Happy Thanksgiving

Did you know that turkeys have heart attacks and can drown if looking up while it's raining? When the kids were younger they would ask what happen to the turkey before we bought the bird at the store. So, I would come up with all sorts of elaborate tall tales and they would feel better before eating our Thanksgiving feast. Now, they just ask "Is it ready Mom?"

This week Mario and I gave our captain a well needed break and handed over the helm to Angela. Knowing that the ship was in good hands we assumed the role of sous chefs, gave the deck a good swabbing and began to prep the kitchen for the bounty of food.

The night before Thanksgiving Erica and Angela put on their orange Crocs and commenced to baking. The exact count, 2 pumpkins, 1 cherry, and 1 pecan pie... and all were homemade.  I was very impressed with the fortitude at which they displayed their pastry skills. Mariesa even commented that she could not believe that these were the same pumpkins that were just in the pumpkin patch weeks ago and could not wait to taste a slice.

The next morning Angela got up early and made the stuffing using the onions and celery that Mario and I had diced for her the night before. She placed the turkey in the oven, timed it  perfectly to be ready an hour before the Dallas Cowboy football game (she knows how to make these sous chefs feel loved) and a few hours later the rest of the menu was completed with the traditional fixings of mashed potatoes, mac-n-cheese, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and Nana's cream cheese. The sounds throughout the house were filled with conversation and laughter. With tummies filled we gathered around the big screen and watched our Boy's win the game with seconds left on the clock!
 
We are thankful for all the blessings in life and the precious time shared with family. We thank all of our current and past heroes fighting overseas who have sacrificed so much allowing us to enjoy this holiday.

Ciao,
Mario & Mario
The Three Tocayos

P.S. Although we have not blogged the past two weeks we did prepare two delicious meals. The Zuppa Veloce di Fagioli - A Fast White Bean Soup (Mario Cooks! app) and Dry-rubbed Rib-eye steaks (The Babbo Cookbook page 227) with Patate al Forno - Potatoes roasted with garlic cloves (Molto Italiano page 440).

Snowtober

Fall, a favorite time of year for The Three Tocayos was interrupted by, believe it or not, Old Man Winter! With trees just beginning to color the landscape with hues of orange and red, we received about 10 inches of snow last weekend. Sadly, there were plenty of downed trees that could not handle the weight of the collected snow on their leaves. This led to many homes losing electrical power and unfortunately we were among the many to go dark.

But there is no snow in the forecast this weekend and we have power, so off to the galley Mario and I went to see what our next creation would be. We agreed on the Osso Buco con Gremolata di Pignoli - Osso Buco with Toasted Pine Nut Gremolata (page 363). Now you may remember back in March we were unable to purchase the veal and replaced it with pork. Although we enjoyed it and gave it four crocs, we knew that we would revisit the recipe with the veal.

The past few weeks we have had the advantage of seeing our Captain prepare his meals on the iPhone/iPad with his Mario Batali Cooks! app. This week we went back to the Molto Italiano cookbook with great confidence that we could pull off another five croc meal. While I seasoned the osso buco with salt and pepper on all sides, Mario chopped the carrots, celery and diced the Spanish onion. We heated up the olive oil in our dutch over and placed the meat inside then browned it on all sides. We were both amazed at how delicious the meat looked as we turned it over. Mario removed the osso buco and set them aside on a plate while I added in the carrots, celery and onion into the dutch oven. We tossed them until they were golden brown and then added in the tomato sauce (only half of what the recipe called for - Mario and I had commented when we made the porko buco that we should have used less sauce) and wine. We brought it up to a boil and added in the browned meat. We covered the dutch oven and placed into our preheated 375° oven for 2 and 1/2 hours.

Mariesa requested a side of risotto and we had to retain the services of our in-house expert - Angela! As the timer on the oven counted down to zero Angela timed the risotto to be ready with the main course. I know we have said this before, but it merits repeating, the house smelled terrific and it was a great compliment to the crisp chill of the air outside.


Ciao,
Mario & Mario
The Three Tocayos