Saturday, November 26, 2011

EMERGENCY SUBSTITUTIONS: Thanksgiving Edition

* Chicken for turkey: 2 years is 2 years 2 long when storing a turkey in a cranky old freezer. If after thawing you are greeted by a less than pleasant smell coming from your Butterball but the local grocers are all sold out of turkeys of any kind because... hey, it's Thanksgiving day.. a whole chicken, or even cut up chicken pieces, make a delicious last minute substitution. You may even find yourself preferring it if you try deep frying them in peanut oil after injecting them with Creole Butter marinade.  Make sure to fry them with the skin on, that's the best part!

* Confectioners sugar for granulated sugar: This should be used as a last resort (I used all the colored sugar sprinkles the last time I made iced tea here).  Powdered sugar contains starch in it so it will cloud liquids and thicken if it gets cooked or baked.  My biscuits weren't as fluffy as I was used to but that may also have been because the yeast was one year out of date.

* Flour for corn starch.  Good thing Gabe ran me to the store to buy flour before he took off our we wouldn't have had biscuits OR gravy! I would have used the confectioner's sugar which contains starch, but that would have made my gravy too sweet.

* Baking powder for baking soda.  Another reason my biscuits may have been a little off in taste, but they weren't bad.  Of course I found 2 unopened boxes of baking soda AFTER I mixed the dough.

* Boxed wine instead of bottled wine.  And you don't have to worry about finding that forever missing cork screw!


4 of my kids were in the 4 directions of the compass so it was just my future ex, my 2nd oldest son Zachary and myself.  The table was cluttered so we cleared a spot for our plates and sat down.  No candles this year, no fancy glasses.  I even forgot to cook the yams but nobody seemed to notice.  Bing Crosby was singing 'White Christmas' in the background.  It wasn't a traditional Thanksgiving, but it was certainly a pleasant one.

Note to self:  I moved out of the house a year ago.  Since then my well stocked kitchen has dwindled.  The next time I have to cook or bake at the house I should bring my own ingredients cos it's a Man-Cave now~ they don't have sissy things there like sugar, just salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce.

6 comments:

Kathy said...

It's who you spend your time with that matters most of all. But my note to self would be written this way: It's a man-cave now. There probably are not enough of any basic ingredient for me to cook. Send grocery list one week before.

lol The things we do for love (of family and friends)

REGINA said...

a year out of date???? i am surprised you didn't kill anyone....or was that your intention? lololol.

sounds like a nice quiet meal. of course, you were exhausted i am sure. did you have to clean up as well?

Missie said...

I admire you for being able to spend time with your soon to be ex. I'm not sure I could that. Have a good week.

TARYTERRE said...

Sounds like you improvished and it all turned out in the end. GOOD JOB.

TARYTERRE said...

PS) I meant to say IMPROVISED. Must be all the antibiotics and cough syrup I'm on messing with my spelling capabilities.

Anonymous said...

A few people donated items that were between 2-4 years behind the date for Thanksgiving to the food pantry. That really strains the thankful thing.

I remember when I used to like reading about Dick. Now the name is, well, apt. ~Mary