Senses and Sensibility

The very best food satisfies 3 senses: smell, vision and taste.

Of them, taste is second only to smell in its ability to evoke memories and provoke feelings. The two are inextricably linked. Taste has as much to do with smell as the flavor taste buds detect. And any good dish requires both those elements.

Presentation matters, also. If it doesn't look good, it won't taste good. Our brain plays tricks on us like that. But no matter how nice it looks, if it doesn't taste and smell good, it's waste of time.

For me, Thanksgiving and Christmas are as much about those smells and tastes as anything. When the holiday dinner is in the oven and I return from the inevitable last minute trip to the grocery to get what I forgot the last 3 times I was there, the smells overwhelm me.

I feel immediate peace. The aromas of a roasting turkey, sage dressing and boiling potatoes intermingling remind me that, yes, no matter how bad things are right now, they will be okay. That all life's complicated issues will work themselves out, and that, today, I have a feast.

It's the Scarlett O'Hara principle of time management: "after all, tomorrow is another day."

I have 3 or 4 favorite holiday dishes, but since I cook by touch and not by measure, all the measurements below are estimates. One of the joys of cooking is doing it to your own taste, so consider these to be guidelines only.

It's not baking, where your have to be more precise. That's why I don't bake.

Easy Cranberry Relish
This one I stole from my mother, but, as I told her, what good's a mama if you can't steal her recipes.

Ingredients:
1 can whole-berry cranberry sauce
1 cup raw celery, sliced or diced (at your discretion)
1 Granny Smith apple cored and cut into small chunks (leave the skin on or peel it, again at your discretion)
3/4 cup roasted pecans (I like them chopped and reserve a few halves for garnish)

Directions:
Roast the pecans. I like to use a little butter in a cast iron skillet under medium heat in the oven. If the pan smokes, it's too hot. Just turn it down and roast until semi-crisp.

Then throw everything into a bowl and stir.

It helps to make this ahead of time and refrigerate overnight. The flavors meld better.

For a quick and easy topping, use equal parts of cream cheese, whipping cream and sour cream. Mix them until they achieve a uniform consistency. It should be smooth but stiff.

I don't make the topping any more because of a horrible dairy allergy. (You don't need to know the gory details.) But you can enjoy.

Holiday Fruit Salad
This one can be adapted for almost any season. For the Fall/Winter holidays, I like to use traditional spices to give it darker, richer tones. And you can put whatever fruit you want in it. The only constant is the mixture of citrus and honey. This is my favorite variation.

Ingredients:
1 small to medium cantaloupe, cubed (the riper the better)
1 can pineapple chunks
2 peaches (if you can find them and they're good), peeled and cubed
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks
1 can mandarin oranges
1 cup each of white and purple grapes cut in half (they absorb the flavors better if they're cut)
1 mango cut into chunks
1 cup sun-dried cherries
1-2 cup honey
juice of 2 oranges, 1 lemon and 2 small limes
cinnamon to taste
nutmeg to taste
clove powder to taste

Directions:
Prepare the fruit that isn't canned. Toss it into a large bowl and add the canned fruit, including the juices. Immediately pour the citrus juices over it to keep some of the ingredients from discoloring. Then, pour the honey over it. Put in enough to achieve a consistency in the liquid that you like.

Season with nutmeg, cinnamon, clove powder to taste. I like a strong clove presence because of the contrast between its flavor and the acidity of the citrus and the sweetness of the honey. A little clove powder goes a long way, as does nutmeg, though, so be cautious. Season, then taste, and tweak the flavors to achieve what you want.

I like to serve it as an appetizer in antique champagne glasses I picked up for almost nothing a few years ago. (I love thrift stores.)

Again, it's best to make it the day before and let sit in the fridge overnight.

Christmas Duck
Duck is a much-maligned meat in this country. But that's because most people don't cook it properly. Well-prepared, it can transform from gamey and greasy to the sublime. It's one of my very favorite Christmas dishes.

I stole the idea from a chef I worked with many years ago and the method from a PBS cooking show.

Ingredients:
1 duck (obviously)
1 medium to small white onion (don't substitute yellow or red)
3-5 cloves
1 stick of butter (don't even think about using margarine)
juice from 2 oranges
1 cups honey
salt to taste (I prefer sea salt)
freshly cracked pepper (If you don't have a pepper grinder, go get one this minute. The difference in flavor between freshly ground and the other kind is nothing short of a religious experience.)

Directions:
Mix the honey and orange.

Soften the butter and then rub it into the bird. Don't be afraid to use your hands. Cooking is, and should be, a very tactile experience. Just wash your hands first.

Poke the cloves into the onion and insert it into the duck's cavity. Cover with tin foil (make a tent), and place it on a wire rack on top of a shallow baking pan.

Throw it into a preheated over (400 degrees or so), and let it cook until a meat thermometer says it's almost done.

Take the tent off and pour 1/3 of the honey and orange mixture over it every 15 minutes.

Let it cook until the skin is a crispy brown.

To make a good sauce for it, take a little of the drippings from the pan, add some red wine (I prefer a decent merlot or cabernet), finely diced white onions (a half a cup or so) and sun dried cherries. You can also use veggie or mushroom stock instead of wine. The wine is better, but a hearty stock will suffice.

Throw your chosen ingredients into a heavy-bottomed skillet with a couple of pats of butter and reduce until it coats a spoon.

Let the bird rest for at least 15 minutes before serving. That's about how long it takes to make the sauce.

With duck, I advise keeping the number of flavors in play to a minimum. You will want to elicit the natural flavor without overpowering it.

If you want to make a statement, do it with the sauce.

Sage Portabellas: a Vegetarian Alternative
We have a vegetarian friend who has Parkinson's and whose only real family is a daughter in Houston. His wife, Molly, died many years ago, and his daughter comes up when she can. He doesn't have the physical ability to do much in the kitchen, and I'm sure the last thing on his daughter's mind after the drive is shopping and cooking.

They're going to spend Thanksgiving with us, so I will cook a parallel meal for John. If you've ever had to make a vegetarian Thanksgiving meal that still tastes like Thanksgiving, you will appreciate the creativity necessary to pull that off without resorting to a tofu loaf.

Stuffed Portabellas are nothing new, but making them taste like Thanksgiving isn't as hard as you might think.

Ingredients:
Four Portabellas with stems attached
Veggie or mushroom stock
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced onion
3 hard-boiled eggs
2 tbls butter (margarine won't work)
2 cups crumbled cornbread
Fresh sage, julienned, to taste
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste

Directions:
Make cornbread. I use a mix from Sun Harvest. I usually make it the night before and let it sit out. That way, it has to time to lose enough moisture to crumble nicely, but not so much that it could be used to pave a road with.

Remove the stems from the mushrooms and wash the heads and stems. Dice the stems into fairly small pieces. Chop the eggs into random small pieces.

Pour about 3 cups of the stock into a medium size heavy-bottomed saucepan. Add 1/3 of the celery, onion, mushroom stems, eggs and some sage. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cover.

Take a nap. It'll be a while before it's done.

When you wake up, add the remaining ingredients to the crumbled cornbread. Mix it well with your hands (if they're clean, they're your best mixing tool). Ladle enough of the stock over it to give the mixture a soft consistency.

Spoon the cornbread mixture onto the mushrooms' bottom side. Place in a pre-heated 350-400 degree oven on a baking sheet, stuffing side up.

They only need to cook 15-20 minutes, so time things well. They can keep in a warm oven for a while, but don't overdo it. Otherwise, they come out dry.

While they're cooking, turn the heat up under the liquid in the saucepan and reduce it to a thin gravy. Once it's reduced by about 50%, toss in the butter. Reduce it by another 1/3 or so and take it off the heat.

I like to serve them with some of the gravy on top and a little drizzled around the sides.

In the End
These are just suggestions. Cooking is, and should be, a dynamic, creative process. It should challenge, but not intimidate. It should open your mind (and your palate) to the rich bounty we enjoy. It should feed the soul as much as it nourishes the body.

The first of these recipes I learned from my mother; the second two I developed myself, mostly by trial and error (many errors); and the last I adapted from my mother's methods.

I would love to tell you how to make her chocolate pie, because it's the best I've ever had. But since I don't bake, I've never really paid close attention to how she does it.

I don't cook very often these days, but when I do, I do so passionately. Since the time my grandmother pulled a chair up next to the stove when I was 5 or 6 and let me help her make salmon patties, I've known the true joy of cooking. It is the gift of being able to give something special, whether it's a simple side dish or a luscious duck.

Have fun with the guidelines. None of them are precise. Explore. Innovate. Create. Improve. Make them your own.

If they fail, they fail. That's how we learn. We often learn more from failure than success. Take risks.

That's why God made trash cans and garbage disposals. I've used them more than enough, believe me.

Above all, be ambitious and have fun. Find joy.