Ok, so I live in Alabama, and a certain type of Southern woman has a peculiar competitiveness with other women, especially when it comes to men. My mother-in-law is one of those women. She takes her role as hypercompetent wife/mother/tastemaker/homemaker very seriously, and she had a hard time when I turned out to also be competent in the kitchen, and—gasp—some dishes I made were better than hers. The mac-n-cheese, so beloved here for Thanksgiving, is one of those dishes.
She had been snippy about a few things that her son/my then-boyfriend liked better the way I cooked them, and the year she finally allowed me to bring the mac-n-cheese to Thanksgiving had been rough between us. After the meal she asked for the recipe, specifically which cheeses I used, and I refused because I was fed up and feeling extra petty about it. It was a real bone of contention for the next few years, but the hostility about it gradually became a joke, admittedly at her expense, and part of holiday tradition. She attempted to retaliate by refusing to share her recipe for pan dressing, but that’s ok because I don’t especially care for it. So that’s how those two recipes became the “spite” recipes.
Also, our relationship is good now, has been for years, but I’m still not telling her.
No plans for Thanksgiving dinner, but this week the menu for the hot bar at my co-op is a Holiday Menu of turkey and traditional sides, for the whole week. I’ll probably get something from there tomorrow or Wed for lunch.
I had no idea it was a traditional Thanksgiving dish. It’s listed on the co-op’s menu for this week. Usually they have mac-and-cheese on the menu for “Americana” day (normally, Mon=Indian, Tues=tacos, Wed=Asian, Thurs=Americana, Fri=Ethiopian), plus it often shows up unannounced on other days as a seemingly fill-in dish. It’s good, and I assume it’s popular since they put it out fairly often. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find some there this week, but I was surprised to see it actually listed on the holiday menu. But now, having read your comment, I’m newly aware that it’s traditional for the holiday, at least in some places. Cool!
I like the cut of your jib! I was thinking about doing a scratch lasagna, including the sauce (we canned a lot this year) for x-mas dinner.
Just me and Jr. Kidd this year. I’m making fettuccine alfredo (all from scratch) with a side of broccoli and he’s making a tiny ham for himself and ???, he hasn’t decided yet. I may end up making green bean hot dish, deluxe version, for Friday. (The add-ins are pasta, carrots, broccoli and one can of the soup will be roasted garlic.)
There is this cranberry and jalapeno chutney. Delicious over cream cheese with crackers.
I wanted traditional this year. It’s only us 3.
Turkey thighs and one leg
Cranberry sauce (made already and frozen)
Ham for the kid. She won’t eat turkey
Yukon gold mashed taters
Some whipped sweet potatoes (purchased)
Small purchased bit of jalapeno pecan stuffing (only my spouse will eat it)
Roasted delicata squash
Either rolls or challah bread.
Pumpkin cream cheese pie (purchased)(kids fav. Ate a half a pie over 4 days last year)
Pecan pie (also purchased)
All the bought food is from the premium fancy pants grocery. Their pies in particular are delicious
Here’s an easy and hopefully non-fussy recipe for (Venezuelan) eggnog, called Ponche Crema. I suppose it translates to cream punch but it’s basically a very thick and sweet eggnog that’s spiked with rum and flavored with vanilla and whatever else you like. You can flavor it with coffee, chocolate, and i’m sure you could use other things but for us we default to vanilla and coffee versions. Typically you serve it on the rocks or crushed ice, this will help keep it cold but also dilute it.
This homemade nog will store for a long time in a fridge, in my family we typically make it around xmas or before the end of the year and then stash it in the fridge to enjoy the following year during the winter holidays. But technically you can make this the same day or the day before, but ideally you want to make it a few weeks up to a month or two in advance because sometimes it needs time to “set” (aka thicken in the bottle). Ultimately it’ll taste fine even if you make it the same day.
Ingredients:
4-5 egg yolks
1 14oz can of sweetened condensed milk
An inexpensive aged rum, you’ll use 14oz worth of rum so use the sweetened condensed milk can to measure. Rum-wise i recommend Flor de Caña 4 year old rum but if you have easier access to something else go ahead.
Vanilla to taste
Preparation:
Crack and separate the yolks from the whites.
Use a hand mixer, stand mixer or a blender to mix the egg yolks. Buckle up because you’re going to need to mix them for a long time, the longer you can aerate them the better and quicker the Ponche Crema will thicken. If you’ve got the luxury of time and you’re making this way in advance then you can mix them for a shorter amount of time and they will eventually set. But give it 15-20 mins at least, if you can give it longer then great.
Once the yolks have been mixed long enough you can start adding in all of the ingredients. Mix it all and then pour into glass bottles that have been property cleaned and sterilized, you can reuse corks, buy silicone corks or buy/upcycle glass bottles that are sealable like this one. This recipe will make about 700-750ml worth of Ponche Crema. Make at least a double batch so you can have a regular vanilla one and one flavored.
If you’re using coffee or other flavorings i’d recommend adding it at the end when the Ponche Crema has already had time to set in the fridge. Add the coffee or whatever additional flavoring a little bit at a time and taste it, you don’t have to be heavy handed. If using coffee then use instant if you have it on hand and dissolve it into a small amount of water, if you use coffee grains just make it extra strong but again try not to add too much liquid.
Notes:
The final consistency of Ponche Crema is somewhat thick, however it’s not uncommon for it to set overly thick in the bottle so you might need to add milk, booze, or another liquid to help loosen it up to what you need. What’s the correct thickness? Not sure what the best references to use are but took a look what my fridge and i’d guess it’s between peptobismol and ketchup? If a Venezuelan or someone that’s had it before wants to give a better descriptor have at it lol.
For the amount of rum you can use more or less depending on your preference, though if it had too little rum i’d be concerned over the lack of alcohol not preserving it well and it going off.
You want to be a good Ponche Crema drinker? Sneak small tastes of it throughout the year and be indignant if anyone suggests drinking it outside December… unless they really want a taste. Then you give them a small serving to enjoy and then cut them off and say if they want some more to wait until Dec. You’d also happily sell them a bottle.
Could you flavor this with winter spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and the like? Sure! I haven’t done so myself mainly because the vanilla is what’s nostalgic to me.
Date and label your bottles, especially if you’ve got different flavors.
When filling up a bottle leave plenty of room, don’t fill up the neck. You want enough room to dilute if needed.
Have questions or comments about this? Let me know, hopefully i didn’t miss anything but if i did i’d be happy to edit my post.
PS: You can probably reliably use 4 egg yolks, you just need to mix/aerate them real well for as long as you can. A hand mixer does the best job at that.
PPS: It is entirely possible to use some oatmilk or other plantbased milk to thin this out. An uncle of mine makes one that is at least half oatmilk but i think i am morally opposed to it, i tried it and it’s just… not for me. I don’t need my eggnog to be healthier. I need it to be delicious.
We’re having pork ribs w/bbq sauce (store-bought) enhanced with cranberries and cardamom, mac & cheese (made from scratch & baked) instant mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, and homemade pumpkin pie.
I’ve long wanted to try the cranberry relish, but not enough to actually make a whole batch of it.
And @Grey_Devil those cranberry onions look amazing, but fresh pearl onions are a labor of love, with all the fiddly skins. If you don’t love ‘em, the labor is not worth it. Personally I looooove them in a way the frozen ones don’t match.
I’ve dealt with them before and i think they’re worth the trouble for the right dish. I wanna say my method was putting them in a container with water and shaking it, it’d get the skins loose enough to peel easier. It’s been a while tho
I just realized that Brussels sprouts are apparently my spite recipe. My mother-in-law, a dedicated and conservative housewife of the “women belong in the kitchen” mentality (yeah…I don’t get it) resented the idea that her daughter chose not to learn how to cook. She resented it even more when her daughter hooked up with a long-haired, socialist guy who really enjoys cooking and treats our kitchen as my favorite room. She REALLY resented it when my wife told her mom that she suddenly discovered that Brussels sprouts are delicious. MIL then began preparing sprouts every time we were over for dinner, insisting on boiling them until they’re a mucilaginous grey-green mush, and remaining stubbornly shocked that my crispy, olive oil-coated sprouts are preferable. I’ll be prepping a pan for the festivities, and MIL will be prepping the mush.
I myself will be going to work instead of dinner. Somehow, dinner with the in-laws after the election this year just doesn’t sound like as much fun as a day in the office…
I will let you choose what to do with this information, of course, but there may be an historical reason for the different approaches to preparing said sprouts:
The first time i had Brussels Sprouts was in the very early 00’s at a fancy restaurant (in a cruise) and they were slightly bitter but i still really enjoyed them. Since then i have never encountered bitter tasting ones, and i do recall seeing somewhere that it was due to selective breeding or genetic engineering. Which is quite interesting, and honestly i much prefer them now, especially when they’re properly crisp. Mmmmm
Interesting. I learned to cook well before the 90s. I was a late 70s/early 80s kid on grandma’s farm and we were pan roasting sprouts then, in corn oil rather than olive. They were definitely the kind of sprouts that weren’t all harvested at once. We had a row of sprouts and would cut them off the stem as each one turned ripe, which makes it sound like they must’ve been the old style ones. I know my Irish/Romani gram on the other side was doing boil everything at that period but the grandmother I lived with was the product of boarding school indigenous parents. I wonder where she got the roasting habit from.
Could be. I was operating under the assumption that she learned it somewhere, and I can’t picture the boarding schools teaching great culinary techniques so I couldn’t imagine her parents learning that you didn’t need to boil your veggies until they were washed clean of their sins. Quite the opposite, I would think. But maybe she just didn’t have that baggage and came to the tastiest answer on her own. At any rate, here’s to roasting the veg, rather than imagining they all should be the texture of porridge!
I may end up making green bean hot dish, deluxe version, for Friday. (The add-ins are pasta, carrots, broccoli and one can of the soup will be roasted garlic.)
but it’s basically a very thick and sweet eggnog that’s spiked with rum and flavored with vanilla and whatever else you like. You can flavor it with coffee, chocolate, and i’m sure you could use other things but for us we default to vanilla and coffee versions. Typically you serve it on the rocks or crushed ice, this will help keep it cold but also dilute it.
Not sure what the best references to use are but took a look what my fridge and i’d guess it’s between peptobismol and ketchup? 
If a Venezuelan or someone that’s had it before wants to give a better descriptor have at it lol.
