So it is November and time for Thanksgiving. Not only am I binge eater, I'm also a binge cooker. Pretty much in character I tend to overdo things, and this is a mark of once having known poverty.
So I make La-zon-yah in a 7 inch deep foil tray designed to roast a turkey, but to be brutal I don't make just one tray: I typically make three of these trays because of economy of scale.
I add a layer of sausage. First I boil them for 5 minutes, then I fry them, and then I simmer them for a few hours in the sauce. I learned this trick from "Maggie's" sister. The sausages become both tender and moist. Perhaps I do this to 15-20 pounds of sausages.
Then I brown about 15-20 pounds of ground sirlon and add this to the sauce to simmer with the sausages. Meanwhile I carmelize a 5 pound bag of purple onions to sweeten the sauce. These chopped onions eventually are reduced to the size of a tennis ball before I add them to the sauce.
So when I layer the three trays when done each weighs about 50 pounds and will take about 4 hours to heat up because of the mass.
I have been accused of poisoning Dave because my La-zon-yah is so good that Dave couldn't stop eating, and he keep eating until he got sick. Pretty much an overdose.
Also on one Thanksgiving I used a plastic pancake turner to remove the first portion. I proceeded to snap the tool in half. For Christmas "Maggie's" sister gave me an All-Clad stainless steel Pancake turner as a joke.
One year around this time "Maggie" came home saying I have to make some Lay-Zon-yah to help this family.
Maggie being a Social Worker and professor had a client. The father who was handicapped and was the glue that kept this family together had stroked out. There was a kid and a teenager as well as the mother, but this family had no other family support. Pretty much we were rescuing a family.
So my tactic was to make my three trays: one for the funeral that was needed right away; a second one for Thanksgiving to tie them over; and the third as a spare.
It was divine intervention that the cheese and meat happen to be on sale. Taking a this heavy tray on the 4 train to the last stop to Woodlawn was a challenge. They lived in the projects. The young kid was so skinny that he resembled that emaciated kid on a fire escape that Bruce Davidson took in 1969 to document the poverty on East 100th Street.
The mother cried because of the kindness. It was really heartbreaking. In the end I felt blessed because I actually got more back than I gave.
When Thanksgiving came around I still had two trays in the freezer. The School of Social Work at Fordham had a catered Thanksgiving dinner delivered.
In a way this New York Meet-Up I initially looked at as a responsibility and a burden. Pretty much not for a "lazy slacker" but really I get back more than I give and it has been a very rewarding experience.
This is our ninth year...
Cal
