Thanksgiving Confessions Plus a Pumpkin Custard Recipe

Thanksgiving Confessions Plus a Pumpkin Custard Recipe

I must confess, I just don’t like Thanksgiving food. Especially turkey. You can brine it, fry it, slather the flesh with butter and herbs and always I think “Meh. The poor bird.”

The side dishes are generally OK. My homemade stuffing with a combo of hand-cubed rustic country bread and olive bread mixed with mushrooms and hazelnuts is good. That gloppy crap cooked inside the bird is horrifying to me. How about some salty glue with your bland meat?! No, thank you.

Homemade cranberry sauce is great, but the jellied kind that comes from a can, makes that creepy slurping noise on the way out and then has can ridges in it -- that is just wrong. 

The “New York Times Cookbook” has a mean creamed spinach recipe. My sweet potato biscuits are to die for. Those two dishes scarcely a holiday meal make. I mean, I would be fine with it, but guests would more than likely be disappointed.

Then there is the fact that we don’t eat a lot of meat in our house -- mostly because of the way the animals are treated in factory farms, partly because the idea of letting something be born just so you can kill and eat it kind of freaks me out and because I really don’t like the way most meat tastes.

In contemplating the holidays with a kid, we are giving a lot of thought to what kinds of traditions we want to create for Georgia. We will raise her mostly vegetarian with occasional fleshy meals, because that is how we eat.

Every year 45 million turkeys are killed for Thanksgiving. The vast majority of those turkeys live on big factory farms where they have a miserable existence before dying. They are filled with chemicals and hormones. PETA has captured on film the most violent and horrifying mistreatment of turkeys. It makes me really sick to think about it, fortifying my already lukewarm view of turkey as dinner.

Then there is the time I got stuck behind a chicken truck that was on the way to the Tyson’s plant. I still get weepy thinking about those poor birds, covered in the waste product of the bird above, unable to move, looking utterly, utterly miserable.

I am a thoughtful person who evaluates all my choices in conjunction with my moral/ethical compass, how it affects the wider world and what sort of message it will send to my daughter. The end result being most things are more complicated for me than for other people and we don't just follow traditions. We think about how we want to live and fit our beliefs in with the mainstream. Or not. 

So what should be on holiday menus? No turkey. On some distance Thanksgiving, I envision venison stuffed with mushroom duxelles. I have a vague idea that if a deer is wandering about in the forest and never knew what hit it, it isn’t as sad as being born to be dinner. Maybe I am making justifications to fuel my love of Bambi.

If Georgia goes to school and feels like a freak for not having turkey, we will find humanely raised turkey and experiment. Maybe some sort of Bobby Flay-inspired Southwestern recipe that involves a cumin spice rub and a green chile mac and cheese side dish. The mind whirls with possibilities. Maybe Georgia will decide to be completely vegetarian and then we will have great fun finding delicious, festive meals that do not involve tofurkey, because seriously. That is just gross.

While not one to cave to tradition in any way, I do see the sense in pumpkin on a fall menu. They are abundant this time of year. Their brilliant orange color is festive. I had this darling little sugar pumpkin from my farm share and I needed to find something to make with it.

I thought some sort of sugar-free custard might be nice. I wanted a bit of egg yolk to add fat and protein for Georgia. I needed a milky substance, but babies aren’t supposed to have milk so I decided upon coconut milk. Those fall spices like ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon were a must. The result was brilliant, if I do say so myself. Georgia ate an entire ramekin full when they came out of the oven and adored the leftovers. Drew spread it on toast and thought it was genius. Because there is no sugar, this recipe isn’t ideal for adult palates, which have been conditioned for sugar, sugar, sugar. A drizzle of maple syrup over top should do the trick.

Pumpkin Custard

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

½ roasted and pureed sugar pumpkin (or about 1 can of pumpkin)

2 egg yolks, beaten

1/3 c coconut milk

Any combination of the spices below and in amounts you like or use all of them – this is a guideline

¼ tsp powdered ginger

¼ nutmeg

¼ cinnamon

Whisk all ingredients together and pour into one-cup ramekins. Place in a ceramic baker and fill half way to sides of ramkeins with water that has recently boiled. Bake for 30 minutes or until middle is set.

You can use the rest of the coconut milk for a lovely curry with mixed vegetables and your choice of protein. The rest of the pumpkin can be baked into scones or some other baked good if you don’t have a baby who will eat the puree.