food!

[rm]

What I think we're eating for Thanksgiving, assuming I get this all to work (measurement and temperature conversions, gluten-free conversions, absence of some ingredients, ingredients with other names -- all makes this very complicated):

- candied sweet potatoes
- ham steak cooked in brown sugar and mustard
- chicken breast (haven't decided on preparation yet)
- green apples mixed with cinnamon, sugar, slivered almonds and white wine
- carrots
- fried zucchini
- guacamole (Because we can. Why are avocados so cheap here?)
- stuffing (gluten-free bread, shallots, tarragon, pine nuts, italian sausage, more butter than you can possibly imagine)
- a pecan tart
- meringue nests filled with strawberries, raspberries and pomegranate seeds

ETA: Because of a number of kitchen disasters and things not being as previously anticipated -- menu has changed a lot. Trying not to beat myself up over things that I couldn't anticipate just wouldn't work. I think it'll still be okay.

Things I am sad not to be able to find:

- corn (I am not eating it from a can).
- canned (or any other sort of) pumpkin.

Things that are particularly WTF for me:

- I could only find pecans in shell, which I've never even seen before, so I have to go beat those with a can of custard til they open.
- Wow, most mustard here contains wheat flour. This is very annoying and challenging.
- The busking band that plays swing music by the mall. Really, Cardiff? Really? Thank you.

Things that prove I am my mother's child:

- "Oh, I'll just make my own whipped cream." It's not like it's hard, but did I really need that task? No.

Comments

[bethynyc.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I'll just make my own whipped cream." It's not like it's hard, but did I really need that task? No.

I get this! I was very ambitions in the month before Thanksgiving, but then the list got shorter and shorter. So we're only doing two pies instead of three pies and some other dessert, and no soup.

::hugs you and Patty:: Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you have a lovely dinner!

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Sounds lovely!

[meirion.livejournal.com]

How on earth have you not been able to find corn (I assume you mean on a cob)? Any decent supermarket should have it! If you don't mind it not being on a cob, any decent supermarket should also have frozen sweetcorn.

Also most supermarkets sell shelled pecans.

We have no respectable mustard in the house, so I can't recommend a non-floury one, but I'd recommend looking for a French one, and one that's of the seedy rather than smooth sort.

Of course, Cardiff could just be a culinary desert, but Swansea wasn't 18 years ago, and Cardiff is a capital city ....

Oh, and as for whipped cream, I find one can either get synthetic whipped cream which tastes horrible, or "whipping cream" which, er, you need to whip.

[rm.livejournal.com]

No corn on the cob (or even frozen) at the big Sainsburys in the center of town. None at the awesome market either. It wasn't even on my list of things I expected to have problems with.

Same with the pecans -- only in the shell, only at one market stall.

Totally bought French mustard to solve that problem.

And, yup, bought whipping cream to whip it myself. And am assuming that "double cream" will pass as "heavy cream" for the pecan tart.

[meirion.livejournal.com]

M&S in Cambridge had both shelled pecans and corn on the cob a couple of days ago. It's usually worth a try if it's a decent-sized M&S.

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

Do not eat British corn on the cob!! It is vile stuff, heavy & starchy & gummy - what we feed to farm animals here in the US. British visitors who taste fresh corn on the cob here are always astonished that the stuff is actually good!

Sorry, @meirion, but it is so.

And ditto the "winter squash = pumpkin" below.

You've probably already enjoyed a blissful meal - sorry I just can't resist giving advice. Happy T-Day!

[meirion.livejournal.com]

Wow. I have never ever tasted a corn on the cob that is as you describe. Crisp, crunchy, bursting with flavour: yes. I don't, however, buy Tesco Value corn on the cob, so maybe I'm missing some horrible taste "sensation".

I don't mean to be mean, but I really don't know where you've eaten this stuff in the UK, or where it was sourced from. Waitrose and M&S do good stuff. I didn't eat better in California. Part of the problem may be in the cooking ...

[marzipan-pig.livejournal.com]

Oh I can tell my immature 'British food for holidays' story!

I was at the grocery store w/my friend and we were marveling at the 'British food' section (and why it wasn't with the other 'ethnic' foods?). We were looking at the canned custards and comparing prices and I came out with "Look, the spotted dick is $4.69" (because IT WAS) and we both kind of paused for a minute and then cracked up.

Yum, happy thanksgiving, not sure why but your stuffing sounds like the most delicious thing on your list!

[laughingacademy.livejournal.com]

Homemade whipped cream is the best. I sweeten mine with maple syrup.

Happy Thanksgiving!

[hodsthorn.livejournal.com]

You're giving me flashbacks...when I was living in London in 2002, it took three shopping trips and an eventual tip from a Canadian working in a local market to find canned pumpkin, in a bodega-style market in St. Johns Wood. No one seemed to understand why this was a desirable thing to have.

Enjoy!

[dabhug.livejournal.com]

Happy Thanksgiving to you and Patty. Your pecan issues are cracking me up, no pun intended, since pecans are on the ground in their natural state everywhere around here.

Enjoy your feast!

[melebeth]

Ooooh. You inspired me to make Pavlovas. (I.e. meringue baskets filled with fruit and whipped cream, but I did them as a demo in 4th grade after my mom took me out of school to go to New Zealand with her, and... they'll always be Pavlovas to me)

[yabyumpan.livejournal.com]

Hi, I haven't introduced myself before but I've been following your LJ for a while and love reading your postings. Anyway, I live in London but I'm sure there must be a Holland & Barret in Cardiff (It's a Health food store), they nearly always have shelled Pecans. Hope you have a good Thanksgiving, your menu sounds delicous. :o)

[elainasaunt.livejournal.com]

That sounds so delicious and awesome that ... I'm actually pretty glad I'm not there to eat any of it. I'm not having a Thanksgiving meal this year, because of time constraints, but I'm enjoying reading about other people's (and thinking how much extra, very unneeded weight I won't be gaining).

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you and Patty and anyone else fortunate enough to partake.

Also:

Things that prove I am my mother's child:

- "Oh, I'll just make my own whipped cream."

I lol'd and lol'd.

[gummitch.livejournal.com]

Pumpkin? You could try Butternut squash, it's a different shape, but the flesh is pretty similar.

http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index%3Fqid%3D20061011194101AAUvekF&sa=U&ei=TofuTPG5NoPPhAfm05SRDA&ved=0CBkQFjAB&usg=AFQjCNEXY05epl-N8_zN5FclP3z9fwhI6w

Also, Happy Thanksgiving!

[kireishojo.livejournal.com]

Yeah i generaly just make things which call for pumpkin with other winter squash ifin i can't get accesss to a pumpkin or canned pumpkin. Kambocha squash is almost as good a sub as butternut squash.

[metal-tiara.livejournal.com]

Second this. Canned pumpkin is, actually, butternut squash but you will need to add cinnamon, cloves, ginger and brown sugar to get flavour.

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

That sounds lovely! I hope you and Patty have a lovely day.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I'll just make my own whipped cream."

My Mom always whipped her own cream. She also added Jack Daniels to it to give it a little bite.

She refused to acknowledge the existence of Reddi-Whip.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I tried Reddi-Whip once; "It's Elmlea!" I exclaimed.

There is something rewarding about whipping your own cream, but if you've got a limited budget of energy and time, yes, perhaps not the best course of action. (Also, putting a dot of Jack Daniels in it sounds actually rather good.)

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

Enjoy :D and happy Thanksgiving

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

I laughed so hard about the whipped cream. I'm right there with you.

Dude I do not envy you the shelling of pecans.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

I normally always whip my own cream, but I normally have my stand mixer with me, so...

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

My family expects non-dairy whipped topping for their pumpkin pie and not whipped cream (even the homemade kind). I hope you had an enjoyable meal despite any mishaps.

[crewgrrl.livejournal.com]

Since the kosher non-dairy whipped chemical equivalent almost never comes in a can (and when it does, the aerosol is always funky and it dies on you three shpritzes in), we always have to whip our own cream like substance. However it comes with the sugar already in, so all one has to do it stick the whisk attachment on the hand mixer and go!

Happy Thanksgiving!

[flutteringazure.livejournal.com]

Happy Thanksgiving to you and Patty! The menu sounds delicious, I am especially intruiged by the green apple dish :)

[(Anonymous)]

Waitrose sell canned pumpkin! It's the only place I've ever seen it for sale.

[trinker.livejournal.com]

I'm bemused by the whipped cream thing...for one, um. I'm very mammalian these days. I'm very careful to say, "I'm going to whip the cream", rather than "I'm making whipped cream".

For another - way back when, in my first apartment, when I as 19...I was in the habit of serving spiked whipped cream with coffee. The dinner guests I had one night asked, fascinated, "what are you doing?!" "I'm whipping the cream for our coffee." "You can do that? I thought you had to use the can..."

Wow.

[fitfool.livejournal.com]

Whipped cream if you have an electric mixer is easy enough. But having to crack open the pecans would make me decide to just make something else or leave out the pecans. But I can be a lazy cook -- especially if I all those other dishes in mind to make too.