Thanksgiving Feast, November 16th

Thanksgiving Formal

Tell your friends there will be lots of food to go around - I can probably serve 15-20 people pretty easily.

• Porchetta di Testa

Pig's head cheese cured with garlic, rosemary, thyme, & marjoram

Served with capers and pecorino

• Pancotto

Bread Soup

• Seafood Risotto

Risotto with Shrimp, scallops & Marinara

• Herb Baked Fish

Which-ever fish looks best at this time of year

Stuffed with parsley, thyme, marjoram, rosemary & garlic - drizzled in olive oil

• Timpano

Baked, stuffed pasta - filled with all the best that Italy has to offer

• Florentine Roast Pork

Pork tenderloin roasted with garlic and rosemary

• Cheese & Salami Board

Three cheeses that won't be found in the other courses

A variety of salamis

• Focaccia Dolce & Coffee
• Tirimisú

This is a tentative menu, I just want everyone to have the heads-up for what's going to be happening. I'm not sure of the price just yet, but with the change of pacing that I just enacted I would say for this sort of feast plan to spend about $40-$50 on food and wine, it's all going to be together and I will get a bit more wine than usual. Plan ahead, bring a friend, have fun - that sort of stuff. I need to know pretty accurately how many people I will be serving otherwise my fridge won't be able to fit all the left-overs.

For those of you who are afraid of the course listings let me demonstrate how they will work: The Porchetta di Testa (since I have to buy a whole head) will be thinly sliced (as in paper thin) and garnished with capers and very small pieces of shaved cheese - you will take what you want from the plate, and no more, the Fritatta will also be quite small - think of it as a Hors d'oeuvre, Seafood risotto will be on a plate and you will take what you need, the fish will come in a similar size to this last dinner, the Timpano is presented as a whole and sliced to desire as is the Florentine roast pork, the deserts will be very small. You will be able to take as small a portion as you want and return for more if you want - these are not formal courses and their overall richness (in other words the amount of fat involved in making them) is not even going to stand up to the past two dinners. Also, you will be able to put nearly all of the savory courses on your plate at one time, so you should be able to draw a good conclusion for how much you need before you start eating.

Dinner - Monday, November 2nd

Because of all the work that I put into the last two dinners (which were nothing less than ridiculous, on all counts) I have decided to take it easy for the next dinner. There will be a new system to the dinners, so once monthly will be a formal dinner - since everyone seems to like the idea of dressing their best, and on the off weeks will be simpler fare and attire.

I have to give a special thanks to The Cheese Cellar for their generous donation of sliced truffles for the Salmon course when they found out that place that I was planning to get whole truffles in fact did not have them; that was definitely a high point in the meal for me.

For this meal there is no vote, I have decided to be a little ridiculous and do:

($11 per person)
• Grilled Cheese & Ham on Brioche

With fresh butter-fried potato chips

• Mac & Cheese

Made with lobster stock and pieces

Garnished with chives and lobster roe

• That's it

Some Previous Courses

Dinner - Monday, October 19th

Option #2

In the spirit of me doing things that I want to do because I can, or at least think that I can - I have sort of bit off a really big chunk of things that I would like to see, and in fact there were so many things that I wanted to see that I wrote two menus both of which are ridiculously exciting sounding to me, involving all sorts of complex techniques and preparations that will take me the better part of a week to do, which might be fun... The menus are a little bit more expensive than usual and I probably over-estimated the costs involved (but don't count on it) - so if I did I will tell you total cost at the dinner, but prepare for the worst. Because of the nature of the preparation for option #2 I will need to know the vote within the next couple of days otherwise I won't be able to get the pigs head in time.

Option #1 ($23 per person)

• Escargot Sur un Champ Vert
• White Truffle Oil-Infused Custards with Black Truffle Ragout
• Carrot Soup
• Soft Polenta with Forest Mushrooms
• Pot-Au-Feu

Braised prime beef short ribs with root vegetables & sauteed marrow

• Indeterminate Cheese
• Nectarine Salad with Green Tomato Confiture & Hazelnut Sabayon

Option #2 ($21 per person)

• Kamumoto Oysters with Blood Orange Aspic
• Seafood Bisque
• Salmon "Chops" with Celery and Black Truffles
• Head to Toe

Head Cheese with sauce gribiche & sweetbread stuffed trotters on green lentils

• Pomegranate Juice with Cloves
• Ashed Chevreaux* with Slow-Roasted Yellow & Red Beets with Red Beet Vinaigrette

*Or suitable substitute

• Cream of Walnut Soup