communal feeding: friendsgiving

My porchetta style roast was delicious y’all. I panicked and cranked the heat toward the end, and then had to go to the clubhouse to decorate and rearrange furniture. While I was gone, my two hour timer went off. Patrick looked at the roast, cranked the oven even more and burned the fat cap. He felt bad about that and scraped off as much blackened crust as he could. We worried that an internal temp of 180 would result in overcooked meat or a dry roast, but I also worried about undercooked pork. We did let it go to 180 degrees Fahrenheit in a less thick part of the roast and the fat that didn't burn remained.

Then I sliced the rested pork and kept tasting--it was that delicious. Even Patrick kept breaking off bits of crispy fat and saying yum. I said wow you’ve never expressed that kind of pleasure over fat (he usually complains to me about it and gristle and leaves it on his plate). He said when it’s crackling like this, it’s delicious, too rich, but delicious. I then remembered that he does like crispy bacon. The pork was the perfect pink and tender and juicy. 

There were things I didn’t get done for the party. I never did hang my paper mum wreath, nor nailed up the icicle lights—which I merely draped on the window sill with the wooden signage I bought at Hobby Lobby. I bought pine wood signs with my favorite-style of lettering surrounded in pumpkin hues and motifs with homey sayings like “gather” or “happy harvest” and “welcome” that looked lovely. Because they were thanksgiving-themed, they were 75% off the day before the holiday which of course, I couldn't help myself from buying. I was in too much of a rush to take pictures of everything including my herb encrusted roast. Oops. Oh well. The food was DELICIOUS y’all. And I managed to capture a few images before we partook of dinner. Below Jillian is hamming it up in front of Chia and Jo and Nancy while Kathy played with the dogs and Helen and I took pictures.                       

Below are Nancy's dressing, her mashed potatoes and Cecilia's turkey gravy.

Kathy's spinach salad with fresh blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and dried cranberries dressed with a champagne viniagrette (Girard makes an awesome dressing). Chia's homemade green bean casserole with thick sliced mushrooms and a brothy homemade sauce and lots and lots of crispy shallots.

Helen's canned cranberry jelly and store-bought soft dinner rolls. She also bought the flowers for the table, which I had put into small bud vases to decorate the long table along with many votive candles.

Cecilia's roast turkey and my roast pork. She said she only sliced 3 pounds off her 13-pound bird. And I sliced the same off my 6-pound roast. Some of the leftover pork went home with the guests, and I made bahn mi sandwiches and tacos as well as dog food for Sadie and Wallace.

I took some turkey to make a Thai red curry. I'm back to Thistle and am inspired to incorporate organic spinach and baby kale and grains like brown rice and quinoa into our meals. I was talking to Chia who loved the pork, especially the crunchy fatty bits. We talked about the gelatinous textures that Asians like that White people don't. She wondered if pork belly could be roasted, and so I had to mention J. Kenji Lopez Alt's All-Belly Porchetta. And I mentioned that I just went simpler with Epicurious's Porchetta-Style Roast Pork(which they got from the New York Times recipe which was buried behind their pay wall).

And after dinner even though I was tired and longing to send guests home so I could clean up the clubhouse, I wanna do it all again for a Xmas cocktail party. Next month, I won’t line up the tables, but will keep them separate for smaller congregations and conversations. All the food will be brought again by each guest and will be appetizers which is my favorite kind of dinner. I will clean up the bookcases in the clubhouse and get rid of some of the junk--trashy books, board games missing pieces, dusty old candles. I did leave my glasses of votives for the next party as well as the gold rimmed dinner plates and my Picardie glass tumblers. And next time, I will make a mulled wine which guests can go to the kitchen stove to refill their cups—the drink station can be there too. And food buffet style on the long light tables which I can again cover with green art paper. I’ll measure tables, so I can cut the paper to size. The ladies want to install a Xmas tree, and I ain't messing with that design decision. I'll nail up the icicle lights next time and start constructing giant snowball wreaths to hang with the twinkling lights.