Shoestring Gourmet: We're in the Food for Love |
"Martha Stewart Living" stages and photographs Thanksgiving months in advance, so our Greater Phoenix Mensa gourmet group felt justified in replicating the November 1999 feast two months in arrears. As one of our members wrote, "If the Millennium can be a year early, we can be two months late!"
We received our recipes from January's hostess, Syd Golston of Tempe.We promised to report our cooking experiences for the Martha Stewart Omnimedia bulletin board, and photographed the dishes and the participants. Syd decorated the table in pale blue damask and cobalt blue serving pieces. She used her Minton china with silver leaf. Each of us received a beribboned scroll containing a page of the Martha Stewart website, which we read and shared with all participants. One sample: for a mere $468 a year, we could receive fresh flowers from Martha monthly. We started with Ursula Gore's version of Martha's Deviled Eggs with Pickled Okra. Ursula had added, in the spirit of Martha Stewart embellishment, a presentation of pickled green peppers and carrots on the platter as well. Ursula related that Martha recommended too short a time to hard boil an egg! A lively discussion ensued from members on the number of minutes we each need to boil eggs. Syd Golston had made the Autumn Field Greens with Spicy Pecans, and had run out of baking parchment. Her supermarket did not stock it, so she prepared the caramelized pecan halves on a baking sheet without parchment, and hated the clean-up. She agrees with Martha: parchment rules! The salad was quite fine, although the pomegranate seeds were a pain to extract. Syd also did the Herbed Cheddar Biscuits, which she found too heavy and butter-laden, and quite large. Jim Morgan and Marilyn McDonald prepared the Barbecued Turkey, which we all thought tasted sublime. The Foster's Barbecue sauce was used instead of gravy, as we found it especially delectable. Jim had brine-marinated the turkey, a non-Martha suggestion, and it was succulent. It was a ringer for the photograph of the North Carolina turkey! (See photos on the website). However, Jim had transferred it from the outdoor grill to the indoor oven, due to unseasonable cold in Phoenix. (It was 35 degrees in the early morning on January 9.) Syd made the Cornbread and Challah stuffing, filled with dried fruits. It's a recipe she will use again -- a great complement to the taste of barbecued turkey.
Turkey wouldn't have been complete without Ken Brown's cranberry with orange. Alas, she used a challah she bought instead of baking a pumpkin challah (a substitution suggested in ML Living, but she felt guilty). Joice Braden's Balsamic Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Butternut Squash were lovely, even though she lamented leaving behind at her home the arugula, which she'd sought out in six supermarkets and spent an hour rinsing and preparing! Chuck Braden's Mashed Potatoes with Golden Onions were delicious. The desserts crowned the meal. The Brazeltons' Bourbon Pecan Pies, decorated with pastry leaves, looked almost too good to eat. We poured the fabulous rum sauce over Kebba Buckley's Bread Pudding and pronounced it all perfect. Syd Golston's Sweet Potato Pie with Gingersnap Crust was sweet, sweet, sweet, as was Ursula Gore's Lemon Icebox Pie. We agreed that this was the secret of Martha's desserts: so much sugar and butter that of course they are delicious. Joice Braden prepared chocolate liqueur cups to go with coffee -- her idea, not Martha's -- as we watched a videotape of a pastiche of segments from last week's Martha Stewart Living," taped by Syd at 3:30 AM, when Channel 5 first shows them. It was, shall we say, enlightening to watch Martha clean a chinchilla ...
Folks, please note: Our January feast is the theme of a special section of the GPM Web site. For the story and pictures, go to the MAAM section of the site and go to the special "Gourmet" link at the top of the list-of-issues page. February's Gourmet will be on the theme of Foods of Love. We will meet at one of our perennial venues, the home of Ursula and Alan Gore, at 6 p. m. on Saturday, February 12. Please call Ursula at 602-863-9648 by 2/10 to coordinate the dishes.