A Thanksgiving Post With a Recipe

American Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I went out earlier this week and bought a turkey breast for me and Nigel. After putting it in to brine this morning, I went back out to the grocery store and bought that last couple of things that I always seem to forget (cranberry sauce, yes, the canned kind). I think for Christmas I am going to experiment with making my own from fresh cranberries. They grow right here in Washington. Here's a link to the recipe I'm going to try.

Whole Berry Cranberry Sauce

I've never been much of a baker at the holidays. I'm not one of those people who starts baking pies and cakes and cookies every day for a week before the holiday. I love to eat all that stuff, but making it -- not so much (good thing too, or I'd be even bigger than I am). I didn't do that even when my son was still living at home. But I do often try to make one new dessert recipe every year. So today I made an apple galette. (That sounds so much fancier than free-form apple pie, doesn't it?) I read some recipes online, and then I just kind of made this one up. It's very easy, because I used a ready-made pie crust. There's no reason why you can't make this with your own pie crust. It has apples, and not much sugar in it, so it's kind of healthy too, for a holiday dessert. (I am still trying to lose weight, but I'm not obsessing about it now that the holidays are here. I'm in a kind of steady-state, not losing, but not gaining either.)

Apple Galette

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Take the ready-made crust out of the fridge and let it thaw for about 15 minutes on the counter. Peel two baking apples (I used Granny Smith).

Here's how I core apples. Slice the meat off one side of the apple, trying not to get any of the core.

Then do the same with the other side of the apple, which leaves you with a disk of apple and core.

Lay that disk flat and cut both sides off it, leaving the core. (Put the core and the peel in your compost.)

Sorry it's out of focus, but you get the idea.

Cut all the meat into slices, trying to keep them all about the same thickness.

Put all the slices in a bowl, and if you're worried about them browning before you get to use them, sprinkle them with a little lemon juice.

Line a cookie sheet or pizza pan with aluminum foil, and then roll out the premade crust.

Sprinkle some brown sugar and cinnamon on the apples and toss them in it.

Pile the apples in the center of the crust, leaving about 2-3 inches of clearance to the edge. If you want it to look more elegant, you can arrange the slices in a spiral, or a pattern of some kind. I prefer rustic, it's easier and quicker.

I'm going to fold the crust up over the apple slices, so to make sure I didn't poke any holes in the raw crust, I made a ring of apple slices with the rounded edges facing out, and then piled the rest in the center.

Fold the crust up over the apples.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 25 minutes, until it's nice and brown and flaky.

This is going to make four servings for tomorrow's dessert.

If you want to make this a little more complicated, you can brush the parts of crust that show with some egg or milk, and you can dot the apples with bits of butter too.

I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!