Vegetarian Mushroom Wellington + What We're Eating 11/22-11/28

The best laid schemes this week are going to go so off the rails because we leave for Atlanta at some point and we'll be with family and who knows what will happen with food. I've been thinking and prepping for Thanksgiving, but that's all the meal planning I've got for the week. When I got back from driving the dog, Mango, to grandma's for the week Watts was on the phone trying to order a pizza for dinner. Impossible. He was on hold for ages. I put a pot of water on to boil, busted on some frozen shrimp and shrimp scampi with pasta was born. Tonight will be leftovers or quesadillas or jacket potatoes. I'm almost sure of it. 

I'm going to go out on a limb and say the biggest hit for Thanksgiving with my family this past weekend was the Vegetarian Mushroom Wellington. Since Nuala became a vegetarian, I think it's important to have an entree that's vegetarian. In the past, a lot of my side dishes could pass as one, but the Wellington demands that you pay attention to it. It's quite a little star. I debated making it. My mom requested a butternut squash bread pudding that I used to make all the time, but the Wellington showed up in our wheelhouse last year and I thought it would work perfectly. Also, we've kind of been inundated with butternut squash this fall and I think I may have reached a tipping point. The only thing stopping me from making the Wellington was that it can seem like a bit of a faff.  But to be totally honest, any faffing is absolutely worth it. And, if you do your planning, it doesn't really have to be a faff at all. 

Worth the Faff

For starters, ignore the whole ice bath part of the recipe by cooking your mushrooms and onions up to two days ahead. Let them cool by natural means. It takes a bit of planning, but it will be so less overwhelming. Also, it took me like 27 read throughs before I understood the whole chopping of mushrooms method in this recipe. To make it easier, out of the four 8oz packages of mushrooms I bought I roughly chopped three and put them in the food processor blitzing until their in crumbly bits. This time I messed up and forgot them and they got quite squidgy but it didn't hurt a thing. With the fourth package, chop it up in small pieces along with the stems and rounded off parts that you cut off the portobellos. Then you're going to mix it all together. 

Someday I'm going to make this with my own puff pastry, but for now it's good old pepperidge farms to the rescue. 

I've been thinking about what we're going to eat on Thanksgiving day. Watts' mom ordered a meal that feeds 4-6. We've had this before and it's quite delicious. There are going to be ten of us. I'm trying to figure exactly how I need to supplement and add on. I've already made the pumpkin and chocolate pecan pie. So that's taken care of and really that's the main part isn't it? All you need is pie.  

But seriously, here's the Thanksgiving plan: 

Starters

A Turkey Cheese Board. Something like:

Indianish Nachos. These are always a crowd pleaser. Always.

Dinner

1 Turkey Dinner that feeds 4-6 with all the fixings 

Chicken with lime and scallions to supplement the meat

Spiced Red Lentil Dal with Rice and Spinach

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Roasted Beets and Sweet Potatoes

Broccoli with garlic

Dessert

Chocolate Pecan. When I was in my early twenties, I found this recipe from Emeril. I've made it almost every Thanksgiving since. It was a revelation to my family that usually stuck to apple and pumpkin. Like candy, my mom always says. Just like candy.

Pumpkin

Who knows what will actually happen. I kind of like this willy nilly approach to Thanksgiving. It's never something I would usually do, but it's what I'm doing and we'll just figure it out as we go!

Gang Aft A Gley

I am sitting here on the day after Thanksgiving. Only the teenagers and the grandmother are at the house with me. I have just finished reading Stanley Tucci's Taste which has made me love him more than I already do. It has also filled me with inspiration. A little reminder of all the things I love. Thanksgiving went well. Mostly. I forgot the broccoli but we didn't really need it and the turkey from the pre-cooked restaurant dinner that my mother-in-law ordered was totally raw. I heated it up for the instructed 30 minutes and then as Watts started to carve it we discovered- much to our horror- it was raw inside. I could have put a timer in it, but I trusted the fact that they had actually cooked it. Oh well. Thankfully, we had plenty of other food and I popped it back into the oven to cook and everyone devoured it at lunch today. 

The night before Thanksgiving we ate Turkey Chili and I fear that there is another vat of it being defrosted for dinner tonight. I think I need to offer to cook, especially after reading Tucci's book it's all I want to do. It's not that it's bad, but it's just that I think I have a limit on consecutive turkey themed dinners. Oh well. I  won't complain, but I am already thinking about what I'll be cooking when I get home on Sunday. 

There is nothing I crave more than simple pasta after a long trip. So simple pasta it was. Aglio e Olio- to be exact- which we plated up with some green beans and sausage. Then on Sunday it was just the grown ups so we had a noshie board mostly that included broccoli rabe, gnocchi with brown butter sauce, white beans, goat cheese stuffed olives, roasted almonds and some leftover sausage. I also made a cosmopolitan spritz because it looked so damn pretty when it popped up on my instagram feed over the weekend. 

Now onto another week.