Just candied, or spiced candied? Last year I made spiced candied pecans that were a huge hit. The key was cardamom. This recipe but I halved the cinnamon and doubled the cardamom. Must double the cardamom 
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When my brother-in-law gets drunk and starts talking politics, can I hit him on the nose with a rolled up newspaper, or should I simply have him put down?
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People mock me for this, bit I swear by a small water sprayer like you use on a cat.
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Spiced and candied. I used a bit too much nutmeg this time (fresh seed) and no cardamom.
I am totally gonna cardamom them up this batch.
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The mini soups (2oz to start the meal) are gonna be an apple consommƩ. Fresh apple juice, honey, salt, cinnamon stick, star anise, dried Thai pepper (low heat), and a pinch of rosemary.
Just made a batch with only granny smith, and it needs a lighter blend. Perhaps a honeycrisp, or dare I say a fuji. What it really needs is a delicate sweet and a crabapple, but Iām not finding those. (Maybe a pear and a touch of oaked zin?)
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Wait. Are we talking about
- spraying oil
- mulled wine
- spraying unruly family members
- spraying unruly family members with oil
- train crashes?
- some kind of sprayable spiced nut?
???
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Viva LA holidays!!!
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Yeah, that sounds about right. Happy Eating Too Much Day!
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I had that same experience with the oil mister, but the opposite experience with the salad shooter. OK, itās not good for a lot of things, but it shreds like a champ. I like to use pre-shredded cheese, but I donāt really like it to have anti-caking agents and whatnot. The salad shooter will shred a pound block of cheese in 2 minutes. Actually it shreds other things fine too, like carrots and turnips.
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This Thanksgivingās cooking is going to be a bit odd for me.
Background: I used to cook fancy Thanksgiving meals, but for the last 10 years 3 out of 4 members of the family have been vegetarian, while the hanai (adopted) daughter has been a confirmed carnivore and junk-food addict since long before she came to us. So we adopted a plan of doing Thanksgiving dinners out at a fancy buffet where she could get as much turkey and gravy and what-not as she wanted while we could eat the yummy veggie dishes and then everybody can pig out on fancy desserts. Win win.
This year, after multiple gall-stone attacks (at age 25!) sheās decided to adopt a healthier diet, is trying to eat mostly vegetarian and lower fat, and asked to have Thanksgiving dinner at home so sheās not tempted to over-stuff herself to the same degree. OK, I can do that, awesome!
What does everybody want to have? Chorus: āMake your split-pea soup! With fresh bread!ā But thatās not very Thanksgiving-ish - how about some casseroles? Mashed potatoes? āPea soup!ā How about some baked sweet potatoes? āThere wonāt be room for them, weāre going to be full of split-pea soup.ā Honey-glazed pearl onions? āPEA SOUP!ā
To quote Zappa, I know when Iām licked - all over. I shall cater to my audience. Weāre having a big pot of split-pea soup, two kinds of home-made bread (pain a lāancienne, i.e. rye sourdough French bread, and seeded multi-grain), an apple cobbler my wife wants to make, and bread pudding (from the wheat bread I made this Sunday) with vanilla sauce. Perhaps over the solstice holidays I will get to terrorize them all with more extensive home cooking.
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I feel your pain on the weird cooking requirements. My Thanksgiving will consist of two vegetarians, one mostly-vegan-who-occasionally-cheats, one person allergic to anything that comes from a cow, and one celiac. Only 3 of us donāt have any dietary restrictions. Trying to create a meal that doesnāt leave one person only eating green beans has been a bit of a challenge.
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So hereās my favorite (though Iāll admit, non-standard) Thanksgiving thing:
Small (not pearl) onions. White are best. Peeled, then boiled in water (with a little bit of salt).
Thatās it. None of this cream-of-whatever or fancy-sauce or anything. Boiled. Onions.
They should be clear and super tender when theyāre ready- and I like to keep the volume of water on the low side- things should be covered, but you donāt want them swimming or anything.
Honestly, Iād just eat these pretty happily. They get sweet and tender- crap. Iām drooling on my keyboard, and Iām at workā¦
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That honestly sounds delicious.
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Wow, that is a challenge! I should perhaps have mentioned, my wife eats almost entirely vegan but endorses cheating and allowing dairy on holidays and special occasions, hence the bread pudding. (She also hates mushrooms and my son hates walnuts, which together make it harder to get umami flavor into dishes.)
I suppose if I were cooking for your family, the simplest course would be to make most of the dishes vegan (which handles the vegetarian and dairy allergy as well) and without wheat (to accommodate the celiac), and then add a dessert or two with dairy in it to handle the cravings.
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Uhh, sign me up. That sounds effen yummy. Want.
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Crock pot soup. Thatās your out. You can do all the other stuff you want, as long as you have something so totally yummy simmering away over there in the corner.
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Heh, feel. Your. Pain. This year I am lucky.
One pescatarian.
One who canāt be in the same room as fish.
One who carries an epi pen for egg allergies.
Two vegetarians.
And one vegan ācheaterā.
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
When I have celiac, strict vegans, my close friend who has crohns, diabeticsā¦ I usually just make a spreadsheet.
I feel worst for the strict vegans. āYou know that miso soup, cucumber rolls, Thai food, and half the Indian restaurants around here? You may want to sit downā.
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I love those. Fart city. But I love them.
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Sure does, but salted caramel with sage could help.
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That is half-way to my signature holiday dish, the honey-glazed onions I mentioned above. If some year you want to experiment with stepping it up a notch, try this (from memory):
- Cook the onions just like you said above. (Mmmmm.)
- While theyāre cooking, finely chop some walnuts or pecans, say about a handful to a quarter cup.
- When the onions are almost done, melt some butter on medium-high in a good-sized skillet or saucepan big enough to hold them all in one layer, preferably a cast-iron frying pan.
- Meanwhile, mix up about 1/2 cup honey in a measuring cup with 1/2 cup boiling water.
- When the onions are drained, toss them into the butter and stir them around for a while until they start to get golden brown on the outside. If they come apart a bit, donāt stress about it.
- Once the onions are golden brown, pour the honey glaze over them, turn down the heat and continue cooking until it cooks down a bit and they are well coated.
- At that point, toss the chopped nuts over the top and run it under the broiler for a few minutes to get it browned on top before serving.
These are addictively delicious. (The recipe originally came from The Mystic Seaport Cookbook, a fine repository of early New England cooking.)
The downside is they give everybody the most toxic smelling farts imaginable for the night, but itās worth it.
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