Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share a virtual kitchen table with other readers of Daily Kos who aren’t throwing pies at one another. Drop by to talk about music, your weather, your garden, or what you cooked for supper…. Newcomers may notice that many who post in this series already know one another to some degree, but we welcome guests at our kitchen table and hope to make some new friends as well.
This was a hunker-down holiday for me — and I know I am not alone in that. 2020 is like one long season of existentially bad weather that we just need to get through. But soon the Occupant will have decamped from the People’s House, vaccines will be distributed, and a new hopefulness will blossom under genuine leadership. We will Build Back Better — and we will feel so much better for it!
I really like Mark Sumner’s idea of celebrating a new Thanksgiving once the pandemic has been handled.
Meanwhile, I suffered through one of those sleepless nights that seem to be part of the pandemic experience. So I am not as well prepared as I would like to be. But here are a few foodie links to start some conversation.
55 Sheet-Pan Dinners to Make Life Just a Little Easier
I am intrigued by the idea of cooking a whole meal on one sheet pan. It is an extension of the one-pot notion, not unlike cooking everything in a Dutch oven or a pressure cooker. I just ordered a couple of good quality sheet pans, something we were lacking. It’s not a big expense but good, multipurpose tools to have. Anybody else play around with sheet pan dinners?
This is from the Washington Post — ten weeks, each with a featured cookbook. I signed up and highly recommend it. If you are a cookbook maven, this free newsletter is a delight. Fair warning, you’ll end up with a few new cookbooks! And that is not a bad thing. Our new newsletter is the virtual cookbook club you’ve been waiting for
From my beloved Gastro Obscura:
Celebrate the Farm Workers Behind Your Favorite Thanksgiving Sides
Organizers are using mesmerizing video clips of harvests to advocate for better protections and pay.
AS WE SIT DOWN TO enjoy Thanksgiving dinner, whether around a table or with loved ones online, most of us won’t pause to wonder where those favorite family dishes come from. Yet each stalk of celery in your stuffing, each roasted turnip in grandma’s dutch oven, and every apple in your uncle’s famous pie connects us to the time, place, and climate where they grew—and to the people who harvested them.
Your average grocery store customer may know that Brussels sprouts are good for them, but “They have no idea what a Brussels sprout looks like when it’s growing,” says Elizabeth Strater, Director of Alternative Organizing for United Farm Workers. To address this gap, Strater posed a question to UFW’s Twitter followers: “Tell us your favorite Thanksgiving dish, and we’ll share some of what we know about the work behind the ingredients.”
Amen.
Lastly, I shared this in the Pootie diary, but it certainly belongs in the kitchen, too:
Come in, be comfortable, and share your day, your weekend plans, your menus! This is an open thread.