Happy Holidays all ye idiots. American Thanksgiving is around the corner and then we're careening into Christmas. I've already started cooking some foods to get ready. Hopefully the day of is not an intense day and I can enjoy myself just a little. By the first weekend of December, all our lights and decor will be up and running. What are your holiday plans? Are you ahead of the game with food prep and holiday gifts or waiting til the day before for everything? I hope you all enjoy some aspect of the upcoming holiday season and don't run into too much stress or family drama. Be good, enjoy yourself, and eat something tasty.
What kind of food are you prepping? I'm not hosting dinner this year and because of that, I get to experience two turkey day dinners. My mom is hosting myself, my husband and kids and my in-laws are hosting my husband's side of the family, so we're going there after my mom's. Good food followed by absolutely bland, flavorless food. It's all about balance I guess? We always get our tree the day after Thanksgiving, and then it sits in my living room until I feel like decorating it. I like a decorated tree, but I HATE the process. I'd much rather decorate the outside of the house. Maybe I'll ask my husband to switch tasks this year...
Grubhub trying to do me dirty. I used to use Eat24, but they got acquired by Grubhub. Fine, whatever. But then today I noticed one of my regular orders was 25% more expensive than it usually is. Checked and suddenly there was a delivery fee and a driver benefits charge added to my order. Realized that Grubhub had made a switch where it no longer passed through to the restaurant, which offers their own free delivery, but was forcing Grubhub's delivery (which comes at a cost). Shady shady shady. Tracked down the restaurant's own website and ordered through there (unfortunately much clunkier than Eat24 or Grubhub). Same price as always.
These delivery services are convenient but I've talked to a couple restaurant owners that hate them, they just feel like they have no choice. One place I order from all the time, their website links directly to the Grubhub ordering page even for pickup. So I placed my order like that, show up to pick things up, and the owner told me I should just call in the order because they have to pay Grubhub a cut even though no delivery service was performed. I'll be on the road for Thanksgiving this year, driving across the country. I rarely see my family for Thanksgiving anyway, because it's so close to Christmas and I always go to visit them in December.
Like I get the argument, but if restaurants think I'm going to pick up a phone and have a back in forth with someone in a loud restaurant and hope they got my order and/or credit card details right, instead of just using a one-click reorder on a website, they're crazy.
I've got a freaking word document to organize when I'm cooking and prepping stuff. Cajun spatchcocked turkey, see here: https://www.seriouseats.com/cajun-spiced-turkey-thanksgiving-recipe I've already made the sweet potato casserole filling (in the freezer now) and praline topping. Also making roasted garlic mashed potatoes, company potatoes, dressing made in muffin tins with chicken bone broth that's been on the stove for the last 3 days, jellied cranberry sauce, and for dessert a caribbean fudge pie and an apple crumble. My neighbor is bringing roasted brussel sprouts and whipped cream for the pies. For lunch I'm making a bake brie with pears (a la Bob's Burgers), pulling out cheese that I smoked last weekend, roasted peppers from this past summer, and olives. Breakfast is homemade cinnamon rolls with pecans.
@Trickysista I've been bad about timely Christmas decor in the past but have been really into the seasonal changes and holidays since bebe came about. Before it seemed like .. excessive, or pointless. Now it is exciting. My rule that I made last year was whatever we could get up in a day would be the Christmas decor for that year. That day has to be a weekend so hubs can help. I don't mind decorating the tree but im nervous to have a real once with our toddler. I just foresee a huge fucking mess.
Damn girl! Save me a plate...I got all my shots and I'll be there for breakfast!! I'm going to have to look up that Caribbean fudge pie...I'm intrigued. And I never thought about freezing dishes ahead of time. I'm always worried about certain foods not freezing well.
Come on by! A lot of these recipes are things I grew up eating. My mom always served a huge feast and we had 20 to 30 people at the house. It's hard to scale back with so many memorable favorites. The word document is the only way I keep tabs on this whole production. Certain things freeze better than others or can be prepared a couple days in advance without a problem. Some things I'm cutting up all the vegetables and ingredients ahead of time and just cooking the day of. Hopefully the work will be spread out and no days are too intense.
@bewildered It's so funny you say that, because I feel the opposite. Before kids, I could decorate how I wanted - make things really pretty, not worry about breakable items. Now my tree has Avengers and other random ornaments and there's no theme. My solution was to get my own little fake tree and decorate it, but when I told my mil, she gave me one she didn't want anymore and it's short, fat and ugly. I will say that the kids get a kick out of picking out a tree and "helping" daddy chop it down. We go to the tree farm, chop down a tree, meet Santa, get some popcorn...it's a nice little afternoon.
@Trickysista here is the pie recipe my mom uses. I change it slightly. I use like a T of instant espresso powder and up the rum a little. It's the fucking bomb. Spoiler Caribbean Fudge Pie 1 9inch unbaked pie shell 1/4 c butter, softened 3/4 c firmly packed brown sugar 3 eggs 1 pkg (8 oz) Baker's Semi Sweet Chocolate, melted or 12 oz Semi Sweet Chocolate morsels, melted 2 t Instant Coffee 1 t Rum extract or 1 T Dark Rum 1/4 c all purpose flour 1 c walnuts, chopped 1/2 c walnut halves (to decorate Pie) 1. Heat oven to 375*. 2. Beat butter and sugar in large bowl until light and fluffy. 3. Add eggs, one at a time, beat well after each addition. 4. Add Chocolate, instant coffee and rum of choice, mix well. 5. Stir in flour and 1 c chopped nuts. 6. Pour into unbaked pie shell, decorate with 8 or 10 walnut halves, evenly spaced. 7. Bake in LOWER third of oven for 25 minutes. 8. Cool on wire rack. 9. Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. 10. *Top with whipped cream or a dab of ice cream, if desired. 11. Store left over pie (YEAH, RIGHT) in refrigerator. Cooks Notes: * I never top this pie with anything. Evenly spacing the walnuts around the pie is a good way of slicing........slice evenly between the walnuts. Can slice into 8 or 10 pieces.....you decide. However this is a rather decadent pie, and a little goes a long way.
There isn’t a snowballs chance in hell I’m clicking on a link for “spatchcocked turkey” particularly after recent shenanigans around here. Ours will be an intimate affair, just the immediate family and in-laws, 8 people total. We don’t have any fancy spatchcocking going on here, just straightforward turkey, mashed taters, homemade stuffing and gravy, etc, followed by the much maligned pumpkin pie. And loads of glorious leftovers.
I follow several cooking YouTubers, and I'm pretty sure that they all go out of their way to find a reason to say "spatchcock" as much as possible.
One year we made it a drinking game. My mom spatchcocked the turkey that year and was talking about it a lot. We all drank. A lot.
Hollywood chase scenes can't compare to real life: https://twitter.com/kyantewilson/status/1460047139745112068
After watching him carjack that last lady . . . I'm assuming she took off her seat belt and unlocked the doors, because she was pissed at being hit, and was planning on doing the whole license / insurance exchange. But, y'all, once a crazy person steals your car, unless your child is in there, let that person go. It's not worth your life.
That was from a few years ago. What an absolutely desperate snd stupid rampage. The guy screwed himself bragging about it on a PRISON PHONE (every call recorded and investigated, kids) and got a hilarious sentence for it: Multiple carjackings, drove off with a kid in the car, ran over a cop, etc. Take a bow, chief. Nobody could EVER shit the bed that hard again.