Turkey Tortilla Soup: Thankful that I Froze Thanksgiving Leftovers
No offense, Dad, but we’re tired of the same savory turkey-vegetable-rice soup we make every year with Thanksgiving leftovers. We wanted to make a soup we would actually make in its own right this year. And I had the stock and shredded turkey meat all ready to go in the freezer. If this bird had to die, at least we are using every inch of its meat.
Then I found the perfect tortilla soup recipe that has the wearied post-Thanksgiving cook in mind. It’s from the Baltimore-based food blog Coconut & Lime. Fire-roasted tomatoes and green chiles gave the soup a smokey tang. Grated cheddar, avocado and tortilla chip toppings cooled the heat of the mildy spicy soup. Man, is this recipe a keeper! I might add black beans next time to make more of a turkey chili.
Any other notable turkey soup recipes out there?
EDGU: Like a Self-Chiropractic Session for Your Spine
New EDGU DVD by Jeffrey "Page" Redman (http://edgu.org/Edgu_Spine_Health_Products.html )
During our recent stay at Breitenbush, we learned about EDGU, a tai chi/yoga-like moving meditation that’s supposed to relieve spinal pain. In fact, yoga teacher Jeffrey “Page” Redman developed the practice right there at Breitenbush in 1987. We weren’t able to make the class at Breitenbush so I was delighted to see my yoga studio had its first-ever EDGU session on Friday. I went and would like to experience more.
I also bought the EDGU DVD for my mom, who suffers from chronic back pain, including pinched discs. I hope it makes a difference for her, that is, if she actually practices it. The DVD was a bit new agey but the movements really seem sound. The key is to keep the hips and lower body planted and facing forward (beam headlights from the hips straight ahead) while only rotating the torso, to isolate the spine. It’s harder than it looks.
Check out this YouTube video to see some of the movements:
The Everlasting Pumpkin
- Pumpkin Sage Cream Sauce over Pastaworks Ravioli
This huge Jarrahdale pumpkin I bought for Halloween decoration and finally roasted for Thanksgiving yielded many more cups of sugary sweet puree than I know what to do with. It’s abundance is to be appreciated in these dire economic times.
I used it make pumpkin tiramisu for Thanksgiving dessert. I froze two containers full of the orangey mush. And I still have a big bowlful of the stuff in the fridge that thankfully hasn’t gone bad yet.
So I used it to make vegan pumpkin black-bottom-like cupcakes for a holiday party for the ESL school where I’ve volunteer taught. Check out the yummy recipe (who knew tofu cream cheese would taste so real) here.
And on a whim tonight, I made a pumpkin sage cream sauce (see above). I first sauteed onions, garlic and leftover sliced leeks in olive oil, added a cup of chicken broth, freshly cut sage leaves, ample scoops of that old pumpkin puree and then stirred in some creme fraiche for creaminess just before serving. It was a perfect compliment to the fresh apple-potato-cremini mushroom ravioli I had picked up at Pastaworks in Portland.
So what should I do with the rest of the pumpkin puree? Any suggestions or recipes would be appreciated. Did I also mention the fridge full of turkey meat and stock? Not that I’m complaining. I’ll host Thanksgiving any year!
Those moist vegan pumpkin cupcakes.
What’s So Great About Ikea (Besides the Prices)?
Photo of Ikea in Red Hook, Brooklyn/Flickr Creative Commons/Listen Missy! http://www.flickr.com/photos/listenmissy/2428733478/
Today I shopped at Ikea for the second time in my life. I almost wish I hadn’t stopped there after dropping my parents at the Portland Airport. But that adjacent towering yellow and blue sign beckoned. I just find it to be a headache-inducing place that urges you to buy way more cheap made-in-China crap than you need. But their prices can’t be beat.
Ikea is also sparsely staffed and a confusing maze to new customers. I spent forever measuring out components for a mirrored-bathroom cabinet, only to learn when I went to fetch the pieces from the self-serve area that those mirrored were discontinued.
But you don’t want to come home empty-handed after wasting your time there. I was also bothered by the layout of the Ikea store, which forces you to walk through different showroom areas (living room, media storage) on your way to the exit just to convince you to buy items you didn’t know you needed.
Am I being too harsh? The $1 Swedish meatballs and 50-cent beef hot dogs served at the Ikea snack bar are a bargain lunch. And of course both of my second-hand couches originally came from Ikea. I just didn’t have to go through the trouble myself to get them.
Do you avoid Ikea or deck out your apartments and houses with their loot?
Dungeness: Better than Lobster, Better Than Blue Crabs
We had sweet, delicate, freshly-caught Dungeness crab on the Newport coast tonight for my parents’ last dinner here in Oregon. I know I’ll take flack for this, but I think I like Oregon’s crab better than Maine lobster or Baltimore’s blue crabs. It’s less rich.
Our timing couldn’t have been better. Dungeness crab season commenced Dec. 1. The crabbing appears to be sustainable and well-regulated here.
I recommend the Local Ocean Seafood Restaurant and fish market, where we ate, right on the Newport harbor. Raw crabs retail at the market for $4.50/pound and the staff is quite friendly.
Before dinner, we sampled beers at Newport’s famed Rogue Brewery. It’s by no means our favorite micro-brew here. But I liked the Hazelnut Brown Nectar and the Honey Orange Wheat enough to bring 22-oz. bottles of those home.
Wild, Wild Mushrooms Drag Us Away
One of the three yellow chanterelles I found on our hike today up Mary's Peak just outside of Corvallis.
My trip foraging for wild mushroomsin October has been one of the more memorable experiences I’ve had thus far in Oregon. So it’s no surprise my parents have gone ga-ga for the state’s champion champignons during their visit here.
For my birthday, we had a marvelous mushroom dinner at the Joel Palmer Housenear McMinnville, a meal that even included mushrooms for dessert in the form of truffle ice cream (I prefer to save the precious fungus for savory recipes!)
Dad has worked his magic in our Corvallis kitchen, whipping up a spectacular Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup and a chanterelle pasta (made with local spinach fettuccine). Can’t wait to see what he’ll do with the three chanterelles I stumbled upon while hiking Mary’s Peak today.
Now the ‘rents are scheming up ways to smuggle mushrooms back to Virginia with them. Those precious chanterelles, for example, go for as low as $9 a pound here but can fetch as much as $20 to $30 a pound back East. And that’s only on the rare occasions when fresh ones are even available. Ah, a good reminder that life is good here in the fertile (and did I say wet!) Pacific Northwest.
Look But Don't Touch: Mom and Dad marvel over abundant but expensive matsutake mushrooms at the Saturday Farmers' Market in Portland.
Breitenbush Hot Springs: Leave Your Bathing Suit Behind
Photo of Breitenbush Hot Springs/Flickr Creative Commons/sparkle glowplug http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparkleglowplug/1213590569/
We found the perfect place to shock us out of our stuffed-turkey coma. Breitenbush Hot Springs, a hippyish rustic retreat 60 miles east of Salem, tucked away in the Cascade Mountains. During our one-night stay, we soaked in natural hot springs (that lacked that unpleasant sulfur smell), ate all-you-can eat vegetarian meals, did yoga and had Thai massages and hiked part of the Columbia Gorge trail.
Being there with the parents made the clothing-optional hot springs awkward, so we split up into bathing groups:) It’s just not the kind of place you feel comfortable wearing a bathing suit. And there’s nothing like hot spring water against your bare skin. It was especially surreal and spiritual to have the springs to ourselves last night in the pitch black dark, the rushing rapids of the Breitenbush River the only sounds we could hear.
It’s was also a needed detox after the Thanksgiving holiday — no meat, no caffeine, no alcohol for that 24-hour period. Of course Dan and my dad had to sneak coffee in, but they’re beyond addicted.
Now Breitenbush is on the top of my list for anyone who comes to visit in Oregon. But it’s not for everyone:)
Before & After Turkey: From Farm to Slaughter to Oven to Table
I was especially thankful for turkey this year, because I hand-selected our bird at a local farm and participated in its slaughter and butchering in a visceral, almost spiritual way. Why would I subject myself to the blood and gore? And how could that not make you go vegetarian and swear off poultry forever?
But I am increasingly convinced the more we know about our food — where it was cultivated, who tended it and under what conditions — the more it fully nourishes us as we humbly accept our place in the web of life. Our massive tom turkey came from Afton Field Farm on the rural outskirts of Corvallis. Little did I know I could take part in the butchering when we ordered it at the farmers’ market in October.
But the farm’s young proprietor Tyler Jones invited us out and so I went.
The Corvallis native and OSU grad learned how to run a small-scale sustainable livestock operation while interning with Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm in Virginia, which featured in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma.
Afton Field Farm raised about 55 turkeys this year, slaughtering, cleaning and packaging them on the Friday before Thanksgiving on the grounds of Jones’ wooded childhood home near Bald Hill Park.
The first bird I pointed out seemed too wimpy, but little did I know the next one I selected was a whopping 26.8 pounds, the second biggest the farm sold. We’ll be eating turkey tacos, soups and casseroles for the next year!
Then its neck is slit in a pain-minimizing kosher-style way that people have used to slaughter their meat for thousands of years. It just felt right. These turkeys had a good life at Afton Farm and are hopefully meeting a relatively painless end.
Thank goodness we didn’t have to pluck the feathers by hand. Instead, the birds were scalded in hot water and choppily spun around in an open washing machine.
Feeling and learning about the turkey’s internal organs were another treat (and the warm cavity felt good to the hands on the briskly cold day). I helped them rip the head off, cut the feet, remove the esophagus and wind pipe and gut the bird. I also cut open the giblet gizzard (what’s the difference between the two, again?) to remove the sack of grass and rocks and other debris turkey and chickens ingest when they peck at their food.
Though trying, the experience didn’t gross me out. I came to the Thanksgiving table with a renewed sense of reverence. And the turkey, which we gave a salt rub the night before, tasted better than ever this year.
Obama and Sweet Potato Pie
We’re having a spiced pumpkin tiramisu-like cake for Thanksgiving dessert. But I do love sweet potato pie, especially the praline-topped ones my former colleague John-John used to make. It’s also our President-Elect’s favorite kind of pie. See this video on the best sweet potato pie around D.C.
Another former colleague, Rona Marech, wrote a deliciously descriptive features story about that Henry’s Soul Food place near D.C. They can’t wait for Obama to come try some.
Craig Robinson Has His Work Cut Out For Him
- Craig Robinson at Portland Community College/Flickr/Creative Commmons http://www.flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/2972043543/
We didn’t know who to root for: Dan’s alma mater or his current employer? The scrappy land-grant institution or the snooty Ivy League? But Oregon State played a sloppy, clumsy game. They can’t shoot. These guys are just choking under pressure. So Yale won 52-53. It shouldn’t have even been a close game.
Man, does Robinson wish he had never left Brown? Can he turn things around? Is everyone just too distracted by the football team’s success? Or by the Obama win? And how many of the 3,413 fans at Gill Coliseum tonight were more interested in seeing Robinson than the team? Wonder who will last longer in Corvallis: him or us?
BaltimOregon to Maine 
