Talking (mostly) Turkey

Newsletter 11.25.2023

Bienvenue and welcome back to Musée Musings, your idiosyncratic guide to Paris and art. Now happily back in my own bedroom and finally over jet-lag. I first started taking annual flights to France about 30 years ago. After we returned to San Francisco from Australia. Where, for five years, my husband’s salary included annual business class travel from Canberra to New York, or its equivalent. By flying coach, we were able to travel without worrying about the cost. At a time when Australian friends were taking out bank loans to travel abroad. We went to Tuscany (to tour olive orchards as well as churches), to Sicily (I was teaching a Byzantine art course so the churches there were work related, of course), to Maine (to visit my husband’s parents - mine met us in Europe). The real pleasure though was dashing off for shorter trips all year long, geared to my teaching schedule at the Australian National University. Among our destinations were Bali, Fiji, Phuket (Thailand), Singapore, Hong Kong and Hawaii. One week, I travelled unencumbered to New Zealand for an academic conference at the University of Otago in Dunedin. Located at the southern tip of the South Island, who knew that it was a center of Scottish Enlightenment studies!

When we returned to San Francisco and no one was picking up our travel tab anymore, earning miles on an airline became essential. The easiest credit card to get that included miles, was a British Airways Visa card. Their points system was generous and traveling business class with the occasional upgrade to First was the perfect way to begin and end an international trip. (I wear my British Airways First Class pajamas every so often to remind me of those halcyon days). But it was never really easy. Flying into Heathrow from San Francisco was not the problem, it was our flight out of Gatwick to Bordeaux, the gateway to the Dordogne, that never went smoothly.

Even when I started flying to Paris rather than Bordeaux and could fly out of Heathrow and into CDG or Orly, it was not convenient. Connections are always a hassle. But it was the pandemic that convinced me that I had to make a change. My Business Class flight from London to San Francisco was canceled at the last minute. I was transferred onto a business class flight from London to Dallas/Ft. Worth. Not only did that mean flying economy from Dallas to San Francisco but I was on a plane where I worried that I was more likely to be seated next to someone with a gun than someone with a mask. The flight from London to Dallas was virtually empty. On the flight from Dallas to San Francisco, we were packed in like proverbial sardines. It was, after all, the weekend before Thanksgiving. That was my last British Airways flight.

For the past few years, I've been flying Air France non-stop from Paris to San Francisco. Easy peasy! Even last year, when I couldn’t upgrade my ticket to either business or premium economy, I found a seat in the first row of coach that was as tranquil as business class with as much leg room as premium economy. Getting through customs in San Francisco this years was particularly stress free. At Erin’s suggestion, I bought a Global Entry card. In the past, I have had to dig it out and follow the instructions. Which isn’t easy after a 12 hour flight. Last year, I couldn’t even find the card when we landed so I spent what seemed like hours going through customs.

This year I made sure I had the card within easy reach. This year I didn’t need it. There was only one person in front of me on the Diplomat/Global Entry line. A machine took my photo, recognized me and I was cleared to proceed. The officer in the booth said only, Welcome to San Francisco! Did she need to see my passport. She did not!

And that wasn’t all. The luggage carts were free this year at SFO! No shelling out $7 for the short walk out of the baggage claim area and into the balmy San Francisco sunlight. Alas, I am not a good cart chooser. The cart I chose was damaged, well at least the wheels were. Which of course I didn’t find out until I tried to push it. And since the guy standing next to me at the luggage carrousel who had kindly taken my 2 suitcases off the carousel and put them onto the cart, had disappeared, I was stuck. I must have looked a sight. One security officer saw me and asked to see my passport. Another security officer asked me what was wrong. I explained. He told me to stay right there. No, not because he was bringing the sniffing dogs but because he went to get me another cart. He loaded my luggage onto it and told me to have a good day. Which I finally could since I was no longer struggling with a luggage cart!

And the weather here in San Francisco? As you would imagine, low 60s and mostly warm and sunny. On Thanksgiving Day we took our annual walk along the ocean. And then wandered over to Queen Wilhelmina’s wind mill to see what the gardeners had planted. (Figs 1, 2) It was the perfect way to work up an appetite for our spatchcocked turkey smothered in herbed mayonnaise, which keeps everything moist without imposing a taste. A recipe from J.Kenji Lopez-Alt from the New York Times that we first saw and tried last year. Only difference was that this year we had the butcher spatchcock the turkey and we left the saw downstairs with the other tools. Our 12 pound turkey was done in less than 90 minutes! If you get the New York Times, you know Lopez-Alt’s recipes. I especially like that he uses science to explain his delicious improvements on standard American recipes.

Figure 1. Pacific Ocean

Figure 2. Queen Wilhelmina’s Wind Mill

For me, Thanksgiving is just an excuse to have a refrigerator full of leftovers and a handful of old and new recipes in which to use them. On Friday, we had Nigella Lawson’s Bang Bang Turkey. (Fig. 3) It’s shredded turkey, scallions, cucumbers and cilantro over a bed of iceberg lettuce. The dressing is what makes it and the dressing is a spicy mix of peanut butter thinned with rice vinegar and hot sauce. We make it our own by adding pad thai noodles. We have been eating it for nearly 20 years, since it first appeared in the New York Times in 2015. On Saturday we ate Martha Stewart’s Turkey Reuben, (Fig. 4) to which I’ve made a few modifications. Sauerkraut on the sandwich, coleslaw on the side. Her recipe for dressing is perfect - mayo and ketchup and sweet pickle relish, of course, with Worcester sauce and lemon juice to take it up a notch. Tonight we’re having Samin Nosrat’s rather labor intensive, Turkey Tikki Masala. (Fig. 5) All of these recipes only call for left over turkey. Starting on Monday, we’ll begin to work through the sides that are still in the fridge, demanding attention. Even older than Nigella’s Bang Bang is a piece that appeared in the New York times in 2011 written by Mark Bittman. Called ‘A Radical Rethinking of Thanksgiving Leftovers’ it lists recipes in 4 categories - Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Cranberry Sauce. We’ve followed a few of his suggestions for turkey, like pulled turkey sandwiches and turkey tortillas. This year, with an abundance of leftover cornbread stuffing, we’re going to try his eggs baked in stuffing for the first time. (Fig. 6) And since we have recently become obsessed with Negronis, his recipe for Cranberry Sauce Negronis is also on our list.

Figure 3. Nigella Lawson’s Bang Bang Turkey

Figure 4. Martha Stewart’s Turkey Reuben Sandwich

Figure 5. Samin Nosrat, Turkey Tikki Masala (New York Times)

Figure 6.  Mark Bittman, Eggs Baked in Stuffing

My process isn’t static, I weed out clunkers and add new entries each year. One new recipe we’ll be trying this week is by Kenji Alt-Lopez. It’s an amusing riff on hot pockets which makes ample use of the ‘sides’ (I have have never actually eaten a hot pocket) using pizza dough, (a dough I’ve never worked with). (Fig. 7) Another new recipe is from one of our favorite New York Time’s chefs, Melissa Clark. This time, she’s got a recipe for turkey farro and chickpea soup. (Fig. 8). Finally, I think I’ll still have enough leftover stuff to try Margaux Laskey’s Thanksgiving Leftovers Enchilada Pie. (Fig. 9).

Figure 7. Kenji Alt-Lopez, Hot Pockets, (New York Times)

Figure 8. Melissa Clark, Turkey, farro, chickpea soup (New York Times)

Figure 9. Margaux Laskey, Thaksgiving Leftovers Enchilada Pie (New York Times)

I’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, happy leftovers to you, too (no matter what they are!)

My post this week is about celebrating Thanksgiving which I wrote sometime ago, which I never got around to publishing. Procrastination pays off!

Gros bisous, Dr. ‘B.’

Thanks to those of you who sent Comments, I am always grateful.

New comments on on Exhibition Stuffing:

Happy to be receiving this newsletter again. And how special to see your very kind reference to our meet-ups in Paris this past week. It was wonderful to get to reconnect in person again after all those years! Hopefully, it won't take so long till the next time. Until then, I will look forward to reading your newsletters and corresponding more personally too. Enjoy your time in San Francisco! Sydney, Portland, Oregon

Have not been in San Francisco in an about 7 years..almost afraid to go as it apparently has changed. I will remember the excitement of a bustling Market Street in 1991..so much that I took notes on all the fashionable people I saw., huge flower arrangements in the shops, and a quartet in tuxes playing classical music on a street corner. Chinatown was full of shops and places for food. Cafe de la Press was going strong and their magazine racks were full of international fashion magazines. Now..not so sure...your thoughts? Dianne

Dr. B - Where do you get all that energy for touring so many exhibits ? Do those French pharmacies/chemists sell ‘special energy’ caplets ??Ah—-chocolatiers>>>wish that the Marquis de Lafayette had introduced that concept to Geo. Washington. Love your doing your own advent calendars ! Bill, Ohio

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