Thanksgiving Recap: Midwest Edition

Our holiday trip to the Twin Cities is almost over, and we've been filling ourselves at the table and around town with everything from turkey to something called "leprechaun legs". Here is our gobblefest in the Midwest in pictures:
The day before Thanksgiving I went with my father-in-law, Joe, for our traditional food shopping schlep. I love shopping lists but as a pen and paper loving luddite, I'm a little ashamed to say I've become kind of hooked on putting my lists on my iphone notes application--it's always legible and you can email it to someone if they're at the store and picking up the few things you forgot. Above is Belle at Whole Foods sampling a clementine in one hand and showing my list with the other.

Back at home on Thanksgiving my sister-in-law Sue prepared her asparagus appetizer.
She made little bundles with a few blanched spears topped with goat cheese and then wrapped the bundle in prosciutto. She then drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and put in the oven until the prosciutto was crisp.
For the other appetizer I made what might be my new favorite salad combination:
thinly sliced celeriac (see alien-looking rooty globe above)
thinly sliced fennel bulb
tossed with a vinaigrette of champagne vinegar, a bit of sugar, salt, pepper, and walnut oil
topped with parmesean shavings
and pomegranate seeds
If you have a mandolin and won't risk losing your digits if you use it, then I would suggest using it for slicing the celeriac (aka celery root) and fennel.
In the future I might serve it after the meal as sort of a palate cleanser.

Then there was the sweet potato gratin. I had to slice them thinly and by-hand--not to get all Top Chef about it, but these are the times that I miss my knives the most, it's amazing how attached you can be to a sharp and pointy object.
I baked them layered with a warm mixture of cream, milk, butter, and minced garlic; a minced herb mixture of what my mother-in-law, Ruth, had growing in a pot in her laundry room (rosemary, thyme, and parsley); grated gruyere; and salt and pepper.
Here's Ruth, making the gravy. She doesn't make it in the the roasting pan but in a separate sauce pan, incorporating some of the drippings into a base of stock and the giblets.
And here is the bird at rest.
And Joe getting to work with the carving.


Before I managed to devour it all, I took a photo of the contents of my plate:
stuffing
turkey
mashed potato
sweet potato gratin
cranberry relish

The next day was leftovers--for breakfast (we couldn't wait for lunch).
Tim made his famous everything sandwich, which is pretty obscene due to its proportions and the fact that he melts cheese on-top of the leftovers so it is a gooey mess.
The next day, because we weren't done filling ourselves, we made another traditional stop to local pizza fave, Carbone's. I have a soft spot for Carbone's because it's where Tim got pizza for me when we were dating and I had flown to St. Paul to visit him and his family for the first time.
There are several locations, but we went to what I believe is the original (not-chain affiliated) in St. Paul. It's on a lovely corner--see the two pizza urchins in the window?

At Carbone's they slice the pie into what I consider diamond-shapes, but Tim says they are square shaped and this is an argument we've been having for years which nobody else has an opinion about except us. Either way, the little hand-held wedges, cheese covering sausage and onions or canadian bacon, are deeply satisfying.


Maybe the shape depends on how you hold the pizza?
The next day we went to another local favorite for burgers, this time for burgers: The Nook.
I think the proper name is Casper & Runyon's The Nook, and it's an old-school tavern where they show local sports, serve lots of beer, and are famous for thier amazing, meaty, greasy, burgers.

This is also where I experienced leprechaun legs for the first time, which are basically breaded and fried string beans served with a side of dipping sauces (in this case it was chipolte mayo and a sweet plum sauce--I think a honey dijon mayo would have been good too). Weird, but oddly satisfying. The best part was convincing the kids that there were leprechauns in the kitchen without legs busy regenerating their limbs.
And then there's the burger (voted one of the best "tavern" burgers by Mnpls/St.Paul Magazine). I had the bacon and cheese with lettuce, tomato, onion, and pickles. It was a juicy mess, a thick burger versus the thin griddle kind, with a nice puffy bun. They also make a regional favorite called a Juicy Lucy where they put the cheese in the middle of the patty, but I stuck with the classic.
And less you think we're a bunch of slackers, for Sunday brunch the extended fam met for brunch at a Minneapolis favorite, the Birchwood Cafe.

A feel-good, progressive but not overly hippy-dippy, neighborhood cafe that serves food with local ingredients and an all around good vibe. I had heard about the waffles, and because waffles are one thing I'm absolutely terrible at making, and the Birchwood waffle came topped with crisp lardons and an over-easy egg, I had to try it.This amazing and beautiful waffle was also topped with cranberry quince chutney in one quadrant, a sage and herb butter--it was delicious and interesting in the best sense, and made me wan to try and perfect my waffles and place something special and different in each quadrant.
I loved the service at Birchwood, and their system--which shouldn't be underestimated because in my opinion, restaurant brunch can be one of the most frustrating and fraught experiences. At the Birchwood, you order at the counter and when you pay they give you a metal stand with a letter or number up top (see Joe above). You grab the next available table (and the civility I experienced at this stage may only be possible because this is Minnesota and not the New York City area) and by the time you're situated with your coffee and beverages, a server shows up with your order.
Besides the waffles, they also had biscuits with eggs and gravy, brioche french toast, steel cut oatmeal, two quiches of the day, and assorted homemade muffins like blackberry peach and scones.
For our last stop of the day we went to a newish destination, the Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis, which reminds me a lot of the Essex Street Market on the Lower East Side of Manhattan--an indoor international food market with a diverse selection of foods from Swedish meatballs to Halal meats and West Indian jerk stews. We trolled a Mexican candy stall the longest, where they were selling enormous pinatas and hundreds of kinds of candy to stuff them with, including chile laden tamarind lollipops and marshmallows the size of my fist.

We leave tomorrow, but maybe I'll squeeze in one more special meal before heading home...is tht so wrong?
Until then, hope you all had a great and filling holiday.--Caroline