Thanksgiving 2021 - The Vaccinated Edition

 Last year we were all in the throes of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Less than 2 weeks after Thanksgiving 2020, my entire family was diagnosed with COVID. We recovered, thankfully, and didn't infect anyone, even more thankfully. We got our respective vaccinations pretty much as soon as we were able to this year, and the relatives coming over are vaxxed as well. 

Which brings me to this year's menu. Last year's Thanksgiving spread very much reflected 8 months of lockdown, with booze in every dish. This year I'm going to take a bit of a different tack - a Southwestern-flavored meal. Chiles, oregano, cumin, lime, cilantro - these will form the framework for Thanksgiving 2021. 

Roast Turkey with Southwestern Herb Butter. No recipe - just a stick of butter, zest of a lime, a teaspoon or so of finely minced cilantro, half a teaspoon of cumin, and a quarter teaspoon of chipotle or other chili powder (or omit altogether). 

Mole Gravy - recipe (no pic, c'mon, it's gravy)

Southwest Cornbread Stuffing - recipe

Mexican Roasted Sweet Potato Cubes - recipe

Mexican Street Corn Relish - will post the recipe soon, but basically corn, lime juice, cumin, chili powder if desired and to taste, and cilantro. I threw in a can of black beans as well. I usually top with crumbled cotija or feta, but that didn't make the pic. 

New Mexican Hatch Chile Cranberry Sauce - recipe 

Absolute Mexican Cornbread - recipe

Dessert - store-bought pies (pumpkin, apple streusel, cherry) with vanilla ice cream, or margarita sherbet. 

Turkey and cornbread were amazeballs. Cranberry sauce was good but prefer my usual port-based recipe better. Stuffing and mole gravy were not as well-received, though still keeping the gravy for dipping my Thanksgiving Leftover egg rolls in this weekend. 

Margarita Ice Cream Pie

 I've seen a few takes on a margarita-flavored pie. Most of them are based on sweetened condensed milk, so it's more of a lime margarita-flavored curd like you'd have in a lemon meringue pie. The recipe I based mine off of uses ice cream and sherbet, but calls for a graham cracker crust which is just not it. 

My take uses a homemade pretzel crust, held together with butter & sugar, very similar to this one: https://southernboydishes.com/2014/04/25/margarita-ice-cream-pie-a-cookbook-giveaway/ I put a bit more butter in, bake it a bit longer, and I always use a pie dish. The filling is vanilla ice cream and tequila, and lime sherbet and frozen concentrated margarita mix, and a little lime juice, lime zest, and kosher salt. 

Ingredients: 

Crust:

• 4 cups of pretzels or 2 cups of pretzel crumbs
• 3/4 cup butter, melted
• 2 tbsp sugar

Filling: 

• 3 cups vanilla ice cream
• 1/3 cup frozen margarita mix or limeade concentrate, thawed
• 3 cups lime sherbet
• 2 tbsp tequila + 1 tbsp orange liqueur such as Triple Sec 
• Juice of 1/2 lime (about 1 tbsp)
• Zest from 1/2 lime
• 1 tbsp kosher salt (I use pink Hawaiian sea salt)
• Lime slices for garnish (optional)
• Whipped cream for garnish (optional)

Directions: 

1. Preheat overn to 350F. If using whole pretzels, place in blender or food processor and blend until fine crumbs. Place the pretzel crumbs, butter, and sugar in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Lightly grease a pie dish or 10" springform pan. Place the pretzel mixture in the dish or pan and spread thoroughly, pressing up the sides firmly. For a pie dish, spread all the way up; for a springform pan, spread 1/2 to 1" up the sides. Place dish or pan in oven and bake for 12-14 minutes, then let cool on wire rack. 

2. In medium bowl, stir vanilla ice cream enough to soften. Stir in margarita mix and place in freezer just to firm up slightly. 

3. In another medium bowl, stir lime sherbet enough to soften. Stir in tequila, orange liqueur, lime juice, and lime zest.  

4. Remove vanilla ice cream from freezer. Working quickly, drop spoonfuls from each bowl randomly into the prepared crust. Once all of both mixtures is in the crust, use a spoon to gently marble and level the mixtures. Sprinkle kosher salt evenly over the ice cream mixture. Cover prepared pie with foil or plastic wrap and return pie to freezer and freeze until firm, 4 hours. 

5. To serve, remove from freezer and let stand about 15 minutes before serving. Cut into wedges. Garnish with lime slices or whipped cream if desired. Return any uneaten pie to freezer. 

Spanish Rice

 Another recipe that I *hated* as a child because onions, peppers, and tomatoes - and that I *love* as an adult. Forget where I first found this recipe but I've significantly updated it over the years so I'm comfortable claiming this version. 

Not at all healthy but man is it amazing. If you wanted to do this as a side dish, you could skip the ground beef and the cheese.

Ingredients: 

• 1/2 lb bacon, diced
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
• 1 can (8 oz) El Pato spicy tomato sauce or other tomato sauce if preferred
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup uncooked rice
• 1/2 cup ketchup or chili sauce (e.g. Heinz chili sauce)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 tsp ground black pepper (to taste)
• 8 oz. Cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions: 

1. In heavy skillet, cook bacon until crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain and set aside. Drain most of the bacon grease from the skillet, but leave enough to cook with. 

2. Add ground beef to skillet and cook until browned. Remove from skillet and drain and rinse, then set aside. 

3. Add chopped onion and bell pepper, and cook until vegetables are tender, 3-4 minutes. 

4. In a large pot, add the ground beef, vegetables, and all remaining ingredients except the bacon and cheese. Stir to combine. Cover and simmer over low to medium heat for 30-35 minutes or until liquid is mostly absorbed and rice is tender. Check about halfway through and, if needed, add another 1/4 cup of water. 

5. Preheat oven to 350. Move the Spanish rice mixture into a 15 x 10 baking dish or casserole dish. Top with the cooked bacon and cheese. Bake for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. 

Notes: 

1. You could substitute 1-1.5 cups of mirapoix mix for the onion and bell pepper. 

2. I like mine a little more spicy so I usually add about 1 tsp each of chipotle chili and chili powder or cayenne powder. 

Tasting Blue Diamond Almonds Extremes - Ghost Pepper

Interesting new addition to spicy snacking. Blue Diamond has added a line of "XTREMES" almonds to their offerings, in three flavors: cayenne, ghost pepper, and Carolina Reaper. I decided to try the middle-of-the-road offering, ghost pepper. 

Packaging: The lid features the phrase, "There's no crying in snacking". The word "XTREMES" is written in orange flames, and there's a 4-flame scale below it with 3 of the flames marked and the word HOTTER. The rest of the labeling is pretty standard. 

Ingredients: Almonds are #1 of course, then ghost pepper seasoning, then vegetable oil. I looked a little more deeply at the seasoning mix and it's salt, sugar, maltodextrin, tomato powder, Hatch chile powder as only the fourth listed ingredient, garlic powder, onion powder, jalapeno pepper, some other food coloring and preservative additives, "spices", "natural flavor", 2 kinds of oil, and finally, as the second to last ingredient just before paprika extract, ghost chile powder. 

Taste: It's almonds. There is a smoky sweetness to the powdery seasoning. The heat starts very slowly and gradually builds slightly. It lingers for about 30 seconds before fading. The flavor is pleasant, but not particularly spicy and certainly not as hot as the ghost pepper name and label would lead me to expect. 

Heat level: 3/10

Verdict: Good but not great; I think I paid around $3 for them, which is not terrible but I think I prefer some of their other flavors like wasabi soy. I will try and review the other two as well but I don't have high hopes for heat, even from the Reaper flavored ones. 

Tasting Ohsung Hot & Spicy Hong Ramyun with Soy Peptides

This one is off the TheTakeOut.com list of spiciest ramens, though I think their palates are a little less spice-tolerant than mine. This was ranked #11 on their list; their number one doesn't even make TheRamenRater.com's spiciest ramen anymore. 

Decent-sized brick of noodles at 4.2 oz/120g, and comes with two packets - one of vegetables, and one of seasoning powder. The directions are to bring 2.5 cups of water to boil and then boil everything for 4 minutes. It didn't say to drain so I didn't. It suggested adding a bunch of different add-ins; more on that shortly. 

There wasn't a lot of flavor initially. As much sodium as is present, you'd think it would be super-salty, but it's not really any saltier than most other ramens. There's a faint umami flavor, but that's it. 

The Ramen Rater did a review and said he found them pretty spicy, but I'm not getting much heat - think I had spicier salsa on my eggs this morning and that was just Old El Paso hot salsa. What heat there is does linger a bit, in a good way. 

The noodle texture was OK, nothing to write home about, but stood up pretty well over the 15 min it took me to write this post and actually eat it. 

As per usual, gonna add some more flavor via sesame oil, pulled chicken, and a little cilantro. 

Nutritional details: 490 calories, 15g of fat, and 10g of protein. 2,180(!!!) mg of sodium. 

Verdict: Just OK and not worth buying again. I'll finish the 5-pack though. 

Taste: 6/10

Heat: 3/10

Salmon with Xec

I can't remember where I first saw this. Xec ("sheck") is a Mexican citrus salsa/salad, usually made with jicama if going the salad route. You can see a more traditional salad recipe here: 

https://theothersideofthetortilla.com/2013/05/ensalada-xec-spicy-mayan-citrus-jicama-salad/

I've tried to simplify it a bit for use as a salsa on some grilled salmon. My recipe is very similar to this one from Food Network, but I left out the peppers and just added some habanero powder to my portion of salmon. 

This recipe is only for the xec; make the salmon however you like, and then top it with the xec. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 large grapefruit
• 1 large orange
• 1 large lemon
• 1 large lime
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• Chile pepper (optional - see note)
• Salt to taste - I'd say at least a 1/2 - 1 tsp. 

Directions: 

1. Halve the grapefruit horizontally and use a spoon to pull out the segments into a bowl. Do this over the bowl so you get all the juice dripping into it.

2. Do the same thing with the orange, lemon, and lime. Make sure to remove any seeds. For the lemon and lime, I also squeezed the empty halves to get any remaining juice. If desired, take the large segments, i.e. from the grapefruit and maybe the orange, and further dice them so everything is a consistent size. 

3. Stir in the cilantro and salt. Chill until ready to serve. 

Note: You can add chiles to taste; finely dice or mince them to the same size as the citrus. Depending on the pepper and the heat, anywhere from a 1/2 habanero to an entire serrano or jalapeno could work. You could also stir in some crushed chile flakes or pepper powder. 

Tasting Crio Bru Brewed Cacao

Saw an add for this and it sounded interesting. Crio Bru is similar to coffee, but instead of using coffee beans, it uses cacao beans. It's ground the same way and brewed the same way as coffee, but like all chocolate, it has almost no caffeine. Rather, the pick-me-up from chocolate, and this, comes from theobromine (and the sugar in most chocolate foods/drinks). 

Full disclosure: Not getting paid for this, didn't get any free product, I paid the full price for the full-sized bag and two sampler bags. Just thought it sounded interesting and that others might also find it so! 

I bought the Nicaragua medium roast, already ground. You can smell the cacao through the bag - I think there's a port in it similar to higher-end whole bean coffee. It looked like a pretty coarse grind. 

I brewed it per the package directions - 2 tbsp cacao per 8 oz cold water. Standard Black & Decker drop coffeemaker; of interest, they say to use a permanent gold filter rather than a paper one. It doesn't say why, but it says "no paper filters" repeatedly on the website. As it brewed, it filled my kitchen with the smell of chocolate. 

Normally I drink my coffee with no sugar and a little 1% milk. I decided that, to get the full experience, I needed to try this black, as I normally do, and with some sugar. 

Black: As I raised the cup to drink it, the chocolate aroma intensified but was never overwhelming. It's pretty bitter, a little more so than coffee. I could drink it this way, but not sure I could do my usual 1-1.5 full pots a day black. 

White: About the same; the bitterness wasn't really cut. 

Sweet: As you'd expect, it's not that far off from hot cocoa. The mouthfeel is different - since I use 1% milk, it's not nearly as thick and rich as most cocoas are. Much stronger aroma of cocoa than actual taste. 

The key question: how's it compare to caffeinated coffee? 

Cost: $14.95 for 10-oz bag. https://www.criobru.com 

Tasting Tapatio Extra Spicy Ramen Noodle Soup

Found this at my local grocery store and thought I'd give it a try. It comes in its own bowl. 3.7 oz of noodles in the bowl + a flavor packet. The package is labeled as "extra spicy" / "muy picante" / "sabor extra picante" and has a graphic of three chile peppers to denote "hottest". The directions were to fill to the fill line with room-temperature water, empty the flavor packet into the bowl and microwave for 3 minutes. Noodle texture was....OK. It's a soup so I didn't drain it.  

There wasn't a ton of flavor to it at all - nothing really discernable other than generic "protein". Spice-wise, initial impression was that it wasn't very spicy, but the heat gradually built a bit and had a nice linger to it. I did add some leftover rotisserie chicken to it and it was OK.

Nutritional details: 470 calories, 17g of fat, and 8g of protein. 1,760mg of sodium.

Verdict: OK, but probably not going to pay the $1.79 or so again. 

Taste: 6/10

Heat: 4/10

Easter 2021 Menu

The menu this year is a little less ambitious as most of the relatives have moved out of state. With that I'm doing a little more experimenting this year; based on what's caught my eye there's a lemon theme emerging. Here's what I'm making this year. 

Honey-glazed spiral-sliced ham from the store - heat & eat. 

Thyme-Roasted Rainbow Carrots recipe

Lemon-Roasted Asparagus recipe

Broccoli Slaw with Lemon Dressing recipe

Instant mashed potatoes (ran out of time)

Mini Ham 'n' Cheese Frittatas recipe

Caprese skewers. Ciliegene mozzarella ball, cherry tomato, basil leaf, balsamic vinegar glaze on a toothpick. 

Tasting the Paqui One Chip Challenge 2020

The setup. 

This is one of those things where, once it's done, you ask yourself, "Why did I do that?" It's also one of those things where everyone else asks you, "Why would anyone do that?" 

I like the spicy food challenges, so that's why I did it. It gives me bragging rights - if I had anyone to brag to who cared about such things. But at this point I did it because I bought the chips already and figured I better knock this out before the 2021 edition comes out. 

So. If you're not familiar with the One Chip Challenge (OCC), it's exactly that. You eat one chip and hold off as long as you can without drinking or eating anything. They suggest waiting an hour, but I have things to do so I set a goal of 3 minutes. 

The chip comes in a coffin-shaped box covered with warnings. Inside the box there is the chip in its own bag, some rules & expectations for the challenge itself, and a foldout that has a congratulatory message on one side and some more info about other Paqui chips on the other. It also includes a coupon good for a free bag of Paqui chips, any size/flavor, up to $5.99 (the retail cost of the OCC). 

The chip itself is a good-sized rounded wedge. It's a blue corn tortilla chip, and the powder coating is made of charcoal powder. This produces a very black chip with a terrible, awful, horrible taste in addition to the heat itself. The heat comes from Carolina Reaper betters and Sichuan peppercorns. I've found that despite the box and packaging, the OCCs tend to be broken upon opening and this one was no exception. 

The tasting. 

It's a crunchy chip, nice & thick. The charcoal powder has an off-putting smell and comes off pretty easily on the fingers, especially if you're an idiot like me and don't wear gloves. The heat hit pretty quickly, though not instantaneously. About 5 seconds in the heat was about as hot as it was going to get taste-wise. The pepper flavor quickly faded in favor of the Sichuan peppercorn and an odd, very nasty chemical taste. I know the intent is not to go for a rich cumin-y cilantro-y experience, but that was just vile. 

About 30 seconds in, my tongue started to physically hurt - almost like I'd bitten it, but much further back, about at the place where a pill might get stuck if you didn't drink enough water to wash it down. That pain lasted for about 5 minutes before fading. I wish the taste had been as prompt to go away - that was another 10 minutes or so. 

The aftermath. 

There really weren't any unpleasant after effects - maybe because I've significantly upped my hot sauce intake and spice levels of late. The memory of that taste has stuck with me, for sure, but otherwise no issues. I don't know what I'll do with the other 4 I have - maybe crush them up for a topping for chilaquiles or migas or something. They are too expensive to waste, but that taste....

Will I do it again? I think Paqui needs to do something with the flavor. Not sure if it was the charcoal, the Sichuan peppercorns, the combo, or something else, but this was just so terrible that I'm not sure I care to try them again absent some specific improvement. 

The video. 

Superbowl 55 Spread

The celebration is scaled way down this year - partly because of COVID-19 but mostly because two of my brothers moved away. Still doing a lot of food, but not as much and not so focused on snacky stuff. 

This year's Superbowl features the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. the Kansas City Chiefs. I picked a couple of things that are relatable to each city, but I'm not being super accurate. In the case of KC, I literally could not find a brisket from which to make burnt ends, so I took two swings at an alternative. First, I bought some pork "burnt ends". I've had them before, and they are good, but yeah. Second, I found a recipe for "Poor Man's Burnt Ends" that uses a chuck roast. 

For TB, they lay claim to the Cuban sandwich, but whatever it is they are calling that is something else because it includes mayo and salami. Mine will not. I'm also doing fish tacos and grouper sandwich sliders. 

The spread: 

Kansas City: 

"Poor Man's Burnt Ends" - recipe

Tampa Bay: 

Fish tacos - some grilled (baked actually), some fried, with my own crema from this recipe. 

Cuban sandwiches - recipe; I made my own mojo pork using this recipe. 

Neutral:

Bacon mac & cheese - no recipe, just plain macaroni, Ragu double cheddar cheese sauce, about a cup of sharp cheddar, and a package of precooked applewood smoked bacon. 

Dips: 

Amy's Cilantro Cream Dip (aka "green s**t") - recipe

Queso - c'mon. Velveeta, hamburger, salsa. 

Taos Chicken Salad

This is NOT an original recipe of mine - it came from a magazine at some point. I spent a few minutes tonight searching for a link to it and couldn't find it, so figured I'd retype it from my collection of "recipes I make all the time". 

Ingredients: 

• 3 flour or corn tortillas, cut into 1/4" wide strips
• Nonstick cooking spray
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
• 6 cups assorted bite sized salad greens
• 2 oranges, peeled and cut into segments
• 2 cups peeled jicama strips
• 1 can (15 1/2 oz) pinto or other beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 cup cubed red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup sliced celery
• 1/2 cup sliced green onions with tops
• Lime Vinaigrette (recipe below)

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray tortilla strips lightly with cooking spray. Place in 15x10" jelly roll pan. Bake about 10 minutes or until browned and crispy, stirring occasionally. Cool to room temperature. 

2. Spray medium nonstick skillet with cooking spray and heat over medium heat until hot. Add chicken, and cook and stir about 15 minutes or until internal temperature reaches 165 F and chicken is no longer pink in center. Remove from heat and refrigerate until chilled. (Note: I frequently just use all the meat off a small rotisserie chicken)

3. Combine greens, oranges, jicama, beans, bell pepper, celery and green onions in large bowl. Add chicken. Drizzle with Lime Vinaigrette and toss to coat. Serve immediately and garnish with tortilla strips. 

Lime Vinaigrette

Ingredients: 

3 tablespoons (tbsp) chopped fresh cilantro

3 tbsp plain low-fat yogurt

3 tbsp orange juice

2 tbsp lime juice

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tbsp water

1 tbsp sugar

1 teaspoon (tsp) chili powder

1/2 tsp onion powder

1/2 tsp ground cumin

Directions: 

1. Combine all ingredients in bowl; whisk to combine thoroughly. Refrigerate until ready to use; whisk before using.