Thanksgiving

The collaborative menu arrived at, via many emails and a shared Google Document, goes as follows:

• Turkey
• Mashed potatoes
• Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• Gravy
• Stuffing
• Sweet potato spoon bread, with the addition of sauteed onions and bacon
• Cranberry/Orange Relish - the raw kind
• Canned Cranberry Sauce - because someone needed it
• Cranberry Onion Relish - because two kinds of cranberries wasn't enough
• Endive & Watercress salad
• Apple cider jelly
• Tarte tatin
• Pumpkin Torte
• Beet pie

The apple cider jelly is a ridiculous thing to put on the table, a Victorian frou-frou not far off from canned cranberry sauce with the ridges showing. It falls somewhere on the main course side of the sweet/savory axis; it's definitely not dessert. But I wanted to make it, because I'd made it once long before the girl was born, and wanted her to experience its quivering delight. You make it in a fancy mold, and it has altogether too much gelatin in it, and it's a rather wonderful jiggly eccentricity.

May your Thanksgiving include Rockettes, and three kinds of cranberries at the table, wherever you may be.

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Cider Jelly
adapted from Laurie Colwin's More Home Cooking

Five (5) packets of unflavored gelatin
2 cups sugar (or less, to taste)
grated zest of 1 lemon
¼ t. cinnamon
1 cup cold water
1/3 cup lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)
1 quart apple cider

1. In a bowl mix the gelatin, sugar, lemon zest and cinnamon. Pour in the cold water and stir to combine well.
2. Add the lemon juice.
3. Bring the cider to a boil, skimming off any scum. Pour the cider into the gelatin mixture and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Set aside to cool.
4. When the mixture is cooled but not yet set, pour it into a 1-quart pudding mold and chill it in the refrigerator overnight, or until set.