#thanksgiving asks

[xzephyrxlennoxx]

Corn on the Cob: Do you like a little mess in your life or do you prefer things to be neat and tidy?

Mashed Potatoes: What is something that always brings you comfort when you are sad?

Corn on the Cob: Do you like a little mess in your life or do you prefer things to be neat and tidy?

"The idea of things being neat and tidy is a wholly human idea. I embrace the mess and adapt to it. Mess is life, after 5 centuries, I've learned that."

Mashed Potatoes: What is something that always brings you comfort when you are sad?

"A good drink, time with loved ones, a good fuck, there are lots of things. I couldn't pick just one. It's about enjoying everything."

[askbloatedbellyblog]

I want to see Kagami Taiga on thanksgiving

Kagami is a little interesting because of his appetite already but also thanks to growing up in America would be VERY well practiced in Thanksgiving eating practices in the United States. 

Because of all of that I’m VERY certain that he knows all the tricks and that it’s what he still considers one of the biggest eating holidays of the year. I think he would have a count down and loudly let everyone know it was coming too and maybe even fast for a couple days in advance to be able to handle even more. 

Honestly, he’s one character I absolutely see being able to eat a family sized Thanksgiving on his own and probably has done so for several years at this point. He would increase his portion sizes every year so it’s still a challenge. His family is probably used to it at this point but considering how he is with the steak challenge, I’m pretty sure he could eat a family sized turkey on his own picked clean, no problem. In fact, he might have a few of them. 

But because he’s one to prepare, he makes sure he’s wearing sweat pants so he can stretch his belly out, a VERY loud burper regardless of company, and always eats so much that he’s groaning and moaning in pain and trying to let out small sickly burps because his belly is so tight but he’s eaten it all. For about 2 hours. Then he’s back up and in the kitchen looking for more to eat in the cupboards. In the end, I wouldn’t be surprised if Kagami ate himself into a food coma with his belly out and his shirt all the way ridden, having fallen asleep with friends or family watching a basketball game on TV. 

[nate-the-content-creator]

So Ryder, who's hosting Thanksgiving?

"That would be me~" Kali gave her usual motherly smile, as her oven dinged. When she opened it, the delicious smell of a fully cooked turkey wafted through the entire house, catching everyone's attention.

Grabbing her oven mitts, she carefully brought the tray that the cooked bird rested on out of the oven. “Perfect~” She sounded rather proud of herself, as she set her turkey next to the one Ryder had deep-fried. Due to the size of her lover’s harem, the table was massive and laden to the breaking point with food, as everyone had brought a dish to share.

“Oh?~” What’s this?~” Kali’s ears had perked up, when another turkey appeared seemingly from out of nowhere. Though it did contain a note...

To be continued... ====>

[docholligay]

I have a bit of an emergency Thanksgiving ask if you have time! I am wondering if you have ever “home made” brown sugar? I wanted to create a few traditional American pies (specifically Apple and pineapple upside cake) for my German family, but all my recipes call for brown sugar and it’s just not something they carry in stores here. Something tells me replacing it with raw sugar isn’t going to be a good idea and the googles wasn’t that helpful...

Brown sugar is just sugar with unsulfured molasses in! So yes one can TOTALLY make it! It’s actually easy, I’ve done it when I just didn’t want to run to the store.  But....I don’t know if they have molasses in Germany, either. So we may be back to square one. 

Treacle is very very very similar to molasses, and I KNOW they carry it in the UK, so maybe in Germany. My first effort would be to use darker treacle as molasses and make brown sugar that way.

BUT IF NO TREACLE. 

You could use white sugar and honey, which wouldn’t be the exact same tastewise, but you could make it like you would homemade brown sugar and at least the moisture would be super similar. Maple syrup might even be better than honey, but again, is that a thing they carry in Germany? WHO CAN KNOW, NOT ME. If they carry muscovado sugar, that’s brown sugar but with more molasses--a light one might work as a straight across sub! 

[docholligay]

Thanksgiving Ask! There is a distinct possibility that we will be camping over Thanksgiving weekend. In general, my camping food tends towards brats over the fire, corn in the coals, fruit and hard cheese, nuts, hummus and crackers (we have a really hard core cooler) and other stuff that doesn't require any actual cooking. But none of that quite fits the bill for the holiday, really. Any ideas for a special(ish) campfire meal? Doesn't have to be turkey, just to recognize the occasion. But not too much.

ooooh this brings out the ARTIST IN ME. Also holy shit you must live in a hot place. It’ll be like 20 fucking degrees here. 

If it were human beings named Doc, who were me, and I were faced with something like this, I would make a braised beef roast, which I think would feel special while being reasonably forgiving in the out of doors. (I assume you have a cast iron dutch oven, I suppose) Just brown a chuck roast (You can even do this at home, before, and throw it into your pot with vegetables and seasonings and broth, and it’ll cook over the fire NICELY, especially if you do top and bottom cooking, which I admit takes a little more know-how. You can also just add more broth and basically boil it. I would add a bottle of dark ale if you’re gonna do that to preserve flavor and richness. 

For dessert, I’m a huge fan of the old “cake in an orange” scheme, but I do that all that time so it would lack spacialness. Oh!!! You know what would would be great and add a touch of thanksgiving? So, cut up some pound cake, put it in an iron skillet with cranberries and a bit of orange, maybe, that you let sit with a bit of sugar to release juices. And add some chocolate bits, I think, would be good. Just cover that until the chocolate (Or chocolate and caramel sauce, maybe?) is melted and the pound cake is just lightly toasted, I wouldn’t even really stir too much.  

[docholligay]

If you’re still taking thanksgiving asks, do you have any hot tips for downsizing thanksgiving meals without totally losing the feel of it, and/or tips for repurposing leftovers?

Yeah! First of all, I’d just make a turkey breast for the turkey, to save on having too many leftovers. Or it doesn’t even have to be a turkey! Roast chicken is another great thing, that I felt certain I had posted a recipe for but apparent have not. 

I would identify what are the IMPORTANT parts of a Thanksgiving dinner to you. Some people can take or leave cranberries! Some don’t care about rolls, really. Figure out what makes a thanksgiving plate feel COMPLETE. And just make that! Also, use oven safe bowls and stuff to make smaller amounts of beloved dishes. 

AS far as leftovers, I’m a huge giant fan of adapting things to the “turkey pot pie’ model. so like, I’ll throw turkey and green bean casserole into a general chicken pot pie style sauce, with any roasted vegetables we made, and then top it with either mashed potatoes, or stuffing,  and bake. Other things: Turkey tacos, mashed potato cakes, turkey noodle soup, sweet potato soup, cranberry poptarts/quickbread/etc, sweet potato bread. 

But honestly for my family, we LOVE the thanksgiving leftover sandwich, so if I try to make it into a “real meal” I get my hand slapped a bunch of that time ahahaha. 

[docholligay]

Alternative ideas to the 'main dish' being turkey/ham/turducken/whatever? I always find those things extremely dry and am just feeding myself this year, I don't need or want to be eating turkey leftovers for the next forever.

Turkey shouldn’t be dry if you’re cooking it right, but that’s immaterial to the ask, so we’ll ignore it. 

IF you’re on your own, YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU WANT. This is beautiful! Freeing! If it were people named Doc who are me, I would make something that feels special and festive in some way, but doesn’t have to be BIG necessarily. 

A cornish game hen, if you wanted poultry? A roast chicken? A lasagna, which is usually more effort than I care to put in for my family? a stuffed chicken breast, maybe. A wellington SMACKS of specialness, whether you do beef or chicken, and I LOVE salmon en croute. 

mostly I would suggest you think of something that screams ‘celebration” to you, something you normally wouldn’t take the time out for yourself for, and doing that. A lot of holiday is about AMBIENCE, and PRESENTATION, and you can totally do that even on a small scale! 

[docholligay]

Oooh, Thanksgiving food question: do you make rolls by hand? Or do you buy rolls already baked and just heat them up? Please divulge any bread-related Thanksgiving tips!

We make by hand! Thanksgiving is a BIG FUCKIN DEAL in my family, and while I have no problem with like...some great bread from a bakery, we do it ourselves, on Thanksgiving. 

My mom actually makes the rolls! My mom and I have done Thanksgiving dinner together since I was a little girl, we were always the two up early and making everything together, and some of my favorite memories are being in the kitchen with her. Now, we live together still, but she has her basement apartment, and we’re up and down and helping each other all day, but we definitely have assignments, and the rolls are my moms. Jetty LOVES mom’s rolls. 

I wrote her and asked for the recipe this morning, and here’s what she gave me. They’re a quick rise roll, so not too bad. 

3 3/4 - 4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 Tbsp rapid rise yeast

1 1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup cool water

2/3 cup milk

4 Tbsp unsalted butter, diced into 1 Tbsp pieces, plus more for tops

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

2. In the mixer bowl whisk together 4 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt.

3. in a bowl add water, milk and butter and heat in microwave  until it reaches 120 degrees on a thermometer, about 1 minute 15 seconds. Stir to partially melt butter.

4. Pour milk mixture into dry mixture in bowl of electric stand mixer along with lemon juice.

5. Set mixer with a hook attachment then set mixer on low speed and gradually increase to medium-low, knead about 3 – 4 minutes until smooth and elastic while adding additional flour as necessary (dough should be kinda sticky but manageable).

6. Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and rest 5 minutes. Meanwhile butter a 13 by 9-inch baking dish.

Drop dough onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into an evenly level square, about 9 by 9-inches. Cut into 16 equal portions (don't have to be exact)

Shape dough into 15 balls, while using excess dough from the 16th portion to add to smaller rounds as needed, and place shaped dough portions into prepared baking dish.

Dampen hands with water and brush tops of dough with the water (just so they don't dry while rising in oven). Transfer to oven, close oven and turn oven off, allow rolls to rise 20 minutes (don't open oven door).

Remove from oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees (this should take about 5 minutes, so just allow rolls to rest on counter while oven preheats).

Bake in preheated oven 14 - 16 minutes until tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and run the top of a stick of butter along tops of rolls just to coat. Serve warm. Store in an airtight container (I recommend rewarming cool rolls in microwave

MIke makes traditional croissants, which I love but cannot even BEGIN to tell you have to go about doing, holy shit.