dish that Shiv calls Murgh Punjabi. Man, that chicken was fantastic!

Nothing Like a Taj with Indian Food!

Channa Chat

Seekh Kebab Hiding under Salad

Murgh Punjabi—Delicious!