Tag: Thanksgiving

Categories
Film Features Film/TV

Thanksgiving Pix

Two things are certain about Thanksgiving: We’ll all eat too much, and at some point we’ll all find ourselves in front of a TV for an extended period of time. But what happens when you just can’t take another second of millionaires giving each other concussions on national television, as exciting as that is? Here are some things you can watch when you finally give up on football and switch over to the Roku.

MST3K Turkey Day

A television tradition from the 1990s returns online as Shout! Factory is streaming classic episodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K) all day on YouTube. Joining Joel, Mike, Cambot, Gypsy, Tom Servo, and Crow on the Satellite of Love is like watching crappy movies with the witty old friends you never had, but in a good way. If it’s been a while since you visited the world of Torgo, Manos, Side Hackers, and Gamera, you’ll be surprised at how well the humor holds up. And with a Joel Hodgson-helmed revival on the way, it’s a good time to get back into the groove. Rowsdower save us!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Halloween and Christmas get all of the movie love because of their flashy acoutrements, but there are a few films set during Thanksgiving. John Hughes ventured outside the high-school setting and into the hellish world of Thanksgiving travel with the fifth movie he directed in the 1980s. Steve Martin stars as a neurotic executive trying to make his way home to his family in Chicago while being beset by cancellations, overbooking, bad weather, and the attention of a shower curtain ring salesman played by John Candy. In a textbook case of slow escalation, the frustration builds as the two are forced to work together to get home. Martin and Candy are both at their best here, and you’ll wish they had worked together more often as you dread the drive back home from grandma’s.

Los Angeles Plays Itself

If you’re completely sick of all things Thanksgiving and looking for something completely different, this legendary documentary by Thom Andersen will take you away to the West Coast. A film professor and Los Angelino, Andersen put together this retrospective of how his city has been portrayed (and, he would say, betrayed) by the film industry that put it on the map. Since it used clips from more than 200 movies, the 2003 film was long thought to be unreleasable, even though it was a huge hit when it debuted at the Toronto Film Festival and has enjoyed a cult following from sold-out holiday screenings in L.A. But after 10 years of legal wrangling and a recent digital remastering, Los Angeles Plays Itself has finally found its way onto Netflix. It’s a fascinating journey connecting images you know by heart to their real-life counterparts, revealing vanished landscapes, and making strange observations along the way, such as the way directors tend to give their villains architecturally interesting Mid-Century Modern homes. If any almost-three-hour personal essay about the filmmakers’ hometown can be called an editing tour de force, this is it.

Categories
Opinion Viewpoint

On the Beat

It’s a question I’m more than occasionally asked: “How come you don’t do much news anchoring, Mr. Smith?” My reply is simple: If I’m going to report on the action, I want to be where it is. Last week the diversity of news I covered as a general assignment reporter only reinforced why I think what I do is the best job in journalism. So, consider this a reporter’s notebook, with my impressions at the time I was on assignment.

Monday: Even for reporters, it’s sometimes hard to jump into Mondays with a lot of enthusiasm. But hearing about six shootings that resulted in two murders in four days in Brownsville, Tennessee, piqued my interest. Were they drug- or gang-related?

When you’re doing a story in a small community, you usually aim high when it comes to gathering information in the short period of time you’ve got to make it happen. Mayor Bill Rawls, who we reported on after he was elected as the first African-American mayor of Brownsville in June, was candid about the shock people were feeling over the shootings. Nearly all of them involved young black teens, including the random shooting of a 17 year old by another 17 year old following an argument over a cell phone.

In a town the size of Brownsville, where the black population is primarily self-segregated into a certain area of town, asking who knows what — and who did what — can quickly produce solid leads for the police. Mayor Rawls was taking a personal interest in all the cases, so much so that he was patrolling the streets in his own car trying to find names. “Wow,” I thought. How refreshing to have a mayor giving more than lip-service to crime-fighting in his community.

Tuesday: I hate dealing with law enforcement when it comes to news conferences on drug busts, identity theft, or check-cashing scams. Late in the afternoon, former Shelby County District Attorney Bill Gibbons and current D.A. Amy Weirich were among those on hand to tout warrants that had been issued for the arrest of 99 people involved in a phony check-cashing scheme targeting Walmart stores. Most of the suspects made a couple hundred dollars each after splitting the profits from cashing checks totaling around $41,000. As usual, the questions from the media were plentiful, while the available details were sketchy. However, I did have a good hamburger for lunch that day.

Wednesday: Venerable WDIA radio did a live remote from inside the Shelby County Corrections Center, where there were more county officials than inmates, who made up a literally “captive” audience. Radio personality Bev Johnson asked insightful questions of a hand-picked group of inmates, who told the tragic stories of their bad choices that landed them behind bars. Memphis Councilwoman Janis Fullilove managed to provide some comic relief with her own reflections from when she’d been incarcerated at Jail East. In a way, I guess her honesty about her own human frailties makes her strangely endearing to her constituents.

Thursday: In anticipation of President Obama’s immigration speech, I talked with local immigration attorney Barry McWhirter about what I think is the Pandora’s Box Obama has dared to open with his executive order. McWhirter made a strong case that Obama’s ultimate intent was to keep families together, rather than having them victimized by deportations. To me, Obama’s approach was another example of his tunnel vision, one that feeds into the criticism that he’s failed to develop much political finesse in his six years in office. Why now? Why this method?

Friday: Week’s end brought a frenzy of new leads for possible big stories. On my way to cover a ground-breaking for a new park in Frayser, I was waylaid by a call from the assignment desk. Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong had called an impromptu news conference. I had to make my apologies before the Frayser event, which would have been a great feel-good story. Then on the way to see Armstrong, an informant gave me two bombshells: The first was that Shelby County Juvenile Court Clerk Joy Touliatos had filed a lawsuit against Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael. The second was that District Attorney Weirich had been accused of withholding evidence from the defense in a case that was on appeal and would have to testify in Criminal Court.

This is why there’s the term Freaky Fridays. And it’s why during this Turkey Day week, I’m thankful I am a reporter, not an anchor — so I can gobble, gobble.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Thanksgiving Upgrade: Try this Delicious Recipe from Chef Armando Gagliano

CREDIT: John Klyce Minervini

John Klyce Minervini

Ecco chef Armando Gagliano

Johnny Carson once said, “Thanksgiving is an emotional holiday. We travel thousands of miles to be with people we only see once a year—and then discover that once a year is way too often.”

But hey, at least the food is good—right?

This year, upgrade your Thanksgiving dinner with a recipe from Ecco chef Armando Gagliano. On its face, it’s a creamy soup of butternut squash. But what sets this dish apart is the inclusion of Bartlett pears.

“I’ll admit, the combination is unusual,” says Gagliano. “But I think it works well together. You get the creamy, savory flavor of the squash and the sweetness of the pears. Garnish with a few toasted walnuts for an earthy crunch, and some micro-greens for a green, citrusy taste.”

Maybe you’re digging the soup, but don’t want to make it yourself? Starting next week, you can order it off the menu at Ecco ($7). Chef Gagliano recommends serving it with a whole roasted chicken and a glass of viognier. Happy Thanksgiving, y’all!

Armando Gagliano’s Butternut Squash Bisque
90 minutes
5 servings

Ingredients

3 medium butternut squashes, halved and seeded
1 bartlett pear, slightly underripe, peeled and seeded
1 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp allspice
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 cup toasted walnuts
micro greens or parsley

Preheat oven to 450. Fill the bottom of a baking dish with a small amount (½ inch) of water. Roast squashes in baking dish for 45 minutes – 1 hour, until tender when poked with a fork. Meanwhile, in a pot, combine sugar with 8 cups water and bring to boil. Poach pear for 20 minutes in boiling water.

Allow squashes to cool slightly, then scoop out the flesh, discarding the skins. In a large pot, combine squashes, pear, and cream. Add spices and stir to combine. Puree in a blender. Return to pot and heat through. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with toasted walnuts and micro greens. Serve immediately.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

Thanksgiving Puddings

CREDIT: Ari LeVaux

You probably got the memo that Thanksgiving, as it is currently celebrated, is a far cry from what probably transpired at the original feast. Rather than a cross-cultural love fest, the first Thanksgiving was more like a poker game where each player had one hand on his cards and the other hand on his pistol, under the table, aimed at another man’s lap. The party did not include a quick game of tag football while the turkey cooked, because there wasn’t even a turkey. Or a pumpkin pie. Or women and children at the dining table.

But who can’t get behind a holiday that, stripped to its bare essence, is about being grateful for what one has? In this sense, every day should be Thanksgiving, as far as I’m concerned. And there should always be pudding. Pie is optional.

Tapioca, Coconut, Squash Pudding

Little known fact: A tablespoon or two of tapioca will improve any pudding or pie filling immeasurably. Tapioca adds a toothy elasticity to the finished product, bestowing it with the body you’re looking for. My mother-in-law uses tapioca in apple pie, and since I started messing around with the tapioca trick myself, it hasn’t failed me. And for what it’s worth, tapioca has long been a food of indigenous peoples of Central and South America. So there’s an obtuse Thanksgiving Indian angle for ya.

This recipe also includes corn meal, which thickens the pudding, while adding more complexity to the flavor. It also adds a pinch of indigenous authenticity.

I use molasses here because I really like the dark, intense flavor combined with these ingredients. I opt for the extra-intense blackstrap variety of molasses, but if you’ve got a sensitive palate, you should probably avoid blackstrap, and perhaps skip the molasses altogether in favor of sugar or brown sugar.

Final note: This dish is unquestionably better after a night in the fridge.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked squash

(preferably kabocha), or 1 cup each

of cooked squash and sweet potato

2 tablespoons granulated tapioca

(aka cracked tapioca)

2 tablespoons cornmeal

2 tablespoons molasses

1 can full fat coconut milk

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Combine ingredients in a food processor or blender. Whizz until smooth. Pour into a buttered baking pan. Bake at 300 degrees until an inserted knife comes out clean. Let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate overnight.

It’s not an overly sweet dish, but the sweetness of the squash/sweet potato and coconut combine with the molasses for an amazing pudding experience. Or pie, if you’re crusty.

Ari LeVaux

Apples and squash

Indian Pudding with Apples

This recipe comes from an old recipe booklet called Apple Talk that was published by the Northern Pacific Railroad in the early 1900s, apparently in an attempt to boost its apple shipping business. My copy of Apple Talk was found in an old homestead in Missoula, Montana, beneath a dusty stack of recipes. Apples, like squash, are in season.

When finished, the pudding will bear a black hue on top, as if you burned it. Don’t worry, it’s just the molasses.

Instructions

“Scald two quarts of sweet milk [also known as whole milk]. Stir in one cup of cornmeal until the mixture thickens. Remove from the fire. Add one and one-sixth cups of molasses, one teaspoonful of salt, one-half teaspoonful each of nutmeg and cinnamon and two cups of sweet apples, pared, cored, and quartered. Pour into a deep pudding dish and bake for four hours. [I went with 275 degrees, and it was perfect.] When the pudding has baked for one and one-half hours, add one pint of cold milk without stirring. Serve with cream and sugar and syrup.”

I’ve played around with variations like doubling the apples and corn meal, which makes it sweeter and thicker. It’s a forgiving recipe. Maybe not as decadent as your average serving of tiramisu, but it’s better for you, and closer to what may have been served in the original feast, for whatever that’s worth. Like the squash pudding, this pudding is exponentially better the next day, so plan ahead.

Categories
Sing All Kinds We Recommend

Sound Advice: Griz at Newby’s Wednesday

There is something wild about Newby’s the night before Thanksgiving. Memphians go away to school and get back together for the first time. It’s usually freakin’ haywire in there. Detroit’s 22-year-old producer Griz will likely whip up some sort of major frenzy.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Letter From the Editor: The Moment We’re In

CREDIT: Astargirl | Dreamstime.com

Dwelling in one’s true abode, unconcerned with that without, The river flows tranquilly on and the flowers are red.

— “Ten Bulls of Zen,” Kakuan

It’s Thanksgiving week, a time to be grateful, a time when we should stop paddling so hard, pull over to the shore, and look around. It’s a time to take in the river and the trees and the sky above and savor this life we’re drifting through. A time to forget the destination and celebrate the journey — the moment we’re in.

The long, exhausting, divisive election cycle is over. Fifty-one percent of us were pleased with the results; 48 percent of us were not. It’s been that way, more or less, every fourth November in America for 236 years. But that river, too, flows on. We’ve survived good presidents and bad, recessions, depressions, wars, hurricanes, and floods. We’re divided politically, yes, but that division is itself a kind of strength — a centering point that keeps us from veering to extremes in either direction. Be thankful for it. Celebrate it. Hug the nearest Republican. Buy a Democrat a drink. If the Pilgrims and Indians could break bread together, surely we can as well.

And when I think about it, I have to admit I’m grateful for some things that seem silly — Facebook, for instance. It’s reconnected me with old friends and classmates from around the country and the world. I see their pictures and read stories of their adventures; I see their children, a fine dinner in Turin, a camping trip in the Sierras, a new painting in the living room — and, yes, too many damn pictures of cats and dogs. But the small stuff matters, too: the political posts, the funny memes, the snark, the silly mugshots. It connects us, it broadens us, it widens our lens on the world. Social media is a good thing, on the whole, and I’m happy it’s here.

A Chinese proverb says, “May you be blessed to live in interesting times.” There is some debate as to whether this is meant to be a blessing or a curse. But I feel blessed to live in an interesting city, a city that in many ways is ahead of the rest of the country when it comes to dealing with ethnic diversity. It shows in our music and our sports teams, past and present, and even in our politics. We have a long way to go, but I love Memphis and I believe this old river town is paddling in the right direction. I see evidence of it every day — and for that, too, I give thanks.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
News

No Memphis Turkey for Timberlake

Sorry to all you fans hoping to see Justin Timberlake cruising around Memphis for Thanksgiving with the family, but JT is busy in Australia with his mom Lynne, stepdad Paul, and … Jessica Biel.

Timberlake has been in Oz for several weeks now, while Biel stayed behind here in the states, spurring rumors the couple had cooled a bit. Not so, according to locals, who’ve seen them getting cozy at various hotspots around Melbourne. See what the two incognito A-listers have been doing while away here.

Oh well. There’s always Christmas. We’ll keep you posted.

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

A Feast with Flair

CREDIT: Justin Fox Burks

Doug Ruddle, owner of Chef’s Palette catering, enjoys combining his experience as a corporate trainer with his passion for cooking. When he decided to study the culinary arts after retiring from a 25-year career at FedEx, his goal was to open a gourmet cooking store and give lessons.

Attending Memphis Culinary Academy was the culmination of an interest in cooking that began with his first job at Shoney’s where he worked as a cook.

“I continued cooking during my career at FedEx,” he says. And though he hasn’t opened a shop (yet), he’s had plenty of opportunities to teach people about cooking.

After he finished culinary school, he gave cooking demonstrations at Williams-Sonoma. Most recently, Ruddle has been teaching at a monthly luncheon at Prairie Life Fitness Center in Collierville. He’s developed quite a following. More than 80 people attended last month’s luncheon. The modestly priced gatherings ($10) feature a cooking lesson followed by lunch.

“We’ve done them poolside, where I showed grilling techniques,” Ruddle says. He’s also covered topics such as Mexican food and cooking with herbs.

With one of the biggest holidays of the year just around the corner, Ruddle is sharing his expertise to show people how to use elements of typical holiday favorites to create unusual Thanksgiving feasts.

It’s all about creating new flavors and adding a little flair to a traditional meal — “anything that steps outside the boundaries of a baked turkey and cornbread dressing,” Ruddle says. “You can enhance any traditional holiday food with the extra things you put in it.”

If scrapping the entire menu for a more modern version is too extreme, Ruddle suggests substituting one dish at a time.

For instance, instead of pumpkin pie, try white-chocolate and cherry bread pudding with vanilla cream sauce. This easy recipe is served in a large glass casserole dish that can feed an army. Also, it can be served warm, which is just the thing people are after on a chilly fall day.

Other departures from the usual approach might include cooking a turkey breast instead of the whole bird. “It’s a really good option to the whole turkey, and it takes a lot less time to cook it,” Ruddle says. “If you’re not comfortable with carving at the table, you can just slice the breast and you’re good to go.”

Modernizing a menu doesn’t mean doing away with all the old favorites. “I may do green beans because everybody loves green beans, but let’s do some slivered almonds in there. Let’s do some pancetta. We’ll do it a little bit healthier. We’ll sauté it.”

Then there’s the cranberry sauce. Is it really that much of a sacrifice to do away with the gelatinous blob that comes out of a can? Ruddle says fresh cranberry sauce is the way to go. Add a little Amaretto for a different flavor.

To switch things up a bit, instead of traditional sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows, try a sweet potato trifle for dessert. Or add chestnuts and dried cherries to cornbread dressing.

One of the more practical tips Ruddle offers is to keep things simple. “I would suggest not serving such a huge variety of things. There’s no need to make six side items,” he says.

Before any big holiday meal, Ruddle recommends skipping the appetizers: “You don’t want people filling up on finger food.” He suggests starting out with a nice soup, like wild mushroom or squash, then skipping the salad and going right to the entrée.

“I love the wild mushroom soup,” he says. “It’s really earthy and good. This time of year it will warm you.”

And even though everyone wants to get through the holidays without going up a pant size, menu planning is not the place to save a few hundred calories. It’s better to watch the portion size and use smaller plates, Ruddle says.

“People can always get seconds,” he explains. “If you give them a big plate, they feel like they have to fill it up.”

Categories
Food & Wine Food & Drink

New Traditions

CREDIT: Courtesy of Reinaldo Alfonso

My Thanksgiving tradition began four years ago, when my parents came to visit from Germany. Of course, Thanksgiving being a wholly American holiday, Germany doesn’t observe it, but like many other countries, they do celebrate the harvest.

I was trying to find a way for my parents to meet my friends and decided on a Thanksgiving brunch. An eclectic mix of Russian, American, Mexican, and German friends came, and even though my parents haven’t been back this time of the year, the tradition carried on.

Jose Gutierrez, chef/owner of Encore and a native of France, has lived in the United States for more than 30 years and has cooked his share of traditional Thanksgiving meals. But he can’t get excited about toddler-size turkeys and sweet cranberry sauce.

“I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner for somebody once, and I made this great cranberry sauce,” the chef explains. “Not too tart, not too sweet — just right. The people who ate it said it was the worst thing they’d ever eaten, and they tried to fix it with sweetener. That is just gross.”

A Thanksgiving Gutierrez-style is a gathering of friends and employees who have no place to go and probably a turkey ballotine for dinner. For the ballotine, the turkey is completely boned (skin saved), the meat is cut into small cubes, stuffed back into the skin, tied, rolled up into a bundle, and either braised or roasted.

“This is a really great way to prepare turkey if you know how to de-bone it, because it will take a lot less time to cook and won’t get dry” Gutierrez says. “Your friends won’t think that you don’t like them because you made them eat dry turkey, and you don’t have to eat turkey leftovers that last until Christmas. That makes everybody happy.”

Konrad Spitzbart, executive pastry chef at The Peabody and a native of Austria, enjoys the American Thanksgiving foods. “I typically work on Thanksgiving Day, so I cook for my family the next day, and we have all the traditional foods — green beans and sweet-potato casserole, turkey with stuffing. It’s one of my wife’s favorite holidays.”

Courtesy of Reinaldo Alfonso

An Alfonso family holiday spread

Erling Jensen, chef/owner of the eponymous restaurant and a native of Denmark, gets to take the day off from cooking and enjoy his mother-in-law’s Thanksgiving food. “I like all the traditional food, and my mother-in-law is a pretty good cook,” Jensen says. “More important than the food is that everybody comes together to have a good time.”

Even though there is no equivalent holiday to Thanksgiving in either Austria or Denmark, there is food for the winter holidays.

The traditional Austrian holiday meal is simple — sausage and cabbage, Spitzbart says.

“A typical holiday meal in Denmark is a seated dinner of either roasted goose or duck with caramelized potatoes, apples, and jellies, and ‘Ris Allamande’ — rice pudding with whipped cream, chopped almonds, and vanilla and sweet cherry sauce — for dessert,” Jensen says.

Chez Philippe chef de cuisine Reinaldo Alfonso is of Cuban descent and grew up in Miami. Alfonso’s family has observed the Thanksgiving holiday ever since Reinaldo can remember. “We usually don’t do the traditional Thanksgiving dinner, maybe a little here and there for the American family members who have married into this big Cuban family,” the chef explains. “But in the end, it will turn into a big party. My dad will be in charge of the music, and everybody will be eating, dancing, and chatting.”

Cooking chores in the Alfonso family are split “equally.” The men are responsible for roasting and watching the pig, all the while playing dominos and having a few drinks and a cigar or two. “The pig is a huge affair,” says Alfonso. “We pick one at the beginning of the year, and the farmer will feed and raise it for us until we pick it up.”

After the pig is slaughtered, it’s marinated in mojo (oregano, cumin, onion, garlic, lime or sour orange juice, olive oil, and pepper) for two days before it’s roasted in a carefully crafted backyard pit from dawn until dusk.

None of the Alfonso family pig goes to waste. The blood is saved to make morcilla, Cuban blood sausage, and the family argues over who gets to eat the crispy roasted ears.

The women in Alfonso’s family take great pride in preparing everything but the pig. “My mom often adapts several American classics and infuses them with Cuban flavors,” he says. The result are such dishes as “Congri Oriental” (black beans and rice cooked with pork), corn casserole with Caribbean pumpkin (calabasa) and chorizo sausage, tamales, pumpkin fritters, Cuban bread, and candied yams glazed with rum syrup and a cinnamon meringue top as well as pumpkin flan.

Even though Alfonso is looking forward to eating plenty of his favorite foods, the company is just as important. “It has been a while since I was home for Thanksgiving and spent time with my family. This year, it’s going to be a big surprise because my mom doesn’t know I’m coming.”

Maybe I should keep an eye out for two Germans on Thanksgiving. I might be in for a surprise myself.