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by Russell Warnick

Leftovers Week: Roast Chicken Pot Pie

As regular readers of ES might know I have difficulty pleasing my BF — in the kitchen. One of the food items that doesn’t sit well with MrsBritannia is dark meat, and I have to be honest it doesn’t sit well with me either, especially on the bone, unless it comes in a basket sitting on a bar with a beer.

The day after Christmas, at least in the U.K. and many parts of the Commonwealth, is known as Boxing Day, a Victorian-era tradition when the wealthy would provide gifts and leftovers to their servants, so they could enjoy a day off for the holidays themselves. I was brunching across town on Christmas, so I didn’t have any leftovers the next day (fortunately I didn’t have any hired help to disappoint, either). So for Boxing Day dinner we decided to make a roasted chicken and vegetables. As most of our friends were recovering from Christmas themselves it was just the two of us, which made for plenty of post-Boxing Day leftovers, including dark meat. I put out a call for what to do with the meat and I was given a couple of good suggestions, including chicken croquettes and a pastel de choclo. But I played it safe and went with chicken pot pie.

by gansie

My First Pickle

This summer my little brother and his girlfriend moved in together. She keeps the apartment beautifully in shape. This includes their classy Christmas tree this holiday season. I’m not sure if my brother ever lived with a Christmas tree before. My first experience with a tree occurred during college; my roommates even presented me with my first stocking.

(Actually, funny story. That same year we also arranged a house Secret Santa and my roommate bought me a slow cooker cookbook, as I knew nothing about cooking. She bought it as a joke. She took “slow cooker” to mean not smart. Of course, the joke was on her.)

For his first Christmas tree occasion, my brother’s girlfriend bought him a few ornaments: a soccer ball, a menorah and a pickle. It’s nice to know food shows up at all the most important moments. Even if it’s porcelain.

in Holiday / Personal / Veggie 3 comments

by Borracho

Myfanwy’s Way

As much as holidays are about celebration, they are also about tradition. I come from a very close family that values togetherness above all else this time of year and nothing puts me in the holiday mood as much as time with them.

I will never forget the Christmas Day blizzard where my cousin took a Jeep and picked up every family member so that even if we could not get home, we would spend Christmas Day together. But more, I will never forget the smell of plum pudding and white sauce. And I will never forget Welsh cookies.

My grandmother’s name was Myfanwy, and along with her Welsh heritage came many traditions, but none more important than her Welsh cookies. Generations of miners in Wales took these “cookies” with nutmeg and currants to work every day and that tradition continued when they came to Pennsylvania to work the large anthracite coal mines. They’re not made like traditional cookies and definitely don’t taste like them either, as they are cooked on a griddle like pancakes. The resulting cookie has a biscuit-like flavor and texture that combines the best characteristics of pancakes, shortbread and biscuits.

Welsh cookies have been called by other names—bakestones, Welsh cakes, griddle scones—and the ingredients are simple, but the process is tricky. While my grandmother had taught a slew of family members, it was my turn to learn a few years ago.

in Desserts / Personal / Recipe 4 comments

by gansie

Welcome To a World of Eating, Evangeline

A big congrats to Endless Simmer’s TVFF for welcoming your first eater, Evangeline, into the world. May she live a delicious life filled with all the joys of Taylor’s Pork Rolls and fine Italian cuisine. (And may Mrs. TVFF resume her love of stinky cheese and raw fish.)

in Personal 1 comments

by gansie

Cream Cheese Saves the Day

I’m not sure if I ever told you this before, but I used to hate cream cheese. And then one day, when I decided to keep my mouth shut, I tried it for the first time.

I was leaving my then-boyfriend’s mom’s house, heading back to Jersey at 10 in the morning. I never thought she liked me, as any girl thinks about her boyfriend’s mother. On that particular morning, as I stuffed my sleepover clothes into a backpack, she climbed the stairs and brought me a bagel for the road. The bagel was smeared with cream cheese.

On any other morning, leaving from any other household, I would offer my thanks, and ask for a knife and butter to remedy the situation. I hated cream cheese that much. I wouldn’t even fake it.

But on that particular morning, with that particular boyfriend’s mother, I shut up the cream cheese hater inside me and graciously tucked the bagel into my backpack.

in Breakfast / Personal 5 comments

by forkitude

Texts From Thanksgiving

Have you ever wanted to eavesdrop on someone’s Thanksgiving? Well, here’s your chance. Two of our ES contributors give you their Thanksgiving text-a-thon. We’d also like to hear about your texts from Thanksgiving. Especially those after dessert drunk texts. Those are our favorite.

ML: My gravy won’t thicken. What the fucking fuck.

forkitude: Really? Reduce, reduce. You could make some roux real fast by melting butter in a sauce pan and adding flour and then add it to the gravy.

ML: I’m planning on it. I feel mentally retarded.

forkitude: Maybe you should have purchased “How To Repair Food.” Big mistake.
ML: Oh man. I bet that’d tell me how to fix gravy.
forkitude: Too bad.
ML: It didn’t work. This is a mystery of science.
forkitude: WTF?? Friday Fuck Up?
ML: Uh yeah. I even tried cornstarch. And nada.
forkitude: Just call it jus and you’re golden.
ML: It will still sadly be the best tasting thing on the table.
forkitude: Oh noooo….
ML: My parents and I just had our pre thanksgiving meal so we wouldn’t be hungry later. Oh, my family.
forkitude: My grandma just said she wants ice in her wine… And now the political discussions start. Just shoot me now.
ML: My grandma will be drinking out of the bottle.

forkitude: OMG kill me. Why do we have to debate about the homeless?
ML: I’m discussing sushi with an 8-year-old.

forkitude: Wow that is insanity. My dinner was the shiznit.
ML: I’d like to eat soon? But we keep blowing fuses.
forkitude: Well at least everyone is full from the pre dinner. OMG..my mom’s man friend with an earring and a motorcycle is coming for dessert. This should be interesting.
ML: Yesss.
forkitude: My aunt talking about Mormons: “Well why would you ever want to have sex if you couldn’t have coffee in the morning and drink before you do it?” Priceless.

in Personal 5 comments