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

[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 ...