Happy Thanksgiving

For the second year (not in a row), I’ve managed to make my lobster cranberry sauce gel. I’m pretty pleased about that, and the fact that my in-laws were welcoming to my bringing cranberry sauce. It seems that’s a pretty important part of my adult Thanksgiving holiday. I had to pare down quite a bit, and this was something I opted to keep.

Cranberry sauce in a lobster geletin mold in the foreground, whole cranberries in the back ground. All clearly in a fridge.

I imagine most of you won’t see this until after dinner; more likely Saturday or Sunday. But when you do, know I’m thankful for you guys. And, if you’re interested and willing, tell me the one thing you’d be sure to keep if you suddenly had to change your traditions?

Thank you.… Continue reading →

Thanksgiving Suggestions and Other Links.

Just a quick post today; I’m dealing with household chaos. But I wanted to recommend icing your turkey breast down if you’re going to roast a whole turkey this year.

If you haven’t already made pumpkin pie for the holiday, consider this deep dish deliciousness with a hint of rum! I used to make it or a variant on it every year.

You got my dream holiday beers, but did you go over to Kitchenista Diaries to see the things I recommend? There’s a lot move variety there, and more things that are easy to get.

Do you want to go to a castle to write your NaNoWriMo novel next year? Well, maybe you should go enter to win! My friend Deb told me about this, and I am charmed as hell.… Continue reading →

Thanksgiving, Day of Gratitude, Day of Mourning

As an American food blogger, it’s in my personal best interests to do as much tie-in with the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday as possible. It’s a time to show off my skills at cooking, photography, and writing. It’s a time to help people make the biggest feast of the year better and/or more interesting. And, indeed, I’ve already posted something on the subject this year and I have definitely posted about it several times over the years.

On a personal level, Thanksgiving has always showcased the best parts of life: camaraderie, food, and gratitude, shared and personal.

But last year, I couldn’t do it. If you look at that second link above, you’ll notice there’s not a single post in 2014 tagged “Thanksgiving.” Because, though I participated in the celebrations, I was finally aware from the year before of the terrible roots of the day and the name.… Continue reading →

If I Ruled the Thanksgiving Beer Fridge

I’m not hosting Thanksgiving this year, or any year for the foreseeable future. It’s a mighty change for me, and I must admit not an easy one. I love hosting very much, partially because I love parties but also partially because I love cooking. And this year it’s also a bit hard because I finally feel like I got my legs under me for not only planning the meal but exactly how I’d do the beer. And, well, that basically requires knowing the food.

I thought.

Then I reconsidered.

Really, Thanksgiving might be just about the most easy to predict meal on the American menu. So I decided I might as well just pretend I was hosting and tell you guys what beers I’d have on hand (and why!)… Continue reading →

No One Got Sick at Our Thanksgiving! Win!

Thanksgiving at our house turned out far, far better than it had any right to be. We’re a very lucky couple.

As we have the last two years, we decided to throw open our Thanksgiving to anyone who didn’t have any place else to go (or didn’t want to go the where they did have, I suppose). The net effect of this is that we never quite know how many people we’re going to have until Black Friday. This year, we were settled for a good long time on two guests, so I ordered a turkey that was a little big for four people, just in case one or two more people decided to join us at the last minute.

A bit more than one or two more guests later, I decided to go looking for a bigger turkey.… Continue reading →