STUMPTOWNBLOGGER

WORLD ACCORDING TO LINDNER

Well kids, here’s my Thanksgiving turkey. Looks pretty scrumptious, doesn’t it? 🤤

Actually, that’s the vat I normally use for fermenting barley or corn whenever I make homemade hootch, but today it’s serving special duty. I made a low-salinity brine of coarse salt, brown sugar, rosemary, lemon peel, black peppercorns and timut peppercorns (similar to Szechuan peppercorns, but very citric—tastes a lot like grapefruit). That fermentation tank is the only vessel I own that’s big enough to hold the bird.

Tomorrow morning I’ll rinse it off, dry it, force a few blobs of butter under the skin, rub it down with olive oil, stuff it with a pretty traditional stuffing (I might toss in some roasted chestnuts, just because). Depending on the weather, I’ll either roast it in the oven or grill it out on the deck. Probably the former though: It’s been raining cats and dogs all week.

Other delectables on the menu at Chez Lindner:

Maple-bacon stuffed acorn squash (wonderful side dish. I’ll post it later).

Pumpkin-coconut curried soup

Mash spuds (duh! It’s Thanksgiving)

The aforementioned stuffing

Homemade gravy—hopefully

A kind of a succotash that I threw together. Not sure what you’d call it, but it’s reeeeally good. Roasted corn, red bell pepper, Brussels sprouts, scallions, cilantro, lime juice. No, no Lima beans. What do you take me for? 😖

Big experiment: I roasted two big beets last night, which left me with... two big roasted beets. 🥱 So I decided to spice them up like any other tuber. I sliced them into rounds, dredged them in panko, fried the slices in a little argan oil and dusted them with berebere (an Ethiopian spice mixture). If you’re gonna subject yourself to beets, ya’ gotta get creative.

Pie? No pies. I can cook, but I can’t bake worth diddly-squat. 🚫 🥧 🚫

Yes, this is all for me, which means 3/4ths of it is going in the freezer. My initial plans to spend Thanksgiving in California with my dad were scuttled by Covid. Lisa invited me to spend it with her and her boyfriend’s family, but again, it’s just too risky. Besides, I love, love, LOVE putting on my funky red chef’s hat, tuning my shortwave radio to Radio New Zealand and spending an entire day whipping up weird concoctions in my kitchen.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all, folks! After the events of three weeks ago, I’d say we have much to be thankful for. Celebrate the removal of one turkey by roasting another. 😋