YA READY FOR YOUR TURKEY DINNER?

We're going over to a friend's tomorrow and making sides tonight, garlic mashed potatoes and Maddie's famed cranberry pudding.

That sounds good. I'm debating on making greek potatoes - boiled or baked roughly chopped red potato with feta and olives, dressed with lemon and olive oil.

That sounds awesome, I don't know why I've never thought of it before considering that I keep all of those things around the house.

original plan was to do a three-pasta medley: thai noodles, marinated pasta salad with balsamic vinegar, and regular garlic tomato sauce. but i was overruled by fate.

I'm going to my boyfriend's family since without my grandmother my family is doing nothing. Perhaps we can get it together in time for Xmas and I'll give her nana pudding a try.

this year i'm working and my loverly roomie has bought a turkey to cook for when i get home at midnight thirty (technically not even thanksgiving anymore). i'm kind of excited.

I go to Tommy's for a chiliburger

OTM

i wish someone would cook me this sometime.

Why don't people respect yams more? Like, treat them respectfully and don't cover them in Kraft marshmallows. Can't they exist on a savory plane instead of sweet?

Friday - Fancy Turkey day turkey dinner at her dad's :-/

Saturday - My family comes over for roast beast dinner.

Three Thanksgiving dinners and only one of them is turkey! Yay! (Last year we fled to Paris and had goose.) By the time Monday rolls around, however, I will be quite fat, I'm sure.

The pilgrims ate venison though, so it's kind of unfeasible.

x-post

Andy, I only like savory yams and sweet potatoes, and even then, not much.

Yes, I am still vegan, but I cheat when spinach lasagna is involved. (See also: cookies, birthday cake, raw eggs in a blender when I'm training to whoop Apollo Creed's ass, the hearts of my enemies, etc.)

SO I just went to Trader Joe's and bought (for t-giving): smoked salmon, smoked trout, muenster and gouda, crackers, olives, and six bottles of wine, including a nice French rose. I don't think the miserable pilgrims had access to Trader Joe's.

Yeah, I guess it could be. The only time I've had venison is when my dad used to go bow hunting and would sometimes bag a deer, so I just don't anticipate getting venison anytime soon.

I screwed up my torte and am trying to re-bake it, if I fail we'll have delicious pumpkin-pecan pudding

I am mixing Lord Soto's corn casserole, the secret ingredient of which is two cups of Roku gin.

My wife and I are having bratwurst, sauerkraut and potatoes, with lingonberry jam.

Oh, and we actually have something to be thankful for: we moved from our apartment, where we had gaping-asshole neighbors on both sides who filled our apartment with weed smoke all night every night, to a (rented) house on the other side of town, where we are in total isolation on the edge of a state park.

i made breakfast casserole from leftover sausage, watched the macys parade as is my wont, all is well

we are taking grandpa to Fogo de Chao for an expensive experience which I’m told is also fun. Will report back.

Oh and today I learned about “Green Wednesday” for the first time.

We've got two Fogo de Chao restaurants in Miami.

Ha! The capital region has like FIVE. We are going to the one close to grandpa’s apartment.

The dining experience I wish we had more of is KPOT - there are several in the area but none particularly close to the city.

The dressing got done early and the sweet potatoes are running way behind. Not hangry yet, but it's getting there.

that corn casserole sounds intersting. i'm glad unperson and his person are in a better place. feeling pretty relaxed. going to start the swedish flapper lady's french chicken stew here soon, but first, lunch! i eat a lot lol. so yeah this holiday is my fucking jam. i did deadlift 475# this morning so it has somewhere to go.

Cooking up a storm right now. It's usually just our immediates, but we have the Aussies in town, and my kids back, so four teens in the house, and let me just say, I have never seen so many plates, dishes and half-full glasses or cans left around the house at once.

that corn casserole sounds intersting.

lol I was kidding

roku gin is good though

prob my favorite that I can regularly find in a couple of the bars near my workplace

sure is!

made some cornbread. that's enough cooking for one year for me

Heading out to friend's place in a couple hours

I thought I had invented a new side dish: sauteed corn and shallots with fresh thyme... but a quick search reveals that others have led the way before me. My novel adaptations: I'm going to sautee the shallots with a bit of amontillado sherry, and throw in a little can of roasted green chilis

A couple bottles of bordeaux chilling as I write

the pumpkin torte has been salvaged, knife came out clean and it set up well, it's chilling a bit in the fridge before we head out

making pumpkin pie using my patented Donna pie crust rolling method (keep rolling it until you get so frustrated at how patchy and misshapen and crumbling it is that you just give up and patch it frankenstein-style into the pie dish)

does it look nice? no

but will it taste good? idk who knows i make pie once every three years at this point

hooray for the salvaged pumpkin torte!

brother is away this year, very small gathering w/ mom and uncle

i'm on salad duty: mix greens w/ goat cheese, pistachios, pomegranate, and vinaigrette (garlic, oil, lemon juice etc)

we all know dr's pie is to die for

didn’t make anything but bringing booze to my ex-girlfriend’s friendsgiving, at which i will meet for the first time her best friends, plus about 20 other people i don’t know. i am pms-ing and overly self-conscious and don’t feel like i’m going to be my best self. but i’m going, and it’ll be fine. just wish i felt more like sunny sweet normal ivy

hang in there - anticipating the gathering is usually the worst part <3

Yep. Enjoy yourself!

Googled corn pudding cos of this thread. It sort of looks like a cross between soufflee and impossible quiche to me. I'm intrigued.

swedish influencer chicken stew is coming together pretty nicely. basically doubled everything. added a fair amount of salt and pepper and two hunks of manchego.

Posted a pic of my roux to my work group chat bc it took me a full hour and someone asked if it was a toilet :(
Why hit send on that?

rude

the stew was v v good.

We are collectively so full.

Multiple levels of multiple family stresses here, mostly to do with family members getting older, but overall it was fine. Food was good, and the only shouting and crying came from the only 4-year-old present. Kinda think we might not host it again tho. I’m not sure how much people get out of it at this point, it’s kind of a fraught environment. Most everyone is doing their best, but there are a lot of difficulties. And those will probably be worse a year from now. I’m sure we can find less demanding ways to celebrate.

fogo de chao was fine. Way too busy to really enjoy ourselves in comfort; felt bad for the staff like we do every time we cheat and go out for turkey day instead of cooking at home; most of the meats were under seasoned and slightly overdone for my taste (and our daughter’s) BUT the “market table” / salad bar was excellent.

Guests gone. Food wrangled into containment. Dishes done.

Ate lunch with my wife. Texted my mother and brother (separately; they're still not speaking). Had vegetarian biryani and a thick slab of pound cake (brought over by the retired couple across the street as a welcome-to-the-neighborhood gift) for dinner. Hung up a painting I commissioned for the cover of my last book that we wound up not using. All in all, a pretty good day.

Worst one ever for me, my dad died this morning.

Oh geez, suddenly??

Somewhat, his health had been declining over the past few years but his deterioration after being initially treated at the hospital for a boil and then somehow managing to fall and break his arm in the bathroom there was quick and deeply upsetting to be witness to. I don’t have any siblings so it’s just me and my mom in my immediate family now. Never had a cool older sibling, but my dad gave me a pretty good head start with his generally excellent taste—I first heard the Velvet Underground and Captain Beefheart from him, among countless others. We quarreled at times of course like any father-son relationship but he was my dad and I loved him.

(Sorry, genuinely not trying to detract from anyone’s nice holiday, that’s just how mine went. Also took a sec to type this out due to my message being repeatedly eaten by the Zing app and being distracted by both grief and talking with friends/family.)

damn, i'm sorry--that is terrible. thoughts to you and your mom and all your loved ones.

inlaw’s smoker was on the fritz so they subbed prime rib instead :D
we ate all the sides first because the prime rib took longer than expected but it was soooooo goood and worth the wait
i ate cheesecake and cobbler for dessert and may never walk again
laden w leftovers for journey home -happiness

Good day all around and the pie was a hit.

Leaving the USofA for another country has become something of a Thanksgiving tradition for me. Greetings from Taipei, where I ate scallion pancakes, coffee soy milk, braised pork rice, japanese cheesecake, beef noodle soup, bubble tea, fried chicken and some other stuff, all of which tasted better than turkey #sorrynotsorry

^people who have figured out how to live^ IMHO

My sister and I got together and shared pizza, pumpkin pie, and some nice red wine. No complaints. HIghly recommend Kenji's New York Pizza dough recipe wherein he insists a food processor makes superior dough compared to a mixer.

Maybe the star of the show was a roasted brussels/persimmon/pistachio salad with apple cider-maple vinaigrette

Taipei is so awesome.

Dressing is savory bread pudding (eggy), and we had corn casserole (eggy) and sweet potato casserole (very eggy). Plus deviled eggs. My wife has a regular checkup Monday and will be preemptively explaining her cholesterol numbers before she even gets them.

Love devilled eggs so much.

i did have an anxiety attack upon arriving at my ex-girlfriend’s place, not helped by a number of factors, including: i was waiting outside for 15 minutes because she was busy prepping and not looking at her phone; and then her friend’s old slightly dementiatic father (one of the people i didn’t know yet) completely ate shit on his way in while i was outside still trying to contact my ex (he was fine, he didn’t hit his head, i offered to help him up but he stubbornly refused and hoisted himself up and told me to ring the doorbell, which is when i finally discovered the doorbell lol). but she quickly guided me outside, calmed me down and told me everything was chill, welcoming, and warm inside, and then put me to work in a useful position as the dish doer while everyone finished prepping, and that eased my nerves tremendously. her friend’s dad talked to me all night as if we had shared something intimate outside when i saw him fall, and i sort of loved it, a sweet man who wears on the nerves of everyone in his family. i also loved his wife who told me she had wanted to play the drums when she was younger but girls weren’t allowed to play drums so she had to play the harp. i spent most of the rest of the night gazing dumbly-in-love at my ex, such is my lot in life, because she is such a hot genius. but i ended up having a really great time

2025 footnote: I too tried the Swedish girl's chicken... added a small can of mushrooms, a bay leaf and a sprig of rosemary... substituted a can of new potatoes for the beans, but otherwise stuck to the recipe... came out great! Went down with a nice bottle of white bordeaux, would happily make it again