I make this Thanksgiving themed rice dish as often as I think Jon will put up with it, throughout Autumn and Winter. I think it might have been the first dish that I ever cooked for his parents, when they came to visit us in our first flat together – it’s that reliably tasty, hassle free and beautifully festive.
As part of a Thanksgiving table, I’d factor in people who aren’t vegetarian wanting some too.
Continue reading
But my family always has a pureed [insert obscure vegetable] and there isn’t one on this menu!
Any dinner that involves tradition and family is bound to run up against roadblocks of the ‘but we always have this’ variety. Best solution: “You always have this? Great! You can bring it.” Second best, try to get ahead of the game.
These dishes can be made the night before, covered tightly with saran wrap (clingfilm) and reheated in a microwave or by stirring around in a pan with a knob of butter for a few minutes. Continue reading
Total Thanksgiving cooking time=turkey to room temperature time + cooking time + resting time
For me, total Thanksgiving cooking time = 30 mins + 2 3/4 hours + 25 mins
Therefore if dinner is at 2pm, I need to get the turkey out of the fridge at 10.20.
Continue reading
I’m pretty sure that Thanksgiving Dinner never got anybody laid. All the carbs and all the family – it’s a killer combination. Engaged? Possibly. Divorced? So I’m apocryphally told. But laid? Nope. The best we can hope for is that should the situation arise we won’t be too exhausted from all the cooking to take advantage of it. Continue reading
“I wouldn’t say it was a good date, really. No.†said friend Sara as we sloshed the white cranberry juice into the shaker.
Sara, you may recall, has been taking positive action since discovering herself to be in the middle of something of an epic dating drought. She signed up for free on-line dating trials, which were certainly turning out to be trying. Hence the girl talk and cocktails. Continue reading
My first experience of Thanksgiving was 5 years ago, when I came to New York for four months. Until then I’d never known the pleasure of a pumpkin pie, never eaten a cornbread muffin, never imagined a green bean casserole, or a marshmallow-studded bowl of baked mashed sweet potato.
But I quickly learned. Continue reading
“You know that old saying, chocolate’s better than sex – but only if you’re doing the sex wrong?†said friend Annie as we chatted on Skype earlier this week. Continue reading
Jon, returning from 3 hours of art class drawing naked middle aged models was tired and in need of succor.
Since the building water tank has just been cleaned and the water is currently gurgling coffee-colored spume into the sink, we turned to alcohol and I took out the cocktail shaker. Continue reading
My justification, if any were needed, is that I’m using up the vegetable box, which, by reason of us getting the family-sized one delivered by mistake, seems to be taking up half of the kitchen. This cake used up a slightly disappointing 4 of our dozen carrots, but it’s a step in the right direction. Continue reading
Today is the 11th anniversary of my husband and I getting together.
It happened on Bonfire Night, after walking to the Radcliffe Arms pub for dinner with our friends and watching the fireworks being set off in back gardens all over Oxford. Continue reading
