[Sca-cooks] Holiday Meal with Medieval Dishes

[R J]

My personal take would be
 Lingonberries as inpiration for the use of
cranberries. There are some nordic recipes that are
nice for those, some of which are used in local
feasts.
 One of the most popular here is as a topping with
whipped cream for desserty things.
 This past year, however, I served the cranberries in
a wild rice salad with pecans, it went over pretty
well.
 Perhaps a frumenty would be an interesting carrier
for them?

 For the salad, I made a bread salad from the "Zuni
Cafe" cookbook. It was embedded with a lovely roast
chicken recipe, however, so it can be a little
frustrating to work out. 
 I used figs, dried cherries, and walnuts in the
salad,  and where it calls for chicken stock, a veg or
mushroom broth would be excellent.

 Sending the salad out already dressed seems to shut
down the whiners, and usually they are contrite when
they try the good stuff.

 One beloved "veg" here is Apples and onions, topped
with colby-jack cheese.
 Perhaps cutting the turnips with other textures would
help with the richness of the dish? If you make a
small "tasting" portion, no one feels obligated to eat
more than a "polite" portion. 

 My mom made an awesome non-dairy pumpkin pie this
year by using a jar of apple butter, and sweetened
with splenda and honey. This works pretty well for
cutting down on the evilness of dessert, and it was
*really* good.

 For the sweet potatos, we like to do a ( heavy )
souffle. We serve them in aluminum muffin tins, and
top them with a "praline" of pecans, brown sugar, corn
flakes or granola, and a small marshmallow per, just
to melt in. 
 These are quite heavy and decadent, but you have a
lot of control of the content, and can add fiber
pretty easily by putting a Carr's whole wheat cracker
( almost a fiber cookie ) in the bottom of each tin.
Just thinking about these is making me hungry.

 A fun thing to do ( really ) is to try serving three
kinds of whipped cream. Perhaps one with vanilla, one
with eggnog flavors, and one with chocolate and
hazelnut? 

 For the stuffing, if you want to play, I like to do a
few in the months leading up, and prepare them in
bundt pans and muffin tins. I slice the bundts as
though they were overpriced cheesecakes, and freeze
them ahead.
 This covers portion control, leftovers-recycling, and
leftovers after the holiday. ( I adore stuffing, it is
one of the few things I can eat easily when I am sick
)

 With turkey, I have a deal with my folks. One year I
do something off-the-wall, the next I am traditional.
 This year we were off-the-wall,with turkey piccatta
and gnocci as the turkey and potatos ( my folks havent
been to restaurants, so it was a jarring meal for them
).
 Last year I did the "Martha Stewart Heritage Turkey",
next year I am likely to do the "Black Turkey".
 You might try roasting a breast in the traditional
manner, and the dark meat with period treatment.

 Perhaps make lots of little things that are easy to
re-serve, as it sounds as though your family is being
finicky to the point of aggravation.

 I do hope any of this helps, and wish you luck.

 AEsa/RJ


		
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