Thanksgiving Eve and Missing Ingredients? No Problem. Adapt

It was such a wretched battle on the city streets, after work, this Thanksgiving Eve that I didn't bother to go to the grocery store for the five items missing for my holiday meal prep. This meant I had to change the menu. Though I had the prosciutto, I did not have fresh lemon or the right cheese for poultry saltimbocca. So this meant I had to face roasting a whole 12 pound turkey tonight. If that didn't turn out I would make ordinary panko covered chicken breasts as a substitute.

Ingredients:
12 pound turkey
1/4 cup ground Saigon Cinnamon
4 TB dried rosemary

Equipment:
oven
roasting pan
oven safe roasting bag
oven mitts

I roasted my turkey for 3 hours at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Since I used an oven cooking bag, I was not allowed to raise the heat any higher. The result? Great browned turkey skin and fully cooked all around! The meat thermometer read 190 degrees Fahrenheit when I tested the thickest part of the breast. Good! The turkey was frozen but I thawed it under cold running water and stored it in the fridge with a drip pan for 48 hours. It was pre-brined so I only seasoned it with Saigon cinnamon and dried rosemary.

That was the entree.

What about a side? Vegetarian lasagna.

Ingredients:
12 lasagna noodles
boiling water
1 jar basil marinara sauce
12 oz. pureed pumpkin
2 TB ground cloves
10 oz low fat mozarella
20 oz ricotta
1 tsp dried oregano
10 oz shredded carrot
8 oz shredded zucchini
12 oz fresh or frozen spinach
6 oz mushrooms

Equipment:
Tall pot
wooden chopsticks--handy for lifting noodles without breaking them like a pasta claw
water
oven safe rectangular or square pan 3" deep

This is a story. I actually baked it twice. How? I don't recommend this but I forgot the spinach and mushrooms for the first baking so I did something sneaky. I wanted it to still appear nicely browned and bubbly on top yet I didn't have any more mozzarella. This is how I did it. I took a finished rectangular pan of lasagna and recut it. I cut the rectangle into two squares and sandwiched the sauteed spinach and mushrooms in between. Without a doubt this made a conspicuously tall square lasagna but it had the bubbly top layer I wanted.

What will I do differently with the veggie lasagna beside remember the spinach and mushroom layer? Next time I will pre-cook the shredded carrots. At first I thought that the carrots would soften in the oven. However, even through the second trip to the oven the carrots were still crisp. That meant a strange crunch amid all the wonderfully soft zucchini bites, warm riccotta, tender noodles and stretchy mozzarella. Since this was a pumpkin lasagna I recommend keeping the clove seasoning. It's delicious with the mild cheese!

What's for dessert? Pumpkin trifle.

At first I was going to do a simple repeat of the modified recipe from Sandra Lee of Food Network. I didn't use any liquor and I made my own gingerbread chunks last time. I also used chocolate chips baked into the cake rather than butterscotch chips scattered in the layered dessert.

What was missing this evening? The shortcut. Last time I used Sandra Lee's great cheat! I used boxed vanilla pudding mix and used heavy cream instead of the milk. Since I didn't want to brave the crazy, pushing crowds and picked over supermarket shelves. I dared to make my own stirred custard!

Keep in mind most stovetop puddings have failed even though I thought I followed Alton Brown's suggested proportions for powdered milk, powdered sugar, unsweetened cocoa and cornstarch. One time it became an aspic. Another time it was horribly bitter. Another time it became a dried flattened gel much like a peelable fruit snack.

What could I do? I had guests anticipating pumpkin recipes so I gave stirred custard a try! Would you believe  it worked! I made it from scratch and it worked. I danced in the kitchen. Since I knew it was delicate kitchen chemistry at work, I didn't stir in the pumpkin puree haphazardly. Instead I whisked and tended the stovetop liquid until it began to thicken. When I dropped in the butter and stirred for 8 minutes more on medium heat then I was sure the pudding was stable. I took it off the heat, poured the cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg stirred custard in a pan to cool. Then I used the same saucepan and stirred pumpkin puree with a little cream, more sugar and a bit of cornstarch on its own until I was confident it wouldn't dilute and break the binders of the other batch. I stirred the clove custard and whisked it for 3 minutes with the pumpkin. Success!

I confess it was a little lumpy. I learned my lesson. If the pudding pours out smoothly do not attempt to scrape any residual pudding from the pan. Hidden danger! I found rogue cornstarch at the bottom. If I wasn't greedy then my stirred custard would have been lump-free! The recipe from eHow for stirred custard worked perfectly. "How to Make Homemade Custard" by eHow was foolproof. I obeyed the proportions for starch, water and evaporated milk. I admit I added about 1/4 cup more sugar though. I wanted to compensate for the unsweetened pumpkin puree. Also instead of vanilla I spiced the pudding with cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. Pumpkin spices. I also used 4 TB of butter instead of 1 TB to make it richer.

Happy Thanksgiving Eve!