Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about it’s history.”

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Chutkan laughs. Lauro sits back down.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Please don’t feed the bears.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

Pelosi: “He either is stupid, or he thinks the rest of us are.” Why not both?

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

People are weird.

I’m just a talker, trying to find a channel!

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

You are here: Home / Food & Recipes / Cooking / Open Thread: Thursday Night Menu

Open Thread: Thursday Night Menu

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Take it away, Bad Horse’s Filly:

It has been a whirlwind week and Thursday took me by surprise. But no worries, I figured it out soon enough to dig up a recipe. Someone requested slow-cooker recipes a few weeks back, so I thought I’d do one of those this Thursday. Brunswick Stew is an old family favorite. I think my mom cut it out of the newspaper….in the 60’s!….and still has the original copy. There may even be on old Dear Abby column next to it. It is surprisingly good, even though it has lima beans. I hate lima beans, rates right up there with Brussels sprouts for me (sorry JeffreyW), but I’ve never even thought about eliminating them from this recipe. I’ve always been afraid it would alter the great flavor, so I just eat around them. Granny Smith apples were on sale this week, so Cinnamon Apple Cake it had to be.
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On the board tonight:

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1. Brunswick Stew
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2. Corn Bread
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3. Tossed Salad
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4. Cinnamon Apple Cake

Recipes and shopping list at the link, as always.

Reader Interactions

33Comments

  1. 1.

    stuckinred

    Ever had chicken mull up there? We had a bbq joint that made it on Friday’s. A peppery sort of chicken stew thickened with crushed up crackers.

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @BHall35: GMTA. It’s well worth some excitement. NYT just put up the same (similar) breaking headline without linking to a story so far. It’s important actually and symbolically. Our president may not do what he does on other peoples’ timetables, but he does them — and with a bit of a flourish! Like you, I’m waiting for the wingnut meltdown. Should be vastly amusing.

  8. 8.

    burnspbesq

    Yum.

    Anyone in SoCal know a source for good Brunswick Stew? Burrell’s doesn’t serve it (which is somewhat odd since Fred is originally from NC), and it’s expensive to go back to Durham to get it from Bullock’s.

  9. 9.

    aimai

    We are all sick as dogs (sic) here with allergies so we can’t taste anything. Last night I made Ants Climb a Tree, a hugely spicy pork and cellophane noodle dish and Hoisin Chicken with pea pods, carrotts and broccoli and plain rice just so the various flavors might penetrate the fog of antihistamines. Dessert was strawberry/rhubarb crumble with nutmeg and cardamom. Tonight we had leftovers and I turned some old take out thai rice into rice pudding with dried cherries.

    aimai

  10. 10.

    Elie

    Thank you, BHF!

    Brunswick stew —- YUMMMM

    Why do I love food so much? This week has been so damned hard — and having a little good som som food just helps — as does a nice warm relaxing bath.

    This is such a wonderful place, this B-J. Even when I don’t comment and just read — I feel connected.

    FOOD — y’all feed me and hopefully we all feed each other…

    Thanks…

  12. 12.

    Jeffro

    Burnspbesq, if you’re in SoCal, are there any Hamburger Hamlets or The Hamlet Restaurants around? They used to make a mean Brunswick stew back when I worked there in the mid 90’s.

    Somewhat related to Mr. Cole’s post: anyone have a good recipe for Brussels sprouts? They were my absolute horror as a kid and I’d like to show my own kids that you should keep trying new things (and maybe even re-trying them, as in this case)? I am thinking maybe brushed with a good olive oil, seasoned up w/ (?), and then broiled on low heat?

  13. 13.

    aimai

    Jeffro,
    I have learned to love brussels sprouts. This is how I do them.

    Trim them and cut them in half.
    Toss some olive oil and chopped smokey bacon (one or two strips), or pancetta or proscuitto into a pan and stir fry the brussels sprouts until they caramelize. Add a few tablespoons of water periodically if it looks like they are too dry or getting too burned. Late in the process, just as they are starting to get crisp tender add sliced garlic and maybe a little more oil or butter to glaze them (this lets the garlic cook but not get burned). Salt and pepper to taste.

    You can do it this way and also add a light vinaigrette too. Or brown sugar or maple sugar if you swing that way. Don’t let the brussels sprouts get too soft, they should still be bright colored inside and have some bite.

    aimai

  17. 17.

    Bad Horse's Filly

    @aimai: OMG that sounds amazing. Yummy.

    @Jeffro: If you go to my website, JeffreyW has posted a couple of recipes – with photos no less. And now you know why I asked him to post with me, he likes foods I won’t touch.

  18. 18.

    Jeffro

    So aimai, basically you get the olive oil going w/ some bacon or prosciutto, then carmelize ’em, toss in some garlic, salt, and pepper?

    What WOULDN’T be improved by that process? I’d eat LEGOs that way. ;) j/k – thanks for the tip!

    BHF: will check out the website and photos pronto, thanks!

    Wait ’til my mom hears I finally ate a Brussels sprout…and LIKED it…

  20. 20.

    aimai

    Jeffro,
    I have to admit I’m a huge fan of pancetta/prosciutto/pig in all its forms. That’s why I love Jaimie Oliver’s cookbooks–the earlier ones anyway. Somehow there seems to be prosciutto in everything. He has a great recipe for asparagus that I make quite a bit for parties:

    Six spears
    one anchovy fillet
    one sprig rosemary

    Roll the spears around the anchovy and rosemary, bundle them with pancetta or prosciutto, toss them with a tiny bit of olive oil and pepper, roast in the oven with a whole lemon sitting next to them. Slice the lemon and squeeze it on before serving. Its incredibly good.

    aimai

  21. 21.

    apikoros

    I looked at the recipe, BHF, and I have a couple of comments, one commiserating, one minor and one major…

    I feel badly for you on the cinnamon Blueberry cake. Have you considered that the ph of blueberries might have been too low? Blueberries are a fair amount more acidic than apples and as we all know, cooking is art but baking is chemistry.

    On the Brunswick stew, I see no squirrel in there. This is minor as I have not had true Brunswick stew since childhood and chicken is a very normal substitution. An alternative that might well be closer to true Brunswick stew is rabbit, but even that is rare. A minor quibble at worst.

    My major quibble is that there is no salt/smoked pork! Smoked butt is, to my mind, an absolute necessity for Brunswick stew. I suppose you could get away with substituting a rich smoked or country bacon, and I’ve heard (ptui! ptui!) of fatback, but Brunswick stew is supposed to be a rich, smoky, gamey stew and for that, lacking actual game (squirrel), smoked pork is an absolute must.

    (Note, he said, that I write this as someone who converted to Judaism some years ago and, as a result, someone who will never taste true Brunswick stew again :-( OTOH, reading this I might very well experiment a bit with smoking chuck as a substitute for the smoked pork… It probably won’t work, but it might and now you have me jonesing for a taste from my childhood.)

  22. 22.

    David in NY

    I believe that real Brunswick Stew is supposed to have squirrels in it, no? Have to go look at the info in American Eats, outtakes from a WPA project in the late 30’s that never got finished because, well, there was this war … Anyway, as I recall, Brunswick Stew was mainly made for crowds, out of squirrels. But I could be wrong.

    I used to make it with the biggest, oldest fowl I could find, okra, and certainly Tabasco (or the like), in addition to the stuff you have. Gotta try that again.

    EDIT: Damn. Somebody beats me to these brilliant apercus every time.

  23. 23.

    David in NY

    @Jeffro:

    Best Brussels sprouts I’ve had in a while were spicy ones at Momofuku Saan, so David Chang’s cookbook may have them. Looked easy, like rubbing with the right spices and frying. Then there’s one we have for Thanksgiving — essentially Brussels sprouts, butter, and pecans — good.

  25. 25.

    SteveinSC

    @David in NY: In Re Brunswick Stew (I.e. Brunswick Georgia): Turtle is missing, if you are from Georgia. And please, no sugar in the corn bread (but cracklin’s? Yes!) Walley World around here sometimes has Mrs. Fernow’s BS which is fairly decent. Check there. Lima Beans? Open the windows.

  26. 26.

    Jeffro

    JeffreyW, awesome (and I will totally try it out this weekend) but I think you proved my point, kinda: shallots, cream, kosher salt…I could toss a Bic pen in that and still take a bite! ;) (But I bet your recipe’s going to be great, without that plastic/ink aftertaste!)

    Also trying aimai’s asparagus recipe very soon – my family’s going to be like, wtf w/ all these veg…hey…wait, this is pretty damn good!!

    PS to SteveinSC, reptiles are just not. meant. for eating. You meant ‘turtles’, the candy, afterwards – right? RIGHT? =)

    and PPS to David in NY: I practically have a whole club going ’round here that swears the best way to liven up Thanksgiving dinner is to have at least one new veg dish, preferably two, each year. Carrots in Marsala, pearl onions in raisins & cider vinegar sauce, etc. Rockin’!

  27. 27.

    David in NY

    @Jeffro:

    Carrots in Marsala, pearl onions in raisins & cider vinegar sauce, etc. Rockin’!

    Oh man, will my wife love to hear about these. We do Thanksgiving every year and she hates it (well, I exaggerate a little) because she is not allowed to play with the main events, turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc., and has only room in the veggie area to add some new stuff. And those sound like nice, appropriate ideas. We’ve done brussels sprouts in various ways to good effect.

  28. 28.

    apikoros

    @SteveinSC: Brunswick, GA??? Don’t you mean Brunswick county, VA? :-) (I’ll wait for someone from Brunswick county, NC to chime in later :-) Seriously, it’s a dish that’s generic to the American south, and where it actually originated is almost certainly… everywhere! Pan-regional dishes like this one have multiple points of origin and every family recipe is sacred, until the next generation blends two family traditions and a new sacred and ancient recipe is born.

  29. 29.

    David in NY

    @apikoros:

    That book I mentioned, American Eats, is great on some of this stuff. Summary of materials put together by WPA folks, but never finished. It was to be a survey of what communities ate when they got together at 4th of July picnics, etc. So the stuff, and the book, deals with the ceremonial foods that folks ate in the 30’s, probably the last moment before the American diet went to hell.

  31. 31.

    Yutsano

    @Bad Horse’s Filly:

    I’m going to sit on the couch and zone out to Bones now.

    Mmm…David Boreanaz. The only watchable part of Angel. Whoever decided to pair him with the absolutely brilliant Emily Deschanel needs a raise.

  32. 32.

    Comrade Mary

    Yutsano, if you want some near doppelgangers for Deschanel and Boreanz with great chemistry in a very different environment, you should check out the latest Doctor Who series. I’ve downloaded the first two episodes and am completely hooked.

  33. 33.

    CatStaff

    @aimai: OMG, aimai! My husband and I made “Ants Climb a Tree” once many years ago, when we first started experimenting with Szechuan food. We did a number of things wrong with this one, and the final product was so blazingly, inedibly hot, and the sauce so thick, that we had to rename the dish “Fireants Hopelessly Trapped in a Quagmire.”

    We got that recipe out of a Szechuan cookbook, “Mrs. Chang’s Szechuan Cookbook.” It’s full of truly wonderful recipes that we know by heart now because we’ve made them so often. The only thing is, it’s actually written by someone who references Mrs. Chang’s mother and her cooking expertise throughout the books, and so we of course had to rename it as well – now known as “Mrs. Chang’s Mother’s Ghostwriter’s Cookbook.” I’m pretty sure Mrs. Chang doesn’t actually make an appearance.

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