Edward Scissor Hands Living in a Martha Stewart World
As you may know, Papa Bear and I have been doing a cleanse for the last two weeks, and now we’re entering into the third. Some of the recipes call for a lot of almond milk and coconut milk, so we have had quite a lot on hand lately.
Turns out, I’m hooked. Really really hooked. I have been buying the Silk brand varieties of both, and although they’re both delicious straight (and my favorite, mixed together!), I wanted to find a few ways to dress them up even more!
Caramel may be my favorite substance on this entire blue marble of ours.
Especially when the weather turns cold, I want it in every form, on everything.
The richness of the slightly burned sugars and butter and cream are lent a depth and complexity with the addition of a black pepper, cardamom, cinnamon and clove-infused apple cider syrup and spicy chai. Then we add a bright but earthy acidity that comes from a dash of raw and unfiltered apple cider vinegar.
All of these flavors are pricked up and made to sing with a sprinkling of mineral-rich pink Himalayan salt right at the end. In short, these caramels are probably the best thing you will put in your mouth this winter.
This year may have been the year of the best turkey I’ve ever made. It was also the most oven space I have ever had to work with for a Thanksgiving meal (though still not enough – we need a second oven).
The trick was on the grill. And shellacking it with a sweet boozy basting liquid. Oh yes, and brine and smoke. If you have ever wanted to make people’s jaws hit the floor when the bird hits the table on Thanksgiving day, this is the way to do it.
This thing looked downright MEDIEVAL. My dear brother-in-law described the legs as looking straight out of Beowulf – thanks for the name, Matt!
Keep reading for the full recipe, as well as all of the steps to a perfect bird.
Stuffing is always one of my favorite parts of the holiday. Or dressing, as the case may be.
Because there is no way in hell I’m putting something this good inside a bird. I know there are stuffing vs. dressing fans on either side of the debate, but here’s why I will never eat anything cooked while stuffed inside a chicken or turkey.
The bird needs to be 165 degrees in the white meat and 175 in the dark to be done and safe to eat. While that giant bird is cooking over many hours, raw poultry juices are soaking into the stuffing inside the bird. Juices that are sitting in the danger zone, temperature-wise, for many hours.
When the meat is cooked, what temperature would you guess the inside of that bird-juice-soaked stuffing is? If it’s anything less than the breast meat, you’re heading for food poisoningland. I do not like food poisoningland.
Final point – how is there any way that the cavity of that bird can contain the amount of stuffing needed to feed the amount of people you have gathered? There isn’t. So let’s just skip the middleman and the E. coli, cook in a casserole separately, and call it dressing. Good deal.
Pumpkin pie is a classic, and few pies scream Thanksgiving more clearly and loudly.
But there is another orange-ish, mashable player in town that is perhaps just as classic – it just usually makes its appearance as a side dish drowned in butter, brown sugar and marshmallows.
Your standard candied sweet potatoes are so close to being a dessert already that this year we cut out the middleman and had our potatoes in pie form.
A little booze-spiked and covered in dabs of marscapone whipped cream (as an homage to the marshmallows), this stunningly smooth and creamy pie is just as rich and decadent as pumpkin, but with a deeper and more earthy flavor.
Also, my perfect pie crust formula!
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