Thanksgiving Part 2

Since we went to Beaucoup on Thanksgiving night, we chose to do Thanksgiving Dinner on Friday night. It was beautiful. We made:

Turkey (stuffed with sausage and wrapped in bacon, which was new to me, but ended up very nicely)
gravy of course
Mashed Potatoes (that we pushed through a drum sieve, so we are talking supah fine potatoes)
Byron Potatoes (mashed potato discs with a béchamel sauce inside)
green beans rolled in garlic and olive oil
brussels sprouts with cashews and raisins soaked in calvados
stuffing with sauteed onion/green pepper/celery, brioche, and raisins soaked in calvados
sweet potato casserole with marshmallows
sweet potato casserole with pecans
rutabaga
cranberry sauce
jalapeno corn muffins

For dessert:
pumpkin pie
Pommes Meringues (or poached apples on brioche covered in italian meringue)

BUT for our entree (or appetizer in America) I made for the first time ever, my Thanksgiving Terrine!

See, since moving to Paris, I have started a minor obsession with terrine. Terrine is similar to pate but less finely ground. It is basically a french meat loaf, but with more fat, served cold and usually has some form of stuffing down the middle.

For my thanksgiving terrine, I would have preferred the use of turkey, but turkey is INCREDIBLY expensive here (like $100 for an 11lbs turkey), so I chose to use duck breast from a foie gras duck and chicken thighs instead. You match that amount of meat with the same about of pork shoulder. Grind that all up. Grind in some lard and sauteed chicken livers, add salt and pepper and some Grand Marnier (orange liqueur- my choice, you can use any type of liqueur) and stuff it.

Here's where most of my innovation came into play. For the stuffing down the middle of the terrine, I made my mother's cranberry sauce (which has orange peel in it) and candied some orange peels. I laid  those down the center, put some more terrine meat stuffing on top. And wrapped it in bacon (because we ran out of lard...whoops! It actually ended up working for the better.)

Then into a water bath and oven for 2 hours.

After you take it out of the oven, it has to sit for a day in the refrigerator with a weight on top of it to compact the loaf into a terrine.

At the final unveiling, I was pretty nervous about how it would turn out. But it did perfectly! And it was delicious! (If anyone wants the exact recipe, send me a message and I will get it to you). But like me, you will have to limit yourself to how often you eat it, otherwise, your arteries may block prematurely.)

Can't wait for Christmas Terrine! I'm thinking goose, chestnuts, poached pears or prunes soaked in armagnac...or something like that!

(Happy Thanksgiving Terrine!)