The pumpkin pies are done!  But, to quibble, I feel the need to point out that they are not pumpkin pies.  They are butternut squash pies.

Thanks to my involvement in a terrific CSA, I learned years ago that good pumpkin pies… aren’t.  In fact, often the canned pumpkin that one buys in the store is not pumpkin either.  There are a lot of advantages to making pies with butternut squash rather than pumpkin.  First, it just tastes better.  Also, it has a much better texture - no stringy stuff! I don’t even process or mash the squash.  It is the perfect texture for pies simply by roasting the squash for an hour and scooping out the innards.

And here the pies are, below.  Those of you with eagle-eyes will note that the crusts are not homemade.  I admit it, while I simply can not bring myself to make a pumpkin pie with canned pumpkin, by the same token I simply can’t see making a pie crust from scratch.  First, I don’t like to do it, and second, I don’t see a difference in taste, mainly because I suck at making it.  (Bad Foodie!).

I make up for it by adding cream cheese to the pie, making a really nice cross between a pumpkin pie and a cheesecake.

Recipe (makes 2 pies):

• 20 ounces cream cheese
• 28 ounces sweetened condensed milk
• 2 packed cups roasted butternut squash
• 5 eggs
• A pinch of salt, and cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and ginger to taste (I say to taste because I really load it up on the cinnamon, and most people would not use as much as I do).

Bring all ingredients up to room temperature, making sure that the cream cheese is very soft.  Blend cream cheese until smooth.  Slowly add 14 ounces of milk, blending to ensure smoothness.  Add the rest of the milk.  Add squash, then eggs.  Spice to taste.

Pour into prepared pie shells.  I used one regular pie crust, and one graham cracker pie crust.  Be warned, you very well may have extra mix left over.  I throw the leftover in ramkins or a small baking dish and bake it up for a crustless pumpkin pie-like snack.

Bake at 350 degrees for approximately 40 minutes.

Popularity: 56% [?]

One of the side dishes that disappears fast at our Thanksgiving table is the Cheese Sauce.  In many ways, it is really a side of a side dish, served up alongside the broccoli and cauliflower, though I will note that in reality it gets poured over almost everything on the plates, very much like a gravy.  I make a lot of cheese sauce for Thanksgiving, using 1 cup of butter, 6 cups of milk, and over 13 cups of cheese.

I can already here the cries of “Holy Heart Attack, Batman, that’s a lot of dairy!”.  But I’ll point out the following:

1. There will be around 25 people for dinner.
2. We are from Wisconsin, after all.
3. I use chicken stock in addition to milk in a relatively futile effort to lighten the sauce up a bit.
4. There is usually some left over, which people fight over even more than the leftover turkey.
5. It is Thanksgiving… get over it.

Here’s the evidence:

Cheese sauce is a great dish to make in advance, which I did, stored in a crock pot, and put in the refrigerator.  On Thanksgiving it will be brought out and warmed in the same crockpot, which makes it an effortless and mindless thing to deal with in the uproar.

Recipe:

• 2 sticks butter (1 cup)
• 2 cups flour
• 6 cups milk
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 8 cups cheddar cheese
• 4 cups sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 cup parmesan cheese
• powdered garlic, onion, mustard to taste
• salt, white pepper, paprika to taste

In a very large stockpot, melt the butter over low heat.  Add flour, a little at a time, whisking to avoid lumps.  Once well mixed, cook over low heat for several minutes to cook out the flour taste.

Slowly pour 2 cups milk into flour mixture, whisking constantly to ensure smoothness.  Once smooth, add the rest of the milk more rapidly, still whisking.  Add the cream cheese and allow to melt.  Continue to add the rest of the cheese, whisking as you add so that it melts consistently.  Once all the cheese is added and melted, use the chicken stock as needed to thin to the right thickness. 

Taste the sauce before adding salt, as the cheese can be salty.  Add all spices, to taste. 

Popularity: 55% [?]

I’ll start with a quick look behind the scenes.  You see this picture?  Yes, the picture on the left.  The Thanksgiving-oriented picture.  Yes, that one.

 This blog gets literally hundreds of hits a day around this time of year from people who are searching for this picture. Oh, they don’t know that this is exactly the picture that they want - at least, not until they see it.  But once they see it, they come here to grab it.  By the hundreds.

But that is beside the point of this post.  It’s that time of year again - Thanksgiving.  Some people have a nice, quiet dinner at home.  Some people go to their eccentric great-aunt’s house.  Others gather at the parents house.  And still others go and have a respectable, civilized dinner out.

But not here at Cuisine Capers.  Instead, we are descended upon by around 25 very hungry people (give or take one or two, depending on how things work out).  And, I’ll point out, they are very hungry people who can eat a lot of food.

So, here’s the menu:

• 28 pound fresh turkey
• 15 - 20 lbs of mashed potatoes
• Gravy
• Wild rice and Italian Sausage stuffing
• 7 Layer salad
• Peas with pancetta and pearl onions
• Cauliflower and broccoli mixture
• Cheese Sauce
• Black-eyed Peas*
• Okra*
• Southern Cornbread*
• Green Bean Crap**
• Multitudes of dinner rolls
• Pies, pies and more pies

I’ll be chronicling the prep along the way, if all works out.

Notes:
* Black-eyed peas, okra and cornbread are all a nod to the southern roots, courtesy of my father who is from Hot Springs, Arkansas.  No one but my father will eat the okra (pronounced O-KREE in my family), but most of us will eat the cornbread and the black-eyed peas.

** Green Bean Crap is typically called Green Bean Casserole in most families.  In my family, we’ve changed the name in honor of my sister-in-law Laurie, who, after being assigned this dish to bring a couple of years in a row cried in horror, “No, not that grean bean crap!” after being assigned it yet again.  Needless to say, she will be bringing the green bean crap for the rest of her natural life to every family gathering we have.

Popularity: 25% [?]

The First BLT of the Season

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One of our favorite traditions revolves around the very first home grown tomato of the summer. We typically see this special tomato somewhere around the Fourth of July. This year, we saw it the week before that.We watch our plants in anticipation, awaiting the ripening, and planning it around a Saturday afternoon. As it ripens we evaluate. Picking it too soon ruins the entire event. We don’t know what would happen if we picked it too late, because that, somehow, has never been a problem.When it reaches just the right ripeness, we sping into action. We buy the best fresh loaf of hearty bread that we possibly can. We have a nice goat cheese on hand. We make sure that there’s arugula…. and then we put together the best BLT of the year.

Served with a bottle of wine and a bit of jazz while sitting on the back deck and enjoying the summer, it is something that we look forward to all year long.

Popularity: 17% [?]

A quick perusal of my blog stats tell me that many of you are hitting this blog right about now searching for tickets to the Great Taste of the Midwest.

Pardon me for a moment while I rant.

I will never again purchase tickets to another Great Taste of the Midwest. I won’t even use tickets if they were given to me for free. In fact, I’d be hard pressed to go to the Great Taste of the Midwest, even if you paid me.

Whew. I have that out of my system now. Perhaps I can address this issue in a purely intellectual sort of way.

The Great Taste of the Midwest used to be like Christmas to us. The first one that we attended (I believe it may have been the second one ever) was held in the Capital Brewery warehouse, with maybe 400 people and not so many breweries represented.

We stuck with this event for many years through thick and thin, laughing as tickets became harder and harder to come by, and saluting the Madison Home Brewer’s Guild on their success. We followed the event from venue to venue. We were intriqued when it settled in Olin Park. Of course, that’s when it started to go to pieces, the victim of its own success and its own arrogance.

And arrogant it did indeed become.

Last year, the ticket policy became ludicrous. In order to get tickets, you basically had to skip work, stand in line, get a “right to purchase tickets” ticket, then go back later in the day (again missing work) as the tickets went on sale.

The amazing development last year was that many of the venues trusted to sell the tickets to the public released the “right to purchase tickets” ticket to their regulars, long before these pre-ticket tickets were available to the public.

So, let’s say you were a die-hard, and you decided you were going to wait in line early, get your pre-ticket ticket, and then come back and purchase your ticket. Well, SURPRISE! Guess what! The pre-ticket tickets were gone before they were supposed to be available.

Does this sound like sour grapes? Let me hasten to assure you that this is far from the case. I had many a person approach me to see if I wanted tickets. But by that time, I had such a bad taste in my mouth over the arrogance, the abuse, and the ridiculousness over the ticket policy that I vowed that I wouldn’t set foot inside these beer tents again.

So, I urge you all to join me in this boycott. Get together with your friends and plan your own event. You can all bring your favorite unique six packs to try. Hold your own private Great Taste Festival in August, and then attend the Quivey’s Grove Beer Fest in the fall, when the temperatures are cooler and the attitudes are more palatable.

I would say that I would hope that the organizers of The Great Taste will once again get in touch with the philosophies that once went into making this the premier beer tasting in the Unites States.

But, frankly my dears, I no longer give a damn.

Popularity: 12% [?]