No-Fuss Thanksgiving for Two or Four

BUTTER-BASIL CHICKEN WITH WINTER SQUASH

                  Not everyone, every time, wants to make a huge Thanksgiving dinner.  This fully-satisfying but simple menu is for the year when there are, thank goodness, just two of you--or maybe four.  Or for the year when you escaped the family and borrowed a friend's cabin on the lake or condo at the shore.  You'd like something tasty, but it's just not the year to spend two days in the kitchen.

                 This little menu begins with a sparkler (a sparkling wine)--an inexpensive Spanish cava or  New Mexico Gruet (not sweet and very reasonable)--and a bit of cheese.  No need to get full before dinner.  Next comes a magnificent, golden brown chicken* roasted with lemons, basil, and huge shards of winter squash.  Just to show off, there are nearly instant--but incredibly luscious--green beans graced with lots of bright lemon zest and a splashy note of crushed red pepper. A very fast, cooked stove top, spicy cranberry sauce made with apples and lemons is an optional side and truly a contrast.  Drink a good bottle of Pinot Noir with the chicken.  (I like an Oregon Pinot Noir, which comes at several different price points:  A-Z at the lower end, Ken Wright or Adelsheim further up.  Can't find one you like or can afford?  Ask the wine shop for a middle-ground French red Côtes du Rhône. Want white?  Choose an off-dry Riesling--German or Washington state. ) Tiny individual microwaved pumpkin "pies" bring up the rear--so to speak-- with no crust necessary, though you can add a small ginger thin at the bottom of each ramekin if you'd like. Coffee  you flavor yourself with cinnamon (a sprinkle in the grounds works wonders) and a nice piece of dark chocolate--or two-- end the day in happiness.




*You might consider a slow cooker roasted chicken if that would be simpler.

Pumpkin Custard with Cinnamon Crème Fraiche

It's October.  The Solo Cook's thoughts turn to pumpkin.

Don't buy the little pie pumpkins.  Buy a  jack-o-lantern instead and carve it!   If you're going to make pumpkin anything, just buy plain canned pumpkin.  Yes, I know it qualifies as "processed" food, but so do canned green beans then.  I've done it both ways; the fresh pumpkins are no better.   And, you know, Libby has a corner on pumpkins; they actually get them cheaper.  So grin and bear it; buy canned.  Make some pumpkin bread and maybe a pie if you're invited to a fall dinner.