Lentil Soupville

London's first snow of the year, what do you cook? I cooked lentil soup, rich, thick, savory. I am about to have another bowl for lunch. I used green lentils, chunky carrots, pureed onion, sliced fennel, small sliced potatoes and plenty of spices, umami paste, mushrooms, two kinds, bacon, yum, just a little bacon. It cooked up quickly and easily for a post Thanksgiving meal to soothe the belly and cleanse the system.

All you folks in America had your Thanksgiving on the day. We celebrated on Saturday night at a friends. The menu was simple Thanksgiving. turkey, mashed potato, sweet potato, sausage stuffing, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, pecan pie, all homemade, all wonderful and a great entrance to the season.

I made a brine for the turkey which involved finding something to brine the turkey in. Our little London flat doesn't hold a turkey sized stock pot. I went out for a container and found one, a plastic storage tub for about 5 gbp, back on the London bus and home to squeeze the box into the cute refrigerator in our flat. Onto the pie!! I baked and it did come out picture perfect and tasty too. The aesthetic value of the yolk wash on the crust is priceless. I took the spare crust and rolled it out and added cinnamon, sugar and brandy butter. This is something my mother always did with extra crusts. It gives you a preview of your crusts' flakiness and taste and it is a small treat for kids or you. The brandy butter was my own inspiration. 

I feel like this is a perfect pie.

Submerged bird, brine makes it so good.

 The next morning, Saturday, our Thanksgiving, I got up at 6:00 am and was dropped off before G went to work. I arrived at our hosts with a drained turkey and had some tea and croissant before we started working on the dinner. When I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to find the Thanksgiving decorations well underway. The powerhouse behind the festive decorations? Young Maisie. She looked up a bunch of brilliant Thanksgiving photos on the internet and even found a hand turkey instructional. We made 'hand turkeys' and colored them in while the turkey roasted. We had Indian and pilgrim headdresses to wear and we all wore them. What fun! Note:  It is difficult to cook with feathers hanging from your Indian chief headdress.

Maisie's fantastic table decor!

First Thanksgiving dinner!

When I made the stuffing I used sausage, onion, mushrooms, chestnuts and loads of butter and herbs. The mashed potato was pretty straight forward, milk, butter and some sour cream mashed in. The sweet potato we did with sweet white miso and butter mashed together (so good). Besides that, basic cranberry sauce from a bag of cranberries and some sugar and water, one of my favorites, I might eat some right now! Turkey and gravy made the meal and we all ate it up. We had a real traditional dinner and even added some of my family's favorite Thanksgiving traditions:  wine, silly behavior, arguing, shots, and a trip to the ER. The next morning I made fried bread dough, another family tradition, so good yet so bad.