THANKSGIVING...FINALLY!

We planned Thanksgiving dinner around Turkey with Sherry's Stuffing, made from whole wheat bread and Challah, garlic mashed potatoes, gingered sweet potatoes, homemade Orange-Port cranberry sauce, and roasted vegetables. We have traditionally roasted carrots, parsnips and rutabaga (parsnips were my dad’s favorite vegetable for Thanksgiving). This year, we roasted our new favorite – Brussels sprouts (cut in half, coated with Kosher salt and olive oil, roasted at 400 until well done).

Margot decided to cook a “No-Knead” bread (we apparently needed the bread), and a spicy Sweet Potato casserole. The recipe for the No-Knead bread follows; unfortunately, the recipe for the casserole is still with the US Patent office, being trademarked.

For dessert, Hillary made her favorite – Grandma’s Passover Apple Pie. Yes, we know it was the wrong holiday, but both are about giving Thanks (and it was a great dish to finish the day).

Before, during, and after dinner, we drank up some of the vintage Rosenblum Cellars wines we’ve collected as part of our long love affair with Kent’s creations, including the 1981 Cohn Cabernet which one the first wine we tasted with Kent in 1983. The 1987 and 1988 Holbrook Mitchell Cabernet and Merlot were still superb wines, and made this a very special Thanksgiving.

No-Knead Bread

Yields one 1 1/2 pound loaf

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting

1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450°F. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.