How NOT to Cook PAVLOVA, and our Thanksgiving Dinner Report

Well, over all, Thanksgiving Dinner was a huge success. I mean, I nailed it people. The Mendon Foodie would be so proud. (are you reading, Mendon??) This entire meal was as "from scratch" as it gets, and it rocked. Seriously rocked.

confession: I did not milk my own cow, slaughter my own bird, or cream my own milk. But other than that, totally from scratch. So awesome. 

The duck was scrumptious. I used this recipe for Roast Stuffed Duck (with orange) from Big Oven dot com.  The recipe has some format issues (words are cut off on the right hand side) but it was easy enough to fill in the gaps, and the duck turned out amazing. I, of course, forgot to take a picture, and there's not one over there, but trust me, it was gorgeous.

I made the stuffing and the sauce, both in the recipe linked, and stuffed the bird to cook. Never done that before, and I was a bit nervous. Since I had no cooking twine or anything to "truss the bird" I just tucked the neck flap under the bird, and then the bottom end I pulled all together and stuck the poultry thermometer into the folds of skin/meat to hold it closed. It worked beautifully.

I have to admit -- I was, and am, insanely proud of myself for pulling off Stuffed Duck. It just sounds so.....I don't know, so out of my league. It wasn't. The side dishes were all delicious, too. Just look at this beautifully overloaded plate? Doesn't that make you wish you were here for dinner last night???

starting at top with beans, going clockwise:
Black beans and rice; steamed asparagus; Taos Pumpkin; Mashed Potatoes;
Stuffing w/orange sauce; Duck w/Orange Sauce; Biscuit; in the center, the sweet potatoes & carrots

The real adventure, however, was the dessert. We tried to make pavlova. It's supposed to look like this:

photo courtesy google images

Ours looked like this:

Pavlova Brownie

Turns out, whipping egg whites into stiff peaks, with a fork, is next to impossible. So is whipping heavy cream.  I seriously need a hand beater or electric mixer or something. As rarely as I'd use it, probably a hand beater is sufficient. (no, that's not a hint for anyone). All I have to say is boy is my arm tired today.

First of all, we had to redo our egg whites *three times* due to human error. The first time, 30 minutes in, I finally reached the point where I add in the salt, vinegar and vanilla. Only, I added the iodine we've been using to treat the dog's surgical incision. Dumped that batch, after only briefly considering whether or not iodine would actually hurt us if we ate it......

The second time around I added the vanilla. And we kept beating, and beating, and beating. And nothing was happening, so I decided to try what The Chemist had suggested -- the blender. Not a good idea. One quick little pulse and my egg whites were now a nice, smooth liquid. Oops.

A break, and an internet search, and I found that I could try adding an extra egg white, which sometimes fixes the problem. So, we tried that, and kept beating, and thirty minutes later we were closer than we'd been yet, but still quite far from done. By this time, however, we had to put it in the oven or it wouldn't be done in time to take it out and put the duck in. So, we poured it in, The Artist declared it to be a Pavlova Brownie, and we comforted ourselves with the thought that surely it would at least taste good.

We had to adjust the cooking time, as well, because it's meant to cook at 250*F but my oven doesn't go that low; it only goes to 320*F. I called Kim, woke her up, and asked her what to do about that. She suggested 40 minutes rather than an hour, and watch it. She also said I could whip up a quick cake and put the fruit on that if the pavlova didn't turn out. She has a lot to learn about me (though I do have a chocolate cake mix in my pantry...). Well, I didn't watch it closely enough and 30 or 35 minutes in it was the color of a graham cracker. Oops.

what a meringue shell looks like when you bake it too hot and don't whip it enough to be an actual meringue

You can't tell, but that meringue flavored base? It's hard as a rock. My fork could not pierce it when I tried. The liquidy whipped cream and time in the fridge really softened it up, thank goodness. 

what it looks like topped with not whipped all the way whipping cream, when the mom with the sore arm quits trying and decides to just pour it over the pavlova brownie base and hope for the best

In the end it was yummy, and The Chemist, who hadn't seen pictures of what a pavlova is supposed to be, said he would not have known it was a mess up if we hadn't told him. The meringue layer had the texture of a softened peanut brittle, maybe more like the texture of peppermint bark. The whipped cream was very much a liquid, but yummy, and the fruit topping was the saving grace.

Still, there's only a tiny bit leftover, The Chemist had two servings of it, and The Artist already had some this morning. So, a hit, even though it was so far from what it was meant to be.

Also a memory we'll never forget, that's for sure. Taking turns beating the egg whites, for two hours....whipping egg while reading aloud to the boys....The Writer and his "I just don't want to have to do something different for history this week!!"....I don't recommend our method, but on the other hand I might just have to under-beat some egg whites again so we can have Pavlova Brownie at every Thanksgiving. The memories associated with this will always be family favorites, I'm sure.

I hope your cooking was less adventurous, and that your day was wonderful yesterday, and I hope that wherever today finds you, you are able to look back on yesterday and smile.