Mashed Potatoes Shouldn’t Need Gravy | Thanksgiving 2011
November 24th, 2011 categories: Life In Denver
It’s Thanksgiving 2011. The time of year we begin to eat ourselves into oblivion and hibernate.
The good news about living in Denver is the winter sunshine, snow on the slopes, and long pants.
Long pants cover up the pale, mashed potato looking legs.
But I digress. It’s time to talk a key Thanksgiving meal element. Mashed potatoes. If you love yours covered in gravy, well, I guess you have a right to your culinary opinion.
An occasional dab of gravy doesn’t do much harm, but potatoes swimming in the stuff is just yucky. Gravy is to moisten dry turkey, potatoes should already be moist and creamy. Here’s a tip: along with some butter add sour cream, cottage cheese and finely chopped chives to your mashers. They will carry the meal and create rave reviews.
We’re an outdoorsy bunch here in Denver, and the weather forecast is for sunshine and 65 degrees. Run or walk the Turkey trot, take a day hike in the foothills, play some touch football, and then eat potatoes to your heart’s delight!
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone.
Read the past LifeStyle Denver Thanksgiving Posts:
2008 - In Defense of the Turkey
2009 – Be Thankful – A Denver Thanksgiving
2010 – A Denver Thanksgiving Whine
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What’s On the Table for T-Day 2011 in Denver?
November 10th, 2011 categories: Life In Denver
Each year at LifeStyle Denver, the Thanksgiving meal takes front and center. What’s it like eating tofu turkey? How about store bought pumpkin pie? Or bad whine?
What’s on deck for Thanksgiving 2011? Mashed potatoes. Aside from turkey, the absolute best thing about Thanksgiving. And you’ll be treated to a great mashed potato recipe!
But you’ll have to wait until November 24th. So enjoy this beautiful Fall weather in Denver, harvest those pumpkins, and check back later.
See you soon!
Gretchen
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A Denver Thanksgiving Whine
November 24th, 2010 categories: Life In Denver
Left is Red, White is right!
Tradition.
Each year of LifeStyle Denver, I’ve made it a tradition to write about my favorite parts of the Thanksgiving meal. In 2008, I defended eating turkey, regardless of what my veggie friend thinks. Last year, pumpkin pie was open for discussion.
In 2010, I think I need to whine a bit, and also talk wine.
Whine? About what, you ask? My whining is purely self-absorbed and all about my personal taste, and I apologize. But I’m whining about bad wine. I hate it. Can’t stand it. Offer me a sticky, sweet glass of something you approximate for fine wine, and I’d rather just skip right to the pie, thank you very much.
Cheap champagne? OMG, don’t even try and I can’t believe you think it’s any good either. Veuve Clicquot? Now we’re talking. Hand me the flute, please.
My husband quickly learned that he’d better not hand me a white wine glass for the Rosso I was opening. Now, when I get lazy and reach for a white glass he tsk tsk’s me – I’m too short to reach the red wine glasses without dragging a chair to the cupboard. Everyone has their weak moments.
Having grown up in California, with discerning parents, I’ve come to appreciate the nuances of a fine wine. My friends are more educated on the hot vineyards and what the best vintages are and I love learning about new wines from them. My latest iPhone apps are Wine Steward and Cellar Rat. Two handy little resources that help pair food with wine and distinguish the good vintages from the bad.
I’m whining about bad wine and sitting in Denver, but I’ll soon heading to Sonoma. We’ll become more educated, and probably worse wine snobs.
Thanksgiving dinner will begin with a perfectly chilled glass of outstanding Champagne, and then we’ll move on to a Pinot Noir. According to Wine Steward, that will complement the turkey perfectly.
Have a terrific Thanksgiving, and I hope you didn’t forget to go to the wine store first!
Oh, and what am I thankful for this year? Friends who bring wine to dinner (good wine anyway,) my new iPhone and the cool wine apps, parents who let us tag along on a trip to Sonoma, and most of all family and the wonderful Denver Real Estate clients who make my work life so much fun on a daily basis.
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Be Thankful – A Denver Thanksgiving
November 26th, 2009 categories: Life In Denver
Holy pumpkin pie, Batman! A year has gone by since my rumination on tofu turkey.
This year, I’m thinking about store-bought pumpkin pie. I have gourmet friends, and friends who can’t cook to save their lives. I even have a friend who owns her own catering company – she’s a handy friend to have! Some will prepare pies, others will pick them up from Safeway.
One person will turn her nose up at “store-bought” another doesn’t really care.
I’m just thankful that there’s such a thing as pumpkin pie at all. Who could possibly stomach pumpkin without all the sugar, cream and crust anyway?
Here’s what else I’m thankful for this year:
- My husband’s love and support. He says, “you look nice today” every single day when I’m leaving the house!
- A loving and supportive extended family.
- Terrific, fun and funny girlfriends.
- A fabulous company, The Kentwood Company, with wonderful colleagues and ownership dedicated to making our company the best.
- Denver Real Estate – my career and life.
- My eyes – I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t read.
- My son isn’t behind the wheel yet – but I only have two more weeks to be thankful for that…
- The bounty we enjoy and sometimes forget to recognize.
Enjoy your pie, pumpkin or not, your turkey, your potatoes and all the fixins’ on this 2009 Thanksgiving Day! It’s 65 degrees and sunny here in Denver – aren’t we lucky?
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In Defense of the Turkey
November 26th, 2008 categories: Life In Denver
I have a friend, Diana, who happens to be a vegetarian. Not like me, a partial vegetarian who doesn’t eat red meat or pork. Diana doesn’t eat any meat at all.
A few years ago, she told me they were going to have something called a “tofurkey” for Thanksgiving. It didn’t much surprise me, Diana has introduced me to the best vegetarian restaurants in Denver, so I thought she could whip up a mean tofu turkey. We’ve been to Water Course and found a lively delight of a restaurant. I was a bit concerned that the main course was going to be water, judging from the name on the door, but ate the most inventive dish of tofu ever on the planet. A couple of times, Diana has taken me to Govinda. I won’t provide you a link there – this happens to be the restaurant inside the Hare Krishna temple and it takes a strong sense of self to walk in there for lunch.
Growing up in Laguna Beach, California afforded me an intimate view of the Hare Krishnas. They danced around the town every weekend banging their tambourines and chanting. This was 1970’s California, so we just figured everyone was stoned. One year, I had to do a research paper on religion and chose the Hare Krishnas to study. I was curious about who they were and why they danced around in packs every weekend. The only thing I remember from my research is that they shave their heads except for the little pony tail in the middle so that God can yank them to heaven. I pictured how much that would hurt, God yanking you by a little pony tail, ripping out your hair as you fly up to heaven.
You can imagine that when Diana suggested we try Govinda for lunch, I had a little trepidation. I like my hair just like it is, thank you. I hoped we’d come out unscathed, since Diana is closer to a Southern Baptist rolled into a Zen Buddist, and not anything remotely resembling a Hare Krishna. Lunch was a buffet of unrecognizable lentils and vegetables that tasted absolutely fabulous. Truly a fun dining experience. No one proselytized us, no one came at us with a razor to shave our heads and everyone is welcome.
When I later asked Diana how the tofu turkey was, she said lousy. I couldn’t believe it – she couldn’t get the tofu turkey to cook up right, and she said the taste and consistency were disgusting. Their family has no plans for fake turkey in the future. They’re experimenting every year with how they can celebrate Thanksgiving “turkey free.”
I really don’t think you can. You can celebrate Passover brisket free and Christmas ham free, but you can not celebrate Thanksgiving turkey free. At least I can’t. I can skip the sweet potatoes, the pumpkin pie and even the mashed potatoes (if I really had to,) but the turkey and stuffing are beyond blissful.
My mother taught me to cook a turkey, but the first few attempts were a challenge. My father loves to remind me every year to “turn on the oven” with a grin. He lords it over me that my first turkey didn’t finish cooking until 10:30 at night. You can guess why. My sister cooked her first turkey upside down. I thought that was funnier than forgetting to turn on the oven, but she didn’t. The best way to cook a perfect turkey? Get a cooking bag and bag it up. It bastes itself and you do nothing until it’s ready to pull out of the oven.
So enjoy your Thanksgiving, remember to turn on the oven, and pass on the tofu this time of year.
Lifestyle Denver is a local Denver Real Estate blog loaded with real estate and lifestyle information about the Denver, Colorado region.
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