Thanksgiving 2020 - COVID-19 Edition

 This year's theme is booze - because what else could it be in the Age of the Pandemic? More specifically, the theme will be bourbon. The bourbons I plan to use include: 

• Knob Creek - butter, cheesecake
• Stranahan's - stuffing, turkey
• Woodford Reserve - cran sauce, pecan pie balls
• Bulleit - sw pot, carrots

I'll note which bourbon went into which dish, though I didn't give a ton of thought to trying to match specific flavor profiles to the different dishes. Most of the dishes the alcohol cooks out, but I added an extra tablespoon back into the cranberry sauce because reasons. 

For breakfast: The very much bourbon-free Thanksgiving Morning strata. Recipe: https://fullcontactcooking.blogspot.com/2018/11/thanksgiving-morning-strata.html

Cocktails: 

Bourbon Maple Leaf Cocktail: Recipe

Bourbon Cider: Recipe

Turkey and Gravy: 

Update: Due to idiocy apparently beyond my control, my second turkey didn't thaw in time...or at all. My first turkey, which is primarily for stock and leftovers, has already been rendered into bite-sized pieces and put in the freezer. SO....this year experimenting with a bone-in breast and a boneless breast. Still doing the gravy, though. 

Bourbon-Cream Turkey Gravy: Recipe

Bourbon: Stranahan's

Cranberry sauce:

Vanilla Bourbon Cranberry Sauce: Recipe

Bourbon: Woodford Reserve

Stuffing: 

Bourbon Pecan Stuffing: Recipe

Bourbon: Stranahan's 

Potatoes: 

Sweet Potatoes with Bourbon and Maple: Recipe

Bourbon: Bulleit

Vegetable: 

Whiskey-Glazed Carrots: Recipe

Bourbon: Bulleit

Rolls and Butter:

Hawaiian sweet bread rolls from the store

Bacon-bourbon butter: Recipe

Bourbon: Knob Creek

Desserts: 

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Bourbon-Butter Sauce: Recipe

Bourbon: Knob Creek

Pecan Pie Balls: Recipe

Bourbon: Woodford Reserve

Store-bought honeycrisp apple streusel pie

Liq-Creme Bourbon 'n' Beer Ice Cream

Liq-Creme Bourbon Pecan Pie Ice Cream

Relish tray - sweet gherkins, dill gherkins, black olives

Upcoming Challenges - The Paqui One Chip Challenge and the Death Nut 2.0 Challenge

 Just a placeholder post. I have 5 of the Paqui One Chip Challenge chips, 2020 edition, and 2 of the Deathnut 2.0 Challenge sets. These will need to be done on a weekend, because while I have a pretty strong constitution, I expect that there will be...consequences. In addition, they will need to be on different weekends for the very same reason. 

Tasting Indomie Mi goreng Hot & Spicy Noodles

Another first for me today as I tried my first Indonesian noodles, Indomie Mi Goreng Hot & Spicy. This made the Top 13 spiciest ramens list per TheTakeout.com. Pretty small package at only 2.82 oz (80g) - probably why the calorie and sodium totals are so relatively low. Inside are pretty typical-looking ramen-style noodles, and no fewer than 5 different sachet ingredients: seasoning powder, seasoning oil, sweet soy sauce, chili powder, and fried onion. The seasoning oil was...interesting...in that part of it was very dark and seems to have congealed inside the sauce packet, while the rest was a radioactive orange. 

I cooked the noodles per directions - boiled for 3 min, then drained. I added the sachet ingredients to the noodles rather than the noodles to the sachet - so I guess I didn't *exactly* follow them. 

]The texture was good, and the taste was definitely more soy than anything else. Then again, it didn't say it was chicken, beef, etc. I didn't see any animal proteins listed in the ingredients. Heat-wise, there isn't an immediate hit, but it does grow slowly over maybe 30-40 seconds. To my palate it wasn't very spicy but I could see it being a bit tingly for some people. Once I hit the fried onions, they were very potent little salt-bombs. I clearly didn't distribute them evenly enough as the last coupe bites were like chewing on salt crystals. 

390 calories, 17g of fat, and 8g of protein. Definitely more typical ramen in all categories. "Only" 770 mg of sodium so better than many others. 

Verdict: It was OK, but not worth what I paid for it (maybe $1.79 or so at my local grocery store). I'd eat the rest of the pack if it only came in a multi-pack, but since I got just the one, it's probably one and done. 

Taste: 6/10

Heat: 6/10

Tasting Asha Healthy Ramen Noodles (Extra Spicy with Ghost Pepper, Medium Width Mandarin Noodle)

So today I tried my first Taiwanese ramen, A-sha Mandarin Noodle, Extra Spicy Sauce, with Ghost Pepper. They note on the package that it is non-fried. It's a smaller package than many, at 3.35 oz (95g). Inside I found the noodles, which are wider and almost linguine-like, and the sauce packet, also labeled Extra Spicy with Ghost Pepper. 

The directions were distinctly lacking in specifics, so I boiled the ramen for around 2 minutes or until they hit the right level of chew. Per the packaging I drained them and then added the sauce packet. As I opened the sauce packet there was a distinct and strong aroma of....something, midway between soy and teriyaki. My daughter remarked on the pungency as well. 

The texture was good, and the taste was definitely more soy than anything else. Then again, it didn't say it was chicken, beef, etc. As the flavor lingered it turned somewhat black pepper-y. Heat-wise, there was some spicy but not nearly what I expected of something that had ghost pepper in the name. The sauce left a bit of tingle that lingered for a few minutes after I finished the bowl. 

300 calories, only 1.5 grams of fat and 11 grams of protein, so in terms of "healthy" ramen, it'd be hard to beat this one. Lots of empty carbs of course. And a whopping 1,540 mg of sodium. 

Verdict: I bought this as a 5-pack and will definitely eat them all. 

Taste: 7/10

Heat: 7/10