Happy Thanksgiving Stress Extravaganza Eve!

Hopefully you’re all squared away with only one more trip to the grocery store, everything’s planned out, you’ve got your game plan for when someone says why they voted for who they voted for, and there’s a big batch cocktail hiding out in a cold place.

Steve and I are actually not doing a single thing for Thanksgiving this year, minus a turkey that Steve randomly brought home yesterday. I’ll probably spatchcock that in the morning and buy some Thai food or Pizza for dinner and just try and relax. Usually I’m full cooking mode but I’ve been working for a few weeks now on a recipe development job and the last thing I want to do is cook a bunch of food. I didn’t do any sort of Thanksgiving dinner and part of me feels sad but then there’s a larger part of me that is v okay with it and will help heal the other part with half a pumpkin pie.

If I did have to make anything though, for any sort of friendsgiving potluck situation it would be a double batch of this dip.

The recipe comes from Julia Turshen’s Book, Small Victories, which is a great book because it covers a whole bunch of basics with recipes, then almost every recipe has variations within it so it’s like a buy 1 get 3 free deal.

I love a good deal I love a good dip I love a good scallion.

This dip gives french onion 2.0 vibes and it’s perfect for potato chips (or celery if you want to kid yourself tomorrow) and can easily be made today and stored until the festivities tomorrow.

On a note above all that I teamed up with Julia and the team at Chronicle Books to spread the word about the friendsgiving Julia’s got going on with No Kid Hungry. Nearly 1 in every 5 kids doesn’t have the access to the food they need to thrive and I love having some sort of platform to help with awareness. If you’ve got anything extra to give, then donate (Julia reached her goal but it would be great to go as far we can), and if you have anyone you think might not have a thanksgiving tomorrow and you’ve got the space then shoot them an invite, let them know they’ve got somewhere to go.
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Now announcing a pie for those of us with latticephobia.

Now announcing a pie that has a mountain of triple sec spiked whipped cream.

Now announcing a pie that I might have already eaten half of by myself.

This pie comes from Sarah Kieffer‘s insanely awesome new cookbook, The Vanilla Bean Baking Book. If you have anyone you need a gift for that enjoys baking even just a little baby bit this is the book for them. There’s so many recipes, so many good base classics, so many fun ones. I’ll definitely be baking from it all. the. time.

I had originally made the no-churn pumpkin ice cream and was going to shoot and share it the week of the election but then I literally ate more than half of it on said election night like I’m sure most of you did with anything you could get your hands on. When I realized what had happened in my black out rage I figured I could call it an opportunity to just have to make something else from the book.

I like a nice reveal so I figured this would be the perfect thing to take to the thanksgiving where your drumpf loving aunt expects you to bring a pumpkin pie and you show up with this. You know they can’t say shit because it’s not what they wanted but it negates them mentioning how the rest of us are not okay with the fact that there’s a remake of indian in the cupboard with a bunch of nazis that takes place in the kitchen with an old leather handbag as the lead so now it’ll casually be called nazis in the cabinet.

Make this pie, impress your family, take a pumpkin for the ones that you love, and hopefully have a good stress free thanksgiving. And if it’s not stress free hopefully you teach someone something, and if that doesn’t happen take the pie and run but also be safe and I luv u.

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Look at dat kewtness up there. Part cookbook, part coloring book, full blown cozy (think mulled beer, black and matcha cookies, tres leches cake), all from my gurl Adrianna. I’ve got to see this whole thing sort of develop and happen and it’s so cool to have the finished product and see how it turned out. Aaaaand it’s perfect timing because Christmas is right around the corner and this is great for anyone that likes to cook but also even if they just like to color  you’re covered so you should buy this for everyone you know.

I went ahead and went with the mac & cheese in the book because I don’t have a good mac & cheese on here, also I wanted a whole batch of mac & cheese sitting on my counter to test my willpower.

Spoiler alert: I have no willpower.

The original recipe is for a jalapeño mac & cheese, that I’m not mad about, but I just happened to have a jar of pimentos in my cupboard and pimentos and cheese are lovers so I paired it all together here and I love how it turned out. Gooey cheesy pimento cheese vibes without the thought in the back of my head saying you’re just eating cheese and mayo right now.

We’re also timing this perfectly right now because Thursday is just a few days away and a little birdie told me a lot of people eat food until they pass out that day and this would be perfect to help out with that. And if pimentos aren’t your thing then go ahead and use jalapeños like the original or no peppers and be vanilla but still have people love you because mac & cheese.

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I’m slowwwly getting back into the swing of things after last week. The kids could tell I was doing that for all my activities were lackadaisical and sluggish. I even found that there’s a certain contentment when you cook your food slow, but I digress.

It was hard, and not because oh no we got a new president, but because I fall into one of the groups that could lose rights people have fought years for. It sucks, and it’s a terrible feeling, and there’s people that have it stacked up against them so much higher I can’t imagine how that feels. Steve has some words on this, how he feels, his perspective, being both gay and a poc. Steve has me to turn into a rabid dog if anyone tries anything (even if he’s got a fire in him, too) but a lot of people don’t. Reach out to anyone that you know that falls into pretty much any of the minority groups and see how they’re doing, keep an eye out and speak up when you see something that’s wrong, it’s more important than ever.

This whole post is actually in conjunction with Dry soda and their release of two new holiday flavors. Amber hosted the whole thing that was supposed to happen last week but after Tuesday I was like girl my brain my body my everything feels broken right now and she was like yeah same. Sooo here we are, still feels a little weird but much better.

The whole point of the party is for a bunch of bloggers to get together and pair flavors with Dry’s new cranberry and ginger holiday flavors in these giant single serving bottles. It’s still the same soda, all natural, no coloring added, just a little flashier outfit.

I ended up gravitating towards these cute sliders with pork and sesame slaw because for me ginger, sesame, and pork is the poly relationship we all wish we could be a part of.

I love the idea of making this for a holiday party get together or dinner for one. The pork is super easy, prep and make ahead, the slaw comes together real quick, and you can cheat with the buns and buy some nice ones like a Kardashian.

And I’m doing a giveaway with Dry! One lucky person for each blog participating wins a bunch of swag from Dry, including but not limited to a couple shirts, champagne flutes, and of course the dry soda! Leave a comment below with something you’d love to pair with the cranberry or ginger Dry sodas and I’ll pick a winner on Monday. (Congratulations Zoë!) For the full list of blogger pairings head over to Amber’s site and get your holiday pairing on!

Special announcement double birth celebration today because we’re talking about this bowl of chili and the bebe red bowl that Cynthia just gave the world!! I know there’s a small difference between making a pot of chili and giving birth but we don’t need to focus on that today.

Mine is a birth because the first time I ever had jerk chicken I couldn’t stop thinking about how perfect the spices and flavors and heat would be in a bowl of chili. The whole kit & kaboodle’s been up there for months and now it’s out in the world and it’s beautiful and I want everybody to look at it. Cynthia’s is a birth because that’s something you should’ve learned in high school, or maybe middle school depending on how progressive your school was.

A bunch of bloggers got together today to make foods that belong in bowls, because we’re professional and we stay on brand. When I found out that it was all bowl driven I knew I had to make this bowl of goodness. It’s starting to get a little cold here, finally, so I can eat chili and not feel like my face is melting on the outside while also melting on the inside.

If you’ve never had jerk chicken it’s usually got this really great marinade that the chicken sits in before it’s grilled that warms up with spices like allspice and cinnamon, and heats things up with habañero. On top of all that there’s another left field mixer of ginger and lime and soy sauce. All of this mix came from a bunch of sources online that I took my favorite pieces from and made up the business that’s happening below. If you want the jerk chicken for your life with no chili involved then go check out Adrianna’s recipe.

I know maybe you’re thrown a little bit from all of this happening to your bowl of chili that’s sacred and probably free of beans if you’re one of those people but the good news is that the world is big enough for more than one pot of chili don’t email me with info that I’m doing it wrong. Nail painting emoji.

Please go make this, warm up everything, and go say hiii and congrats to Cynthia because she did more than me with this chili. And if you want to see what everyone else is up to go check out the full lists on Alana and Steph‘s sites and keep your eyes peeled on social for #threeredbowls!

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Happy National Put Pumpkin in Everything Day! There’s a biiiig virtual pumpkin party kiki extravaganza that Aimee and Sara put together with a bunch of bloggers happening rn all over. When I got the original email I knew I wanted to do something with ice cream so I could finally use this carnival glass dish I got from my THAT I DID NOT STEAL.

And then my mind immediately went to this pumpkin butterscotch that I made for Oh Happy Day for my book release last year and all I could think of was how good this business would be with bananas. That’s how we’ve reached our destination, welcome home, please don’t take your shoes off.

The butterscotch is so so easy, any butterscotch is really, and it tastes a little like pumpkin and a little like classic butterscotch with that perfect chewiness you should get from any warm ice cream sauce when it hits the cold ice cream.

Go and make this today, have it for breakfast, have it for lunch, first dinner, second dinner, don’t tell anybody, live your life, and go check out the rest of the links on Aimee and Sara’s sites!

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