scenes from a luncheon

This ended up being one of the most successful Thanksgiving luncheons I've ever done. I had some assists from my boss and coworker: my boss found a pumpkin pie at his local Costco in Suwon, and my coworker brought his third small apple pie (stubbornly made according to that same Korean recipe he's used twice before—the one that's too thin and crust-heavy... I really have to talk to him about that). I ended up bringing so much food that we had plenty of leftovers by the end, but I could still see that some things sold better than others: the turkey (which I can't take credit for because all I did was reheat it) was mostly gobbled, as were the mashed potatoes; the cranberry sauce got siphoned up: there's only one meager portion of it left, and I'll be eating it for lunch tomorrow. Not getting as much love were the stuffing, the sweet-potato casserole, the creamed corn (despite compliments from the boss), and the glazed ham. Personally, I loved everything I'd made, and I loved it to such an extent that I neglected to eat a single dinner roll. That's very unlike me—I love those Costco dinner rolls: they're little puffballs of joy, and they're versatile as hell: eat them with butter and jam or use them to make sliders. They work for breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner, and despite a deceptively dense-looking crumb, they are exquisitely soft and poofy.

Below is a tour of the luncheon. Read the captions for explanations.

I had hoped more of the stuffing would get eaten, but I ended up being its biggest fan. Once again, a rundown of its components: homemade croutons, pan-fried panko, homemade sausage plus Mexican chorizo, boiled and crumbled chestnuts, raisins, minced celery, sliced mushrooms, and apple-pie filling, not to mention all the herbs and seasonings associated with Thanksgiving.* Making stuffing is an all-day project: a lot of components are prepped separately, then the whole thing gets thrown together into one happy medley. When I cook via the stovetop method, I normally pour in some chicken broth, which softens the bread and helps to unify the dish. For the past couple of years, though, I've done more of a savory-custard thing (eggs, cream, salt, pepper, herbs, seasonings), pulling the stuffing in a bread-pudding direction. I'm still not really a custard guy, but I'm also not against using custard, either.

a disgusting closeup of the congealed gravy (sexier gravy pic coming soon)

ugly gravy + Costco rolls

This pie looked pretty, but it turned out to be rather bland.

a cluster of sides: sweet-potato casserole with candied nuts, mashed potatoes, glazed ham, green beans with bacon and shrooms, creamed corn, and cranberry sauce (made with dried cranberries)

You'll have to forgive the green beans: they came out of the fridge and weren't reheated for this shot.

I love this creamed corn. Here's the recipe if you're interested.

This was high-quality ham from John Cook. I wish it had been more popular, but I loved it.

The mashed taters proved popular: there was barely anything left.

Sweet-potato casserole: pretty, but loved mostly by me.

I still can't get over how well the cranberry-sauce recipe worked out.

And here's that promised sexier shot of the gravy, once again liquid after reheating.

My Round 1 plate before I busted out the gravy.

Round 1, after the gravying, and with the addition of cranberry sauce.

Okay, maybe not the sexiest pic. (Anyone else getting Australia vibes from the shape?)

my Round 2 plate

Round 2, begravied

my Korean coworker's notion of an apple pie (too thin and too much crust)

The two Costco pies: walnut/pecan and pumpkin. The pumpkin pie was better than I'd remembered.

We'll finish with a shot of the dried cranberries I'd used:

sorry, Ocean Spray

We all ended up being utterly useless for work thanks to our food comas. Everyone overate, but that's part of what Thanksgiving is often about: wretched excess. The boss, groaning as he rested and digested (everyone went back for seconds, and possibly thirds), eventually declared that we should all leave work early to go home and recuperate; I can only hope he drove home safely to Suwon. My Korean coworker gave the rest of his pie to other teams in our office; I wonder how the pie fared. My boss and coworker both complimented the meal several times, so even though not every component of the meal was equally beloved, the meal as a whole was a hit with the troops. There are things I might do differently next time (e.g., use king-oyster mushrooms instead of button mushrooms for the stuffing), but overall, I do think this was one of my best-ever meals. It's always nice when your efforts pay off. And now, we turn our sights to the December meal, which won't be nearly this ambitious.

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*I don't know what you think, but I'm of the firm opinion that, while garlic is an awesome seasoning, it has no place in a traditional American stuffing. I conscientiously avoided using any form of garlic when making all of the components of the stuffing; even when I made my croutons, for which something like garlic powder is standard, I used onion powder instead. Having said all that, I'm not so doctrinaire that I'd reject stuffing that included garlic. If you invited me to your house and used garlic powder on your homemade croutons, I'd probably eat your stuffing with gusto. I might, however, suspect you of trying to move your stuffing in a European direction, causing me to doubt your motives and your patriotism.