The rain is pouring down against the steamy cabin window. Inside the darkening kitchen, Ben and I are busy cleaning and chopping carrots, and making sauce for the cauliflower, our contribution for tonight’s Thanksgiving dinner with our fellow cottagers.

Our neighbours are busy putting last minute touches on their potluck dishes too. As 4 p.m. approaches, I feel a heightened sense of urgency, ‘The food’s not going to be ready in time,’ I think to myself, while the kids keep asking me, “Can we go now, mommy?”

We are all excited. This is our last get together of the season, and it promises to be a doozy. Finally, after slapping on some lipstick and running a comb through my hair, we leave our warm cabin, our arms filled with dishes, bun baskets, paper plates, cutlery, and of course - libations.

We are greeted at the door by a pile of wet shoes, boots and umbrellas. Inside the spacious cabin there are tables set up everywhere. Two for food, and the rest for sitting. Setting our dishes beside the others, I take a quick look around. “We are in for some good eating tonight. Everything looks delicious,” I say to nobody in particular, as I start unwrapping the tin foil from the other bowls and plates.

At the anointed hour, we gather. Trying to sample everything and while not heaping my plate to full proves to be a challenge. While pot lucks can be scary, this one is NOT. I sample one great casserole after another.

Below are the recipes for two dishes that were obvious favourites, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get all the recipes I wanted. So Jan, if you are reading this and have the turnip casserole, please send it to me. I must confess I didn’t try the desserts, but the apple and rhubarb crisp looked pretty good too.

Thanksgiving Winners:

Lisa’s Barley Casserole

• 2 Tbsp Butter

• 1/2 cup chopped celery

• 1 large onion chopped

• 1/2 pound of mushrooms (or one tin )

• 1 cup pearl barley

• 1 can chicken or beef consume

• 3/4 cup of water

Preparation

Slice the mushroom caps and chop the stems. Heat the butter in a skillet and add the chopped onion. Cook for 3 or 4 minutes and add the mushrooms. Cook another 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the barley and brown it lightly, mixing it well with the onions and mushrooms. Season to taste with salt and pepper and pour into a buttered casserole. Add enough boiling broth to cover the mixture and come 1/2″ above it. Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. This recipe will make enough for 6 people so you may want to double it. It’s also great for vegetarians, just use vegetable consume instead.

Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce

• 3 lb cauliflower (2 small heads), cut into 1 1/2- to 2-inch florets

• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 1 1/2 cups whole milk

• 6 oz sharp Cheddar, coarsely grated (2 cups)

• 3 Kraft single cheese slices

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 13 baking dish.

Cook cauliflower in a 5- to 6-quart pot of boiling salted water until just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain cauliflower well in a colander and transfer to baking dish.

While cauliflower cooks, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a 3- to 4-quart heavy saucepan over moderately low heat and whisk in flour. Cook roux, whisking, 3 minutes. Add milk in a slow stream, whisking, and bring to a boil, whisking frequently. Reduce heat and simmer sauce, whisking occasionally, 8 minutes. Remove from heat and add cheeses, salt, and pepper, whisking until cheese is melted. Pour cheese sauce over cauliflower and stir gently to combine. (I like to add 2 Tbsp of horseradish to the cream sauce for some added zip)

Warm in oven until ready to serve.

So there you have it, some of the evenings winners. The carrots with ginger, that I featured in last Thursday’s blog was not a hit, but it is still one of my favourites.

Cheers,

Julie

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 7:05 pm and is filed under Entertaining, Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.