What I'm Bringing

We're celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow at Husband's aunt and uncle's house in the next state over. I actually like having holidays there - well, I like having THANKSGIVING there; Auntie L is an excellent cook and Uncle T and his grown son love football. Of course, this annoys his sister, my MIL, to no end, but we're learning to live around that. Check back tomorrow for a funny story about Thanksgiving and t.v.

In today's installment, I'm going to share a recipe that my mom gave to me several Thanksgivings ago. I’ve modified it a bit, and she modified it before she gave it to me, and it’s truly one of the yummiest things on our Thanksgiving table. It is deceivingly simple in its preparation; don't let the "easy" fool you - this is some serious culinary mojo:

In a large saucepan, melt a stick of butter, then pour in about a cup or so of bread crumbs (store bought actually works best in this application). Stir them around over medium heat until they’re nice and toasty, then dump them out into a plate for later use.

Return the pan to the heat and melt another stick of butter (hey, I said there was mojo. Real mojo requires butter, and lots of it!), then toss in three or four chopped onions. Allow them to swim around in the butter and cook to a lovely, sublime softness - no browning, or you’ll wreck it! Once you’ve reached the magic translucent state, sprinkle over a half a cup or so of flour and cook that until it’s darkened a bit and smells slightly nutty - again, no browning!

Once the flour is cooked, slowly whisk in two cups of your choice of whole milk, half-and-half, heavy cream or a combination of these (two cups total if you’re combining. I do a cup each of milk and half-and-half; Mom goes all out with the heavy cream). Work that around until it begins to thicken, then pour the whole of it into a casserole dish, cover with the toasty crumbs, and pop it into a 350° oven until it bubbles - about 20 minutes or so.

You can make the whole thing ahead of time, too; just let it all cool, cover with foil and stash it in the fridge. You’ll have to add some to the oven time, and you may want to consider leaving the crumbs off until just before you reheat it, in case you need to add more milk/half/cream to the party.

I hope you all have a wonderful, safe, satisfying Thanksgiving.