|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 12, 2017 19:02:52 GMT -5
Thought I'd start a new one unless someone wants to resurrect last year's and merge this...
for thanksgiving I'm in charge of mashed potatoes and dessert. The taters will probably be fairly straightforward but I'll probably bring a compound garlic herb butter to mix in and some cheese.
dessert, I need a little help... My inlaws are straightforward, boring people. The glazed pecans were too much for them last year. So nothing too ridiculous. Peanut butter pie came to mind. Or caramel apple pie. Or maybe cupcakes or a caramel apple cake? I want something fallish but not pumpkin or chocolate, I can always make brownies separately or for Christmas.
|
|
|
Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Nov 12, 2017 21:39:24 GMT -5
Friendsgiving is at a friend's house this upcoming Saturday at 5 PM. I have signed up to bring cranberry sauce (so I got 3 cans, 2 logs and 1 whole berries) and stuffing, which I'll make that afternoon and bring right from my oven. I'm endeavoring to make it vegetarian so all can enjoy without worry, which should be easy enough. I'll load it with plenty of onions and celery and herbs and such. How about this apple cider upside-down cake? It's delicious. I've had good luck with it before, and it stays moist for several days.
|
|
|
Post by pairesta on Nov 13, 2017 6:38:03 GMT -5
This is the "Traditional" Thanksgiving year, meaning we're at my parents and my brother and his family will be over too, so we make what Mom always made. So in the next week there will be bickering with Mom, because she always forgets how well a wet brine works and will want to do some new technique instead.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 13, 2017 9:17:53 GMT -5
The Sensational She-Hulk that cake is definitely a contender, thanks! I should note I also offered to make dressing/stuffing and my FIL was like "nope, that's mine!" (he actually does the bulk of the Thanksgiving cooking). He LOVES Stovetop. I ... don't get it, but okay.
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Nov 13, 2017 9:48:04 GMT -5
Thanksgiving this year: pork loin roast rolled with cornbread-pecan stuffing. With basic mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes, and maybe some roasted beets and carrots. Something chocolate for dessert. And NO outside visitors! YAY!
Christmas this year, because it's not too early to be thinking about it: Outside visitors will be in attendance. The annual passhole-aggresshole feast preparation is still happening, only one month later! I am getting ideas. Probably ideas I'll truly regret. Right now I'm kicking around the notion of a buche de noel, and some sort of fancy-pantsy homemade filled pasta. These are both far fussier than I will want to do when the day arrives (this will be Christmas Eve, because I get too drunk on Christmas morning to do anything other than, like, Kraft mac and cheese for that dinner), but I'll have spent the previous six weeks talking up how I was going to do them so I'll be committed.
|
|
|
Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Nov 13, 2017 10:04:13 GMT -5
Liz n Dick I just laughed so hard at your bit about Christmas morning - we always have brunch, which includes mimosas, and usually I wind up finishing everyone else's because my mom can never finish a drink and my dad gets bored halfway through it and gets a beer instead, so for a good portion of Christmas morning I'm absolutely shnockered. Every single year. (This is probably why I cried so hard at The Force Awakens.) It's also why I tend to prep Christmas dinner ahead of time as much as possible. This year for Thanksgiving it's just my parents, my brother, and me. And we all realized that there's no reason to make turkey because none of us really likes it much, and we always have too many leftovers to deal with even if we just do a breast. So we're going to dry-rub and water-smoke two ducks and a chicken instead! I like this idea much more, because I love duck and I never get to have it as often as I would like. My mom hates duck, so we'll do the chicken, and we all like that, so yay for chicken leftovers. I'm making a cherry-ginger-orange sort of chutney/relish thing to go with it, and we'll pop open a can of cranberry sauce too just for form's sake. And also because cranberry sauce is awesome. No mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes this year - too many carbs. I'm making cornbread stuffing (no sausage, maybe some jalapenos, IDK yet), which will be the main side, and some steamed green beans or broccoli. And of course, sauerkraut with caraway and white wine, because I refuse to have Thanksgiving without sauerkraut. This is a huge departure from what we normally do; usually we make a fairly traditional dinner and wind up with far too many leftovers that we get sick of and have to throw out before they're finished, even when we try to scale them way down. So this year we just said, screw it, let's eat what we want. Me? I'm excited because we've always gotten cooking magazines and ever since I was a kid I've been dying to fuck around with traditional Thanksgiving and nobody would ever let me. And this year we're not even having turkey! For once, I'm way more excited for Thanksgiving dinner than for brunch and mimosas! (See above.) We haven't nailed down dessert yet. I'm thinking a pumpkin creme brulee, maybe? I just need to find my blowtorch. The real one that my dad bought for welding, not the stupid culinary one that takes a whole gas canister for like, one brulee.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 13, 2017 10:07:45 GMT -5
I do have to start thinking about my Christmas breakfast, as well. I think the DIY breakfast sandwiches went pretty well last year. I also think I'll go for a coffee cake of some sort unless I can work up the motivation to make homemade cinnamon rolls.
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Nov 13, 2017 10:17:25 GMT -5
I do have to start thinking about my Christmas breakfast, as well. I think the DIY breakfast sandwiches went pretty well last year. I also think I'll go for a coffee cake of some sort unless I can work up the motivation to make homemade cinnamon rolls. Every Christmas I do pigs in blankets with nice sausages from the farm market, and this massive coffee cake from the Baked cookbooks. I don't think we have ever managed to finish one of those cakes, because it's ENORMOUS. It fits in a 9x13 pan, but it uses a pound of butter and 16 oz of sour cream and is just far too rich to eat much of at once. I mean, it's delicious, but it's a lot. It also takes, like, a year to bake. So my theory that it's faster than something like cinnamon rolls is probably baseless. What I'm saying is... maybe this is the year for cinnamon rolls? Heck yeah! MAYBE IT IS! (I should get Pillsbury ones in a can for idiot brother-in-law.) The Sensational She-Hulk, we used to have mimosas on Christmas morning, too. But finally all agreed the orange juice was just a formality, so now we don't bother with that part. You made me laugh with how you finish your parents' drinks -- that's SO what happens in my house, too. Boomer loves to drink, but has the appetite of a bird. So she'll get something started and then have to bring in the goon squad (read: me) to empty her glass. Being able to finish everyone else's drink is, like, my mutant power.
|
|
Gumbercules
AV Clubber
Get out of my dreams, and into my van
Posts: 2,987
|
Post by Gumbercules on Nov 13, 2017 10:17:45 GMT -5
I'm usually in charge of making sides for the family gathering, since I'd make sure they're vegetarian. This year my parents and brothers will be away, so my wife and I are going to host. It'll be a small gathering with at most 12 people (usually it's a 30 person affair), and my wife will be in charge of the turkey, again, because I'm vegetarian. Not sure what I'll make yet, but it'll involve fall vegetables. I've often done mac and cheese, since there's so many people and that's a good, filling side, but since there's a lot less, maybe I can do more refined sides. Dessert will definitely be the parsnip and cardamom pie, though (think sweet potato pie, but parsnip instead of sweet potato).
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Nov 13, 2017 11:15:51 GMT -5
I'm usually in charge of making sides for the family gathering, since I'd make sure they're vegetarian. This year my parents and brothers will be away, so my wife and I are going to host. It'll be a small gathering with at most 12 people (usually it's a 30 person affair), and my wife will be in charge of the turkey, again, because I'm vegetarian. Not sure what I'll make yet, but it'll involve fall vegetables. I've often done mac and cheese, since there's so many people and that's a good, filling side, but since there's a lot less, maybe I can do more refined sides. Dessert will definitely be the parsnip and cardamom pie, though (think sweet potato pie, but parsnip instead of sweet potato). Tell me more about this parsnip pie!
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,049
|
Post by LazBro on Nov 14, 2017 9:20:18 GMT -5
Because I cook the lion's share of Christmas dinner, they go light on me for Thanksgiving. The only thing I'm booked for so far is mashed potatoes, which I insist I make from now on after 2-3 straight years of crummy potatoes delivered by the hands of my mother and/or mother-in-law. I simply won't stand for subpar mashed potatoes. My standard holiday mashers are simmered in salty milk, then riced, then blended with reserved milk, an irresponsible amount of butter and then seasoned with salt, pepper, and toasted fenugreek, which gives them an alluring aroma and subtle herby-maple kind of flavor. A "what is that?" quality that always earns raves.
I still like those mashers, and may well do them again, but I'm feeling something different. I want to do garlic, goat cheese and green onion this year, but I know something so blatant as a green onion in a mashed potato may scandalize some people, so I may end up splitting the batch and doing both. We'll see.
No ideas for Christmas other than that it will be the typical line up (which reminds me that I need to get my prime rib ordered), and that we're still hosting at our place. On my insistence.
|
|
|
Post by pairesta on Nov 14, 2017 9:32:45 GMT -5
My wife and I sat down and mapped out all the December meals this past weekend and we're both nerdily excited about all the feasting ahead. Since this is the "off" year for Christmas, we're on our own that day, leaving the dinner free. "What should I ma--" I started to ask my wife. "Capon." She interrupted me bluntly. This is an Italian-style feast of roasted capon, a chestnut and sausage dressing, potato and prosciutto croquettes, grean beans cooked to nothing with a rich meat stock and a pinch of clove, and a first course of tortellini en brodo. Normally I'd be dreading the tortellini, but my daughter is such a prodigy at making them that I'm eager to turn that over to her. I just have to remember to store them in our indoors freezer rather than the one in the garage, which is prone to throwing the GFI switch and losing power. Last time I made tortellini, we had a good meal or two extra frozen, then the freezer outside conked out and I lost all of them.
|
|
Crash Test Dumbass
AV Clubber
ffc what now
Posts: 7,058
Gender (additional): mostly snacks
|
Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Nov 14, 2017 22:39:51 GMT -5
I've been asked to do the Thanksgiving cooking this year, which is nice because it's my favorite holiday and I love to cook. I'm making a spatchcocked dry-brined turkey as per JKLA's recommendation, as I did twice last year and it was amazing both times; cranberry-sausage stuffing with homemade sausage; cranberry-ginger-orange relish; and the gravy. I think that's all I'm making? The only issue I have is transport. I usually go visit my mom in Florida for Thanksgiving, but this year I am supposed to be cooking at home and taking the food the couple-three hours to my aunt's house to eat, since her oven and range are 3/4 sized.
|
|
|
Post by Desert Dweller on Nov 14, 2017 23:04:18 GMT -5
My family just lucked out and scored a Thanksgiving invitation from our semi-in laws? My niece's half brother's grandparents. I hope that makes sense. After their mom died, my niece was taken in by her grandparents and her half brother was taken in by his paternal grandparents.
Anyway, these people love to cook. They cook mostly traditional Thanksgiving, which is fine. My mother is a horrible cook, and I eat way different types of food than my family, so we have trouble if one of us tries to cook. So we are extremely excited that we are doing NO COOKING for Thanksgiving this year.
Christmas is still up in the air, however.
In terms of Holiday baking, my office is having a holiday bake sale this week as a charity fundraiser. I have a friend who is a cookie fiend. She makes so many Christmas cookies every year, I have no idea how she has time to sleep. I asked her for a recipe. She suggested Pumkpkin Cookie bars. Just baked these tonight. Letting them cool now. Have never made these. Wish me luck!
This was a great suggestion for me since I'm not a big fan of pumpkin. I will definitely not be tempted to eat these.
PS. Trying to bake while dog sitting at a house where there is about 1 sq ft of counter space available is an adventure. I may have accidentally spilled some flour on a dog.
|
|
|
Post by Liz n Dick on Nov 15, 2017 16:05:42 GMT -5
I have Christmas Fever SO BADLY. It's out of control. My Food & Wine December issue arrived on Monday and I pored over it, cover to cover, and walked away thinking, "I WANT TO BAKE ALL THOSE COOKIES."
I hate baking cookies. When I make chocolate chip cookies it's with the stated purpose of just eating the dough raw. If forced to bake any of it, I make one giant omni-cookie because I can't be bothered scooping reasonable amounts of dough or spreading the cookies across an appropriate number of sheets. With cookies for me, they have to fit on ONE baking sheet only. None of this "baking several sheets of cookies in rotation" bullshit. Let's just get this miserable experience over with as quickly as possible, okay? Which is strange, because I like baking cakes and brownies and whatever. But as soon as shit turns to fussiness in cookie-baking, I'm out.
BUT! Right now I have grand visions of baking all sorts of fancy things. Italian butter cookies filled with almond paste! (I like neither butter cookies nor pastries filled with almond paste!) Painstaking at-home recreations of Little Debbie Christmas trees! (I have never even seen a Little Debbie Christmas tree cake/cookie, let alone eaten one, to have nostalgia to want to make my own fancy version thereof!) Pecan-y meringues! (My theory on cookies is that anything not chocolate isn't worth the time, and anything with nuts is doubly not worth the time!) THIS IS COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL.
I also want to try the jelly donut recipe on the cover of the Food & Wine, and am wondering if this is a thing I could do on Christmas morning, while in full showing-off mode. I DON'T LIKE JELLY DONUTS EITHER.
|
|
|
Post by Desert Dweller on Nov 15, 2017 22:26:40 GMT -5
Ok, because the people I am house sitting for had literally NONE of the ingredients I needed for that pumpkin cake, I now have a lot of baking ingredients left over. Surveying what I have left, I believe I can make Snickerdoodle cookies with this. These are one of only 3 types of cookies I can make.
Thus will conclude all of my Holiday baking. I do not have much of a sweet tooth, and my mom's been put on a low sugar diet by her doctor. So, hoe the office enjoys these.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 16, 2017 14:33:00 GMT -5
The Sensational She-Hulk, my MIL is pro-apple cider upside down cake so I think we have a winner there. (Hey, what kind of pan do you typically use for that?) In the six weeks ahead, I hope to also make: - party mix (chex mix, only I don't really use chex) - some kinda ridiculously rich brownie - RumChata Snickerdooles - pfefferneusse - sugar cookie pie - something else???
|
|
|
Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Nov 16, 2017 15:00:02 GMT -5
Pedantic Editor Type I believe I used a 9" x 13" Pyrex baking dish. I find they work well for stuff like fruit upside-down cakes because everything gets caramelized on the bottom without burning, as glass is such a steady, even heat conductor.
|
|
|
Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 16, 2017 15:40:43 GMT -5
Pedantic Editor Type I believe I used a 9" x 13" Pyrex baking dish. I find they work well for stuff like fruit upside-down cakes because everything gets caramelized on the bottom without burning, as glass is such a steady, even heat conductor. Hmm I don't have any clear Pyrex dishes but I could probably make it in a Corningware dish. Or just use parchment paper on my 9x13. Thanks
|
|
|
Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Nov 16, 2017 16:10:43 GMT -5
Pedantic Editor Type I believe I used a 9" x 13" Pyrex baking dish. I find they work well for stuff like fruit upside-down cakes because everything gets caramelized on the bottom without burning, as glass is such a steady, even heat conductor. Hmm I don't have any clear Pyrex dishes but I could probably make it in a Corningware dish. Or just use parchment paper on my 9x13. Thanks Yeah, anything ceramic or glass, I think, is a good bet? It doesn't get served in the dish anyway, so do what works best for you!
|
|
|
Post by Floyd D Barber on Nov 17, 2017 13:17:10 GMT -5
I say we make roast Facehugger a new holiday tradition. (Made with chicken and crab)
|
|
|
Post by pairesta on Nov 17, 2017 13:30:44 GMT -5
I say we make roast Facehugger a new holiday tradition. (Made with chicken and crab) I'll admit that more than a few times I've watched one of the Alien movies and thought that facehuggers are probably delicious.
|
|
|
Post by pairesta on Nov 17, 2017 13:32:51 GMT -5
FYI, the most recent Cooks Illustrated ranks the best turkey brands out there: 1) Mary's Free Range Non-GMO 2) Plainville Farms Young Turkey 3) Diestel Non GMO Ranch Turkey 4) Bell and Evans Antibiotic Free
|
|
|
Post by songstarliner on Nov 17, 2017 21:22:26 GMT -5
After a lot of back and forth, it's finally settled: we're going to mother's for Thanksgiving, we being me and kiddo and doggo. I'm looking forward to it, because she'll do all the cooking and can afford nice wine in great quantities. Maybe I'll make a dessert if I feel like it, but honestly I cook all day every day, so maybe not!
Had a meeting today about a set-menu, prix-fixe, family-style holiday party at the cafe, a joint effort between us and some fellows who own a wood-fired oven on a trailer. Normally they do pizzas - very very good pizzas - but they just signed a lease on a brick-and-mortar place and are transitioning out of the mobile scene, and for their last hurrah of the year want to go all out with the oven. Roasted chickens, maybe pork loin, hell maybe even prime rib, plus brick oven baked sides and bread. If anyone has suggestions, please let me know! I'll be in charge of dessert, but I probably won't use their oven. I should start planning for that ...
|
|
|
Post by Powerthirteen on Nov 18, 2017 0:54:03 GMT -5
FYI, the most recent Cooks Illustrated ranks the best turkey brands out there: 1) Mary's Free Range Non-GMO 2) Plainville Farms Young Turkey 3) Diestel Non GMO Ranch Turkey 4) Bell and Evans Antibiotic Free One of these years I'm going to spring for one of the local turkeys the hippie grocery brings in. They're beautiful, and not terribly expensive either (I mean, they aren't CHEAP, but they're not prime rib either.) If you're going to go beyond Butterball it seems like going all the way makes sense, if you can.
|
|
Gumbercules
AV Clubber
Get out of my dreams, and into my van
Posts: 2,987
|
Post by Gumbercules on Nov 20, 2017 7:51:30 GMT -5
I say we make roast Facehugger a new holiday tradition. (Made with chicken and crab) I went to a party on Saturday, and someone made this.
|
|
Gumbercules
AV Clubber
Get out of my dreams, and into my van
Posts: 2,987
|
Post by Gumbercules on Nov 20, 2017 7:54:17 GMT -5
Okay, I have a game-plan for what I'm making.
Roasted new potatoes cranberry sauce stuffing/dressing with a local bakery's cheddar bread and pumpkin seed wheat bread creamed brussels sprouts gratin parsnip cardamom pie
If no one else is making mashed potatoes, I'll make those too. They will NOT be the ones that are equal parts butter and potato.
|
|
LazBro
Prolific Poster
Posts: 10,049
|
Post by LazBro on Nov 21, 2017 13:14:58 GMT -5
Apparently Mrs. Snape's aunt forgot to buy ingredients for stuffing/dressing, and knowing that I really care for that version, Mrs. Snape asked if I wanted to take it over. I agreed, somewhat begrudgingly. I'm happy to make it, and sure enough I like whatever I do better, but it means going back to the store.
I don't have a go-to recipe and more or less wing it every time. I'll probably do sourdough, Italian sausage, fennel, granny smith apple and a bucket load of sage.
|
|
|
Post by Floyd D Barber on Nov 21, 2017 21:17:38 GMT -5
I say we make roast Facehugger a new holiday tradition. (Made with chicken and crab) I went to a party on Saturday, and someone made this. Was it as tasty as it looks?
|
|
Gumbercules
AV Clubber
Get out of my dreams, and into my van
Posts: 2,987
|
Post by Gumbercules on Nov 22, 2017 6:24:49 GMT -5
I went to a party on Saturday, and someone made this. Was it as tasty as it looks? People seemed to like it, but no more delicious than a well cooked chicken. My friend used a drumstick to prop it up, and he was anxiously awaiting that piece, as it was the best-insulated piece of meat. I didn't try any. I haven't seen any of those people since, so... maybe it killed them. Maybe they're now aliens. Who can say.
|
|