Cooking my way through the last issue of Gourmet

I subscribed to Gourment magazine for about 20 years, always looking forward to the next delicious issue arriving in my mailbox.  I loved the literary articles, by reporters I got to recognize like old friends, the mouthwatering photography, and the wealth of information I needed to turn out gourmet meals.  I loved having a seemingly endless supply of fail proof recipes to pick and choose from all month long.  When they abruptly shut the magazine down at the end of last year, it was crushing.  There really is no substitute for Gourmet, which has been around for over 50 years.  We were left with the Thanksgiving issue, lots of turkey dinners to cook and not even a word of goodbye from the editors.

Even though I think the whole shutdown was done in a way very insensitive to their subscribers, some of whom had been with them for decades, I am not going to hold that against Gourmet.  Instead, I decided to cook every single recipe in the last issue I received.  Of course it had to be November, so I'll be having several full-blown Thanksgiving dinners this year.  I started at the beginning, and have been cooking my way through, somewhat in the order they are printed, every delicious and tantalizing dish from the last of Gourmet.

I started with Walnut Date Bread, something I would have normally passed over.  It wasn't a decadent bread, but it was still good, and my teenage boys appreciated it. 

Next came Pizza Patate.  This mild-tasting pizza calls for potatoes sliced very thinly, with a mandoline.  Since I didn't have one at the time, I spent about 45 minutes painstakingly slicing them by hand.  Then, I had the brilliant idea to ask for a mandoline for Christmas!   The pizza was delicious, with subtle flavours of potato and rosemary.  The boys weren't crazy about it, as it was too far away from their idea of what pizza should be. 

Scarlet Carrot Soup was next on my list.  I didn't make the crisp carrot ribbons for the top, but this soup was delicous on its own, and very healthy with the red and orange vegetables.

Next I tried the Vegan Chocolate Cheesecake.  Since I am not a vegan, I did cheat a bit on this recipe.  I used real cream cheese instead of soy cream cheese, and real butter.  This is lighter than a traditional cheesecake, but still delicious and it comes with a bit less guilt.

The Cranberry-Apple Crumble Pie was next in line.  This recipe gets double thumbs up.  It was easy to make, decadent and delicious with a tart, sweet flavour.  Everyone in our house gobbled it up.  The Lemon Custard Pie, next in line, was more of a problem.  The graham cracker crust was so crumbly that when I poured in the filling, pieces broke off and started floating around in the filling.  Since I followed the directions to a T, I'm not sure why this happened.  I guess you have to pour your filling in very carefully. Even though it didn't look that great, the pie was delicious.  But you have to love lemon to appreciate this pie, because it is tart.

We needed a break from the constant desserts by now, so I skipped ahead and made Beef and Snow Peas with Pan Fried Noodles for supper one night.  These were unexpectedly delicious.  I've never pan fried Chinese noodles in a huge cake before.  The crispy noodle cake is irresistable. 

I decided to make the Vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner piecemeal, and the Shaved Beet and Bitter Greens Salad with Garlic Balsamic Vinaigrette was perfect to go with the Christmas dinner I had planned.  Especially because I could use my brand new mandoline to shave the beets.  Everything went according to plan.  I did get the mandoline I was hoping for, and put it to work later in the day on this delicious salad.  Refreshing and slightly bitter, I recommend serving it by itself before the rest of the meal, so that your guests can enjoy the crunchy texture and bright colors without being distracted by other foods.  I made this salad again on New Years Day.

Then it was back to desserts, and the Spice Cake with Caramelized Pears and Maple Buttercream.  This three layer cake, pictured above, is sinfully rich and takes a lot of time to make.  Plan on spending several hours in your kitchen.  You have to make the cake layers, then the carmelized pear filling, and finally the frosting, which is quite complicated in itself.  It's worth it, and it tastes even better the next day, and the day after.

I am still not done with that dessert section, but skipped ahead to make the rest of the Vegetarian dinner.  The Vegetarian Shepherds Pie is a long recipe with many ingredients.  I made the Rich Vegetable Stock a day or two ahead.  Plan on another long cooking day for the Shepherds Pie, as there is a lot of chopping, slicing and preparation to do.  I cut down the recipe amounts since I didn't need 8 servings, and to my chagrin I forgot to cut down the amount of cooking water I added to the potato topping, so it was too runny.  The dish was still delicious, even with the topping running into the stew.  Luckily I had enough stew that wouldn't fit in the pan to remake the dish the next day, with the topping made properly this time.   Once again, this dish is worth the long preparation time, if you are looking for a high end vegetarian dish.

There are two more recipes in the Vegetarian Thanksgiving meal.  The first one I was leary about – Sauteed Green Beans and Brussels Sprouts with Chile and Mint.  I had a bad batch of brussels sprouts once and haven't made them in years.  I bravely bought my sprouts, and prepared the dish.  It was amazingly good.  In fact, it was great.  I will definitely make it again, especially as brussels sprouts are so healthy.

Lastly I made the dessert for the meal, a Grape and Almond Frangipane Tart.  I made it in a round tart pan instead of a rectangular one as the recipe called for.  It doesn't make a bit of difference.  I served the tart to my teens for breakfast – you have to get creative when you make this many desserts – and it was deliciously crunchy, fruity and almond-flavoured with just a hint of sweetness.

That's my progress so far, and I am just getting warmed up and enjoying this trip immensely.  My  Gourmet copy is already looking like it's about 20 years old, dogeared and covered with spatters of food.  It's fulfilling its final purpose as  a cookbook.  Stay tuned for my next batch of cooking adventures.