At Thanksgiving, I remember one year in high school, eating cold creamed onions in my grandmother’s dark kitchen, sitting awake late into the night in front of AOL with my cousin Marie.
This year, the day began with three inches of snow and ended with berry crumble from my grandmother*. In the middle, I ate Thanksgiving dinner in jeans that I haven’t been able to wear since the summer after I graduated high school.
After I had folded white paper napkins neatly and lay them out on the table, my mom insisted on taking them back and sent me for the nice cloth napkins. The dark green did not go with the blue placemats I’d set out earlier, but I was not going to ask questions when the woman was brandishing the carving knife. When we sat down to dinner, my mom somehow managed to say grace even as she bit back fits of giggles at the motley table I’d set. My grandmother just kept saying, “This is the new style, nothing is supposed to match.” The dog stared at the leftover turkey without blinking for four whole minutes.
* Not to be confused with this Applejack Cobbler recipe for a Thanksgiving themed cocktail, featured today in the NYT.
November 23, 2005
Adapted from the Pegu Club1 cup sugar
12 ounces cranberries, washed and picked over
1 orange slice 1¼-inch thick, cut in half
2 ounces applejack
1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1/2 ounce apple schnapps
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses.1. For the cranberries: add sugar to 1 cup water in heavy-duty pot and simmer over low heat until sugar dissolves. Add cranberries, and stir frequently until berries are soft, about 10 minutes. Cool before making cocktails, which require about two tablespoons per drink. (The rest can be used as sauce or refrigerated for several weeks.)
2. To make one cocktail, put two tablespoons of softened cranberries (about an ounce) and orange slices in a cocktail shaker and muddle together. Add ice, then remaining ingredients. Shake vigorously and pour into a cocktail glass.
3. Garnish with something decorative, like an edible flower, an orange twist or a gooseberry with skin peeled back.
Yield: One drink.
Multiply recipe as needed for family events.