This year’s Thanksgiving feast could only have been more low key if we’d gone the TV dinner route. My mother-in-law wasn’t able to visit, so I planned to simply roast a chicken and serve a few veggies for the two of us, but ended up doing even less than that when our neighbors invited us to share dinner with them. It’s a little embarrassing that I’ve lived here for four years as of this weekend (which reminds me, this blog just turned three!) and haven’t managed to get to know them yet. I blame Gil for not introducing me around when I moved.

Not wanting to go empty-handed, I pulled out the bag of almost-overripe persimmons I’d been storing for a couple of weeks and got to work on an upside-down cake that sounded like a perfect ending to a Thanksgiving meal — with two sticks of butter, it was possibly the most indulgent cake I’ve ever made.

I did a quick google search when the idea for the cake hit me (my standard approach, since very few ideas are truly new), and found only a couple of recipes. Joanne Weir’s parmesan flan has been one of the highlights of my summer for the past two years, so I opted for her version of the cake and came away very, very happy indeed.

Her secret for keeping things light and airy in such a rich cake? Whipping the egg whites, then folding them into the rest of the batter. Even so, the cake was much more soufflé-like in the pan than I expected:

Anyway, we had a wonderful time with the Edwards family and I feel like I finally have friends in the neighborhood, which is no small thing. They’re a creative family, into drawing, painting, photography, music, fashion…so you can imagine how much I enjoyed myself. Oh, AND I finally got a house tour with details of the major renovation they did last year! So we have lots of inspiration for our own house project, whenever we start.

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The next day, I roasted the Zuni chicken (with bittersweet pimenton added to the salt & pepper rub) originally intended for Thanksgiving and made a bread-based dressing with roasted acorn squash on the side. Nothing terribly exciting, but repurposed as breakfast this morning, I fell in love:

I pan-fried some of the leftover dressing, served it atop a thin drizzle of gravy and topped it with a fried egg. “X + egg = heaven” is undefined for Gil, so I waited till he was running an errand to work it up. (How anyone can snub a runny egg yolk over just about anything is beyond me, but hey, in sickness & in [mental] health, etc…)

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For Saturday’s dinner, there wasn’t a hint of Thanksgiving left over in the leftovers, though I forced myself to use the contents of my fridge and pantry in a stab at eating down the house. We ended up with a North African-inspired couscous dish that took maybe 30 minutes to make, but had a great depth of flavor mainly because it relied so heavily on leftovers.

To start, I made a quick harissa paste and set it aside for the flavors to develop while I worked on the rest of the meal. I hit the freezer for a package of caramelized onions, which I browned in some olive oil, then added two thinly sliced cloves of garlic, and reinforced the warm spices from the harissa — ground cumin, caraway seeds and ground coriander — in the sizzling oil. When the spices were fragrant, I added a package of Israeli couscous, bite-sized pieces of dark chicken, chopped roasted acorn squash, leftover chicken stock and two tablespoons of harissa paste. Only 15 minutes later, we were sitting down to a meal I wouldn’t even mind making from scratch someday.

I hope you add had a filling and fun-filled Thanksgiving. Now I need to figure out a way to work from home, because the last four days spent with all of my boys has been too good to miss again for 13 hours a day or more.

recipes and sweet doggy pictures after the jump

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Gil, Rufus and I spent Saturday with the Connecticut branch of the family. In the spirit of being a good guest, I wanted to bring a little something for lunch, but couldn’t choose between a panzanella and dessert, when the September issue of Gourmet magazine decided things for me with their recipe for Nectarine Golden Cake. The picture was gorgeous (of course) and it sounded just like the kind of dessert I favor (simple and homey, no chocolate), but best of all, I already had all of the ingredients in my kitchen (yay!).

We got to the Levin’s right around lunchtime and Ru introduced himself to his canine cousins:

Yes, you’re seeing correctly. That’s 3 golden retrievers, a labrador puppy and Ru. It was chaos, but the best kind.

Annie (the puppy) stood still for a few seconds so I could take her picture:

Then she ran around like a madwoman and eventually collapsed on Ru’s bed:

He didn’t mind. Ru had no need for a bed, as he was following Gil from room to room pleading to return to his quiet life in Ringwood. Or maybe he was just angling for a treat. He isn’t really all that picky.

But back to the cake. It was a big hit. Shame I didn’t make two, but my mind was sleep-addled in the morning and it just didn’t occur to me, so we all had small slices of cake mounded with fresh berries. It was a healthier option.

Our friend Ann came by with her gorgeous baby Sunday afternoon, so I tried another version of the cake with blueberries instead of nectarines and topped it with turbinado sugar. I was expecting to like it even more, but honestly, it was only every bit as good as the other. Which was still a home run.

There was no bow
The best Christmas present I ever gave myself? That’s easy — Astrid, my Mini Cooper S, who came to live with us one year ago today. Happy birthday, girl!

For all Advent Calendar posts, click here.

recipe after the jump

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and raise you one MEAT CAKE!

Brilliant, isn’t it?

via The Cranky Professor