(Drew Sheneman via GoComics.com)
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I spent fifteen years in the Midwest (Michigan) and learnt an honest appreciation for salads involving Cool-Whip and Jell-O, but… frog eye salad? Pasta simply does not belong in a dessert product. (No, I’m not enamored of rice pudding, either.) Must be a west-of-the-Mississippi thing… unless Google has been punking the NYTimes. (They fell for the nutmeg story, after all.)
***********
Apart from (faking) an appreciation of once-a-year IT’S OUR TRADITION dishes like snickers salad, mashed parsnips, green rice, creamed onions, pretzel salad, and canned cranberry sauce, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Steeplejack
Getting ready to go back to bed for a few hours. I was exhausted yesterday and went down for a “nap” around 6:00 p.m., ended up sleeping until almost midnight. Have been up doinking around on line since then, but I need to get some more sleep before facing a full day of Thanksgiving activities.
Botsplainer
The dog has a massive case of diarrhea from too many pork chop bones from Tuesday evening. My oldest daughter brought her puppy, which is sleeping in my dogs crate in the garage while my dog slept with us – an hour ago, I awoke to the sounds and smells of dog dookie.
Funtime cleanup!
Betty Cracker
I’m already up and cooking! Sometimes insomnia comes in handy.
@Botsplainer: What a horrible way to wake up. But your day will almost surely get better from that low point!
cckids
@Botsplainer: My dog’s had the trots since Monday; it is part of a recurring pancreatitis, says the vet. Just charming, isn’t it?
I just finished making the pies, dinner rolls & sides I’m taking to Mom’s house. Should have gotten them done earlier, but there is just something about cleaning up doggie poo over & over (plus wiping his ass, FUN TIMES) that did not make me eager to start cooking.
Mustang Bobby
Woke up in a panic a few minutes ago from a dream of not having finished something at work, and then realized I’m off until Monday. Whew.
Anne, I too recall some interesting holiday foods, including Front Can Casserole which is made by going to the cupboard, taking the first three canned vegetables — regardless of what they are — dumping them in a casserole dish, covering them with Velveeta, and baking it.
I made a pumpkin pie and carrot cake for the dinner I’m having at the home of some friends… “Made” in the sense that I made a trip to the store. My stove is registered as a lethal weapon.
PS: There is nothing more pungent to wake up to than the whiff of liquid canine excrement. My ex-partner used to pretend he was asleep while I cleaned up after Sam until one time he sneezed and I busted him: “I know you’re awake. Get up and help.”
JPL
Happy Thanksgiving!
This year I uncovered the turkey for a few hours because according to the ny times it will help it crisp. We will see how it works. I’m of the believer that you should tightly seal items in the fridge.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
Learning how to be a dad. My wife gave birth to our first exactly 4 days ago. Both she and baby girl are home and healthy and being patient with me while I figure this out this new role. It’s an adjustment, but she’s a damn cute kid (no parental bias required in that declaration, the pediatrician that did the discharge exam at the hospital said he’d steal her and so did several other staff) and life is good. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back in the US of A.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Betty Cracker: I’ve got about 12 hours until I have to resume cooking. Tuesday was making the curry puff filling, last night was cooking the green beans. This afternoon, deep fry the curry puffs and take them, the green beans, and pre-cooked turkey(cheating) to the kid’s place.
If anyone has an interest in home automation, Home Depot has 2 GE-Link bulbs and a Wink hub for $30(the hub is pretty much free).
bemused
NYT T-day “traditional” food list sparked a ton of twitter, facebook, mockery from Minnesotans and an article in the Star Trib. The prevailing reaction was, grape salad?, wtf!, is this a joke?. A commenter on fb said, btw Times writers, don’t mistake the mild mannered comments as gentle disagreement. What you are seeing here is simmering rage and contempt Minnesota style.
The Times staff explained that the “traditional” grape salad dish tip came from a MN born heiress who told them that it was always part of the holiday buffet in her family. The Times staff didn’t back down at first but now we see grape salad as been replaced with wild rice casserole. Now that’s more like it.
Keith G
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: What a spectacular way to have a Thanksgiving. Congratulations to your growing family.
Debbie(aussie)
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: congratulations to you and your wife, and welcome to your baby daughter.
Happy Thanksgiving to all the US Juicers. Have a great, safe and low conflict day.
eric nny
I cannot leave the kitchen all day because there is food on the counters and three incredibly curious mutts who can reach it with their snouts………
eric nny
@Mustang Bobby: I just woke up from a bad waiter dream. If you’ve never waited tables, it’s where you have more customers than time to serve them or being in the weeds. I haven’t waited a table in 15 years. I guess I’m already behind and losing at Thanksgiving…….
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Yup. Awakened a short while ago from a similar nap which raged out of control (8 p.m. through to 1 a.m.)
Edmund Dantes
@Steeplejack: @JPL: I am a fan towel dry that turkey, lather on some canola oil, blast it for 30 mins at 500 degrees, pull it out, throw on the aluminum shield for the breast meat, then slow roast her till you hit a couple degrees below cooked, pull it out, and let it rest cook the rest of the way up to temperature.
Very crispy and golden brown skin.
Works everytime. Thank you alton brown.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Keith G: No Thanksgiving here really, I’m in Australia now, but I do like to pass along holiday greetings. Feels a bit like home on a day when being home is good.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Debbie(aussie): Thank you muchly, and when I was in the US Thanksgiving usually was pretty low-conflict. My family got lucky that way.
Betty Cracker
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Congrats to you and your wife! You’ll get the hang of that parenting thing in no time. Enjoy every minute of it — it goes by so fast. Next thing you know, she’ll want to drive your CAR!
Baud
I am thankful for Balloon Juice. Happy Thanksgiving, Juicers.
Citizen Scientist
I’ve been up since 5 due to insomnia, and have a dozen people to cook for today. Luckily got all of the major prep done last night. Hoping I don’t hit the bourbon too early today, but my SIL will be here at one, so we’ll see how that goes. Best Thanksgiving wishes to the BJ collective.
Comrade Nimrod Humperdink
@Betty Cracker: She’ll be swearing like a sailor long before that. Even if I managed to curb my mouth, my wife gets that really verbose version of road-rage that feels good but never amounts to anything, so she’ll know all sorts of colorful phrases from the carseat by the time she’s headed for preschool. I’m predicting awkward parent-teacher conferences for years
Iowa Old Lady
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: The other preschoolers taught my kid some creative combinations of swear words that would never have occurred to any adult I know, so take heart. She’ll fit right in.
Becoming a parent was the biggest change in my life. Also the best.
Elizabelle
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Welcome, Baby Humperdink. Congratulations.
Happy Turkey Day to all.
raven
Happy Thanksgiving from the Emerald Coast.
Mustang Bobby
@eric nny: I had plenty of bad waiter dreams; I was a theatre major and one of the requirements is that we work in food service while waiting for the big break. I worked in my partner’s mom’s diner in a small town in Colorado and had those times with five tables all waiting for a coffee refill and kids throwing tantrums. Fortunately we were closed on holidays.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Wow, fantastic picture. The weather seems to have calmed down. Will you try your luck on a boat?
p.a.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Mustang Bobby
Happy Thanksgiving to fellow USians (Go Lions!). Here’s a little clickbait remembrance of turkey days past.
Scamp Dog
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Pictures or it didn’t happen! :)
Wag
A Midwest distinction: Jello with fruit and Miracle Whip = salad. Jello with fruit and Cool Whip = dessert.
Cephalus Max
Hey AL, creamed onions are great! (Stipulating that they are made with pearl onions, of course.) Otherwise I endorse the entirety of your post.
Off to resume cooking…
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
satby
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Congratulations to you and your wife! Nothing can really prepare you for parenthood, it’s on the job training all the way. Welcome to the world little Humperdink.
satby
Happy Thanksgiving to all the Balloon-Juice diaspora.
I’m going to enjoy a quiet day at home working on some soap orders, playing with the herd, and fielding phone calls from my far flung family.
Oh, and turkey gumbo soup… good call raven!
henqiguai
Anne Laurie
Nitpicking, and probably not really properly interpreting your intent but, rice is not a pasta. Then, of course, we get to that whole “I’m not enamored of rice pudding” thing; philistine.
And yeah, I look outside and see the new 4 – 6 inches of heart-attack snow plus the ‘gift’ from the town plows across my driveway. Holiday my anticipatory sore back.
Gin & Tonic
Delighted to have all children and significant others here (or shortly to be here.) The food and wine will be consumed as in a plague of locusts, but that’s OK. Everyone likes each other, so it’s good.
debbie
Waiting for my brother to wake up so I can borrow his food processor to shave 5 lbs. of brussels sprouts. I don’t know what made me think I could just slice them by hand. I have zero knife skills, except for cutting myself.
JPL
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Congrats and enjoy your new joy!
When my youngest was nine months, during a normal physical the doctor dropped his stethoscope. The baby said shit. The doctor stood for a second and then shook his head because at that age, mama is the norm.
Elizabelle
cmm, a commenter/police officer, offered to do an open thread Q&A at some point, this weekend or whenever. That would be way cool.
From immediately previous thread on Tamir Rice’s shooting.
Phylllis
Up, but not quite about this morning. Need to whip up a pan of cornbread for the dressing. Hubs is smoking the turkey breast on the grill. It’s the first T-day since we’ve been together here in SC that we haven’t packed up and headed to Columbus GA to see his family, and it’s nice to be at home.
OzarkHillbilly
Fvck all you all and screw this turkey of a holiday.
Raven
@Betty Cracker: The only thing I could get is a 5 hr Friday. I signed up and asked that they switch me if an 8 came up. I was really beat up last night from another 7 hrs in it. The surf calmed but the wind was rough. 6 sharks and w nice whiting.
JPL
@OzarkHillbilly: When else can you use those five pound sweet potatoes?
NotMax
@debbie
Practice and operating at your own pace will develop them, as well as allowing the knife’s angle and heft take on the bulk of the work.
As a wise man once said, “The only way to play the harp is to play the harp.”
debbie
@NotMax:
Usually they’re passable, but my only skills on days like this are Panic Mode. But I have a full box of Bandaids to get me through.
OzarkHillbilly
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Has anybody ever said, “My. what an ugly baby. Takes after her mother I see.”? Congrats and let the adventures begin!
ps: Think of cursing as like sex education, where would you rather the little darling learn curse words? At home where she can be taught the proper pronunciations and deployments of colorful language, or the playground?
SiubhanDuinne
As always, I’m spending Thanksgiving with two cousins (a mother and daughter) who live about 15 miles from me. Jane (the daughter, and sole cook) decided that we’re not having turkey this year, we’re having individual stuffed Cornish game hens. When I first started going to T’giving with them 20+ years ago there were always at least a dozen people around the table. But deaths, divorces, and long-distance moves have reduced the numbers, so now it’s just the three of us. Haven’t been outside yet, but it looks like a beautiful sunny morning.
Happy Thanksgiving to all Juicers!
OzarkHillbilly
@JPL: No problem there, my wife would eat sweet potatoes every day if I let her.
Ferdzy
Frog eye salad looks repulsive. If only it had been made with tapioca! I’d be all over it. (Maybe.)
As for creamed onions and mashed parsnips, whut!? They are delish. Do not stint with the good Hungarian paprika for the onions, and gently cook some leeks in butter to mash into the parnips, and you have a dish fit for the gods.
Waratah
My daughters friend specialty for family celebrations is frogs eye salad.
She called late last night and said she was stopping by to leave us some on her way out of town..
I save it for desert, it is light and not as rich and sweet as the rest of the deserts, save the pie for later when I am not so stuffed with the main meal
Happy thanksgiving Balloon Juicers
Raven gorgeous photo.
Geeno
Our traditional holiday food is a side dish. Meat dressing – like bread dressing, but meat. Delicious- it can be a meal by itself.
NotMax
@debbie
Heh. Just a couple of minutes ago gave myself a tiny cut – deep under the thumbnail – while removing the foil stopper wrapping from a new bottle of Grand Marnier. Can’t properly make the sweet potatoes or the cranberry relish without either that or Drambuie splashed in.
Valdivia
Happy thanksgiving to you all!
I am an Alton Brown girl all the way with the turkey. Did much of the work yesterday so today I only have to worry about setting the table and making sure the cats don’t knock the wine glasses down.
Poopyman
@OzarkHillbilly: And a Happy Thanksgiving to you too! And to all Juicers everywhere.
Mrs. P has been puking this AM. Fortunately we’re not hosting, but still need to see how the rest of the morning goes.
NotMax
@OzarkHillbilly
Back when I was teaching for a time, another teacher there would bring a raw rutabaga every day for his lunch. Ate it like an apple, he did. A born and bred Minnesotan, don’tcha know, he would invariably ask “Anyone want some rutabaggie?”
OzarkHillbilly
@Poopyman: I hate the pukes. Got a head cold and that is bad enuf for me.
Phylllis
@OzarkHillbilly: Down South that’s phrased as “That’s your baby? Bless your heart.” All in how you say it.
OzarkHillbilly
@Phylllis: Ah yes, “Bless her heart…” was a phrase oft deployed by my Texan Grandmother.
Tinare
My Italian sister-in-law makes Rosa Marina Salad with orzo pasta which looks very similar to this Frog Eye stuff.
Debbie(aussie)
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink:
What part of our wide (very) brown (in parts) land has become your home. I am an Ipswichian, SEQld. We had a lovely storm earlier this evening. Much cooler now.
cmorenc
Cranberry sauce is so easy to home-make fresh from cranberries, and tastes so infinitely better than the canned shit – it is a major culinary sin for any cook to serve the latter instead of the former. The key trick is to minimize the amount of water you boil down the cranberries with – put berries in the pot first, then only so much water as needed to cover the bottom half or so of the berries. They’ll release enough liquid during heating that if you add too much water, the sauce will stay too soupy and never jell properly with the added brown sugar. Speaking of the sugar quantity, even though yes, you add plenty of brown sugar to taste, with homemade you avoid over-sweetening it and it comes out sharply tart, whereas the canned junk tastes like some nauseously sweet candy concoction from the state fair.
NotMax
@cmorenc
Haven’t boiled ’em for decades.
Place them in a too large bowl (no need to add any liquid at all) loosely covered with wax paper (fold the paper over the edges so it makes a splatter shield but don’t make a tight, tight seal in order to let steam can escape) and microwave them. Depends on the microwave oven, but usually somewhere between 5 and 8 minutes softens ’em up sufficiently for mashing but still leaves enough body and texture.
WereBear
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Congrats! So happy everyone is fine.
Riley's enabler
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: A hearty and happy CONGRATULATIONS to you and your family. The best advice I ever got was: Sleep when the baby sleeps. Do this, and I promise it will help you manage the first months.
beth
@Comrade Nimrod Humperdink: Congratulations on the little one. Enjoy every moment – they go way too fast.
chopper
@Baud:
I’m thankful that our esteemed bloghost is still alive, having not yet accidentally brutally cut his head off while shaving.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: With such a child, as I am told by baby photographers, the proper response is, “Oh, that is a baby!”
For years I babysat for a wonderful family with one and then two little boys. Number three was the long awaited girl, and she looked like a shaved and boiled monkey for the first six months.
Then, she bloomed into a perfectly lovely baby.
Felonius Monk
Happy Thanksgiving, Juicers!
Have to run the snow blower this morning before the cooking starts. Fortunately, we got only about 7 inches here instead of the 12-15 that the weather guys were predicting. I’m not in a good mood right now and the headache doesn’t help.
Elizabelle
PD James has died.
Godspeed. Wonderful author.
tybee
@Phylllis:
omg. muscogee county. the west coast of georgia.
did you grow up there?
Mike in NC
After two solid days of driving through fog and pouring rain, we’re experiencing a warm and sunny day in Tampa Bay.
Central Planning
@Anne Laurie:
I suppose it depends on how you eat it. We will put a layer of fresh berries (a mix of blueberries and raspberries is my favorite), spoon in some rice pudding, and then sprinkle some sugar on top. Get out the butane torch to caramelize the sugar and you’re good to go.
I like the whole thing warmed up a little (microwave before caramelizing), but other family members like cold rice pudding. Ick.
shelley
Yup, Anne. I could never understand the appeal of kugel.
Dave
@cmorenc: Cranberry sherbet. We always make that for Thanksgiving and Christmas it’s a delightful mix of sweet and tart. Can’t touch cranberry sauce from a can I just don’t grok it.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
Thank You!
Best holiday greeting ever.
Folks are long gone, no kids to annoy or give joy, so T-day is a lazy do nothing day. Just like so many others. It’s nice.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Used to have a gentleman from Estonia working for us. Used to eat a raw onion every day, just like an apple. He never had to worry about crowds gathering anywhere he went.
CZanne
@Geeno:
I would love a hint of a recipe for this. I’ve got one flirting with diabetes, one celiac and one full blown diabetes in the local pack. Not-carb always makes my life easier.