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Thanksgiving Lessons
Nov. 25th, 2022 02:20 pmI learned a few things this Thanksgiving!
1) Sweet potatoes work really well in the slow cooker. Put some foil around them or line the bottom of the insert in case they spill out delicious goo.
2) If you eat an entire sweet potato before the rest of the meal you will be too full to eat much of the delicious food on your plate.
3) Make double the amount of ricotta mixture when making a lasagna with boil noodles. I don't know why it's different but it is.
4) Food cools down FAST. I forgot how quickly it cools down. I'm very seriously considering getting a few sterno sets. I'm not a fan of room temperature lasagna! Well, ok. My lasagna is always good, even cold. But I prefer it hot.
5) When we redo our kitchen I'm going to ask for a spot with a warming lamp.
6) Related: Some way to put things like deviled eggs and cheeses on ice/a cool surface
7) I need more trivets, but towels can work in a pinch to protect surfaces from heat.
8) I need a longer table cloth. We were able to make things work with only one leaf but I'd have liked to put in both of them.
9) Next year for Christmas I'm asking for Nesko to get a third leaf made somehow. Our table has room for way more leaves than we have.
10) Unless I know for a fact that I'm having a lot of people over I need to make only a half pan of lasagna and freeze the other half for later. The broccoli casserole I made and the stuffing I made were both scaled for 8x8 pans and still made too much for our group. I can split each thing between bread pans and freeze half for later and cook the other half.
11) Pecan pie fucking slaps, and buying pies from a quality place is absolutely worth it. I already knew this but it's good to remind myself.
12) I need more vintage/cut glass/mid century modern serve-ware, especially bowls. Yes, this may seem to contradict #13 but I love how funky and cool it looks. Plus, having a plate with little impressions for deviled eggs is awesome.
13) Our everyday plates and glasses worked really well, I'm releasing my in-grained desire for really nice fine china holiday plates that need to be washed gently and delicately by hand and will fade and chip no matter how careful you are.
14) I might get another set of our plates and bowls, though, so I have another 4 each of everything and can thus accommodate more people. Nesko's immediate family consists of 12 people (so far, people might have more kids).
15) Having gotten used to the idea of every day plates for a fancy meal, paper plates are an option as well. I don't know why it helps me make that jump but it does.
16) It's really REALLY nice to not have to worry about dogs or small children and to thus have appetizers on a coffee table. I guess that's more "a reflection" than "a lesson."
1) Sweet potatoes work really well in the slow cooker. Put some foil around them or line the bottom of the insert in case they spill out delicious goo.
2) If you eat an entire sweet potato before the rest of the meal you will be too full to eat much of the delicious food on your plate.
3) Make double the amount of ricotta mixture when making a lasagna with boil noodles. I don't know why it's different but it is.
4) Food cools down FAST. I forgot how quickly it cools down. I'm very seriously considering getting a few sterno sets. I'm not a fan of room temperature lasagna! Well, ok. My lasagna is always good, even cold. But I prefer it hot.
5) When we redo our kitchen I'm going to ask for a spot with a warming lamp.
6) Related: Some way to put things like deviled eggs and cheeses on ice/a cool surface
7) I need more trivets, but towels can work in a pinch to protect surfaces from heat.
8) I need a longer table cloth. We were able to make things work with only one leaf but I'd have liked to put in both of them.
9) Next year for Christmas I'm asking for Nesko to get a third leaf made somehow. Our table has room for way more leaves than we have.
10) Unless I know for a fact that I'm having a lot of people over I need to make only a half pan of lasagna and freeze the other half for later. The broccoli casserole I made and the stuffing I made were both scaled for 8x8 pans and still made too much for our group. I can split each thing between bread pans and freeze half for later and cook the other half.
11) Pecan pie fucking slaps, and buying pies from a quality place is absolutely worth it. I already knew this but it's good to remind myself.
12) I need more vintage/cut glass/mid century modern serve-ware, especially bowls. Yes, this may seem to contradict #13 but I love how funky and cool it looks. Plus, having a plate with little impressions for deviled eggs is awesome.
13) Our everyday plates and glasses worked really well, I'm releasing my in-grained desire for really nice fine china holiday plates that need to be washed gently and delicately by hand and will fade and chip no matter how careful you are.
14) I might get another set of our plates and bowls, though, so I have another 4 each of everything and can thus accommodate more people. Nesko's immediate family consists of 12 people (so far, people might have more kids).
15) Having gotten used to the idea of every day plates for a fancy meal, paper plates are an option as well. I don't know why it helps me make that jump but it does.
16) It's really REALLY nice to not have to worry about dogs or small children and to thus have appetizers on a coffee table. I guess that's more "a reflection" than "a lesson."
