Tact is just not saying true stuff. I'll pass.

Cordelia ,'Dirty Girls'


Natter 77: I miss my friends. I miss my enemies. I miss the people I talked to every day.

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, butt kicking, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


megan walker - Nov 26, 2020 3:46:12 pm PST #400 of 29425
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

Rats. The line for Tommy's Joynt was around the block and by the time we were getting in at the end they were telling people not to wait since they were already running out of food. We headed to Whole Foods as a last resort only to find they had turkey and sides but no gravy. So me and the Math Greek are at home eating TJ's Nantucket-style cranberry pie, which is quite tasty even if I have serious doubts about their claim that this is "found on holiday tables across New England."


Atropa - Nov 26, 2020 3:46:27 pm PST #401 of 29425
The artist formerly associated with cupcakes.

I looked in the fridge and discovered we had sweet potatoes, a ham steak, and many types of cheese, so I threw together a casserole! Sometimes I remember how to do the food part of adulting.


amych - Nov 26, 2020 4:32:19 pm PST #402 of 29425
Now let us crush something soft and watch it fountain blood. That is a girlish thing to want to do, yes?

We pretended really hard that we were going to have a scaled-down Thanksgiving, so we had 10 things instead of like 12???? because moderation and holiday cooking don't quite mesh. But anyway, we had outdoor dinner with the in-laws, sent them home with a giant pile of leftovers (and kept about 3x the same for ourselves), ate pie as is required of the season, and had the difficult talk about the December Holiday and how we would be doing outdoor things again even if out of town family decided to come visit them. They're hearing reason, at least. Which is an improvement.


Beverly - Nov 26, 2020 4:44:00 pm PST #403 of 29425
Days shrink and grow cold, sunlight through leaves is my song. Winter is long.

Thanksgiving for just the two of us Type II's is a small spiral cut ham, coined (orange) sweet potatoes quick-braised in butter with ginger, onion, garlic, and coarse black pepper, quick-steamed asparagus with butter and coarse sea salt. H made two low-sugar pumpkin pies in store-bought graham crusts--so good! But the neighbor sent over two generous slices of her made-from scratch with heavenly perfect flaky piecrust, plus a little bowl of whipped cream so we'll be having those tonight.

StY and GF had brunch of deviled eggs and drop biscuits with honey and/or preserves. Their turkey and sides were finishing when we spoke an hour or two ago. I'm very grateful for both of them.

As I'm grateful for this place and all of you. My mainstay through joy and sorrow, and troubles and clear sailing. ::raises glass:: to us--Happy Thanksgiving!


Susan W. - Nov 26, 2020 6:55:11 pm PST #404 of 29425
Good Trouble and Righteous Fights

We ordered Thanksgiving plates from a local restaurant, which I supplemented by quick-cooking a batch of collard greens since we felt like we needed a green vegetable. And if I do say so myself, the collards turned out delicious. I made them Brazilian style (at least according to the website where I found the recipe), i.e. sliced into thin ribbons, then cooked in very hot oil with garlic, red pepper flakes, and half a lemon squeezed over everything at the end. I hated collard and turnip greens as a kid, so it kind of amazes me to have stumbled upon a version that's so quick, simple, and tasty.


chrismg - Nov 26, 2020 7:10:35 pm PST #405 of 29425
"...and then Legolas and the Hulk destroy the entire Greek army." - Penny Arcade

Most of the good things in my life, including my current job and how it's weathering the current crisis, have come about by chance. I'm very thankful for all of that, including this place, which is definitely on that list.


Matt the Bruins fan - Nov 26, 2020 7:22:52 pm PST #406 of 29425
"You should never say bad things about the dead, only good… Joan Crawford is dead. Good.” —Bette Davis

I went over to Mom's with a roasted turkey breast from the supermarket, some microwavable petite potatoes with Herbs de Provence, and a gigantic pan of dressing I cooked this morning. She provided the salad, rolls, corn, and pumpkin pie. After stuffing ourselves and resting a while from said overeating we went out on a leisurely drive around the local lake/park. A low-key holiday compared to what we usually do, but very nice nonetheless.

May everyone else's holiday be similarly enjoyable!


DavidS - Nov 26, 2020 9:02:24 pm PST #407 of 29425
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

The turkey thighs that I dry brined for a day and then rubbed with butter before roasting turned out great. The skin even was crispy and delicious. Potatoes were good, gravy was passable. I only bought two thighs, but they were big ones, so now I have a lot of leftover meat. I may make another attempt at gravy tomorrow with the drippings that I saved.

More gravy is always the answer! And I grab Turkey thighs whenever they're available. So much more flavorful and juicier than breast meat. Whole Food had a stack of them and I made Emmett's favorite Turkey pot roast /au vin thing that I make. (Basically like making a pot roast with turkey thighs but cooking it down with a combination of brandy, apple cider and French Onion stock.)

I'm hitting the wall after two days of cooking but you know what? We kind of snatched Thanksgiving from the jaws of 2020. Once Emmett told me he couldn't come down, I knew we were going to drive up and deliver food to him. We picked a halfway point in Marin - and between half the driving and no traffic on T-day, it was a breeze. In fact, it was very pleasant as it was gorgeous out, and we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge with the water sparkling and we got to see Emmett too.

So that was very heartening. Then we took the Richmond Bridge over to the East Bay and dropped off food with EM, who was solo and watching Football games. And she exclaimed to see how grown Matilda was and it was just lovely to see her.

Then we drove up into the Oakland Hills to deliver food to Wendy, the GF of JZ's dad. She was out walking (which we knew ahead of time), so just left food on her doorstep. But it was such a beautiful drive through the canopy of trees in golden, late autumn, late afternoon light.

Did the whole round trip in 2 hours, listening to Van Morrison on the way out and Belle and Sebastian on the way back.

JZ and I were ready to flump and eat on the couch, but Matilda wanted a Proper Thanksgiving so we set the table, and actually ate it with a laptop propped up while we Zoomed with JZ's extended family, Wendy and Emmett which was fun.

Then we took a break and did a sweet, short Zoom with Emmett, his GF and EM. Lots of laughing and it felt familiar and easy, like our Thanksgivings usually are.

So 2020 tried to pull some bullshit on us, but we powered through and connected in person and online and with food and drink.

Food Scorecard:
Turkey - excellent, dry brine true believer now.
Stuffing - I thought I nailed it but it was a little overcooked. Timing issue.
Mashed Potatoes - best I've ever done! Just fork mashed with lots of butter, cream, garlic and salt. That's all you need.
Turkey Gravy: Slightly darker roux than I intended, but managed to balance it out. Rich and dark and lovely.
Mushroom gravy: Brought the brandy forward in the mix. Really flavorful.
Brussels Sprouts: Burned 'em! Should've cooked them after I took the turkey out. Timing issue.
Mushroom stew: So flavorful! I've got this one down. And even though my pastry puffs were too small to be cups, I cut them in half and served the mushrooms on top and everybody snarfled it up.
Endive Salad: Simple and flavorful with pears, pecans and goat cheese.
Beer Mac & Cheese with Shrampies: Really good, but the cheese sauce was even better. Not sure what I'm losing in translation. Maybe make the cheese sauce more intense as it has to cover a lot of macaroni? Getting shrimp pre-cooked from local tacqueria a genius hack.
Cranberry Sauce: Port and orange version really good. This is my perennial now.

Except for the sprouts everything was super tasty. One of my better executed Thanksgivings. But I still need to vary the plate more so it's not so carby and brown. I'll figure it out.

Oh! Pie!

Raspberry/Bluberry pie: Good! Not as revelatory as the Raspberry/Peach pie Mr. Flea made for us in Athens, but he's a damned pie master.

Apple Cream Pie: Very good, but a bit sweet. I would tweak the recipe down in that regard. Texture was great. Would do again with some tweaks.


Katerina Bee - Nov 26, 2020 9:34:40 pm PST #408 of 29425
Herding cats for fun

Wow, that menu is drool-a-licious. I’m envious even though I’m all topped up with take out fare. The purple sweet potato pie is delicious and we look forward to having more tomorrow.

Raising my glass of good cheer to you all.


Laura - Nov 27, 2020 5:23:26 am PST #409 of 29425
Our wings are not tired.

David, please send me the mushroom stew recipe. I need to try that. It sounds like an exhausting but gratifying day.

I do hope that the ill are feeling better today and that negative tests abound.

My morning was more exciting than it needed to be. Let's just say there is a potential for too much excitement when you have warm weather, fruit trees, open doors, and cats. After the drama passed I took my mile long walk, it was already a bit warm at 7 AM so hopefully tomorrow I can get an earlier start. And hopefully the cat won't feel a need to bring me breakfast in bed. IJS