#bevsbites #Thanksgivingfeast #cookingartist #food #artofcooking

Bonnie’s Thanksgiving Feast Challenge 2020!

December 17, 2020 by Beverly

I had a fabulous time on Thanksgiving 2020 – despite eating with my kids over Zoom – thanks to Chef Bonnie’s extraordinary culinary and planning skills.

My family and friends were almost afraid to ask about my Thanksgiving since they knew I would be eating alone. But the thing is, I didn’t feel alone at all! It was actually fun! I had plenty of company… starting with our traditional “Let’s Get Stuffed” family mascot… who was soon replaced as you can see here…

My Tablemates – Flat Laura and Flat Bonnie

You might be wondering why the chairs say Flat Bonnie and Flat Laura. This was inspired by the Flat Stanley series of books, which Teacher-Chef Bonnie told me about, and Flat Stanley’s worldwide traveling adventures. The concept fit Bonnie’s 2020 Thanksgiving Feast very well since it was a traveling event. FYI. Here’s the official Flat Stanley 50th Anniversary template, if the spirit moves you to make your version.

Bonnie was determined to cook her usual feast, without any compromises – especially when it came to her signature popovers. She willingly undertook the challenge of cooking in her Manhattan galley kitchen and bringing the entire meal to me, with Laura’s help.

There were 4 basic phases to this traveling Thanksgiving event, both in Manhattan and Ardsley, N.Y. 30 minutes north of Manhattan.

Baking on Pie Night
Cooking the feast in Manhattan, which actually started 2 weeks earlier with a few side dishes (soup, cranberry sauce) that were frozen in advance.
Delivering the entire dinner to me in Ardsley, and sampling the desserts (yes, this is backwards, but it’s 2020 and the chef needed her sugar fix)
Driving back to Manhattan, baking more popovers, warming up dinner, and zooming with me. And taking lots of photos along the way!

Now for the details, and the devil is in the details.

Beginning with Phase 1, Bonnie baked the pies on Pie Night, her traditional night before Thanksgiving event, which I told you was happening – but I didn’t have 2020 photos of yet.

Here’s Bonnie in 2020 rolling out one of the pie crusts on the big folding table that functioned as Bonnie’s living room work station, on loan from sister Laura for the big event. And then we can see the fruits of her labor.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Fresh Out of The Oven

Cherry Pie Filling on Bonnie’s New Non-Stick Miracle Pan from Our Place

Bonnie putting the finished almond touches on the Cherry Pie

Plus she made a Lattice Apple Pie. Bonnie always did like weaving loop potholders as a kid. Now she’s moved on to bigger and better things!

Phase 2 began on Thanksgiving Day, when Bonnie moved into high gear to cook her signature side dishes like Stuffin Muffins (3 versions this year!), which she had started prepping the night before. It’s a good thing Laura brought over such a big table!

Bonnie made the popovers in 2 shifts, which didn’t hit me until I saw these photos, the first round below being the GF popovers for me in Ardsley. I had just assumed the cooking was finished before they left. Wrong!

Then she got to work on the Stuffed Pears with Goat Cheese and Cranberries..

For the main course, Bonnie made her Lemon Herbed Turkey Breasts, which are amazing leftovers that seems to get more flavorful with age – if that’s even possible!

I’m always impressed by Bonnie’s ability to stuff all these herbs under the skin without ripping it. I don’t know how she does it! I tried it… once….

Usually I’m in the kitchen cleaning up after the chef, but this time I was home watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade (surprisingly good for a pandemic event without spectators!) and reading a book, far removed from all the action.

All day I was salivating at the prospect of getting a home-cooked Thanksgiving Day Feast delivery from Bonnie and Laura.

Finally, after a whole day of cooking, Bonnie shifted into Phase 3 and loaded up her cart full of food, and drove the 30 minutes to Ardsley. Where did all this energy come from? Ah, to be young again!

Finally, they arrived with food in hand!

Bonnie jumping the fence to get to my patio. I always chuckle when she does this.

I introduced the girls to their dinner stand-ins for the first time. Laura conveniently dressed in teal to match Flat Laura and make it feel more real.

Bonnie started unloading all my Pyrex containers that she picked up two weeks ago. This time they were full of delectable food! I don’t know how I stopped myself from doing a tasting right then and there.

She arranged everything on my kitchen counter, with the side dishes appearing one by one.

Green Bean Casserole with Crispy Shallots

Sour Cheery-Almond Pie recipe from the Food Network Magazine, with a GF pie crust from Danielle Walker.

Pumpkin Pie “Cheesecake” (which I savored for a week afterwards!)

Lattice Apple Pie from Against all Grain (the flakiest crust yet!)

Bonnie carefully documenting everything for her Instagram *@bonniesbitesoflife*

Then Bonnie surprised me by unexpectedly announcing we were sampling the desserts before she and Laura drove back to the city. The chef said she was hungry and couldn’t wait any longer to sample her wares. Besides, it was already 7pm.

Bonnie served all 3 desserts to each of us, and we ate in different corners of the apartment – with the windows and the patio door completely open, fans on to get the air flowing, and the diffuser running with powerful anti-viral essential oils. I am proud to say we were CDC compliant.

While Bonnie was serving, I greedily gobbled my plate up. How’s this for a future painting?

They left me my one-third share of each dessert, which I used as a reward after walking every day the following week.

My hunk of the Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake. Wish I had that now!

Of course, I had to take photos of the partially eaten desserts for future paintings.

You can tell that leftie Bonnie cut this pie.

Then the kids packed up the remainder of the desserts for the trek back into the city.

And I waited patiently… sort of…

We’re now into Phase 4, where the kids did a repeat set-up in Bonnie’s apartment. Little did I realize how Bonnie had so thoughtfully choreographed the entire evening. I was given permission to eat the soup while waiting for the formal dinner festivities to start.

The kids set their table with soup at the same time.

Then silliness began.

After the soup course, Bonnie made two more rounds of popovers, one GF for Laura and a gluten pan for herself. FYI. My popovers were GF and dairy free.

Admittedly I was a bit sad that I was missing the real life big reveal, the moment when Bonnie pulled her signature popovers out of the oven – until I saw these epic photos around midnight. Even now looking at this photos, Bonnie’s unbridled popover joy shines through, and I get my warm fuzzies.

At the time, I wouldn’t figure out why I was being asked to wave.

Finally, dinner is served! We were all instructed to load up our dinner plates with each dish.

We sampled many of the dishes together, from the pecan sweet potato casserole, to the moist turkey breast with cranberry sauce with just the right amount of tartness (Bonnie has it down to an art), to the second round of desserts.

Bonnie’s Instagram story at @bonniesloo told it all. Here is her summary of the 2020 Thanksgiving Challenge in a nutshell:

And eat together we did – joyfully and gratefully. I am so lucky the girls are both close by.

What I’ll always remember about 2020 is that Bonnie took the Thanksgiving Challenge and excelled on so many levels – the initial idea, the planning, the execution, the humor and the love. So much thoughtfulness and love went into this 2020 Thanksgiving that I felt like we were together the entire time – even though we spent less than 30 minutes in my apartment!

It was the most unique, creative, clever Thanksgiving ever, while maintaining so many of our family traditions. As the same time, we were CDC compliant! I will always remember how happy we were despite the health challenges of the times.

Of course, I’ll end this blog with our Official 2020 Thanksgiving Day Photo.

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this was the best day of 2020.

Thank you, Bonnie, for willingly, lovingly, and so skillfully taking up the 2020 Thanksgiving Challenge!

Ghost of Thanksgiving Past 2019

November 26, 2020 by Beverly

Tonight is the night before Thanksgiving, Bonnie’s traditional Pie Night when she bakes 4 Thanksgiving desserts, including an apple and pumpkin pie, of course.

I can’t stop thinking about a year ago tonight, when she made her sweet creations in my new apartment for the first time. It’s an annual tradition that I look forward to every year, and it feels strange, almost surreal, not to be her sous chef instead of Laura right now.

For some reason, I keep thinking that the spirit of Jacob Marley and his Ghost of Thanksgiving Past (ok Christmas, I’m taking creative license) are going to appear tonight, just like they did to Ebenezer Schrooge in Charles Dickens’ novel. At first I attributed this thought to covid brain. Then I realized the Ghost appeared to Schrooge to help him relive past holidays, and learn that he has to change. That’s what 2020 is all about – change. The idea actually makes sense now.

So lets revisit Thanksgiving 2019 when Bonnie enthusiastically cooked much of the main gluten free meal on Thanksgiving Day – before we start talking about change in 2020.

Maybe you caught the gluten free (GF) part and are less than enthusiastic about the feast. But who says you can’t have a delicious gluten-free Thanksgiving meal? Gluten free food often gets a bad rap. Doesn’t taste good. Lacks flavor. Last year, Bonnie plowed ahead with her GF Thanksgiving concept, and never looked back.

She disproved all the naysayers by delivering such a flavorful meal that we didn’t even notice it was gluten free!

Thanksgiving 2019 tested Bonnie’s organizational and cooking skills on many levels like never before.

Did you ever try and put together an ambitious GF Thanksgiving dinner menu of 2 main courses, 10 side dishes, plus 4 desserts, for a total of 16 dishes – in a small, strange kitchen without the utensils or pots & pans that you need to make a meal?

How did Bonnie handle that? She showed up with her strategically packed red suitcase that functioned as a traveling kitchen cabinet – with a rolling pin, baster, spatula, pie tins, honey packets and a popover pan!

That was the challenge Bonnie took on in 2019 as she prepared her menu, shopped, and cooked in my downsized, ill-equipped apartment of less than 2 months. To top it off, Bonnie was used to cooking Thanksgiving dinner in a huge kitchen, on large counters, and in a double oven.

I confess to being antsy beforehand since I was having a hard time finding kitchen items and serving plates from previous years that I suspected were still in storage, but Bonnie was undaunted. She eagerly started planning the menu weeks before, I helped gather up her ingredients.

Along the way, Bonnie and I realized we were missing a few things, and that more boxes of kitchen items were in storage than we thought. After looking around and comparing notes, I made a quick trip to Bed Bath & Beyond for a potato masher and a few plastic mixing spoons (I melted the only large plastic spoon I had in the dishwasher….great way to make an impression on everyone in the building by smelling up the whole floor….). Then we had to retrieve the big soup pot and 2nd muffin tin from storage, with the rest of my kitchen. (As you can see, she threw a few other boxes on the cart to help me out.)

Bonnie summed it up by saying this wasn’t her most elegant meal prep effort. Certainly things didn’t go as smoothly as in previous years. But she did end up making all 16 planned recipes last year. Here goes:

Butternut Squash Soup

Lemon Herb Turkey

Stuffed Mushrooms

Her Signature Popovers (that didn’t pop as well this because Bonnie tried a different Bob Red Mill 3-in-1 GF flour…oops!)

Green Bean Casserole With Crispy Shallots

Sweet Potato Casserole

Brussel Sprouts with Grapes

Stuffin Muffins (GF and Regular – only gluten item on the menu)

Roasted Garlic Mashed Cauliflower

Goat Cheese Pears

Cranberry Sauce

Here are the three GF desserts:

Apple Pie from Against All Grain

Sour Cherry-Almond Pie from the Food Network Magazine

Pumpkin Pie (and this extraordinarily spicy version froze so well it lasted well into 2020!) from Bakerita

It was a fabulous, flavorful feast! Full disclosure: Bonnie made the gluten pumpkin pie in her own kitchen for her dad.

This year we are adapting our plans because of the pandemic. Bonnie is preparing the entire Thanksgiving Dinner in her Manhattan apartment for the first time. She and Laura are bringing dinner to me (masks and all, windows open) on Thanksgiving Day. After they return to Manhattan, we’ll eat dinner together on zoom, like so many people around the country in 2020.

During the week, Bonnie picked up my all my empty Pyrex containers and Mason jars. (Didn’t think to take photos.) The plan is to deliver them back to me filled with her delicious feast food tomorrow. And it will all be gluten free and dairy free so I can eat everything. Am I lucky! I’m salivating just thinking about what awaits me tomorrow.

Now it’s after midnight and I just spoke to Bonnie. She finished the 3 gluten free pies with Laura’s help, and they decided to bring the finished desserts in tact tomorrow. We’ll have the dessert table unveiling (I better move my paintings off the buffet before they come!) like we did last year only with masks, and cut them together. I’ll get my share, and Bonnie and Laura will take the remnants back, if I leave them anything…. With 3 pies, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Thanksgiving 2019 seems like an eternity ago. When I thought about it last week, it felt rather ethereal and unsubstantial, like it was a ghostly dream. But after looking at all these photos, the entire fantastic eating experience is coming back to me. And I remember how Bonnie certainly debunked the gluten-free myths about Thanksgiving. I’m sure she’ll do the same this year.

It’s an understatement to say I’m eagerly awaiting the delectable food Bonnie and Laura are bringing tomorrow. In preparation, I started setting the dining room table that has my first Thanksgiving Ikebana spreading arrangement on it (my new obsession, more on that another time).

The familiarity of the tradition kicked in, and my mood shifted into full celebration mode and gratitude, a welcome change of pace.

And to think I’ll have a hiatus from cooking, with lots of leftovers.

Now it feels like the Thanksgiving holiday we all know and love. To Jacob Marley and your Ghost, I say, “Stay home!” I got the message. It’s time to enjoy ourselves in the present moment, and embrace our family motto, “Let’s Get Stuffed”.

Another Food Artist in the Family!

November 30, 2014 by Beverly

Given the recent Thanksgiving holiday, it feels right to talk about food and art. It’s probably not surprising to you that I spend a lot of time looking at the presentation of food, whether it’s at home, at restaurants and bakeries, parties, and especially at weddings (I can picture those dessert banquet tables now!).

Nor would you be surprised to learn that I’m one of those people who takes photos of their plates at restaurants, which is just one of many reasons why I have more than 85,000 pictures on my computer.

Over Thanksgiving, I photographed our own Chef Bonnie preparing a feast for the four of us that made my mouth water in anticipation. I felt like I was watching her play the starring role on a new Food Network Show show called Bonnie’s Thanksgiving Feast Challenge.

Instead of competing against others, she competes against herself, each year raising the bar higher and higher. Bonnie, who is a special education teacher by day, spent her “free” time last week planning 23 different recipes, far exceeding the number of recipes from previous years. She researched her recipes online (carefully avoiding mushrooms for Laura’s sake), printed them out, systematically made a grocery list, and did her own grocery shopping after work. (Bonnie was so organized that Jay only had to make one quick trip to the store.) Prep work began Tuesday night while cooking and baking began in earnest on Wednesday, extending through Thursday right up to showtime.

I was mesmerized watching Bonnie calmly preparing her cornucopia of food, moving confidently from one dish to another. It was when I looked at this beautifully composed, picture-perfect root vegetable tray waiting to go into the oven that I realized I had been watching the other food artist in the family!

Here’s the rest of the team. Sometimes it takes a village just to keep up with all the pots and pans.

Bonnie’s final menu included 2 turkey recipes (she makes a wicked herbed turkey lemon recipe), with homemade cranberry sauce, her infamous popovers (nothing makes Bonnie happier than to see how them really “pop”!), her trademark stuffin’ muffins (gluten and non-gluten versions), and numerous side dishes (I lost count) from root vegetables, sweet potato casserole, spaghetti squash to wild rice with cranberries.

Here we are all dressed up and ready to get stuffed, especially Chef Bonnie, who looks amazingly fresh after all her hard work!

I decided to learn from previous years and pace myself by taking small portions of everything. (I’m getting hungry again just looking at my plate!)

We took a break before attacking the 5 desserts – including three delectable gluten-free selections. Needless to say, Bonnie sampled everything as you can see from her plate. (When people talk about Bonnie and desserts in the same breath, they are talking about the food!)

Thanksgiving is always a special family occasion since Jay, Bonnie, Laura and I are all together. (I’m thinking Tom Selleck and his family around the holiday table on Blue Bloods.) Laura makes the 10 hour trip (if she’s lucky) from Urbana, Illinois where she is working on her Ph.D. The four of us love every minute of eating one delicious dish after the other, each one more flavorful than the next. Even the cleanup is fun (well, most of the time…). Ellen Degeneres, we’re giving you a run for your money with this selfie!

So Bonnie, it’s official – you won! Congratulations on beating all previous Thanksgiving benchmarks – both in quantity and quality – and winning your Thanksgiving Feast Challenge! Maybe next year I’ll take some video to demonstrate your many talents for your show’s online debut… Just a thought. We are grateful to have a food artist in the house besides me – one that actually makes food instead of painting it!

I hope all of you enjoyed Thanksgiving as much as we did!