Weekly Cooking: Special Thanksgiving Edition

[firebrand]

The times that I had no place to go for Thanksgiving, I would go to the diner and ask for just the fixins, no turkey. Very satisfying.

I am tired of not having a place to go for the holidays. My father was one of 12 children and my grandmother on my mother’s side was one of 9, and I am one of 4, yet I have no place to go. Plus I would like to spend the day with other conservatives.

Albion, do you have the NY/NJ ping list? I think I remember sending it to you once upon a time.

[Aliska]

I had to really dig to find my mother's recipe for corn casserole. It has a very custardy texture. In fact she might have called it corn custard. I think I'll make it for old time's sake. My mother died in 1968.

If you google corn custard pudding casserole, some similar recipes come up.

I usually double things, not sure if I did this or not, haven't made it in years. Usually baked it in a 9-inch square glass dish but that seems too big for the amounts.

1 can cream style corn
2 eggs slightly beaten
3 Tablespoons melted butter
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon flour
1 sm green pepper, chopped

Combine eggs and corn. Blend flour, milk and melted butter (make a paste or stir in melted butter or won't be smooth). Stir into corn and add remaining ingredients. Bake at 325 for approximately 1-1/2 hour.

It doesn't require a water bath but I'd watch for doneness and take it out of the oven when set. It never curdled on me.

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My wish:

Now while I have that mess out if only I could find my recipe for almond marzipan bars. It had a cookie dough base maybe 3/8-inch thick, then a marzipan filling made with quality almond paste, not the Solo stuff), then I'd roll the remaining dough and cut in strips, lay over the marzipan in a lattice pattern and bake until marzipan a little puffy and top lightly golden. No sliced or chopped almonds. 9X13 baking dish. It was soooooo good.

[CottonBall]

Thank you for the sweet potato pie recipes. I was just going to make a pumpkin pie and substitute sweet potato instead. I really don’t like pumpkin anymore…

[Jamestown1630]

My Grandmother used to make “spoon bread” - you could even buy mixes for it, but I haven’t seen them in the store in decades.

[CottonBall]

You have a great Thanksgiving also!

At this moment, I am thinking about going out to eat on Thanksgiving. I just had a dinner with a few friends over, and although it was fun it was stressful. I canceled four other friends coming over because one couple was honestly being obnoxious. They wanted to drive with the second couple, and were going to make a 93-year-old friend drive by herself. One lady that did come over monopolized the entire conversation, and was even singing really loudly while I was trying to talk to the lady next to me.

This whole thing has just been surreal. I think I need to find a new group of friends :-)

[Aliska]

The pearl onions, I don't know, should be easy enough to improvise. My mother used to make creamed onions, probably the yellow vidalia? ones medium sized peeled, trimmed, left whole and boiled, maybe not all the way so they'd hold their shape. Then a cream sauce, white or *bechamel", don't remember there being any cheese in it but might be a good addition. They did not go over well when I made them but I really like them and they baked up nicely, and the pearl ones sound delicious. Chef John made something with the pearl ones, an ingredient I think, not by themselves.

[CottonBall]

If you were near me, I would invite you over. Or if you feel like driving to Tennessee…

Although I was just lamenting that my friends are weird and I would rather go out to eat. But I’m sure that feeling will pass.

I have no family near here, and even if I did I wouldn’t want to spend the day with them. My family was severely dysfunctional. I just realized A connection, lol. That might be why having my friends over tonight was so disjointed.

Naw, I’m just in a pissy mood. My friends are nothing like my family. Thank goodness!

[CottonBall]

I love pearl onions but haven’t even thought of them in years. I bought some in the produce department wants, they were a pain to peel! I think they have frozen ones though?

I can’t think of any thanksgiving recipes to post. I guess I usually just wing it. Like tonight, I made stuffed peppers. Using the last of the peppers from the garden. I started out with the recipe from Better Homes & Gardens. But that one is too tomatoey for me, So I use about half the amount they say. But I added in some fresh tomatoes at the very end. Plus I use more ground beef then they say, and I added garlic and marjoram and thyme. Idon’t know how much of each, just until I thought it was enough. And I skip the cheese.

That’s how all of my “recipes” go. So I would hate to post something that I really wasn’t sure about.

[Fungi]

Nothing wrong with that. “To thy own palate be true.”

[shoff]

You brought me home with “white chiffon curtains”. I have the same memories at my parents house. All gone but not forgotten.

[firebrand]

My father’s stuffed pepper recipe was with a bread crumb mixture, no meat, we had it on Christmas Eve, traditionally a meatless day. It had pine nuts, and anchovies I think, and the peppers were basted while cooking with a port wine sauce (or just red wine with a bit of sugar added).

In recent years we had trouble finding the huge jars of big red and green vinegar peppers. You could try making your own vinegar peppers but we never did. The red ones were my favorite; they were sweeter and had thinner skins. Just memories now.

[Jamestown1630]

I think I remember and associate them with the holidays because she always washed and rehung the curtains just before Thanksgiving, so everything was bright and new.

[CottonBall]

What do you do with vinegar peppers?

[Yaelle]

I could make your pie because yum.

But I can’t read those Georgette Heyers. I get mom’s ready for her each night and every book, every page, is the same. Lord Fauntely could not allow his true feelings for her to be known. He strode away purposefully, his cheeks crimson. Miss Lilybeth lowered her sumptuous lashes and rushed to the stable gate. “Oh my dear Lord, I don’t know when Mama and I have enjoyed such a lovely evening! Please do not hesitate to return when Captain James allows!” Etc.

[Jamestown1630]

LOL!

I worked in a public library many years ago, and we checked out a lot of those books to immigrant women trying to learn English.

[Yaelle]

I learned German from watching tv nighttime soap operas dubbed into German! Context was so obvious! I remember watching Dallas. Which took place on Souse Fohk, and grown men called their father Deddy.

[firebrand]

Whatever they acid you to do.

You stuff them with that bread crumb mixture, the exact recipe for which I do not have, but you can experiment. It’s not like baking, where things have to be exact.

The basting with the sweet wine is essential. The pine nuts have gotten more expensive (they have to be from this certain pine tree that grows in Italy), but they are essential too. Some of the basting sauce should remain in the pan and be transferred to the platter. Good Italian bread goes well.

We used to eat so many of these things before dinner, along with potato zeppoli with anchovy and caper filling, that we could hardly finish the spaghetti with white clam sauce and then the shrimp with garlic. Three fishes only; in the old days there was eel and squid and maybe others. We’re not at Christmas yet but you can get in the spirit ahead of time.

[firebrand]

Hilarious.

[firebrand]

A friend of mine learned Spanish from two Bibles, one in English and one in Spanish. She had suddenly found herself in Chile with her new Chilean husband, and no way to learn Spanish easily. She made some funny mistakes but speaks fluently now.

[Jamestown1630]

The Barbara Cartland books were popular, too. (I never saw what the men read to learn English.)