LENNDEVOURS

The Thanksgiving Plate

Well, I just finished my third or fourth round of stuffing turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes etc. down my throat over the past two days...because it's so delicious.

A quick run down...

The Turkey. Amazingly moist and with a texture that I'd describe as almost succulent. I wasn't sure what to expect from our first Bourbon Red, but the flavor, texture and moistness has sold me. Plus, I know where the turkey was raised, who raised it and how it was raised.

The Stuffing. I think I want to eat my wife's stuffing every day.

The Pies. Yes, plural. Nena made a pumpkin with local cheese pumpkin. I dare call it the best pumpkin pie I've ever had. The apples in the apple pie didn't quite cook down as much as she'd hoped, but the crust on both pies are her best ever. Each of the last three times she's made pie crust it's gotten better and better. I can't wait for the next batch.

The Riesling. Decided to open a bottle of Fox Run Vineyards 2005 Reserve Riesling and was blown away. Impeccable balance of citrus, faintly tropical fruit and minerals...all with terrific acidity. I wish I had a few more bottles in my cellar.

The Pinot Noir. Went with one of my last two bottles of Wolffer Estate's 1998 Pinot Noir and I'm not sure how much more time the last bottle has. Extremely earthy -- as in wet earth and mushrooms -- the acidity and silky texture are stil, but most of the fruit is gone. I like my wines dirty like this. Nena doesn't. I ended up drinking much of the bottle of the course of the night and will probably finish it tonight.

That's the quick version. I've got lots of wines to taste over the weekend, so look for more tasting notes soon. I know that I've not posted many lately, but they're coming.

Bourbon Red Heritage Turkeys from Garden of Eve Organic Farm

I've just finished ordering my Bourbon Red turkey from Garden of Eve Organic Farm for this year's Thanksgiving dinner.

As you can read on their website, they are raising 200 of this heritage breed. They are slow growing, taking up to 6 months to mature, rather than the 3 months or less needed to raise standard turkeys.

These free-range birds (they can actually fly and do escape from the enclosure) are fed an all-vegetarian grain feed with no hormones or antibiotics, which was developed specially for Garden of Eve by a local feed mill, much of which is grown here in New York state.

At almost $7 per pound, this is going to be the most expensive turkey we've ever bought, but it is absolutely worth it to have such a healthy, humanely raised bird this year. And, I'm excited to taste this breed, which apparently has a lot more flavor than your grocery store Butterball.

Does anyone have an recommendations for cooking with a heritage turkey? I've read that brining isn't needed to retain moisture or add flavor, but any other suggestions are welcome.

We're also signing up for GoE's winter CSA, read all about it.

Nena's First Apple Pie of the Fall

In our house, there's only one baker. And it's not me. Baking just requires a level of precision and adherence to ratios and recipes that I'm simply not capable of. I always put a little extra of this or that in when I'm cooking. Do that when you're baking, and you could end up with a horrific result.

Nena, on the other hand, is quite a baker. It's one of the things that I fell in love with early in our relationship. Between my cooking (and hers as well) and her baking, we are a complete culinary set. She completes me. Cliche? Yes. But true.

And, after our trip to the Hudson Valley Saturday, we had a lot of apples laying around.

Above, you can see the delicious result of her work. I think this was her best crust yet. I say "was" because the pie is gone already, shared with friends and in my belly.

A Food Addiction: Heirloom Tomatoes

Last weekend I made an early-morning trip out to Sang Lee Farms, just hoping that their heirloom tomatoes were in.

As you can see, they were and I bought quite a few (okay, too many).

So far, I took many of the yellow and gold ones, made a sauce and froze it for the winter. We've used them sliced simply for salad and have also used them on grilled cheese sandwiches.

But this post isn't so much about what we're doing with them, it's really about the picture. Though they are delicious.

Tasty (and Local) Summer Pasta

Sorry for the blog semi-silence over the last few days. We had family in town to watch Jackson for us while we attended the wedding of some great, dear friends on Friday night. A good time was had by all. That's for sure.

Last night, having partied pretty hard the night before, we wanted a light, summery meal that we could put together quickly. A trip out east to a farm stand and we were ready to go with Nena's summer pasta.

The ingredients are simple:

• Whole wheat pasta
• Local zucchini and yellow squash that was grilled and chopped
• Local tomato that was seeded and chopped
• Local corn that was grilled and then sliced off of the cob
• Local cauliflower that we roasted in the oven for 30 minutes or so
• Real local basil (from our garden)

Toss it all together with some olive oil that is local in spirit if not geography (more on that this week), some grated Parmesan and  for Nena, her sister and her mother, some seared local scallops. They also added lemon. I had hot Italian sausage and red pepper flakes.

Simple, Seasonal. Delicious.

More on the wines we tried later this week as well.

Our New Sous Chef...the Next Food Network Star?

Jackson spends a lot of time in the kitchen. He hangs out in his Bumbo chair while Nena and I prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner, so he's probably seen us cook as much as anything else.

And he's definitely a natural. Here you can see him with his chef's had (a gift from my parents)  and a side towel.  Nena originally just hoped that he'd sit still long enough to have the frosting next to him when we took the picture. Imagine our surprise when he grabbed the whisk and even picked it up!

Can a show on the Food Network be far behind?

Maybe by the time he's ready for chef celebrity, there will be a network where they actually cook ;)

Eat Local: Garden of Eve Eggs

I love eggs. In fact, they are among my favorite foods and I eat them several times a week for breakfast.

But first time a local egg really caught my attention as something special was at Blue Hill at Stone Barns, where a slow-cooked, soft boiled egg from right outside the restaurant topped a salad and was easily the star.

Since then, I've tried buying eggs from a couple farm stands out east, but they weren't that much better than "sweat shop eggs" (Random Seinfeld reference).

But, last weekend we stopped at Garden of Eve organic farm on the North Fork and I picked up a dozen of their free-range, no-hormones, no-antibiotics eggs and they have been delicious the last few morning. I haven't taken a good "in the skillet" picture yet, but the yolks are a deep gold--much richer and darker than your average grocery store eggs--and they stand up when in the pan rather than spreading out and flattening.

The whites are tender and actually have flavor...but the flavor is nothing compared to the thick, unctuous yolks, which are as flavorful as any egg I've tasted. These are the kinds of eggs that our grandparents and great grandparents probably ate, before factory farms started working to remove flavor from our foods.

Nena's VERY Local Salad

Because we only had moderate success with our vegetable garden last summer (we just have so many trees surrounding our back yard, there aren't many spots with full sun), we've scaled back this year.

I'm going to plant some tomatoes next weekend in large pots that I can move around to make sure they get as much sun as possible, but for now we are sticking with herbs and lettuce--and this is the first big salad that we've made with our own mesclun.

You know it's local when you can take maybe fives steps out your back door and get the lettuce, right?

Nena added some some sliced strawberries (not local, they aren't in season here yet) and some goat's milk feta from Catapano Dairy Farm. With a light drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar and some extra virgin olive oil...what more do you need?

Latest Dinner Party: Salad Course

Saturday night, we had a dinner party with a few good friends. We call it our "Long Distance Supper Club" because two attendees live up in Poughkeepsie, NY (about 2.5 hours from our house) and my sister in-law and her husband usually come--and they live up near Albany, a full four hours away. The family wasn't represented for this party, but the usual suspects were, including T and M and M's brother K who was in town from Colorado.

I guess the "Long Distance" took on a whole new geography this time out.

We forgot to take pictures of my first course, which was a duo of small bites: a carrot shooter adapted from a Dan Barber recipe and a mini Asian meatball with Chinese black vinegar reduction.

Luckily, just before I served the salads, Nena and I remembered to take a picture and start to document the evening. There really isn't a recipe per se, but I can share the ingredient list:

• Petal Mesclun from Sang Lee Farms
• Leeks from Sang Lee Farms that I dredged in flour and fried
• Bacon from Meadow Raised Meats (thanks to Jen for recommending them)
• Fresh Goat Cheese from Catapano Dairy Farm
• A basic sherry vinegar vinaigrette (Here's FoodTV's version)

I was very pleased with how this one salad came together and even more glad to use primarily New York ingredients. The mesclun is a staple in our house, as is the goat cheese. It's one of foods that Nena truly craved during her pregnancy and it's one of Long Island's best products, bar none.

This Year's Birthday Grill

I think I make it pretty easy on my family when it comes to my birthday. I don't like huge parties (barely like birthday parties at all actually). A small affair with good friends and good wine is all I need to celebrate.

And, when it comes to gifts, I think I'm even easier. Buy me a grill.

Over the past few years I've gotten my new gas grill, a Weber Smokey Mountain Smoker and this year I went old school with a Weber kettle. We also have an outdoor fireplace that can be used as a grill in a pinch.

Now, you might think that this means I'm done with new grills...and Nena certainly thinks so (I have to give her credit for being tolerant of four fire-producers in our back yard). But I'm sure as time goes on I'll find something else I want.

Oh...and no, it's not my birthday yet. But it's kind of hard to hide these big boxes. So, I get my gift when it arrives usually!