When it was all ready one afternoon last week - the dry-brined turkey a rosy chestnut brown, the Sister Frances' Potatoes (named for one of the last of the famously celibate Shakers), the brothy, purposefully not creamy blue-pumpkin soup (with a sour jolt of preserved lemon), Melissa Hamilton beamed at what she had wrought: "Ah," she announced, "Thanksgiving in November!"

Was there an edge of defiance in her voice? Perhaps.

But it was so photo-shoot mellow here in the long, tall Lambertville, N.J., loft where she and her partner-in-cookbookery, Christopher Hirsheimer, do their work; so peaceable, so softened by the natural light and the lazy fire in the Franklin stove, it was hard to tell.

Maybe what she sounded like was triumphant. Or contented?

So it was with tentativeness, for he had not yet been fed, that a guest asked: "Isn't Thanksgiving always in November?"

Well, yes, said Hamilton (the "you dummy" part of the sentence unspoken). But in her former business and in Christopher's (who is female, by the way), the business of putting out dreamy, evocative food magazines, Martha Stewart Living and chiefly, Saveur, where the two were top editors, the Thanksgiving deadline comes early - at the latest in August.

Everywhere tomatoes! Sizzling pans of paella! Gazpacho! Corn dipped in boiling pots! Acres of roly-poly melons, cool and juicy!

And there you are, singing the song of a different season - which is faux autumn, not August - sweating it out, itching for a swim, as disconnected as you can be from the cycle of food and holiday gatherings and the wondrous seasons of the good earth itself.

No mas!

Melissa Hamilton (her father Jim founded Hamilton's Grill Room nearby) and Christopher Hirsheimer (the two of them live with their husbands on opposite sides of the Delaware, Melissa in Stockton, N.J.; Christopher in Erwinna, Pa.) are now doing it their way.

By all appearances, a saner, truer, actually seasonal way.

They call their enterprise Canal House, and yes, it has a gentler, kinder feel (certainly than the hurly-burly of New York) - "a studio, workshop, dining room, office, kitchen, and atelier devoted to good ideas and good work relating to the world of food."

They are midwifing big-time cookbooks (Michael Psilakis' new work, How to Roast a Lamb, among them) and producing a modest, three-times-a-year cookbook of their own, about the size, and perhaps ambition, of a little-book literary journal.

They call those cookbooks Canal House Cooking.

And it is from the gilded Volume No. 2, its cover oddly resonant of a Russian Orthodox icon, a grand stained braising pot at its center, that this afternoon's pre-Thanksgiving feast - shot in real-time November last year - has been drawn.

The Canal House loft is up a set of stairs above the Blue Raccoon home furnishings shop, in a brick warehouse of a space that once housed (as the fading painted wall sign reminds) the King Midas Bread bakery.

This is the so-called Porkyard enclave of Lambertville, and from the French doors of the loft, Hamilton and Hirsheimer can peer at a sliver of the Delaware and at the Raritan Canal, riffling directly below: Some days - many days - a gentleman rides his bicycle down its towpath singing full-throated songs of love.

Pots of kitchen herbs line the railing of the tiny balcony. And if you look closely at Page 124 of How to Roast a Lamb, yes, that's the grate of the Canal House's Franklin stove hosting the bronzed Greek quail and charred sweet and sour onions: Such is the stuff of food fantasy.

What you see, typically, has been cooked and composed and styled and shot. Hamilton (more the writer) and Hirsheimer (the photographer) - now the alpha and omega of a creative team that in their other lives filled a masthead - are seasoned practitioners of the art.

But they have come to develop a love-hate relationship with big, unwieldy, over-massaged compendium cookbooks - the Borders bookstore equivalent of cookbookery.

It is their self-published personal cookbooks - nook books - that are their poetry.

This afternoon, Hirsheimer is away shooting pictures of the gardens of Lexington, Ky., for another project.

So the cooking has fallen to Hamilton, a gray scarf draped French-ly about her neck, an apron reminiscent of a blacksmith's leather skirt tied at the waist.

The loft is soothingly low-tech - a worn carpenter's workbench for a counter, apartment-scaled stoves for the cooking, old-fangled, non-ergonomic carrot peelers.

A sleek, quick-shot Nespresso espresso machine (a loft-warming gift from former Saveur editor Colman Andrews) is one of the few concessions to fancy gadgetry.

The partners are great fans of the local apple orchards and organic and heritage fish and fowl, though on short notice the turkey Hamilton has roasted this day was procured from the ShopRite, as natural a bird as they had.

The cookbook's recipes are decidedly personal, though rarely original. Hamilton credits Judy Rodgers of San Francisco's Zuni Cafe with teaching her the benefits of dry-brining, which is basically a rub. And she gives a nod to Russ Parsons, the Los Angeles Times food writer, for the turkey recipe itself.

Suffice to say, it was a succulent bird, moist and meaty and roasty. A sublime bird, in fact - crisp skin and all!

The off-speed pumpkin soup was first prepared by the two to salute a new book by Chez Panisse chef David Tanis. It was brightly nontraditional and less filling, a brothy soup spiced with smoked paprika and sour preserved lemon, baked in the shell of, in this case, a blue (yes, blue) pumpkin, the flesh scooped out, mounded in the bowl.

It was from a visit to a Shaker community in Maine that the Sister Frances' Potatoes were harvested, a dish that is essentially mashed potatoes before they're mashed.

There were two pies, too - sweet potato and a pecan pie the depth of a tart, its crust a triumph of vegetable shortening and cold lard, once the toast of the Jerre Anne Bake Shoppe in St. Joe's, Mo.

Someone's niece or other knew the pie-maker, and obtained the recipe when the place closed last year.

So, yes, everything is nicely connected here.

And in its rightful place.

Like Thanksgiving, finally, back in November.

Sister Frances' Potatoes

Makes 4 to 6 servings

4 russet potatoes, peeled, cut into half-inch cubes

4 tablespoons butter

2 cups half-and-half

Salt and pepper, to taste

Chopped chives, for garnish

1. Put the peeled and cubed potatoes into a deep, heavy medium pot. Add the butter and half-and-half. The potatoes should be covered. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer over medium heat, then reduce heat to low and let cook until the potatoes are tender and have absorbed most of the half-and-half, about 60 minutes (keep potatoes submerged as they cook so they don't turn dark). Stir occasionally and carefully with a rubber spatula to keep the potato pieces intact.

2. Season with salt and pepper and garnish with a sprinkling of chopped chives.

Per serving (based on 6): 317 calories, 7 grams protein, 44 grams carbohydrates, 2 grams sugar, 13 grams fat, 40 milligrams cholesterol, 71 milligrams sodium, 3 grams dietary fiber.

Hot Spiked Cider

Makes 8 to 10 servings

2 quarts apple cider

Cinnamon sticks

1 1/2 cups Calvados or brandy, optional

1. Put the cider and 1 cinnamon stick into a pot and bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Reduce heat to low to keep cider warm.

2. Ladle the hot cider into mugs and add the Calvados if you wish. Add a cinnamon stick to each.

Roast Turkey

Makes 10 to 16 servings

14- to 16-pound fresh turkey

3 tablespoons kosher salt

Stuffing of your choice

3 to 4 tablespoons softened butter

1 cup water

1. Rinse the turkey and pat dry with paper towels. Rub or pat the salt onto the breasts, legs, and thighs. Tightly wrap the turkey completely in plastic wrap or slip it into a very large resealable plastic bag, pressing out the air before sealing it. Set the turkey on a pan, breast side up, and refrigerate it for 3 days. Turn the turkey every day, massaging the salt into the skin through the plastic.

2. Unwrap the turkey and pat it dry with paper towels (don't rinse the bird). Return the turkey to the pan, breast side up, and refrigerate it, uncovered, for at least 8 hours or overnight.

3. Remove the turkey from the refrigerator and let it come to room temperature, at least 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 325.

4. If you've decided to serve your turkey stuffed, spoon the stuffing of your choice into the cavity of the bird (put any extra stuffing into a buttered baking dish, cover, and put it in the oven to bake with the turkey for the last hour). Tie the legs together with kitchen string. Tuck the wings under the back. Rub the turkey all over with the softened butter. Place the turkey, breast side up, on a roasting rack set into a large roasting pan. Add 1 cup of water to the pan.

5. Roast the turkey until it is golden brown and a thermometer inserted into the thigh registers 165, about 3 hours for unstuffed turkey and 3 to 4 hours for a stuffed bird.

6. Transfer the turkey to a platter, loosely cover it with foil, and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes before carving. Serve the turkey and stuffing, if using, with the pan drippings.

Per serving (based on 16): 508 calories, 54 grams protein, 9 grams carbohydrates, trace sugar, 27 grams fat, 184 milligrams cholesterol, 1,521 milligrams sodium, trace dietary fiber.

Glazed Carrots

Makes 8 servings

3 pounds young carrots, peeled

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1/4 cup sherry

Salt and pepper, to taste

1. Cut the carrots into large pieces. Put them, along with the butter, brown sugar, sherry, and salt and pepper, into a medium, heavy-bottomed pot.

2. Cover and cook over medium heat until the carrots are just tender, about 20 minutes. Uncover and continue to cook until the sauce reduces a bit, about 10 minutes. Serve with a little chopped parsley, if you like.

Per serving: 131 calories, 2 grams protein, 20 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams sugar, 5 grams fat, 11 milligrams cholesterol, 150 milligrams sodium, 5 grams dietary fiber.

Pumpkin Soup With Smoked Paprika and Preserved Lemon

Makes about 8 servings

One 8- to 10-pound Cinderella, blue or cheese pumpkin

4 tablespoons softened butter

Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper

2 tablespoons smoked paprika

Finely chopped rinds of two preserved lemons

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced

2 bay leaves

4 to 6 cups of good chicken broth

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

2. Cut out a lid around the stem end of the pumpkin and set aside. Scrape out and discard the seeds and strings. Put pumpkin on a baking sheet along with the lid.

3. Rub the interior of the pumpkin with the softened butter. Rub with salt and pepper and the paprika. Add the preserved lemon rinds, the garlic, and the bay leaves.

4. Fill the pumpkin halfway full with the chicken broth.

5. Roast 3 hours until the flesh is soft when pierced with a paring knife. Take care not to puncture the skin. Replace the lid for effect if you like and serve the pumpkin soup at the table, scraping the flesh from the bottom and sides into the broth, then ladling it into the bowls.

Contact columnist Rick Nichols at 215-854-2715 or rnichols@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/ricknichols.

Canal House Cooking

6 Coryell St., Lambertville, N.J.
610-802-7997
www.thecanalhouse.com