If you're still going for a family gathering this year (because hey, why would you want to miss out on a chance to argue about politics?), it might be wiser to have it at least partially outside, even if that means freezing your gizzards off. Well, the El Patio Outdoor Cookbook (editors of Southern Living, 1973) is here to help with some holiday-appropriate outdoor recipes. (Bonus: Making the sides outdoors will save you space in the oven or on the stove top!) If your family loves the old classic green bean casserole, here's El Patio's special outdoor version.
Wait. This looks like plain old green bean casserole with a few extra onions on top... and it is designed to cook indoors. I kind of forgot that the book was not all that committed to the outdoor cooking premise.
Maybe the recipe for pumpkin pudding will be a better bet.
Oh, wait. While this sounds yummy-- especially for those of us who get sick of eating pumpkin pies with soggy-ass crusts-- this is not an outdoor recipe either.
Don't worry! I really do have an outdoor recipe for you. If your family is the type that serves desserts as side dishes, Polynesian Sweets might be a great go-to this year.
You can have sweet potatoes, bananas, pineapples, miniature marshmallows, and brown sugar, and still claim it's a side because vegetables! And almonds! Plus, it gives somebody an excuse to tend to the grill once the desire to tell Uncle Bill exactly where he can stick his thoughts about the election is nearly irresistible. (Or maybe it will give Uncle Bill something to do outside on his own!)
Here's hoping we can all find good excuses to slip outside when we need to this year...
These recipes remind me of people cooking Thanksgiving meals outdoors in the 90s - when turkey fryers first came out. Incinerate a turkey or two with the fryer, then give up and cook something indoors. They just skipped the step of trying to make this stuff outside, then admitting that cooking outdoors was not going to work out.
ReplyDeleteI found an interesting take on the whole sweet vegetable thing, a farmers' bulleting from 1923 talking about estimating the amount of food needed for a family of 4 for a week, and how to make a balanced meal. I haven't had time to read it thoroughly, but it has some "interesting" theories of nutrition just skimming though. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3473/?q=pumpkin
A family of that size needs a little over 4 lbs of sweets per week. And you can totally make a balanced meal without a protein course if you serve a rice pudding or custard because the milk will count as your protein. Instead of telling people they can't have their pudding if they haven't eaten their meat, just tell them to eat pudding instead of eating meat.
That looks interesting. I'll have to check it out when I actually have time.
DeleteI always mentally picture John Cleese as the one yelling about eating meat in "Another Brick in the Wall."