pastameshugana

Both of these stuffed pumpkin ideas sound amazing. I'm pretty certain I'll be making some version of this. Especially since, here, as in most places outside of the US, pumpkin is nearly always a savory item, rather than sweet. Also @Rickbern's suggestion of springboek isn't a bad idea. It's certainly easy to find, as well as Wildebeest, Crocodile, & Zebra pate...

Thank you for all the great ideas to ponder!

I'm just curious to see what kinds of creative things people who both a) Celebrate Thanksgiving and, b) Don't want to make a turkey, come up with. We're in South Africa currently, and while I can find a turkey, it's a bit of a chore. And to be honest, I don't really love turkey all that much. It's just ... ok. We'll be having an early TG because family will be visiting, so I want to start to get a menu and a plan in place. There's obvious 'holiday mains' we can sub in, like a roast, a ham, etc.. Curious if anyone has any creative alternative ideas that might not be springing to my mind. I also wouldn't mind trying something completely different, like co-opting an entire meal - from mains to sides to desserts - from a different holiday or even a different culture to create a truly unique Thanksgiving meal. For us, everything is already upside down, as we celebrate what are traditionally fall & winter holidays in the summer, so changing the menu shouldn't be any more shocking than going for a swim after a Thanksgiving meal. Anyway, I'm open to creative ideas!

Ok, here's my question, but it comes from an experience: A week or so ago, while in an experimental mood, I thought it would be nice to try poaching chicken with milk. We had some thighs that needed to be used up, and I had been browsing some vaguely middle-eastern sounding recipes and thought I would create something. (Actually, I'm a huge fan of Ottolenghi's Jerusalem, but didn't have the ingredients to make one of my favorite recipe's, so I was just making stuff up.) What I think my first mistake was is taking the skin off the thighs. I reasoned that it would get 'squigly' and unappealing while poaching, so I removed it with the idea I would fry it separately and add crunchy bits back. The frying didn't turn out, so I had naked chicken. I added aromatics, salt & pepper, some seasoning to the milk, and poached low and slow until I got the internal temp where I wanted it. Removed the thighs and covered, then strained the milk and used it to cook the rice I was serving with the chicken. The results: the rice was really quite amazing. Had a velvety texture close to a risotto, but not quite. The interior of the chicken was also incredible. Really moist and pleasant. However, the outside-most of the chicken dried out pretty badly. I presume this was from off-steaming after I removed it from the poaching liquid. Also, the flavor imparted from the poaching liquid was negligible. I think I would have to both increase the amounts, and also do something like sweat or soften the onion/garlic, and maybe toast the spices before adding the milk to get more of that flavor into it. So - am I on a fool's errand? Is it worth pursuing the milk-poaching method further, any experience with this? As for the texture of the chicken: Would leaving the skin on have helped avoid the off-steaming and drying of the outermost layer? Any other words of wisdom to send my way?

I was craving Mexican, and the family was out again. When I get to cook on my own, it's very cathartic. I work from home, and it's a mostly 24/7 kind of job, so when I can get ahead enough to devote time to cooking it just feels good. Put on some Stevie Ray Vaughan and went to work! Had to cut 'tortillas' out of some 'wraps' from the store. Mrs. Meshugana is the tortilla maker in our house. The right size to cut was the lid from our sugar container: Melted some cheese and fried the shells in the cheese for something a little different: My wife absolutely loves elote, and we haven't had it in years. Boiled the cobs, stripped them, mixed with butter and a dab of plain yoghurt (in lieu of sour cream), some lime juice (and a wedge), and topped with chili powder and crumbled South African feta. Can't get cotija here, but this worked out well. The sweet corn, plus the sour and chili were perfect: Mexican rice from a random recipe on the internet. Turned out better than I was hoping, and my wife is a little bitter because she said it's better than hers (I disagree) and she's been doing it for years. The mince was pretty standard seasoning and some onion/garlic: And for dessert, I modified a fudge brownie box mix with: Dark Lindt chocolate pieces, cinnamon, and chili powder to make 'Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies.' These were wonderful. The spices complimented it perfectly, and the little chunks of dark chocolate were lovely little surprises:

When I was a kid, the Entenmann's man came to our church (still does, just retired). There were always plenty of goodies to give out at the end of his route. The donuts weren't very nice, pretty plasticky, but my dad and me *loved* the danish twists and crumb coffee cakes. A quick glance at the website shows they are now owned by Bimbo, wonder how long that has been the case. But I also haven't seen one in ages, so distribution must be pretty small.

Norm, this looks (and sounds) great!

Lol

Alas, I figured as much. From my googling, it appears that to qualify it must, at bare minimum, be beef or lamb. Is that the main distinction? Also, is there a 'name' for a dish like this with chicken, or just 'chicken shepherd's pie'?

Last night, the family was out again, and I saw some potatoes sitting there. My actual inspiration was making 'something with mashed potatoes' and I thought about Shepherd's Pie. To be fair, I have never eaten Shepherd's Pie (in my memory, at least), or even read a recipe, but I've seen plenty of pictures. I was about to look up a recipe and then thought 'This sounds like the kind of dish someone just made up out of what they had on hand,' and so, with hubris as my guide, decided to just plod ahead. Boiled potatoes in chicken stock, mashed in the stand mixer with butter, plain yoghurt (easier to find here than sour cream), mustard powder (again, because plain mustard is hard to find here, but I just 'felt' like it needed it), salt & pepper. Roasted veg (sweet onion, carrot, button mushroom, butternut squash, and a whole clove of garlic which was set aside). Also boiled some fresh peas to add color. Sautéed chicken breasts with salt, pepper, chili, and a dash of liquid smoke, then chopped. Made a thick roux with the roasted garlic from earlier, and some of the reserved chicken stock/potato water. Mixed the roux with the roasted veg and chopped chicken and put into the casserole dish, topped with a layer of cheddar cheese and broiled to consolidate, then topped with the potatoes, a light sprinkling of chili powder for color, then roasted, and topped with chives. I don't know if this even qualifies as a shepherd's pie, but it was far tastier than I was expecting, and the family was extremely happy with it. I am counting down the hours until I can eat it again for lunch!

Our 3 oldest children are adults (and live back in the US - with all of our grandkids, while we're in South Africa with the two youngest). My wife and daughter were out Thursday night, and our youngest has been getting interested in cooking so we spent the night cooking, baking, and having a great time together. First we had to prep dessert. We were making cheesecake and wanted it to be able to cool before dinner time: We can't get graham crackers for crust, so here he's smashing DeVries Ginger Cookies for our cheesecake crust. This is one of the best substitutions ever. Ridiculously good. Only mishap was I guessed on the butter and had too much in the crust. Tried to pre-bake the crust a bit to solidify it, which worked, but the excess butter turned the crust into more of a cookie. Still, crazy good, and I'll do it again for sure. A typical baked cheesecake recipe, with a blueberry & cinnamon marbling we made from fresh blueberries. Fresh as in 'fresh from the store and not frozen.' He's learning the marbling technique. We attempted to make some homemade pasta - which I do regularly, and was the thing he really wanted to learn - but for some reason the dough was just ridiculously hard this time around. Who knows. No problem, we made a quick transition to boxed spaghetti. We had some boneless, skinless chicken thighs, lemons, and some nice chiles, so we decided on the spot for 'chile lemon chicken cream pasta' and went at it. Sautéed the chicken with diced chiles and onion and set aside. Built the sauce up with red and yellow bell peppers (yellow diced, red sliced big for color), lemon juice, fresh garlic, and right at the end a whack of cream to bring it all together. Garnished with sautéed lemon slices and basil. It turned out much better than it should have, definitely greater than the sum of the parts. For a side, tried a stab at a potato I've been seeing pop up on YouTube shorts. Boiled, then sliced almost all the way through (using chop sticks to keep the knife from reaching the bottom). Then roast while periodically basting with garlic butter (with some 'Italian Herb' mix tossed in as well) until crispy. These were delightful. Will definitely make again. Cheesecake out of the oven: And a slice: We had a great time cooking together, and the we had enough leftovers for the next day.

Probably not the best reference point, but surely my grandmother isn't the only one who left soups on the stove (covered) over night if they weren't finished? She would just re-boil them the next day before feeding us. Maybe my imagination, but it seems like it was always better the next day! In fact, there is a pot of soup on MY stove right now from last night. Come lunch time, I'll get it up to a boil and enjoy away! And the added benefit, if something does go wrong and I get a runny tummy, then I get a delicious lunch AND a free weight loss program... (mostly kidding)

Scandalous!

Love Jacques, but the fork on the non-stick is hurting my head. I thought that was the number one rule about non-stick, or am I mis-remembering?

How difficult is it for you to source 'western' imports, food-wise? Are there certain things or regions that are easier to find foodstuffs from, or is it just hit and miss?