GASTRONORMOUS

Not only are these festive little bowls adorable, but they also happen to be made of sustainable, organic bamboo and coated with a cashew nut-derived lacquer (like, totally seriously!), so you can feel super-good about serving party nuts in them. [$13.00]

By the way, here’s my favorite party nuts recipe, based on one given to me by my mother-in-law. I like to add a bit of heat to this recipe, but these nuts are the perfect balance of sweet and salty with or without the cayenne.

Diane’s Party Pecans

1 tsp cold water
1 egg white
1 pound large pecan halves
1 cup sugar
1 heaping tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne (optional)

Preheat oven to 225 degrees.

Beat water and egg white until frothy. Mix well with pecans. Combine sugar, cinnamon, salt, and cayenne (if using). Mix well with pecans. Spread on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Cool to room temperature and serve.

They keep well in an airtight container–but don’t expect them to remain around long!

This is the absolute coolest-looking mortar and pestle I have ever seen. I don’t know if the ball would be any more or less effective that then traditional pestle (such as the one I have at home), but it looks like it might be best used to crush spices, rather than, say make a pesto. But with something that looks this good on your counter or table, honestly, who cares! [$24.00]

Where: The home of Ulli and Randall.
When: November 22, 2007, evening.
What: Pumpkin soup with sweet corn foam.
Turkey.
Stuffing with mushrooms and chestnuts.
Risotto with pears and gorgonzola.
Mashed potatoes.
Mashed sweet potatoes.
Cranberry sauce.
Creamed pearl onions.
Whiskey apple pie with streusel topping.
Apple pie with granola topping.
Pumpkin pie topped with mascarpone whipped cream.
Pumpkin bars with coconut topping.

After breakfast, we took a long walk on the beach with the dogs, then came back and played cards (Milles Bornes!) while snacking on a cheeseball I made for the occasion. I attempted to help in the kitchen, but Ulli would have none of it, insisting I relax with the others in the family room. ‘Round about nightfall, we opened up a bottle of bubbly to whet our appetites. It was a surprisingly good brut from a winery in New Mexico (yes, New Mexico!) called Gruet. It is crisp and dry, perhaps lacking complexity, but perfectly enjoyable, and really ridiculously inexpensive (less than $15 for a 750ml bottle) for its quality.

We started with the soup, which was served in roasted mini-pumpkin and kabocha squash shells. Ulli used a whipped cream dispenser to squirt corn foam onto the top of the soup. She thought she could taste the nitrous oxide in it and was going to try something different next time, but I just tasted delicious corny goodness. I thought it was a brilliant touch to add to an already extremely tasty soup.

The turkey had been deep fried on the back porch, and was expertly carved by Randy. The stuffing was of simple ingredients: baguette, mushrooms, chestnuts, sweet onions, celery, and herbs. I don’t know if it was the cast-iron skillet it was baked in or just Ulli’s magical touch, but it was truly the best I have ever had, and I consider myself somewhat of a stuffing connoisseur. To me, the stuffing is the most important part of a Thanksgiving meal, maybe because Thanksgiving is the one and only day a year I eat stuffing.* The risotto was rich with gorgonzola; it’s sharp, creamy flavor contrasting the sweet, crisp pears. We also had mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, and we each got a little crock of creamed pearl onions. And it was all so incredibly delicious!

Not knowing there were already three pies coming down the pike, I brought a whiskey apple pie, the recipe for which I found in the New York Times. I made and baked off the crust, made the apple pie filling, and the streusel at home on Tuesday night, then on Wednesday night, I added the whiskey to the pie filling and assembled and baked the pie. The pie burnt a bit on top, but it still tasted delicious. All of Ulli’s pies were amazing. You can find the recipe for her pumpkin bars and the delicious egg liquor we sampled along with the pies on her website.

It was wonderful to spend Thanksgiving eating such amazing food with such a wonderful, warm, and fun bunch of people!

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Where: The home of Ulli and Randall.
When: November 22, 2007, morning.
What: apple/cranberry baked French toast, bacon, crudités.

Thanksgiving this year was spent out on the North Fork of Long Island at the house of my friend Derek’s parents. Derek’s mom, Ulli is a food stylist by profession and a storied cook by leisure, so needless to say I was looking forward to a few days of good eatin’. I learned quickly that she lives up to her nickname, “the Food Goddess.”

We drove out Wednesday night, stopping at the better-than-usual Taco Bell in Riverhead on the way. Everything at Taco Bells comes from a bag or can, so you’d think that they’d all make identically tasting food, but they don’t. But this is another topic. Someday I will revisit the issue of relativity of Taco Bell, I swear. Arriving at their cozy little white house, we were greeted by the fiery-haired Ulli, who was working in the kitchen, as she was to be doing, joyfully, for most of the day to come.

We woke up Thanksgiving morning to the wonderful smell of apples and cinnamon and were soon served this cross between bread pudding and French toast, studded with apples and cranberries. Gooey, custardy, but not too sweet, this was a meal in itself, though she served it along with a platter of thick-cut bacon and simple crudités. Ulli said she assembled it the night before and so was able to just pop it in the oven when she got up in the morning. This is a great recipe for when you are busy with guests, and if you are lucky, she’ll post the recipe on her website.