As I mentioned yesterday my in-laws are in town this weekend for Thanksgiving. Yes, I know Thanksgiving is not for at least a couple more weeks, but the plans around here got kind of FUBAR’ed and we thought Tom was maybe going to be in China for Thanksgiving, and since nobody else wanted to go to China for Thanksgiving we decided to have it early. It was fun, but kind of strange because I didn’t have a chance to read several hundred magazines about how to have the Best Thanksgiving Ever. I just had to wing it.
This is not our turkey
Here are some random thoughts:
The turkey cooked faster than I thought it would. I don’t know why this surprised me, it seems to happen every year. This is always worrying, and it leads to subjecting the poor turkey to a lot of poking and probing with the meat thermometer to make sure it really is done. I always worry that I am about to poison everybody. It adds a nice note of uncertainty to the festivities.
I love my roasting pan. I think it is everything the Food Network says a roasting pan should not be. It is lightweight, it has that black speckly enamel on it, and I got it at Wal Mart ages ago for about ten dollars. Every turkey or roast I have ever made in that thing has been perfect. If Wal Mart still had them I would buy more, just in case anything ever happens to this one.
I did not make my dressing in the crock-pot this time. I just put it in casserole dish and baked it after I took the turkey out of the oven. I never stuff the turkey, not because I am worried about food poisoning, but because I have discovered that if you do not stuff the bird you get way more gravy, and I am all about gravy. So no stuffing in the turkey. It was fine cooked in the casserole dish, but I like it much better if you do it in the crock-pot. I will have to remember that.
Pumpkin pie really is the best food. A dessert that’s good for you because it’s made of yellow vegetables. What’s not to like about that? I love pumpkin pie, and pumpkin bread. I am in search of a recipe for pumpkin soup. These recipes are easy to find but the first ingredient always seems to be: a pumpkin of a certain size. No. This is not what I want. I want the first ingredient to be a can of pumpkin. I do not have the time or the inclination to roast and puree my own.
In this photo they have filled the Bacone with scrambled eggs and biscuits and gravy. I am not a big fan of scrambled eggs. In fact, I think they might be poison, but I have given this some thought and I have come up with some alternative fillings:
Donut holes
French toast sticks
Lettuce, tomatoes and ranch dressing (a Bacone BLT!)
Tom and The Princess are making a Key Lime Pie. My mother in law made one while everybody was in Virginia and apparently Princess O took one bite and said, “Where has this pie been all my life?” Tom promised they would make another one sometime. And apparently that sometime is today.
First they found their inner hunter-gatherers and went to the grocery store. Now they are baking the pie and listening to Miley Cyrus.
have already procured the zester (lime zest) and the egg separator (egg yolks) for them. Now I am waiting for them to ask where to find the sugar (bottom shelf, under the crock pot), and the confectioner’s sugar (same place).
Tom has just come out and informed me that we only have salted butter and no unsalted butter. I reassured him that either one works fine. Right before he came out here I was going to predict that his next question would be “where is the pie pan”. And I was right. That was his next question after the butter situation was sorted out (cabinet under the microwave, in the back).
Other than offering my mad utensil locating skills, I have nothing at all to do with this little adventure. I cannot wait to see how this turns out.
Good God Almighty. I don’t even know what ketchup poppers are. But I bet the C-man would love them. He considers ketchup one of the four major food groups.
Their menu is very entertaining. I highly recommend it.
You can get mini corn dogs as a side dish. And they have a bacon cheeseburger on a glazed donut. I so have to go to this place.
It has come to my attention that I should probably explain just what in the name of heaven a Walking Taco is. I know I have mentioned them longingly two weekends in a row now and I have never seen them anywhere but Iowa. So I have declared them An Iowa Thing. If you, dear reader are not from Iowa and you have Walking Tacos too, let me know. And now, the moment you’ve all been waiting for:
I found this photo here. I had meant to take a picture of my OWN Walking Taco last weekend, but as I mentioned they did not have them at Principal Park. I am ashamed of them.
A Walking Taco starts with an idividual size bag of nacho cheese flavored Doritos. Take that bag and crush the chips up a little bit, but not too much. Turn the bag sideways and cut it open. Add a scoop of taco meat, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, taco sauce and sour cream if you have some handy. Oh they are so good! But they are so bad for you. I did a quick search and I found this horrifying information:
A Walking Taco has:
553 calories
33.1 grams of fat
31.47 grams of total carbs
But, it also has 32.07 grams of protein so that’s good, right?
Oh sweet merciful heavens. If this isn’t the all-time #1 Food that Can Kill You then I just don’t know what it could possibly be. In fact I may have to retire this particular blog feature because I just don’t see how it could get any better (or worse, depending on your point of view).
Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow me to present:
Deep Fried Butter
How does the FDA even allow such a thing to exist?
A quote from The Source of this piece of amazing news:
So here’s what Gonzales does: He takes 100 percent pure butter, whips it until it is light and fluffy, freezes it, then surronds it with dough. The butter-laden dough balls are then dropped into the deep fryer.
For purists who just want the unadulterated taste of butter, Gonzales serves up plain-butter versions of his creation. For others who want a little more pizzazz, he offers three additional versions with flavored butters: garlic, grape or cherry.
Apparently Abel Gonzales will be debuting this little concoction at the Texas State Fair. And I thought Iowa had the deep fried food market completely sewn up. I am ashamed of Iowans everywhere.
The article also mentions something about deep-fried Coca-Cola. Now that sounds intriguing.
A thousand thank you’s to Tom for sending me this article in the first place.
I have been fooling around on the Internet looking at hotels in Las Vegas. Tom and I are toying with the idea of a trip out there in November. I am also looking at holiday flats in Montreal for next summer but that’s another story.
Anyway, I can’t book anything until Tom finds out if he has to go to China when we were planning on being in Vegas. And I can’t book anything in Montreal for a variety of reasons. One of them being waiting to hear when my brother is getting married, but I think I may have some inside information on that. I am not telling though (oooh, intrigue).
But I digress.
While I was looking at hotels in Vegas, I found the website for the Sahara. That is one of the old old-school hotels, so I gave it a look. It turns out they have a NASCAR themed café now. And that café features this burrito:
The Big Bad-Ass Burrito weighs six pounds. It is either $19.95 or free (ask server for details). I suspect it’s free if you eat the whole thing in a predetermined amount of time. I have absolutely no idea what’s in it. I would guess a little bit of everything, and obviously it has sour cream and guacamole on top. Yum.
Here, courtesy of FXcuisine.com is deep fried pizza two ways.
First, the Scottish version, where they take a frozen (I presume) pizza, dip it in batter at the local chippie and deep fry it with the fish and chips. The result looks something like this.
Not particularly appetizing in my opinion.
Or,
You could try this version the next time you find yourself in Naples, Italy. Now, I will freely admit that I hated Naples. Naples makes Rome seem clean and orderly. But, I might go back for the chance to try pizza fritti.
In this instance you sandwich your pizza toppings between two pieces of dough and then deep fry it. Now this looks good. This I would eat. Happily.
Well, I have so much to tell you about Frankenmuth. I can best sum up Bronners with three words; I’m not crazy. I really need photos to do this place justice, and since I forgot the cord that will allow me to transfer pictures from my camera to my computer, you will just have to wait. So there.
I gotta tell ya, I have never seen a place that was more likely to put someone in a food coma.
Yesterday we went to the Frankenmuth Brewery for dinner. I had a plate of nachos the size of a rowboat. I am not even kidding. Here is one of the dessert items. I lacked the intestinal fortitude to order it, but I did write down the description so I could share it with you. Aren’t you lucky?
Oreo Cookies dipped in sweet dough batter fried and topped with ice cream, powdered sugar, chocolate fudge, caramel sauce and whipped cream.
Oof.
Today we went to the Bavarian Inn Restaurant. They specialize in German food, and a lot of it. I ordered the sauerbraten (I like sauerbraten) and it came with all of the following:
Noodle soup
Bread with butter and preserves
Creamy cucumber salad
Chicken and pasta salad
Cranberry relish
And those were just the starters. My meal came with twelve; count ‘em twelve slices of sauerbraten and all of this:
Cheese and potato puffs (mashed potato croquettes)
I’m not sure this could cause Instant Death the way some of the foods I have posted here could, but I suspect if you ate too many of these you would not be doing yourself any favors. However, this is one of the few foods I have posted here that I would actually eat.
This hails from Jolly Olde England, and the next time I am in England, I plan to eat as many of these as possible. It’s the perfect food, a french fry sandwich.
I love my carbohydrates, and this would be right up my alley, just like the potato pizza in Rome, and putting stuffing on your turkey sandwich after Thanksgiving. I’m sure I could put quite a few of these away.
This sarnie (that’s English for “sandwich”) even has it’s own song. Apparently they sing this at the Sheffield United football matches. I think I have just found another thing to add to my English to do list.
Here are the lyrics:
You Fill Up My Senses,
Like A Gallon Of Magnet,
Like A Packet Of Woodbines,
Like A Good Pinch Of Snuff,
Like A Night Out In Sheffield,
Like A Greasy Chip Butty,
Like Sheffield United,
Come Fill Me Again,
Na Na Na Na Na…OOOOHH!
I think one of these would be perfect with a Diet Coke and a packet of crisps…
Posted by goitaly 
Posted by goitaly 
Posted by goitaly 
