Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is our favorite holiday. I love to showcase all the great vegetables available this time of year. There are all kinds of wonderful squash, potatoes, turnips and greens available everywhere.  I love to cook a big meal no matter how many people are coming.   A few years ago I cooked for 12 or 13 people.  So much food.  Of course I got a little overwhelmed and miscounted the number of chairs I had and left the squash in the oven. Oh well, stuff happens.  This year will be much smaller-- only 3 or 4 people-- but I am still cooking large, and I am sure there will still be something forgotten.   It's almost a tradition now.  Truthfully I would rather have a house full of people.  I love to cook for a lot of people.

As you know our thing is "local", and we do buy our vegetables (those we don't get from the CSA) from local farms. However, if I could, my dream meal would be to cook a Thanksgiving dinner that I totally grew myself. Maybe the exception would be the turkey, but who knows, we have talked about having chickens for the eggs. A turkey couldn't be that much harder. Maybe not. It would be great to harvest my own potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, swiss chard, broccoli, and some unusual things like sunchokes, brussel sprouts, celeriac, fennel, rutabagas and parsnips.  There would be fruits and vegetables that I had preserved from earlier in the year. I would have applesauce, all kinds of pickles and of course home brew and home-made mead.

pickled beets, applesauce and pickled green tomatoes

One thing that I have always noticed about Thanksgiving is that even though I feel it is important to have something green on the table, like broccoli, nobody else, except maybe my husband, feels it is important to eat it.  It usually ends up back in the fridge waiting to be put into an omelet later in the week.  Sweet potatoes and stuffing always end up being the stars of the side dishes. In order to complete this dream dinner I want to make something green that people will want to eat.  I thought I would try something a little different this year.  I had a spaghetti squash from earlier in the season from the CSA, and this week's haul included some broccoli rabe.  Broccoli rabe tastes different from regular broccoli, it has a slight bitter flavor and it plays great with garlic.


Cooking broccoli rabe involves blanching it first.  That means just dunking it in some boiling water for 2 minutes and then removing it to ice water to chill, then drain on paper towels until you are ready for it. This will help to remove some of the bitterness.  There are some who just put it in the sauté pan, but this is how the little Italian woman I worked with did it,  and I don't argue with Italian cooks.

 I usually serve it with pasta but here is where the squash comes in.  If you've never worked with spaghetti squash here's what you do.

• Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. 
• Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. 
• Drizzle with olive oil
• Roast until a knife pierces it easily (about 50-60 minutes)

spaghetti squash

           When it comes out of the oven take a fork and run the tines down the length of the squash.

noodles!

Keep scraping until all of the flesh is made into "noodles".  At this point you are ready to combine.

• Heat some oil over medium heat in a large sauté pan.
• Add your broccoli rabe and cook for a few minutes until tender but not mushy
• Add squash with some garlic and cook for a few more minutes
• Add some parmesan cheese and mix

broccoli rabe and spaghetti squash

Maybe this will be the green that everyone invited to my homegrown meal will eat.  Who knows? If not, I will be eating it for breakfast on Black Friday. As long as my husband doesn't get it first. He loves green.