In this issue:

The eighth annual big Burrito gift card sale begins Nov 18!

Bill Fuller reveals his Thanksgiving recipes and attack plan

Victory is Ours! (our beer of the month, that is)

Robinson rocks with live music and a winter brew event

Eleven's pastries and breads available for order

Kaya gets salty for the Vegetarians

Christopher Schmidt on Casbah’s Art Wall

Thanksgiving recipes and strategies
from big Burrito’s Bill Fuller

So, we decided that we should do a regular section of our monthly newsletter featuring recipes and a little chat about foods and current trends. Being naturally verbose, often lucid, and occasionally prompt, I am the obvious candidate for the job. As I embark on this new journey into culino-marketing-quasi-journalism, I picked the most comfortable food topic possible, Thanksgiving dinner. Never mind that it is November and Thanksgiving is the most obvious topic in the world. So here it is:

Surprisingly to most people, I look forward to cooking Thanksgiving dinner. Autumn cooking is so satisfying. Roasting and braising. Butternut squash, Brussels sprouts, short ribs, pork, duck. Rich flavors and full bellies. Thanksgiving is the Superbowl of the season. I make pretty much the same meal every year. It turns out that, while our customers look forward to creative, new dishes on our restaurants' menus, the family has different notions of the big dinner. My interest in fatty waterfowl led to a desire last year to cook a goose for Thanksgiving instead of turkey. Mentioning it a few weeks before the holiday led to an explosion of anger from my generally jovial father-in-law. After a week of his vocal refusal to attend Thanksgiving dinner, I relented and promised a turkey. I actually conceded in my head right away, but let him stew on it for a week.

So what do I cook?

Turkey with Stuffing, of course, and Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. Brussels sprouts with aged Virginia ham (procured during our annual vacation to the Carolina beach). Sweet potatoes/yams with lots of butter and sugar, local corn from the freezer with even more butter, and Homemade Cranberry Sauce fill out the vegetable categories. Dessert tends to be two items; a Crème Brulee variation (often butternut) and a Pear/Apple Crisp/Cobbler variation. Pies don’t usually appear at our house due to time constraints—everything gets done on one day and I have one oven. Except crème brulee, which I make late the night before. Bread I grab from Eleven, my only shortcut. One day, I’ll have another oven and will be able to get everything done at home.

(Underlined links are printable recipes in PDF form.)

A few recommendations on cooking Thanksgiving dinner:
1	Get an early start.
2	Relax. Get help if you need it. Don’t try to do more than you are able to. It is the cook’s holiday too.
3	Have a lot of Chicken Stock on hand. We use this like water in the kitchen. Either make your own ahead of time or buy a good one. My current favorite is Kitchen Basics brand when I can’t get my own made at home.
4	Have a plan. If you are like me, you have four burners and one oven. A gas grill out back helps to warm things or hold things. We aim for 4 PM dinner. Here is my plan:
Monday
	Go to farmer’s market.
Tuesday
	Brine Turkey if you so desire.
	Get Groceries.
Wednesday
	Get the last few groceries that you forgot.
	Rinse turkey, pat dry.
	Clear out basement refrigerator.
	Clear counter space.
	Make crème brulee.
	Make cranberry sauce if you want to.
	Prep stuffing if you want to (dice veggies, cut up bread, don’t stuff turkey until tomorrow for safety reasons).
	Drink some wine.
Thursday
	Make coffee.
	Add Baileys to coffee if it is cold outside.
	Stuff the damn bird and get it in the oven.
	Start Cranberry sauce (if not done already).
	Baste bird.
	Cut everything up (peel and dice potatoes and put in pot of water, dice ham and cut sprouts, peel, cut, blanch sweet potatoes and place in baking dish).
	Baste bird.
	Prep crisp/cobbler. I throw this in the oven when I pull the turkey out. By the time the gravy is made and dinner served and eaten, the Crisp/Cobbler is done.
	Baste bird. (Get the point yet? Keep it up.)
	Start Brussels sprout.
	Start mashed potatoes.
	About 1 hour from dinner time, get sweet potatoes in.
	Start roux for gravy.
	Switch from coffee to wine.
	Pull bird.
	Make gravy.
	Yell at everybody to set the table, help with the mashed potatoes, get the kids out of the kitchen, put the dogs outside, etc.
	Put Crisp/Cobbler in oven. Set timer.
	Serve. Pose with family and friends for your Norman Rockwell moment.
	As people clear dinner, burn brulee with torch. The family will be impressed by this for at least two Thanksgivings.
	Make coffee.
	Serve dessert when Crisp/Cobbler is done.
	Slink away to couch while cleanup occurs.
	Port or bourbon is a good finishing drink to this day.
Friday
	Sleep in. Spend time with loved ones. Avoid the mall and go for a hike at a local park.

However dazzlingly complex or elegantly simple your approach to the holiday is, have a warm and enjoyable one!

Bill Fuller

big Burrito Corporate Chef

Brewery of the month

Mad Mex is excited to feature Victory Brewing products all November long. Each location will have Victory Hop Wallop on tap, a vivid, robust ale that won't be available anywhere else in town for another week! For more details, including tasting events, check out the Mad Mex site.

Rockin’ Robinson

Mad Mex Robinson will host live bands from 11pm -1am on the following dates:
Saturday, November 12: Parachute Adams
Saturday, November 26: Cloud 9
$3 cover beginning at 10pm
$6 Big Azz Margaritas 10pm-12am, Beer Specials all night long!

Winter Beer Tasting presented by A.M. Lutheran

Wednesday, November 30th 6:30pm - 8:30pm

Join us at Mad Mex Robinson to sample winter and Christmas brews including Rogue Brewing products. Tickets are $25, and include some Mad snacking. Also, if you purchase your tickets by November 23, you’ll receive a complimentary appetizer card to use whenever you like. Please call 412.494.5656 to reserve your tickets.

Desserts and breads from Eleven’s bakery

Just in time for the holidays, a selection of Eleven’s renowned baked goods are available to order for pick up. Now you can bring the wholesome, handmade breads and elegant pastries of Eleven’s in-house bakery to your table. For a listing of available items, please see the Eleven pastry page.

November Vegetarian Dinner

This month's event will be on November 16, and will feature the first course everyone's been asking about: the Salt Tasting with Pickled Eggs: smoked, Hawaiian, sel gris, herbed fleur de sel. Kaya’s Brandy Stewart is still hard at work on the menu, so please watch our site for updates.

Casbah Art Opening, Friday November 4th.

”The Cryptographer’s Love Letter” by Christopher Schmidt.

From the artist: “Though none of the paintings are titles "The Cryptographer's Love Letter", I thought that the title nicely summarized this particular collection. Some psychologists will tell you every painting is a self portrait. There is a truth to that, though not in the way to say that I am an anrgy sun or a sad robot. Rather, I believe all art reveals the way the artist feels about the subject. So, that has an element of passion. This, and I find often that I unsterstand the works at a later date. Where the images have come from, and what they meant. They're tarot cards my subconscious sends out, to talk to the conscious mind about where I am. What I'm doing. How I am doing.

My work has always had an element of narrative to it. They are all scenes from a story. Typically, like a James Bond movie, I begin In Medias Ras, though the multiple panel works enable broader storytelling. In a sense, it isn't so hard to connect the works together to make one continuing story of all. Like the tarot, they are a sort of puzzle. If they are disturbing, it is only the recognition of one's own powerful emotions that we may deny in our daily life, much like some images found in the tarot. Hence, the cryptography aspect. I've decoded what my subconscious has sent me- can the viewer?

Though I have taken art courses throughout high school and college, I have no art degree, and little of what would pass for formal training. I was encouraged in the arts at an early age. I had my first set of oils by fifth grade. High school made no allowance for oils, and the fumes and mess, so I learned to use acrylics. Acrylics dry swiftly, and were difficult to wrok with for effects, so I learned to use watercolour. Later, I stole bits of technique from Vermeer and Maxfield Parrish, learning the value of underpainting, and transparent glazes.

Though encouraged to pursue the arts as a child, I was always given the counsel of being sure to have something else up my sleeve. Something stable to rely on. A career. The fearfulness of the adults around me growing up may explain why I have a degree in Psychology, and one in English literature.”

Thanks for being part of big Burrito, and for making it all possible.

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