What I made tonight. (Thanksgiving, Round 1).
November 23, 2011
Every Thanksgiving, I am commissioned by my mother to cook the green bean casserole. I’m not sure if this is due to the fact that amongst my family members, my culinary skills are ranked the lowest (keep in mind that my father is on a career fast track to becoming chef’s assistant at Disney). I liken it to being a benchwarmer for the New York Yankees. At least I’m still on the team.
Regardless, green bean casserole is the Thanksgiving dish that is generally regarded as requiring the least amount of skill. In years past, it takes me all of 5 minutes to open 2 cans of Green Giant cut green beans, open one more can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup, mix that together with some milk, French onions and salt and pepper and throw that baby in the oven.
Classic Thanksgiving dish, although I’m sure the Pilgrims and American Indians from the original gathering would disagree.
This year, I decided to kick it up a notch and make it from scratch.
I am using this recipe by Ellie Krieger of the Food Network. Ellie’s niche is that she creates healthier versions of classic dishes. It has less sodium than normal green bean casserole out of a can, and uses lots of fresh herbs and ingredients. It smells pretty good so I’m pretty optimistic. I’ve had green bean casserole from scratch before and as terrible as it sounds, it made me long for the canned version. Nostalgia wins sometimes, I guess.
I prepped it and it’s ready to be thrown in the oven first thing tomorrow morning. So tomorrow, all I have to worry about is the mashed potatoes.
I love Thanksgiving.
Now, time to catch up on the West Wing!
