Happy Thanksgiving / Vesel zahvalni dan

Okay, I know that I live in Slovenia, where we don't celebrate Thanksgiving but who cares. I'm only interested in food anyway, it seems that food has an important role in this feast. Most people goes well beyond the normal limits so there is no wonder that they eat turkey sandwiches for a week afterwards. Basically, the point of  Thanksgiving is to thank  God for a good harvest. And now, when I researched this, I discovered that in some way we do celebrated it in Slovenia. On the Sunday after the feast of All Saints in the Catholic Church they celebrate Thanksgiving. They want to thank God for all the gifts they have received in the past year. These are crops that borne by the earth, and all the other gifts that they have recieved in the past year. Today is Thanksgiving in America, but they celebrate it in Canada too. In Canada it is celebrated on the second Monday in October and in America, the fourth Thursday in November. Truffle and I celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, so in October. Not that he had any choice in this, it's gotten into me, that it would be fun if we did this, but he was happy  anyway  that I'll cook something again :). I love sweet potatoes, too bad it's so expensive in Slovenia, but it's Thanksgiving so I can afford it :). My plan was:  I'll cook everything, Truffle will google the history of this holiday and before we begin to eat, each of us will tell what he is grateful for. Well, in the end, I cooked for five hours (and I didn't baked the whole turkey because it would be really too much meat for the two of us, plus between photographing and reading recipes and jumping around...it takes a long time), it was completely dark outside when I finished (so these photos really suck and I'm so sorry .. grr, I didn't even want to publish them), Truffle didn't want to google this stuff and at the end we skipped the grateful part because the movie just started :). So, it is likely that we didn't really celebrate it, but at least the food was good ;).

With love, Neja



Potato-Mushroom Pie

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for dish 
• 1 medium onion, cut into 1/2-inch dice 
• mushrooms
• broccoli
• kohlrabi
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt 
• Freshly ground pepper 
• 1 cup finely grated cheddar cheese (about 4 ounces) 
• 1 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese, about 3 1/2 ounces 
• 2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/8-inch-thick rounds 
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped thyme leaves 
• 1 cup heavy cream

The process

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter a 13-by-9-inch baking dish; set aside. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion; cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add half of the mushrooms; cook until they are slightly softened. Add remaining mushrooms; cook, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms have released their juices and most of the liquid has evaporated, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from heat. Season with salt and pepper. Cook broccoli and kohlrabi.
Combine cheeses in a small bowl; set aside. Cover bottom of prepared dish with potato slices, slightly overlapping them. Sprinkle with half of the thyme and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Sprinkle with 1/3 of the cheese and half of the mushroom mixture, add broccoli and kohlrabi. Repeat layering process, using all but 2 tablespoons cheese. Arrange remaining potato slices, slightly overlapping, around the edge of the dish. Pour cream over top. At this point, dish can be refrigerated, covered, up to 1 day; let stand at room temperature 30 minutes before baking.
Cover loosely with foil, and bake until bubbling, about 1 hour. Remove foil, and sprinkle with reserved cheese. Bake until top is golden, 20 to 30 minutes more. Transfer dish to a wire rack; let cool 10 minutes before serving.

Sweet Potato-Carrot Casserole

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet potatoes (about 5 lb.) 
• 1 1/2 pounds carrots, sliced 
• 1/4 cup butter 
• 1 cup sour cream 
• 2 tablespoons sugar 
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest 
• 1/2 teaspoon salt 
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

The process

Preheat oven to 400 F. Bake sweet potatoes on an aluminum foil-lined 15- x 10-inch jelly-roll pan 1 hour or until tender. Reduce oven temperature to 350 F. Cool potatoes 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook carrots in boiling water to cover 20 to 25 minutes or until very tender; drain.
Process carrots and butter in a food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides as needed. Transfer carrot mixture to a large bowl.
Peel and cube sweet potatoes. Process, in batches, in food processor until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides as needed. Add sweet potatoes to carrot mixture. Stir in sour cream and next 5 ingredients, stirring until blended. Spoon mixture into a lightly greased 13- x 9-inch baking dish.
Bake at 350 F for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Remove from oven.


Okej, vem, da živim v Sloveniji, kjer ne praznujemo zahvalnega dne ampak komu mar. Mene vedno zanima samo hrana in zdi se, da ima hrana velik pomen pri temu prazniku. Večina ljudi gre krepko čez mejo normalnega tako, da sploh ni čudno, da jedo puranje sendviče in ostale ostanke še cel teden zatem. V osnovi je poanta praznika zahvaljevanje Bogu za dobro letino. In sedaj, ko sem malo raziskala zadevo, sem odkrila, da ga na nek način tudi v Sloveniji praznujemo. Na nedeljo po prazniku vseh svetih v katoliški cerkvi obhajajo zahvalno nedeljo. Ob tem se želijo Bogu zahvaliti za vse darove, ki so jih v preteklem letu prejeli. To so pridelki, ki jih je obrodila zemlja, ter vsi ostali darovi, ki so jim bili v preteklem letu naklonjeni. Hmmm, nisem vedela, vi pa verjetno tudi ne. Danes je zahvalni dan v Ameriki, praznujejo pa ga tudi v Kanadi. V Kanadi se ga praznuje drugi ponedeljek v oktobru, v Ameriki pa četrti četrtek v novembru. Tartuf in jaz sva praznovala kanadski zahvalni dan, torej že oktobra. Saj ne, da je imel kaj izbire pri tem, pičilo me je, da bi bilo zabavno, če bi naredila to, on je bil pa itak vesel tega, da bom spet nekaj skuhala :). Sladki krompir obožujem, škoda le, ker je pri nas tako drag, no pa saj je zahvalni dan in si ga lahko privoščim :). Vse skupaj sem si zamislila tako, da bom jaz skuhala vse, on bo pogooglal zgodovino ter poanto tega praznika in preden bova začela jesti, bo vsak od naju povedal, za kaj je hvaležen. No, na koncu je bilo tako, da sem jaz kuhala pet ur (pa nisem pekla celega purana, ker bi bila to res prevelika količina mesa za dva ampak samo fotografiranje vmes in branje recepta in skakanje gor in dol vzame veliko časa), zunaj je bila že čista tema (zato so te fotografije tako zanič in res se opravičujem..grr, najraje jih sploh ne bi objavila), Tartufiju ni bilo do googlanja in na koncu sva še tisti del o hvaležnosti izpustila, ker se je ravno film začel :). Tako, da ga verjetno res nisva praznovala, sva pa dobro jedla ;).

Z ljubeznijo, Neja

Krompirjeva pita z gobami

Sestavine

• 2 žlici nesoljenega masla
• 1 srednje velika čebula, narezana na kocke 
• gobe
• brokoli
• koleraba
• 1 1/2 žličke soli 
• sveže zmlet poper
• 1 skodelica drobno naribanega sira 
• 1 skodelica drobno naribanega parmezana
• 1kg krompirja, olupljen in narezan na tanko na kroge 
• 1 žlica drobno sesekljanega timijana
• 1 skodelica smetane za kuhanje

Postopek

Segrejte pečico na 180°c. Namažite pekač z maslom in postavite na stran. Stopite maslo v veliki ponev na srednje močnem ognju. Dodajte čebulo, občasno premešajte, dokler se ne zmehča, približno 5 minut pecite. Dodajte gobe, kuhajte, dokler se rahlo ne zmehčajo, občasno premešajte, dokler gobe ne sprostijo svoje sokove in večina tekočine izhlapi, 8 do 10 minut. Odstranite z ognja. Začinite s soljo in poprom. Skuhajte brokoli in kolerabo.

Združite sir v majhni skledi, postavite na stran. Prekrijte dno pripravljenega pekača s krompirjevimi rezinami. Potresite polovico timijana in ščepec soli in popra. Potresemo z 1/3 sira in polovico zmesi gob, brokolija in kolerabe. Ponovite postopek dokler ne zmanjka mase in pustite nekaj sira za konec. Razporedi preostale rezine krompirja. Na koncu vse prelijte s smetano. Na tej točki, lahko jed je pustite pokrito v hladilniku in sicer za največ 1 dan. treba ohladiti, in sicer do 1 dan. Pustite stati na sobni temperaturi 30 minut pred pečenjem.

Ohlapno pokrijte s folijo in pecite, približno 1 uro. Odstranite folijo in potresite s preostalim sirom. Pecite, do zlatega videza 20 do 30 minut. Počakajte 10 min, da se ohladi, preden postrežete.

Sladki krompir s korenjem

Sestavine

• 2 velika sladka krompirja 
• 1kg korenja, narezanega 
• 1/4 skodelice masla 
• 1 skodelica kisle smetane 
• 2 žlici sladkorja 
• 1 čajna žlička limonine lupine 
• 1/2 žličke soli
• 1/2 žličke mletega muškatnega oreščka 
• 1/2 žličke sveže mletega popra

Postopek

Pečico segrejte na 200 °C. Sladki krompir pecite  na aluminijasti foliji ali peki papirju, 1 uro ali dokler se ne zmehča. Zmanjšajte temperaturo peči na 180 °C.

Medtem skuhajte korenje.

Zmiksajte korenje in maslo v multipraktiku do gladkega. Prenesite korenček v veliko skledo.

Narežite krompir in ga do gladkega zmiksajte v multipraktiku. Združite sladki krompir in korenje, vmešajte smetano in preostale sestavin. Mešanico preložite v pekač.

Pecite pri 180 ° C približno 30 minut. Odstranite iz pečice.