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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 8, 2022 12:22:39 GMT -5
Thought I'd create a new place for us to talk end of the year/big holiday cookery.
As with last year, we have no plans for Thanksgiving and nowhere to go, so we are repeating our lazy day at home with Mexican food - tamales, chips & salsa & guac, maybe some street corn or beans, and dessert is still in the planning stage. Last year I made tres leches cake, and it was delicious, but also a huge amount of cake for two people to eat. This year I am thinking some kind of Mexican hot chocolate inspired cake, maybe with a cinnamon buttercream. I have a few recipes to start with, but if any of yall have any I'm all ears.
Also thinking about a cocktail, I made cranberry margaritas last year which were very tasty.
What are you planning?
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Nov 9, 2022 11:49:05 GMT -5
Once again I'm not going to be getting involved in making a Thanksgiving dinner. HOORAY! But this year it's because... I won't be home?!? It's been decades since I wasn't home for Thanksgiving! It's madness! My favorite needlepoint store does an annual Thanksgiving weekend class, where they teach the design for a Christmas-themed needlepoint canvas during Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of that weekend. It's apparently the most chill and fun class of the year, because it's only the local in-crowd people, and we've never been able to go because we've always had my non-Hugs sister visiting for the holiday. Back in April Hugs and I committed to the Thanksgiving class, though! And then we had a sort of genius idea of "graciously" offering to visit non-Hugs for Thanksgiving and then go on to the class the next day; non-Hugs lives in the Virginia suburbs north of DC and the needlepoint store is in Towson, just outside Baltimore. So the geography makes perfect sense! Anyway, non-Hugs also doesn't care about Thanksgiving dinner (and definitely doesn't cook), so she was originally planning that she'd get a ton of takeout from the amazing Indian place near her, and we'd just have a big feast of leftovers on Turkey Day. Alas, her dreadful husband insists on a traditional meal, so I guess they'll be getting something catered. We shall see. I plan to bring a nice bottle of wine and some cheese and crackers.
As for the holiday season opening up, my quarterly spice club had a cardamom extract in the most recent box, so while I'm not normally terrifically inclined to make cookies, Hugs suggested we try that extract in a butter cookie recipe, to trend speculoos-y. I'm intrigued.
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Nov 10, 2022 9:37:39 GMT -5
Historically the Mrs.' aunt has made the turkey on Thanksgiving. Some weeks ago Mrs. Bro texted me saying aunt had asked if I wanted to make the turkey instead. I interpreted this as a request. I thought she was asking me to do it and begrudgingly said yes. Thankfully, before passing that answer along, the Mrs. clarified with me that it really was just a question, like "Do you want to make the Thanksgiving turkey, because you like to cook?" What a relief. I changed my answer to no. I'll happily cook the one at Christmas. For Thanksgiving, she or someone else can have it.
For Thanksgiving I'm on deck for my holiday mashed potatoes, and I've signed up to do dressing as well. I'm going to stick with that simple German-style dressing that I did last year.
For Christmas, of course it will be the whole shebang at our house. Smoked prime rib, smoked turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, roasted carrots, gravy, horseradish sauce, probably some other stuff.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 10, 2022 9:53:01 GMT -5
I gotta say, I do occasionally long for a good slice of turkey and some super-buttery mashed potatoes. But I think ham is a superior holiday meat. I'm sure I'll get one or both at Christmas, though. Maybe my in-laws will let me make the perpetually underseasoned mashed potatoes. (They do all this work, and make all the traditional dishes for like 7 of us plus two small children... but they have the blandest palate so it's never very interesting.)
I also got a copy of the Delish Christmas cookie edition (because an ad I worked on is in it!!) and there are some fun cookie recipes in there. Trying to decide which ones I actually have the energy to make, some are much more involved than others. Gingerbread truffles sound pretty amazing.
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Nov 10, 2022 9:59:47 GMT -5
For Thanksgiving, instead of our usual boozy brunch, we decided to do appetizers in the form of clams casino and "crab delights" -- a mixture of Old English spread, mayo, and some other things, with crab mixed in, slathered on top of English muffins, and baked to golden perfection (the recipe comes from a little old Polish lady we know) -- with some cocktails around lunchtime. It's just my parents and me, so we're trying to keep the volume of food reasonable. We like leftovers, but not for a solid week. So it'll be apple cider-brined turkey breast, gravy made with the drippings, regular-edition stuffing, sauerkraut with caraway and kielbasa, steamed green beans, cranberry sauce, and deviled oysters. The latter is because my dad and I really, really wanted to make oyster stuffing, but my mom hates it, so this is our compromise. The recipe I use is similar to this one, but with a fair bit more cayenne and a couple shots of Tabasco added. Pretty sure we're doing osso buco and lemon risotto for Christmas Day (i.e., I am making osso buco and lemon risotto for Christmas Day). Our usual Christmas Eve spread is basically antipasto: Italian bread, sharp provolone, assorted olives, soppressata, salami, prosciutto, marinated artichoke hearts, etc. with plenty of wine. I love how my parents do Christmas. It's so low-key and delicious. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Nov 10, 2022 10:33:47 GMT -5
... "crab delights" -- a mixture of Old English spread, mayo, and some other things, with crab mixed in, slathered on top of English muffins, and baked to golden perfection (the recipe comes from a little old Polish lady we know) Oh my god! |
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Nov 10, 2022 10:36:14 GMT -5
Our major holiday-season tradition is candy in place of cookies. Instead of enjoying a steady drumbeat of different types of cookies through the lead-up to Christmas, we get a big order of Albanese candy, I make marshmallows, and when we're looking for a dessert we'll have either a little plate of chocolates or a mug of hot cocoa. For the last few years I've also gotten a big bag of Albanese's sherbet gummi bears when I've ordered the chocolates, so our candy plates will involve three truffles of some assortment and a small handful of those gummi bears. Sherbet gummi bears have become an essential flavor of Christmas at stately Dick N Hisses Manor.
WHICH IS WHY IT IS A DISASTER THAT THEY WERE OUT OF STOCK WHEN I PLACED MY CHOCOLATE ORDER LAST WEEK.
What am I going to do?!? We can't have Christmas without sherbet gummi bears! Everything is ruined!!
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Nov 10, 2022 10:44:08 GMT -5
... "crab delights" -- a mixture of Old English spread, mayo, and some other things, with crab mixed in, slathered on top of English muffins, and baked to golden perfection (the recipe comes from a little old Polish lady we know) Oh my god! They're so good! Miss Josie used to cut them into quarters to make little tidbits for parties, but we just eat them the way they are. They're nice with a salad for a light lunch, too. I can grab the recipe on Sunday next time I visit if you want it, but I think it's like...Old English spread, mayo, lemon juice, garlic salt, Worcestershire, and either hot sauce or Old Bay? You want a good bit of the mixture so it stays creamy and doesn't dry out the crab when you bake the muffin halves. You can also freeze them, unbaked, and then pop them into the oven straight from the freezer. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Nov 10, 2022 10:52:08 GMT -5
They're so good! Miss Josie used to cut them into quarters to make little tidbits for parties, but we just eat them the way they are. They're nice with a salad for a light lunch, too. I can grab the recipe on Sunday next time I visit if you want it, but I think it's like...Old English spread, mayo, lemon juice, garlic salt, Worcestershire, and either hot sauce or Old Bay? You want a good bit of the mixture so it stays creamy and doesn't dry out the crab when you bake the muffin halves. You can also freeze them, unbaked, and then pop them into the oven straight from the freezer. Thank you, and yeah, no need to grab the exact recipe. I think I can head-cannon this. My family doesn't eat crab, but hell I'll make this for just myself on our next spread night. It'll be my dinner. |
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Post by pantsgoblin on Nov 10, 2022 12:35:22 GMT -5
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Post by ganews on Nov 16, 2022 17:20:18 GMT -5
I am secretly glad that the fancy but small turkeys that Wifemate has taken to buying were sold out at the farmer's market, which means I got to buy two (one to have now, one for the chest freezer) big beautiful saline-injected supermarket turkeys for 40 cents/pound. Too bad the only ones left were just 14 pounds each. I love turkey, and I have yet to taste an expensive organic spatchcocked turkey that was better than what I can make with a Reynolds oven bag.
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Post by ganews on Nov 16, 2022 17:22:55 GMT -5
They're so good! Miss Josie used to cut them into quarters to make little tidbits for parties, but we just eat them the way they are. They're nice with a salad for a light lunch, too. I can grab the recipe on Sunday next time I visit if you want it, but I think it's like...Old English spread, mayo, lemon juice, garlic salt, Worcestershire, and either hot sauce or Old Bay? You want a good bit of the mixture so it stays creamy and doesn't dry out the crab when you bake the muffin halves. You can also freeze them, unbaked, and then pop them into the oven straight from the freezer. I would like the recipe because I'm not talented enough to cook it up from ingredient description. |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 19, 2022 21:18:35 GMT -5
Plotting out my baking for the next month or so. Gotta make sure I’m stocked. I have 7 sticks of butter, a decent amount of flour and sugars, pecans, eggs… I need chocolate, ginger, nutmeg, dried fruit…and a few other odds and ends for specific recipes.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Nov 22, 2022 10:09:17 GMT -5
Plotting out my baking for the next month or so. Gotta make sure I’m stocked. I have 7 sticks of butter, a decent amount of flour and sugars, pecans, eggs… I need chocolate, ginger, nutmeg, dried fruit…and a few other odds and ends for specific recipes. Only seven sticks of butter? That'll never do! You need about eight more pounds! Butter shortage is coming!  |
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Post by Powerthirteen on Nov 22, 2022 10:15:44 GMT -5
Plotting out my baking for the next month or so. Gotta make sure I’m stocked. I have 7 sticks of butter, a decent amount of flour and sugars, pecans, eggs… I need chocolate, ginger, nutmeg, dried fruit…and a few other odds and ends for specific recipes. Only seven sticks of butter? That'll never do! You need about eight more pounds! Butter shortage is coming! $5 says she's got seven one-pound blocks. Which might barely be enough. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Nov 22, 2022 10:16:48 GMT -5
7 sticks will get me through Thursday, since I'm only making two things (though both have copious butter).
It would be laughably insufficient for Christmas though.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 22, 2022 10:20:11 GMT -5
Only seven sticks of butter? That'll never do! You need about eight more pounds! Butter shortage is coming! $5 says she's got seven one-pound blocks. Which might barely be enough. Haha no I have two full 1 lb boxes and one box with 3 sticks. Well, now it's down to 2 3/4 sticks. Which, to be clear, I just realized is 10 3/4 sticks, not 7, lol. Math!
I really do think it's enough but I might have to count out how many sticks I need for my various cookie recipes to be sure. I honestly don't think I'll have any trouble finding more butter if I need it, though! (Also, I bought more flour and sugar so I know I'm all stocked on that.) |
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Nov 22, 2022 10:27:01 GMT -5
Also, I'm making cake for Thanksgiving, but no mashed potatoes or anything else butter-heavy.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Nov 22, 2022 10:28:43 GMT -5
Haha no I have two full 1 lb boxes and one box with 3 sticks. Well, now it's down to 2 3/4 sticks. Which, to be clear, I just realized is 10 3/4 sticks, not 7, lol. Math! I really do think it's enough but I might have to count out how many sticks I need for my various cookie recipes to be sure. I honestly don't think I'll have any trouble finding more butter if I need it, though!(Also, I bought more flour and sugar so I know I'm all stocked on that.) Not if LazBro and I have anything to say about it!  I was about to say that 11 (plus or minus) sticks of butter wouldn't do my Christmas baking, but it actually probably would. I'd need more for non-baking incidental butter use, though... |
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Post by Celebith on Nov 22, 2022 10:42:42 GMT -5
They're so good! Miss Josie used to cut them into quarters to make little tidbits for parties, but we just eat them the way they are. They're nice with a salad for a light lunch, too. I can grab the recipe on Sunday next time I visit if you want it, but I think it's like...Old English spread, mayo, lemon juice, garlic salt, Worcestershire, and either hot sauce or Old Bay? You want a good bit of the mixture so it stays creamy and doesn't dry out the crab when you bake the muffin halves. You can also freeze them, unbaked, and then pop them into the oven straight from the freezer. I can play around with it, but if you can post rough measurements later, that'd be great. My wife is basically pescatarian, so I'm always looking for good, easy seafood recipes. Thanks! |
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Post by Celebith on Nov 22, 2022 10:56:28 GMT -5
I can't remember if I've already mentioned this, so sorry if it's something of a double post.
One of the local grocery chains has pork butt at 89 cents a pound, which seems pretty good. I picked up a couple of ~8 pound cuts, and some thin sliced steak on sale for bulgogi. We'll do one of those plus some sides for thanksgiving - pretty much whatever my daughter feels like eating. I'd guess Korean foods since they're harder to get at school, but she joined some sizable Korean association there and has more access than before so who knows?
16 pounds seems like a lot, but I figure I'll keep the leftovers from the first, and then we'll roast and portion out the second so she can take all of those back to school with her. She works a lot of hours at the dining hall, in addition to classes and other stuff, and mentions not having stuff at home to prepare that is both easy and healthy when she gets home. Kids turn into adults so quickly...
I got some rubs to prep them with, and figure I'll roast them with the fat part on top until they hit temp (I have a meat thermometer, at least), but other than that, if anyone has good ideas, please le me know.
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Post by Liz n Dicksgiving on Dec 13, 2022 10:44:36 GMT -5
We've got a batch of spice cookie dough chilling in the fridge, to be baked tonight. I'm so excited! We don't have a ton of traditional holiday cookies that I just can't live without, but these spice cookies are essential.
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Post by Pedantic Editor Type on Dec 13, 2022 11:03:54 GMT -5
Ooh I almost forgot about this thread that.... I created.  I made brown butter snickerdoodles a little over a week ago, and they were good, but I think I let them go a minute too long because they weren't quite as buttery-soft as I hoped. I have pfeffernusse dough in the fridge and will probably bake that today. I made it Sunday but it's such a process that I didn't feel like also baking 11 million cookies that day. And I've made a boatload of party mix and some chocolate-peppermint crinkle cookies from a mix. |
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Post by pantsgoblin on Dec 13, 2022 11:23:59 GMT -5
My town has a killer Afro-Caribbean spice resource, including whole cardamom pods, so for the holidays I'm going to make something, um, Swedish. Swedish cardamom bread |
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Post by The Stuffingtacular She-Hulk on Dec 13, 2022 13:40:54 GMT -5
I have an absolute truckload of biscotti my mom made and dropped off on Saturday. Thank god they could last through a nuclear apocalypse, because it will take me forever to eat them. They're delicious, though, so it's not exactly a hardship.
I think I might make some gingerbread out of Jane Grigson's English Cooking this weekend, though. I just use extra chopped candied ginger instead of currants or raisins, but otherwise I make the recipe as written. Sticky, gooey, dark, gingery goodness, mm.
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GumTurkeyles
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Post by GumTurkeyles on Dec 13, 2022 14:39:16 GMT -5
For second thanksgiving, I made cranberry curd vanilla cookies. That same day, HumanBean and I made some pilsbury confetti cookies from a bag that we were gifted. Those things have been sitting around for weeks. I finally threw out the remaining ones over the weekend, and HumanBean had a meltdown yesterday because there weren't any more.
So, later today or tomorrow we're going to make gingerbread cookies. We also only have two cookie cutters; one is the ascending concentric circles, and the other is the shape of Rhode Island. Last year, we used some stencils of holiday ornaments to make shapes. It took a LOT longer to do. Guess we're going to have to do the same this year, because I forgot to buy some.
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Post by ganews on Dec 14, 2022 0:46:11 GMT -5
Wifemate wanted to make a gingerbread cathedral for some gingerbread house contest, so she bought a pre-made house to build onto, then forgot about it until 8 pm tonight. The deadline is tomorrow. So here it is pushing 1 am, and after spending an hour applying almond sliver shingles and another hour carefully sticking her sugar stained-glass windows I'm pretty done. Isn't this part of the reason I don't have kids?
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GumTurkeyles
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Post by GumTurkeyles on Dec 14, 2022 7:15:17 GMT -5
For second thanksgiving, I made cranberry curd vanilla cookies. That same day, HumanBean and I made some pilsbury confetti cookies from a bag that we were gifted. Those things have been sitting around for weeks. I finally threw out the remaining ones over the weekend, and HumanBean had a meltdown yesterday because there weren't any more. So, later today or tomorrow we're going to make gingerbread cookies. We also only have two cookie cutters; one is the ascending concentric circles, and the other is the shape of Rhode Island. Last year, we used some stencils of holiday ornaments to make shapes. It took a LOT longer to do. Guess we're going to have to do the same this year, because I forgot to buy some. Instead of cookies, a friend gifted us this gelatin sushi kit, and we made it yesterday afternoon. HumanBean had a blast.  |
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Crash Test Dumbass
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Post by Crash Test Dumbass on Dec 14, 2022 9:38:37 GMT -5
I made three rings of a braided cinnamon sourdough for my branch holiday party. It was a pain in the butt to do the braiding -- the bread was sticky and stretchy and did not want to cooperate. Tasty, but probably would have been more cinnamony if I had just done a standard swirl. |
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LazBro
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Post by LazBro on Dec 14, 2022 9:56:51 GMT -5
I sure as hell ain't baking, but I will be hosting Christmas dinner as usual.
Smoked prime rib Smoked Cajun turkey Mashed potatoes Dressing/stuffing Green bean casserole Gravy Horseradish sauce
And maybe more. It'll depend on what the family commits to bringing, but I'm pretty sure I won't have to make anything else.
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I made brown butter snickerdoodles a little over a week ago, and they were good, but I think I let them go a minute too long because they weren't quite as buttery-soft as I hoped.
