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Post by pairesta on Nov 22, 2017 8:09:49 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. Yeah, none of those are bank-breakers. Our snooty local store sells heritage free range birds and I've seen those priced as much as $110! And then there's this morbid curiosity to try it and see if it's that much better. Last year I spent the most I've ever spent on a turkey and was really disappointed, but part of that was my own cooking error. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Nov 22, 2017 8:48:05 GMT -5
Things my Kroger didn't have last night: - Fresh garlic - Fresh sage - Granny smith apples - Bread I mean, they had bread, but at 8:15pm they had already packed down the bread counter so they didn't have any of the good bread out.  |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 22, 2017 9:24:58 GMT -5
I was mentally counting sticks of butter and I think I'm going to use an entire box tonight, between baking coffee cake, apple cake and making a compound butter to add to the mashed potatoes tomorrow. I knew I should've bought two, but I'm not sure I feel like braving the store tonight just for a box of butter. (I should have enough, I just won't have any LEFT.)
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Post by Liz n Dick on Nov 22, 2017 10:00:33 GMT -5
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. Yeah, none of those are bank-breakers. Our snooty local store sells heritage free range birds and I've seen those priced as much as $110! And then there's this morbid curiosity to try it and see if it's that much better. Last year I spent the most I've ever spent on a turkey and was really disappointed, but part of that was my own cooking error. Heritage, free-range, organic, GMO-free, cruelty-free slaughtered, blah-blah-blah turkeys can be really hit-or-miss. When they're good, they are absolutely worth the price. (When they're good, they also don't need any brining or fancy treatment -- just roast and go.) When they're bad? It's like, "Wow, this is the most expensive salmonella-ridden cardboard I've ever eaten!" My first-ever super-fancy meat-snob turkey was one we mail-ordered a zillion years ago from a place recommended by Martha Stewart. That was our famous "Thanksgiving without gravy" because it was the driest bird anyone has ever cooked. I can only imagine it was the leanest, meanest turkey in life. But oh my god it tasted SO GOOD. The following year we went back to Butterball, figuring we'd be guaranteed gravy that way. But it was like how they say bears don't go back after eating human flesh -- that hippy-dippy dry turkey the previous year spoiled us for Butterball forever. The Butterball yielded a nearly unending supply of gravy, but it tasted like rubber. And so that kicked off a two-decade run of gambling on fancy-pantsy turkeys, and having about a 70% success rate with them. (My favorites are the ones my dinky grocery store used to custom-order, from a local farm that wasn't quite there on the kumbaya treatment of their birds. I think they were billed as "cage-free", but weren't organic and probably ate a diet of turkey-shit pellets or something, but it was at least a small farm. So the quality of the meat was great, but they never seemed to have that too-dry, too-tough issue that some of the high-end turkeys do. And they cost about 50% less.) |
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Post by Liz n Dick on Nov 22, 2017 10:04:53 GMT -5
Things my Kroger didn't have last night: - Fresh garlic - Fresh sage - Granny smith apples - Bread I mean, they had bread, but at 8:15pm they had already packed down the bread counter so they didn't have any of the good bread out. My grocery store had put my preferred brands of butter and flour on sale this week, so when I was there early yesterday afternoon I had to switch butter brands (AGAIN!) and could only get King Arthur Flour in two-pound bags (each priced at more than twice the sale price of the five-pound bags). Grocery shopping in the days before Thanksgiving is THE WORST. And Pedantic Editor Type, I'm totally with you on butter usage! I've got five pounds of butter in the fridge, and with everything I've got planned for the next five days, I'm not sure that's going to get us through the whole holiday weekend. A whole pound of it is going into the applesauce cake alone!  |
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Post by Incense on Nov 22, 2017 10:18:52 GMT -5
I haven't done the whole nine Martha Stewart yards for Christmas in years - cards, baking, decorating, etc. Last weekend I went to bestie's and hung out (our last regular hangout pre-baby) while we worked on our Christmas cards together. I'll drop them in the mail Friday. While we were talking, she got me all excited about doing some baking again, so I've decided to make my honey blondies and my rice krispy treats for mom, bestie's family, and two divisions at work (would just be my division, but Crush works in a different one, with whom I work closely, so they can have some too). The honey blondies are my standby; the recipe doesn't make very many - as is, it uses an 8 X 8 pan - but it's worth the trouble of scaling up or making additional batches. No shit, people, I've received multiple marriage proposals over these. And the rice krispy treats, I make nice and tall and throw in white chocolate chips and peanuts and I think last time (so long ago now ... ) I used white Wilton melts on top of it as a candy top coat. Or did I only plan to? Memory fails me. I went out yesterday on my lunch hour and got every single thing I'd need, which thankfully, wasn't lots. Except the peanuts, I forgot the peanuts. Plan is to get busy next weekend. |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 22, 2017 10:27:06 GMT -5
Things my Kroger didn't have last night: - Fresh garlic - Fresh sage - Granny smith apples - Bread I mean, they had bread, but at 8:15pm they had already packed down the bread counter so they didn't have any of the good bread out. My grocery store had put my preferred brands of butter and flour on sale this week, so when I was there early yesterday afternoon I had to switch butter brands (AGAIN!) and could only get King Arthur Flour in two-pound bags (each priced at more than twice the sale price of the five-pound bags). Grocery shopping in the days before Thanksgiving is THE WORST. And Pedantic Editor Type , I'm totally with you on butter usage! I've got five pounds of butter in the fridge, and with everything I've got planned for the next five days, I'm not sure that's going to get us through the whole holiday weekend. A whole pound of it is going into the applesauce cake alone! Yeah, I definitely can't make anything ELSE requiring butter until I restock. Such is life. I think I'll need more brown sugar and flour this weekend, too. |
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Smacks
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Post by Smacks on Nov 22, 2017 12:30:34 GMT -5
I got a sous vide demonstration from my friend last night who's letting me borrow it for tomorrow's dinner. Yes, for the second year in a row my mother, my sister and I have decided to forgo turkey for steaks because beef is best. My contribution besides the aforementioned apparatus will be a hot crab dip, and the most basic cornbread casserole. I'm craving some comfort foods with this dinner and both of those are cheap (besides the lump crab) and extremely easy to make.
My Thanksgiving is about as low key as you can get. The three of us wear lounging clothes, cook and eat when we feel like it and generally be antisocial (from the extended family) and apathetic together. We all share a goofy sense of humor so a ton of laughing til your stomach hurts occurs too. I have a video from last T-Day of me stoking the fire while my sis and Mom can be heard singing Outkast's "Roses" in the background. I expect tomorrow will not disappoint in matching or exceeding such a great memory. I have always admitted I won the family lottery when I was born.
*crossover to the "family love and admiration thread"
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Post by Powerthirteen on Nov 22, 2017 12:47:16 GMT -5
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. Yeah, none of those are bank-breakers. Our snooty local store sells heritage free range birds and I've seen those priced as much as $110! And then there's this morbid curiosity to try it and see if it's that much better. Last year I spent the most I've ever spent on a turkey and was really disappointed, but part of that was my own cooking error. The co-op here sells locally raised for $3.49 a pound and certified organic for $4.49 a pound, so that probably works out to like $50 - $70. The Thanksgiving turkey I eat comes from my in-laws farm. |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 22, 2017 12:59:44 GMT -5
Anyone ever made funeral potatoes? Apparently I follow enough Utahns that this has become an idea for me.
Tomorrow is set, pretty much; I can't go changing the mashed potatoes at the last minute. But I actually thought a modified version might be a good breakfast casserole for Christmas? Maybe with sausage or bacon?
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Nov 22, 2017 13:26:07 GMT -5
My turkey is spatchcocked and dry-brining for tomorrow; the sausage has been cooked, as have the aromatics, and are mixed into the sourdough stuffing that will be baked once the stock is done; the stock (storebought no-sodium cooked for 30 minutes in the pressure cooker with the carrot, celery, onion, and parsnip trimmings, and the turkey back, neck, and giblets) will be turned into gravy and used to baste the stuffing once the pressure releases; the cranberry ginger orange relish is macerating in the fridge. The house smells great. I love Thanksgiving.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 22, 2017 22:11:58 GMT -5
The apple cake, I didn't quite follow to the letter because putting butter straight into the pan bewildered me, so I melted the butter, sugar and pecans together, then poured in the pan. It seemed like too many apples and not quite enough brown sugar sauce but it looks good and smells great.
I also made cinnamon pecan streusel coffee cake that I'm looking forward to for Friday.
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Nov 23, 2017 11:40:23 GMT -5
Aside from all the stuff I made, my aunt made two lasagne, 5 pounds of chicken cutlets, a large amount of meatballs, a couple pans of spiedini, and a pan of yams. We still have to make the mashed potatoes.
There's 8 of us and I'm the only fat one. At least there should be leftovers.
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Post by Pastafarian on Nov 23, 2017 12:38:26 GMT -5
I don't think I've ever had sweet potato or butternut squash pie, does anyone prefer them to regular old pumpkin? I maybe should find a recipe and give one of them a try.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Nov 23, 2017 14:09:46 GMT -5
The lamb smells really really good and I want to eat all of it.
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Post by ganews on Nov 23, 2017 19:28:05 GMT -5
Today we made turkey, corn souffle, green beans (from our garden), kale chips, mashed sweet potatoes (from our garden), okra perloo (okra from our garden), and Kenyan braised collard greens (with dried tomatoes from our garden). Also we had a pecan pie that I bought from the caterer at work. For the two of us. Going to be a very long leftover party around here.
Also, many times around Thanksgiving there are so many people (no one here I think) who sneer at turkey which must be dry. I feel bad for these people, because I find it so incredibly easy to make turkey that is delicious, not dry at all. I'm far from a fancy cook, and it's only a 88 cents/lb frozen turkey. It's just a Reynold's oven bag! We don't make gravy either, there's no need.
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Post by Ben Grimm on Nov 23, 2017 19:35:55 GMT -5
The lamb turned out really well. The herb mix it was coated with cooked up nice too, so I saved it and put some on lamb and mixed some with the mashed potatoes and it was delicious.
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Post by The Sensational She-Hulk on Nov 23, 2017 20:55:41 GMT -5
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 23, 2017 22:49:32 GMT -5
Apparently I asked my husband too many times if he liked the apple cake so I'll try not to ask about the coffee cake tomorrow  |
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Post by Liz n Dick on Nov 25, 2017 14:03:19 GMT -5
Porksgiving was a smashing success, and an official request was made that we have the same for Christmas dinner now, too. I was especially impressed with my mad pork-loin butterflying skills. The roast looked amazing! And I did the reverse-sear method, which caused me no small amount of pure, crushing panic as I put my beautiful, mostly-done roast into a 500-degree oven, and the kitchen filled with smoke from the rapidly-rendering fat cap... but lo! Perfection!! The finish on said fat cap was gorgeous. I will have happy dreams of this particular meatstuff for years to come. As for the applesauce cake, my initial estimate of how much butter would be needed ended up way off. Three sticks went into the cake, one stick into the caramel sauce (of which little was used, but still), and then three more sticks into the cooked buttercream frosting. Which was a complete failure. So then five more sticks went into the plan-B swiss meringue buttercream that was a dazzling success. And then Boomer had to stop at the grocery store on Friday to get more butter, because honestly. The cake was good, but I'm not sure it was three-pounds-of-butter good. SO! ONWARDS TO CHRISTMAS! Today I'm making homemade Little Debbie christmas tree cakes. It's been fussy enough that this might be curing me of my desire to bake zillions of Christmas cookies. |
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Post by Liz n Dick on Nov 25, 2017 15:59:39 GMT -5
Little Debbie christmas tree update:
The glaze is... not glazing. But aside from the fact that my trees are now little cream-filled mini-cakes soaking up a delicious chocolatey liquid substance, rather than little cream-filled mini-cakes with a stable chocolatey coating, they are rapturously delicious. Boomer's review: "If I had known Little Debbie cakes were so good, I'd have been buying them all this time."
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Post by DangOlJimmyITellYouWhat on Nov 25, 2017 20:01:04 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. Plz to send all butter cookies with almond paste to JimmyThinksYoureemo OKC OKC |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 25, 2017 20:39:06 GMT -5
Little Debbie christmas tree update: The glaze is... not glazing. But aside from the fact that my trees are now little cream-filled mini-cakes soaking up a delicious chocolatey liquid substance, rather than little cream-filled mini-cakes with a stable chocolatey coating, they are rapturously delicious. Boomer's review: "If I had known Little Debbie cakes were so good, I'd have been buying them all this time." You need candy melt ganache I think. |
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Post by pairesta on Nov 26, 2017 10:19:31 GMT -5
The turkey was . . . fine. Nothing remarkable. Brined for 24 hours, then sat in the fridge to air dry, a step which was negated by HOLY SHIT I CAN'T BELIEVE I HAVEN'T TOLD YOU GUYS THIS YET:
We had dinner at my parents house. I took the turkey from them to handle brining and drying because their fridges (yes, two) were so packed. When we brought it over Thanksgiving morning, there still wasn't room. Fine! Put it in a cooler resting on ice bags and leave it on the back porch, since it was actually cold out.
My brother was over with his family, including a boy about my son's age. They are two peas in a pod; they love being with each other. We always joke though about them hatching new villainy together as they get older and we got a sure glimpse of it this weekend.
The boys were out back playing in the sandbox. I came out to get the bird to put in the oven. I noticed the cooler's lid was ajar, and I know I had shut it tight. I ran over and opened it. The boys had dumped sand all over the turkey. I turned around and they were both staring quietly at me, then immediately began blaming each other. My brother's wife, an attorney, separated them both and then grilled them both on their side of the story, confronting them about any inconsistencies until it was sorted out that my son (OF COURSE) hatched the plot and did it all. She came down laughing so hard she was crying. "They . . . they were going to . . . use the leaf blower to clean it off!" She said between bouts of laughing.
Now I know that objectively all this is very funny. We cleaned the turkey off several times (I'm just now realizing as I'm posting this to a bunch of strangers that it probably would have been safer to just dump the bird entirely but it never crossed my mind to do that), cooked it off, and only my mom got a grain of sand. But I'm still traumatized about it. I KNEW, when suddenly both boys got quiet out back, that something was up and should have jumped on them.
Anyways. Fine, relatively sand-free bird, who could ask for more. Everyone liked it, I was underwhelmed but not disappointed like last year. One year recently we had this magnificent, deep rich, roasted turkey and I've been chasing that ghost ever since, never able to replicated it.
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Post by pairesta on Nov 26, 2017 10:29:46 GMT -5
Years ago, I got Mario Batali's pamphlet-sized cookbook,Italian Holiday Food, and made his recipe for gatto from it. Gatto is a Neapolitan dish of mashed potatoes folded with eggs and then baked, like a savory cake. In his book it's a side, and I used to use it that way. But gradually it moved over to become a meal in itself, accompanied only by salad. I've made the recipe considerably richer over time, folding in a pint of ricotta as well, a middle layer of mozzarella, and diced salami mixed throughout.
In Italy it's apparently just potatoes. I used to post on a food and cooking board and shared photos and a description one night, and a native Italian poster went absolutely apeshit. "You Americans and your cheese!" They sneered. I mean, I see why they'd take issue, but at the same time, how could you NOT love a savory potato cake oozing cheese out of it?!
My kids, especially my daughter, love it. The past few years it's become the official Christmas time kickoff meal, and I'm making it tonight. I'm very excited, even though I'll probably think of that asshole from the food board like I do every year.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Nov 27, 2017 9:01:23 GMT -5
I made mashed potatoes and dressing. As usual, my favorite bite of Thanksgiving was MIL's super salty and rich beef gravy over my mashed potatoes. All the rest of the food is fine, but I swear I could eat just that.
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Post by Liz n Dick on Nov 27, 2017 14:04:40 GMT -5
You need candy melt ganache I think. It being a Stella Parks recipe, it's all about making your own candy melt ganache from scratch. The process was definitely more candy-making than a regular glaze!  The glaze instructions had you making a base of vanilla glaze, taking out half a cup of it (for decorating), then adding cocoa powder and water. Since the reserved vanilla stuff absolutely set up as a hand-stable coating, I suspect the problem was that the recipe has too much water in that last step. The finished product, even with a coating of absorbed liquidy glaze, was so fantastic, and the process to make it so fun, I'm definitely going to try this again. Perhaps we'll need chocolate snack-cake eggs at Easter... |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 28, 2017 11:13:31 GMT -5
I need to make a list of what all I want to make in the next month...
cookies/sweets:
- pfefferneusse (family recipe, old favorite)
- Rumchata snickerdoodles (you heard me)
- gingerbread (just plain old gingerbread, a classic)
- brownies? peppermint brownies?
- possibly coffee cake/cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning?
- Candy Cane "sugar cookie pie"
other:
- party mix
- other Christmas-related things?
Hmm. That doesn't seem like a ton. The pfeffernuesse are labor intensive but worth it. I expect the snickerdoodles will take some time too but they sound awesome.
HMM.
Edit: oh I remembered another one! added to sweets.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 29, 2017 11:59:20 GMT -5
I made gingerbread last night, for funsies. It's delicious.
My husband, of COURSE, needs something for his work potluck in a couple weeks. And since they all know where I work, he's been voluntold to bring dessert. So I decided to make the sugar cookie pie for that.
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Post by Pastafarian on Dec 4, 2017 10:03:05 GMT -5
I don't think I've ever had sweet potato or butternut squash pie, does anyone prefer them to regular old pumpkin? I maybe should find a recipe and give one of them a try. Nothing? Oh I get it, maybe I should just stay in my lane and cook nothing but spaghetti pie! |
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