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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Mar 18, 2024 15:47:22 GMT -5
My unpopular food opinion is that I think cupcakes are a pain in the ass to make, decorate, and store, and I'd rather just bake a big cake I can slice up and pop into the freezer. I've never once had a slice of cake and thought, "This would be better as a cupcake," but I have frequently thought the opposite when eating a cupcake. You can have a cake with frosting applied any which way and as long as you do it consistently, it looks awesome. If you try that with a cupcake, it just looks like a toddler slapped on the frosting with their hands.
Properly made muffins are great, though. I had a classmate who made the most amazing apple cinnamon muffins I've ever tasted. It's literally been 15 years since I saw her, and I wistfully think of those muffins every so often.
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Post by Liz n Dick on Mar 18, 2024 19:43:13 GMT -5
My unpopular food opinion is that I think cupcakes are a pain in the ass to make, decorate, and store, and I'd rather just bake a big cake I can slice up and pop into the freezer. I've never once had a slice of cake and thought, "This would be better as a cupcake," but I have frequently thought the opposite when eating a cupcake. You can have a cake with frosting applied any which way and as long as you do it consistently, it looks awesome. If you try that with a cupcake, it just looks like a toddler slapped on the frosting with their hands. Properly made muffins are great, though. I had a classmate who made the most amazing apple cinnamon muffins I've ever tasted. It's literally been 15 years since I saw her, and I wistfully think of those muffins every so often. I have long agreed with this take! I started to soften on cupcakes when I admitted to myself that I don't want to eat cake mix in cake form, but I'm happy to have it in cupcake form. Which means that when I have a yen for cake I will want to bake it from scratch, but if I want cupcakes it'll only entail the work of making it from a box mix. So they're, like, completely different things. At the end of the day cake will always be better, but needs must. (Plus, now I've got all these fancy sprinkles...)
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 19, 2024 9:25:25 GMT -5
Last night both of my kids told me they don't like biscuits.
Also last night I looked into the process of legal disownership of minor children.
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Ben Grimm
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Post by Ben Grimm on Mar 19, 2024 9:47:27 GMT -5
Last night both of my kids told me they don't like biscuits.
Also last night I looked into the process of legal disownership of minor children.
This video documents the legal process for this:
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Mar 19, 2024 10:11:53 GMT -5
Last night both of my kids told me they don't like biscuits.
Also last night I looked into the process of legal disownership of minor children.
At this point in your posting history, I now imagine your children subsisting solely on air and best wishes.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 19, 2024 10:47:13 GMT -5
Last night both of my kids told me they don't like biscuits.
Also last night I looked into the process of legal disownership of minor children.
At this point in your posting history, I now imagine your children subsisting solely on air and best wishes. While I know that I'm completely blackpilled on the subject of feeding my children, and therefore most of my theories are the mad ravings of unbridled lunacy, I do suspect some gamesmanship on their part here.
"Breakfast for dinner" is a frequent and consistent meal at our house. Bacon, fruit or potato, and some kind of bread (and I'll have eggs). The only thing that changes is the bread. Waffles, toast, biscuits, pancakes... so what's going on is, they prefer waffles. In order to increase the likelihood of waffles, they must resist the other options. Even if they think biscuits are okay, which they well might, they see it as in their best interest to reject them. "A biscuit is not a waffle, and only our favorite is good enough." I've noticed them do this with other foods before. They'll eat multiple kinds of a thing (like pasta shapes), but once they declare a favorite, they'll refuse to eat any others. Literally would rather go hungry than eat a farfalle covered in butter, because it's not a spaghetti covered in butter. That kind of thing.
Wait, stop... ranting again.
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Post by liebkartoffel on Mar 19, 2024 10:53:05 GMT -5
I've...never actually baked a cake. Actually, scratch that, I baked one, a one-pan lemon/lime drizzle cake in college (which actually turned out pretty good!) but that's it. I bake bread, brownies, cookies, the occasional pie, and cinnamon rolls every Christmas, but the thought of baking a traditional birthday cake-cake, with all the extra pans and the frosting and decorating and whatnot has always just felt so exhausting. Fortunately, C and I are of the same mind re: (birthday) cake: nice when you can get it, but not worth the effort of making it. Her preferred birthday dessert is Atlantic beach pie, which is both a snap to make and delicious. If all goes to plan (ha ha), the kid's will be strawberry shortcake, since she had the good fortune of being born smack in the middle of strawberry season. She does already eat (and seems to enjoy) strawberries, so fingers crossed.
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Post by Liz n Dick on Mar 19, 2024 11:34:49 GMT -5
I've...never actually baked a cake. Actually, scratch that, I baked one, a one-pan lemon/lime drizzle cake in college (which actually turned out pretty good!) but that's it. I bake bread, brownies, cookies, the occasional pie, and cinnamon rolls every Christmas, but the thought of baking a traditional birthday cake-cake, with all the extra pans and the frosting and decorating and whatnot has always just felt so exhausting. Fortunately, C and I are of the same mind re: (birthday) cake: nice when you can get it, but not worth the effort of making it. Her preferred birthday dessert is Atlantic beach pie, which is both a snap to make and delicious. If all goes to plan (ha ha), the kid's will be strawberry shortcake, since she had the good fortune of being born smack in the middle of strawberry season. She does already eat (and seems to enjoy) strawberries, so fingers crossed. Speaking as someone who was born smack in the middle of strawberry season, I grew up HATING strawberry shortcake, because it was so clearly never a thing that was actually meant for me -- rather, it was a thing that some selfish adult was offering because they liked strawberry shortcake and now was the time for it, and oh by the way happy birthday Liz. I honestly have no idea if I ever could like strawberry shortcake, after it became so emotionally loaded in my early childhood.
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Post by liebkartoffel on Mar 19, 2024 17:36:25 GMT -5
I've...never actually baked a cake. Actually, scratch that, I baked one, a one-pan lemon/lime drizzle cake in college (which actually turned out pretty good!) but that's it. I bake bread, brownies, cookies, the occasional pie, and cinnamon rolls every Christmas, but the thought of baking a traditional birthday cake-cake, with all the extra pans and the frosting and decorating and whatnot has always just felt so exhausting. Fortunately, C and I are of the same mind re: (birthday) cake: nice when you can get it, but not worth the effort of making it. Her preferred birthday dessert is Atlantic beach pie, which is both a snap to make and delicious. If all goes to plan (ha ha), the kid's will be strawberry shortcake, since she had the good fortune of being born smack in the middle of strawberry season. She does already eat (and seems to enjoy) strawberries, so fingers crossed. Speaking as someone who was born smack in the middle of strawberry season, I grew up HATING strawberry shortcake, because it was so clearly never a thing that was actually meant for me -- rather, it was a thing that some selfish adult was offering because they liked strawberry shortcake and now was the time for it, and oh by the way happy birthday Liz. I honestly have no idea if I ever could like strawberry shortcake, after it became so emotionally loaded in my early childhood. Well, the shortcake conditioning worked on my sister at least. But no, I'm not planning on belaboring the point.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 20, 2024 7:06:30 GMT -5
Interestingly, or actually probably not but I'm here and going to type it anyway, I have no interest in baking cakes and fully agree that boxed mixes are the way to go, yet on the rare occasions I do bake a cake it's always from scratch. This is because the only time I ever bake cakes is as an activity with my kids. The doing of it is the point, so might as well do it from scratch.
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Mar 22, 2024 10:02:56 GMT -5
This weekend is all about the comfort food! Tonight is the American chop suey recipe we all know and love from Liz n Dick, but I'm adding about 2/3 of a cup of small red beans I soaked overnight with baking soda and salt for extra fiber plus a little can of corn because I like corn. I've been very pleased with my usual additions of chopped serrano pepper and using pepper jack in lieu of the mozzarella. Keeps it from being too much like baked ziti. I'm just making half a recipe as always because although it's delicious, I can only eat leftover chop suey so many times before I'm sort of done.
Tomorrow I'm making dinner for BFF and a friend I'll call T. I originally invited him over here to have dinner because I haven't seen him in ages, but then BFF invited us over and I volunteered to move the operation over there. I've got homemade crab cakes in the freezer I'll thaw out and bring with lemon wedges, cocktail sauce, and tartar sauce; today at the store I'll buy some frozen fries and the makings for a watermelon, cucumber, and feta salad too. BFF is a CPA and can use a nice homemade meal right about now that she didn't have to make herself, and T always appreciates food that didn't appear from a can or box. And I get to make some room in my freezer, yay! (I know, what a problem to have - crab cakes taking up too much space.) T will be benefiting from a nice big container of chop suey as well.
Sunday I will use the rest of the ground beef to make meatloaf with mashed potatoes, gravy, and brussels sprouts. I actually did not grow up eating much meatloaf, believe it or not! My mom loves it, but I suspect my grandmother must have made the world's worst meatloaf because my dad weirdly can't stand it when he likes plenty of other, similar recipes, so this wasn't a staple for us. As such, I'm relying on the Food Lab's recipe so I don't screw up the proportions and wind up with a giant unpleasant meatball, though I'll swap out/sub in a few ingredients I like more. I plan to make a full size loaf, too, so I can give my mom some when I see her next Thursday. Also because a meatloaf sandwich/patty melt sounds absolutely divine with all the rain we're supposed to get soon.
Beyond that...uh. Talk to me on Monday?
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Post by pantsgoblin on Mar 22, 2024 11:31:56 GMT -5
Something I just did, probably for the first time in 20+ years: open a can of juice with a churchkey.
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Post by liebkartoffel on Mar 22, 2024 18:03:56 GMT -5
Something I just did, probably for the first time in 20+ years: open a can of juice with a churchkey. I'm pretty sure I've only ever used the bottle opener side of a churchkey.
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Post by Floyd D Barber on Mar 22, 2024 18:37:25 GMT -5
Something I just did, probably for the first time in 20+ years: open a can of juice with a churchkey. When I was a kid, my uncles drank Stag and Falstaff out of the cans that used a church key, and I remember the Hawaiian Punch and Hi-C cans that used those. I opened a few cans with one over the years. Everything that came out of those cans had that weird metallic taste proving they were actual tin cans.
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Post by Liz n Dick on Mar 25, 2024 8:08:03 GMT -5
I remember Hi-C and Hawaiian punch cans that used church keys! I bought some pineapple juice in a can last year or so, and I think it also required a church key? Or maybe I'm misremembering. Anyway, nowadays I use the church key a lot to loosen jar lids that are impossible to twist open.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Mar 25, 2024 8:21:54 GMT -5
We definitely used a church key to open Juicy Juice cans when I was a kid (though we just called it a can opener). I don't know if I still have one, though... In any case. This week, there will be food: Sunday: Chicken club sandwiches Monday: Tostadas Tuesday: Pizza rolls (kind of like cinnamon rolls, but pizza) Wednesday: Mandarin orange chicken, rice Thursday: Topato soup (potato + salsa verde + spinach) And Friday is my birthday so the plan is to go to a favorite local restaurant for dinner and cocktails at the adorable cocktail bar next door.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 25, 2024 8:44:11 GMT -5
Plan is kinda sorta coming together, but we'll see.
Sunday: For lunch I cooked burgers and dogs for a bunch of people on a tiny little gas grill. Adorable little thing.
Monday: No-wrap St. Louis cut ribs on the smoker, with coleslaw, corn, and rolls. Actually I probably need to start those pretty soon.
Tuesday: Cheese tortellini with tomato sauce for the kids, a kind of caramelized leek and mushroom sauce for me, salad, bread.
Wednesday: Japanese curry with rice; haven't decided about the kids.
Thursday: Teriyaki chicken and leftover rice, some of which will be egg fried. Griddle meal. Been awhile.
Friday: Pizza
Oh, and the Mrs. is down to just two options in her meal prep reserve, so I need to make some kind of soup this week.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 25, 2024 8:53:43 GMT -5
My daughter loves to chop. She looks forward to helping her grandmother chop vegetables and fruits for party snack trays, or doing Thanksgiving prep, that kind of thing. She's getting very good at it, but I don't have a lot of opportunity to see her in action. She was helping out in the kitchen at a family birthday party yesterday, and I was happy with her technique. Keeping the fingers back (claw grip) to avoid cutting herself. The way I taught her.
Then out comes a bell pepper. Her grandmother and great aunt proceed to teach her how to deconstruct this bell pepper. The methodology was horrific. I can't even describe it, but I can't imagine doing a worse job of cutting a bell pepper for crudite. The result was a bunch of uneven, mismatched bell pepper ... triangles? Like in a stir fry, maybe, but for serving with dips? It's not her ability at all. The lesson was wrong. But not my kitchen, not my monkeys, I stayed out of it while wanting to DIE inside.
I decided in my head that if they needed another pepper, I'd step in and offer an alternative (correct) method of frenching a bell pepper, but alas they only needed the one. Now on my life list to address soon, "Teach Addy how to cut a bell pepper."
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Post by Liz n Dick on Mar 25, 2024 9:02:48 GMT -5
Food for the week! I can totally do this! ::totally can't do this::
Monday: In the past when I've gotten sunchokes from a farm box I've loved making a sausage/mushroom/sunchoke simple stew sort of thing (it's a Nigel Slater recipe, so it's not so much a thing as a, like, "just put these ingredients in a pot together and wax rhapsodic about the season's vibe" meal). Usually that's meant getting sunchokes and then making a trip to the store for the mushrooms and some fresh parsley. But it's almost like my one farm box knows exactly what I want to do with these things -- they gave me sunchokes, mushrooms, AND the parsley! Uncanny!
Tuesday: I have to make something with leftovers for Hugs, so I might do a "nearing the end of the season for this stuff" American chop suey.
Wednesday: Really basic bean-and-chicken taco night.
Thursday: Maybe a really basic curry?
Friday: Pancakes!
Saturday & Sunday: Saturday'll be pasta night, and I'm trying to get through some of my reserves in the freezer in advance of pesto-making season starting up in a few weeks, so it'll probably be a really lazy pasta night at that. And Sunday's chili night, to get lunches lined up for the week.
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Mar 25, 2024 16:15:24 GMT -5
My meatloaf was delicious! I could not crank up my oven to 500 because historically, doing that sets off my smoke detector and scares the cats half to death, even when there is zero smoke to be found, so the glaze did not achieve the promised crispiness. But it tasted great, and I am already metaphorically rubbing my hands together in glee at the thought of the absolutely monster meatloaf sandwich I am going to make this week. I also very much enjoyed the American chop suey, though I think I should have cooked the beans a bit more beforehand to make them softer, even though they got a good long soak. Ah well! It's not like they were uncooked or anything.
Tonight: Marinated rib-eye steak with Heinz 57 sauce; mixed-green salad with tomato, avocado, and bleu cheese dressing Tuesday: Leftover American chop suey, mixed fruit on the side Wednesday: Meatloaf sandwich on rustic seed bread with mushrooms and onions sauteed in leftover meatloaf glaze, sharp cheddar, fresh sliced tomato, mayo, and a smear of dijon. Jury's out on whether I do it as a melt.
Thursday: Mom's coming over with takeout of some kind, probably Greek?
Friday: ??
I think I might make that pineapple-sour cream pie again this upcoming weekend, but replace half the sour cream with cream cheese and do a gingersnap crust. It'll be more like a no-bake cheesecake, which I like a lot.
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Baron von Costume
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Post by Baron von Costume on Mar 26, 2024 14:20:49 GMT -5
Hey food friends, I got invited to a raclette shindig and got assigned sauce making. Anyone have a killer raclette/fondue/whatever sauce that fires their engines? So far I'm thinking: my home made smoked salsa a beer mustard thing some form of lemon herb thing but not sure what a spicy mayo ?
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Gumbercules
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Post by Gumbercules on Mar 27, 2024 8:37:24 GMT -5
Hey food friends, I got invited to a raclette shindig and got assigned sauce making. Anyone have a killer raclette/fondue/whatever sauce that fires their engines? So far I'm thinking: my home made smoked salsa a beer mustard thing some form of lemon herb thing but not sure what a spicy mayo ? Is your sauce supposed to incorporate raclette? Is it a sauce to go over a dish? For dipping things into (I guess that would make it a dip). Not exactly sure what's being asked, so it's hard to give a recommendation. It sounds like you're looking to make a mornay. I could give you the basis for it, but really just type in mornay and pick any recipe you find.
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Baron von Costume
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Post by Baron von Costume on Mar 27, 2024 10:41:21 GMT -5
No, like dips/spreads for the products of the raclette process.
Think I'm going to go for the above plus an italian green sauce.
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Mar 27, 2024 11:41:22 GMT -5
No, like dips/spreads for the products of the raclette process. Think I'm going to go for the above plus an italian green sauce. Maybe a bearnaise sauce for the lemon-herb thing? A plum or apricot mostarda might be nice too.
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Baron von Costume
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Post by Baron von Costume on Mar 27, 2024 12:01:00 GMT -5
No, like dips/spreads for the products of the raclette process. Think I'm going to go for the above plus an italian green sauce. Maybe a bearnaise sauce for the lemon-herb thing? A plum or apricot mostarda might be nice too. hmm, good call. Jeez I'm going to show up with like 10 sauces
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 28, 2024 7:35:13 GMT -5
I think I'm confused, too.
I've never been served raclette (the cheese or the "dish") at a restaurant, home, or otherwise, so my knowledge of it is purely conceptual, but I thought raclette was about scraping portions of toasty melted cheese onto things and eating them. Meaning the cheese IS the sauce. You wouldn't top (or dip) that with still more sauce ... right?
Where are my facts wrong? This article on hosting a Canadian raclette party makes no mention of auxiliary sauces. I truly can't envision what is being asked and how they will be used. I'm curious to learn.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Mar 28, 2024 7:40:48 GMT -5
I think I'm confused, too.
I've never been served raclette (the cheese or the "dish") at a restaurant, home, or otherwise, so my knowledge of it is purely conceptual, but I thought raclette was about scraping portions of toasty melted cheese onto things and eating them. Meaning the cheese IS the sauce. You wouldn't top (or dip) that with still more sauce ... right?
Where are my facts wrong? This article on hosting a Canadian raclette party makes no mention of auxiliary sauces. I truly can't envision what is being asked and how they will be used. I'm curious to learn. I am also confused and wondering if it's really fondue??
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Post by Liz n Dick on Mar 28, 2024 9:11:58 GMT -5
I love how Baron von Costume's raclette is causing such consternation. We're all like, "What can this all MEAN? And... how do I get invited to it, because "dipping melted cheese into more sauces" seems delicious?"
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Baron von Costume
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Post by Baron von Costume on Mar 28, 2024 9:15:50 GMT -5
I think I'm confused, too.
I've never been served raclette (the cheese or the "dish") at a restaurant, home, or otherwise, so my knowledge of it is purely conceptual, but I thought raclette was about scraping portions of toasty melted cheese onto things and eating them. Meaning the cheese IS the sauce. You wouldn't top (or dip) that with still more sauce ... right?
Where are my facts wrong? This article on hosting a Canadian raclette party makes no mention of auxiliary sauces. I truly can't envision what is being asked and how they will be used. I'm curious to learn. Yeah, we use one of the raclette grille things like this and the main jazz is to make your little portion and cover it with cheese. But we'll generally have a couple sauces/mustards etc with it either for things you're not smothering with cheese or if you want another flavour component. Like if you're doing a piece of bread with a round of sausage and grilled tomato I'd probably put a bit of beer mustard on it as well. If you just do pure cheese all night it gets a little one note. It's not a huge thing but it's what I've been tasked to bring, other than mushrooms which is hilarious as someone who hates/doesn't eat mushrooms.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Mar 28, 2024 9:35:57 GMT -5
I think I'm confused, too.
I've never been served raclette (the cheese or the "dish") at a restaurant, home, or otherwise, so my knowledge of it is purely conceptual, but I thought raclette was about scraping portions of toasty melted cheese onto things and eating them. Meaning the cheese IS the sauce. You wouldn't top (or dip) that with still more sauce ... right?
Where are my facts wrong? This article on hosting a Canadian raclette party makes no mention of auxiliary sauces. I truly can't envision what is being asked and how they will be used. I'm curious to learn. Yeah, we use one of the raclette grille things like this and the main jazz is to make your little portion and cover it with cheese. But we'll generally have a couple sauces/mustards etc with it either for things you're not smothering with cheese or if you want another flavour component. Like if you're doing a piece of bread with a round of sausage and grilled tomato I'd probably put a bit of beer mustard on it as well. If you just do pure cheese all night it gets a little one note. It's not a huge thing but it's what I've been tasked to bring, other than mushrooms which is hilarious as someone who hates/doesn't eat mushrooms. Makes sense. Sounds like you're on your way, but yeah my recommendations would be anything designed to cut richness. Chimichurri, salsa verde, homemade mustard, hot sauces, maybe something balsamic.
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