I would be remiss if I did not post some Thanksgiving food porn

And heaven knows I don't want to be remiss. Naturally, then, I am bringing you an (incomplete) Thanksgiving food porn post. Naturally, I am hoping that pr0n posts will help shake the blog out of its holiday traffic slump. It's not horrific, but it is enough to make me use words like porn, fuck and pr0n in hopes of duping the perverts out there. Anyway, we debuted a new dish this year, a green bean casserole. It started with green beans, of course. You can use canned, frozen, or fresh -- three 14.5 oz. cans, 3 14.5 oz. packages or about 2-1/2 pounds of fresh beans. I went with canned, for convenience:

Anyway, you put the green beans in a casserole dish, chop up a half-pound of bacon and spread it on top. The recipe called for a full pound, but that seemed like overkill:

Spread the chopped bacon over the beans:

Take a half cup of brown sugar and spread it over the bacon:

Then take a stick of butter, melt it and pour that over the whole shooting match:

At some point, you're going to bake that at 350 for 45 minutes, but that will be much later, because is about 9 am on Thanksgiving at this point and you are sticking that sucker in the fridge while you fix other dishes. Some of the those dishes include cooking bacon, which means the emergency backup auxiliary dog will be waiting for some cooked bacon to hit the floor. Toss her some. Reward her patience:

Then fix some stuffed potato skins to put out as a snack during the early football games so people won't starve waiting for dinner:

Some of my work was done Wednesday night, when I made the bread. It must have been OK, because half of one loaf didn't even make it to dinner time:

I also made some pies the night before -- two pumpkin, one apple:

They were pretty freaking good. Once dinner time arrived, I pulled a bunch of side dishes from the oven. The green bean casserole:

 A dish of dressing (if this were in the turkey, it would be stuffing. We had that, too. But if you cook it in a casserole and not in the bird, it is dressing.):

A sweet potato casserole

Corn pudding:

The star of the meal, of course, was the turkey, a 16-pound bird that I brined for 24 hours in a magnificent elixer of soy sauce, rosemary, sage, salt, and water. Alas, I forgot to photograph it in all it's glory before I ripped off the wings and legs:

Fortunately, I photographed said wings and legs, post-removal:

Finally, I made some really bitchin' gravy. It was good:

Nephew Wolves proclaimed this a top-three feast. I've been doing this for better than 30 years, so top three is pretty good. Everyone was pleased, I must say, and we enjoyed the food and the company. I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving. Look forward to upcoming Christmas food porn, not to mention game food porn in the coming weeks. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving food porn, limited edition

We are doing a limited food porn edition for this Thanksgiving, since last year we did a broad overview of the dishes served. This year we have a modified combination: some pies, and then a step-by-step on one of the dishes served. Perhaps I will do it differently next year, but that is how it is this year.

Without further ado, first we have the pies: two pumpkin, one apple. Very good:

Some whipped cream on those bad boys, can't beat it.

For the second part of your food porn, I give you a broccoli-cheese-mushroom casserole. Start with three tablespoons of butter in a large pot:

Once the butter is melted over medium heat, stir in two tablespoons of flour and heat until golden in color. It should look about the color of peanut butter:

Meanwhile, chop up a 1/2-pound of mushrooms, 2 cloves of garlic and a large onion:

Add those to the roux, then add 1/2 cup chicken stock.

Mix in 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne and some salt and pepper to taste. Then, add 1-1/2 cups of heavy cream, stir thoroughly.

 Chop up about a half pound of broccoli. The recipe calls for a 10 oz. box of frozen broccoli. I used fresh:

Throw it in there:

Add a cup of the cheddar-monterey blend, stir it in:

Add 3 cups of cooked rice:

Put the mix in a 2-quart greased casserole dish:

Top that sucker with the other cup of cheese:

Bake that bad boy at 425 for about 20 minutes, until the cheese is nice and gooey and browned. I don't have that picture because I put this thing together at about 8 am and it didn't come out of the over until much later and I wasn't in a picture-taking mode at that point, I was trying to put dinner on the table. So live without the finished-product picture.

Recipe caveat: The reviews on this dish were good, but I would include maybe one cup less of cooked rice and more broccoli. As it was, very ricey, not very broccoli-y. Easily remedied, and the recipe was good as-is, as well. Enjoy.