Week 34 in Review

The Score
Eaters - 12    Compost - 0     Carry Over - 0

With 13 people at Thanksgiving dinner, it was great to actually get through the ENTIRE box this week.  In fact, I think that this is the first time we had absolutely nothing hit the compost, nor anything carry over into the following week.   The box made for a really delicious, and fun, thanksgiving meal.  Though we had no ingredients to carry over, we had so much left from thanksgiving dinner that we had leftovers available for days and days!

The Best

• Everybody loved the butternut squash wild mushroom bread pudding.  It made for a great 'stuffing' and great vegetarian entree.  This could be a lovely main meal anytime.

The Good

• The spicy cornbread stuffing with celery, peppers and andouille sausage (using homemade cornbread) definitely carried a kick and was a nice addition to the typical mellow dishes of thanksgiving.  I made it a day ahead per the instructions, but with the half and half mixed in that early, all the cornbread squares fell apart and it remained overly gooey even after baking.  Next time, I'd save this recipe for a 'day of' preparations.

• Generally speaking, I'm not the biggest of yam fans, but with a delicious, sticky maple syrup, brown sugar, pecan topping, there wasn't much to dislike.

• This persimmons and orange salad was a lovely way to bring some fruit into the mix on Thanksgiving.  Everyone loved it.

• Since I had some extra persimmons to use up, I made up an little persimmons preserve recipe that ended up being quite a hit.  Five persimmons (peeled, seeded, and cut into wedges), 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 2 tablespoons water, 1 teaspoon cinnamon.  Cook over medium heat until persimmons start to break down (30-45 minutes).  Puree with immersion blender or in blender.  Store in refrigerator.

Persimmons preserves on top of an oat scone

(we sent home a jar of preserves and some oat scones

with both of the families that joined us for Thanksgiving dinner)

• Not exactly thanksgiving-ish, but we used up the lettuce and cucumbers by making a 'philly cheesesteak' style salad with caramelized onions, grilled flank steak with melted provolone, and a horseradish lemon ranch dressing.  Yum!