As I would in any typical year, I started cooking our Thanksgiving meal when the Macy\u2019s Day Parade started.\u00a0 Courtney got up just in time to see the start of it.\u00a0 She was being cute: she had established a tradition of watching the Parade on TV while cuddled in a blanket with her favorite childhood stuffed animal.\u00a0 It was her own personal tradition; I liked it because I saw her regress back to an eight-year-old.\u00a0 Stuffed animals are no longer her thing, now that she\u2019s in High School, but she still maintains this.\u00a0 She also has other personal traditions for Christmas, starting with Black Friday tomorrow and then the setting up of the Christmas tree.\u00a0 She doesn\u2019t need to buy anything tomorrow; she just likes the holiday environment.<\/p>\n
Today, unlike previous years, there would be no turkey.\u00a0 The family wanted me to cook a full-on French meal, and so I did.\u00a0 In the morning, I cooked the desserts because they needed at least three hours to set.\u00a0 I then pretty much cooked the courses in progression.\u00a0 As with a real French meal, the meal would be served in courses over a two to three hour period.\u00a0 The first course started at noon, right in the middle of the first football game.\u00a0 It was the cheese plate with some figs, nuts and baguettes.\u00a0 Next up was the appetizer: pruchetta wrapped figs.\u00a0 They were very tasty and popular.\u00a0 For the next few courses, we sat down as a family at the table.\u00a0 We had French onion soup followed by a cheese souffl\u00e9 and green beans with garlic and Fontana cheese.\u00a0 We were too full for the main course, so we opted to save that for dinner.\u00a0 The family did want one of the desserts now, so I served the mocha mouse.\u00a0 In between lunch and dinner, we played tennis. \u00a0Dinner was fillet mignon in a green peppercorn sauce served with a 2005 Francis Coppola Cabernet.\u00a0 Delicious!\u00a0 Dessert was a berry torte served with a coffee and orange flavored dessert wine that we had bought from a recent trip to some Gilroy wineries.\u00a0 Again, it was pretty good, though I did learn earlier in the day not to add lemon to a custard (the middle part of the torte), as it will curdle.\u00a0 The consistency of the torte was wrong, and the wine did not match up perfectly with the torte (berries & lavender versus coffee and orange).\u00a0 An ice wine would have been better.\u00a0 On the whole though, it was a fantastic dinner.\u00a0 Perhaps this will become a new family tradition!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I would in any typical year, I started cooking our Thanksgiving meal when the Macy\u2019s Day Parade started.\u00a0 Courtney got up just in time to see the start of it.\u00a0 She was being cute: she had established a tradition … Continue reading