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From Jules: What about a Texas T-giving?
Hey, you could always join us for Thanksgiving. True, it's the worst time of the year to travel but at least you'd have a great meal and maybe even a little sunshine.
And, I promise, no lime jello with strawberries. Which, really, what were they thinking? Going for the red-and-green Christmas theme? Ick.
Your description of Nasty Oyster Stew sounds like the evil twin of a similar recipe that a friend fixed for me way back in high school: briefly saute fresh oysters in butter, then add milk, salt and pepper and that's it. No margarine, and the oysters were cooked perfectly. Also, I'm glad somebody besides me thinks that cranberry relish recipe sounds horrible: horseradish? onions? Are they insane?
Answers:
1. I'm not a big fan of Trail Mix, though when we would go camping, Eliot would make his own using raisins, peanuts and M&Ms. I tend to eat it when I'm so hungry that I'd eat just about anything, like when hiking, so I'm not fussy. Know what they call that stuff in Austria? "Studenten Food". Like it's essentially Purina Student Chow.
2. Mm, sickening sweet. I adore 7-layer bars, even though I make a point of rolling my eyes when Eliot insists on making it around the holidays. It's especially yummy with a cup of coffee. I think Eliot's recipe is the same of yours except with butterscotch chips instead of toffee chips. And, toffee chips? Zowie. I didn't know such a thing existed. Worth investigating. In the nostalgia category, I always loved Dad's divinity, which is essentially fluffy white candy with nuts. Haven't had it for years, because it was so tricky to get it to set up in Houston's humidity.
3. Too much convenience food? There is such a thing? Ha! Kidding. Actually, I'm not much of a fan of stuff-made-with-canned soup, though I never analyzed why--I suspect it's the canned taste. And that casserole (your version) sounds tasty, like a variation of King Ranch Casserole. As for stuff I've made, I tend to find out such things by accident, like the other day when I discovered that Frito Pie made with homemade chili is WAY better.
Also, I've only made mac and cheese from a box once or twice in my life because that cheese powder is an abomination. Eliot's personal version of mac and cheese is pretty simple: cook macaroni, layer it in a casserole with handfuls of grated cheddar, bake until melty. It's better than the boxed stuff, but just barely because the cheese separates and gets oily. I've made it with a proper cheese sauce, but the ratio of appreciation to workload was too unrewarding to inspire me to make it often.
4. Uh, poetry? Ok, I feel kind of lowbrow admitting this, but I rarely read poetry and when I do it's because I ran across it in another publication. When I subscribed to The New Republic (before it went all NeoCon) I used to read the poems and occasionally copy the best ones into a little notebook. The poetry in The Atlantic and The New Yorker aren't as consistently good, but there are some gems. Rarely, I'll dig out the notebook and copy one down, but I have yet to become a fan of a particular poet.
Questions for you:
1. What's the weirdest food anyone ever brought to a Thanksgiving meal? I had an aunt who brought a greenish pumpkin pie. I have no idea why it was green, because I was not about to investigate. Also, I've been to those gathering-of-orphans Thanksgivings (where people aren't so much as orphans as too broke to make the trip home) where somebody brought a pointedly alternative dish, usually a casserole featuring unusual grains or tofu. "Want to try my kasha-tofu-brown rice-soy bake?" "Um sure." [Takes a polite spoonful, smiling politely. Pokes with a fork until it looks like it's been tasted.] Stomach space at Thanksgiving is far to precious a resource to waste on anything suspicious.
2. What does your family do on holidays besides cook and eat? My family? We gossip, mostly. Which means, football-watching is a side activity at best, but most of the time is spent with food preparation, hanging around in the kitchen chatting, and peeking over the shoulder of anybody who's cooking. We usually try to take the dogs for a longish after-dinner walk to tire them out and to build up an appetite for a light supper of leftovers, but that's a new thing. I've heard of families that always do some family sporting activity or that spend the afternoon glued to the football games, but that always seemed strange to me. At Christmas, there's gift-giving, but that's fairly brief, followed by playing-with-gifts, which is much longer.
3. And, a non-holiday, non-food question: What do you think is the best approach for decorating a baby's room? I only recently learned that a lot of people select a theme, often something available commercially, like Beatrix Potter, and decorate accordingly. Or they say, we're doing a circus theme and they get clown lamps and put up a circus-parade wallpaper border. I'm thinking I'm going to paint the walls a creamy white and maybe paper two walls with a cream background with colorful flowers, then everything else can be bright multicolors. Any suggestions?
4. What kind of home-improvements do you consider doable yourself, and what requires a professional? Me, I wouldn't touch plumbing, but Eliot is pretty happy to do basic stuff. Ditto in both cases re. electric stuff. I wouldn't consider paying a professional to paint one room (but the whole house? Oh, yeah.) or to wallpaper. Meanwhile, my parents did every kind of home repair/renovation I can think of except advanced plumbing and wiring: wallpaper, roofing, painting inside and out, upholstery and wood refinishing. And, now I'm happy to report, that we (ok, 80% Eliot, 20% me) carpeted the baby room, using these carpet tiles: www.interfaceflor.com
Have a great Thanksgiving! And call if you want to come to Texas. In fact, consider yourself invited for the Christmas holidays, too.
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dangerchicks) wrote,
