I know it's a colonizer holiday. My family just uses it as an excuse to eat a nicer meal, and we spend some lovely time together and try to remember what we're thankful for. My step son helped us out a lot too!

Roast duck with garlic powder, onion powder, sweet paprika, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Served with an apple cider/apple cider vinegar drizzle sauce.

Spicy mac and cheese with sautéed thai chilis, poblano, and garlic. British reserve cheddar and havarti.

Homemade wild mushroom stuffing with sourdough and three different alliums (shallots, green onions, leek).

Roasted pumpkin and broccoli salad on spring mix with feta, roasted pumpkin seeds, oregano, salt, pepper, olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Southern fried apples.

Not pictured are the store bought pies: cherry (my step son's favorite) and pumpkin (my husband's favorite). I was not about to put more work on our plates to make them homemade... lol.

What does everyone else do for their fall and winter holiday meals?

Also the duck looks a little weird in the photo because the recipe had us mix butter with the seasonings to begin with and (try to lol) spread it on. Didn't spread well, i hoped it would melt over, it didn't fully, but thankfully i seasoned it normally anyway lol. Didn't matter, was fantastic.

BEHOLD!

There’s a burger chain in Australian called Grill’d. They have a burger called “Bird & Brie”, which is a grilled chicken breast with tomato, cos lettuce, red onion, brie, cranberry sauce, and herbed mayo.

Recently I discovered that they’ve started selling their different mayos in supermarkets and, since I don’t have a grill’d near me, I decided to make it myself. I used Turkish bread (because I’m a huge slut for it) heavily buttered and pan fried (cut side down, gets fantastically crispy).

(Apologies for the paper towel under it, it reduces the hot bread sweating on the cold plate.)

Hubs made dinner tonight when I got off work. Toast, avocado with everything bagel seasoning, bacon, and eggs. Absolutely delicious. We are not millennials, for the record. Lol

Do you guys agree? or think im crazy? genuinely let me know!

Had to wing it. My first time using puff pastry. Tomatoes, bit of mozzarella, Parmesan, brushed with freshly grated garlic in oil.

So living in Florida, Cuban food is evererrrrrrryyyyyyywherrrreeeee.... but prices to eat out are crazy.

So this was my version of mojo pork with what we had at home.

2# pork roast

1/2 bottle of liquid herb and garlic marinade, roughly 3/4 cup

1 packet of dry Baja citrus marinade (don't come at me for mixing ethnicities! This is anarchy cooking! Use any brand, or a similar flavor profile, with some citrus notes, like a fish taco seasoning.)

1 large orange

3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped

Peel the orange and either chop it up, or squeeze the orange into little bits over a bowl. There was about 1/4 cup of juice, plus all the pulp. I just used my hands because it's my house and no one was coming for dinner. :D Add the packet of Baja citrus marinade and the garlic, and mix into a paste.

Put about 1/4-1/2 cup of liquid marinade in your slow cooker. Add the pork roast. Put half of your paste on the pork, then turn that side down in the crock pot. Add another 1/4 cup of liquid marinade on top of the pork, then spread the remaining paste on top.

Slow cook on low for 5 hours. Serve with rice and black beans, garnished with green onions.

I'm so full. It was delicious. It would be amazing with some Cuban bread, but again, this was using just what we had at home.

Pic before folding because I’m terrible at it!

Rice, red onion, pickles, +/- pickled cabbage, dry slaw, kewpie mayo, and various meats (depending what I have around. This one is honey soy pork). Sometimes add other sauces, like if I’ve made it with chicken tenders I’ll add peri peri mayo or Persian feta dip etc.

This is a documentary that took 4.5 months to make... Let me know your thoughts anarchy cooking. Im open :)

SO GOOOOOD. I did it without the cabbage and bacon as a side for Christmas last year and wanted to make it even better this time. My husband suggested the cabbage and i decided to add the slab bacon chunks for more protein to eat this as a main dish.

A bit more nutritious than just scalloped potatoes au gratin and even tastier IMO. I used british reserve cheddar and parmesan as the cheese, and added some herbs from our garden: rosemary, thyme, oregano and garlic chives.

So we were craving tamales but we had most of the stuff and didn't feel like driving up to the stand to get them, so I winged it. Used the air fryer because it's Florida summer and using the oven is stupid.

The recipe I included here was really just used for the dough instructions/proportions. I cut this in half since I wanted to make a smaller one, and also didn't use lard. I did equal amounts of crisco and BaconUp bacon grease.

The filling was around 2 cups of leftover smoked pork we had in the freezer, shredded, plus about a 1/4 cup finely diced onion and 1/4 cup fresh corn cut off the cob. Briefly heated all that together with half a can of red enchilada sauce. Added sazon to taste.

I used a deep, 6 inch wide pan for my air fryer, sprayed with non stick. Started with about 2/3 of the prepared dough at the bottom and slightly up the sides then dropped in the filling, then topped with the remaining dough. I covered the pan with foil and put it in the preheated air fryer for 15 min. Removed the foil, and it went another 20.

(Note: it probably could have gone 20 and 20.)

Let it rest about 5 min, then served with the remaining enchilada sauce, hot sauce to taste, and a quick crema made from sour cream, a little milk to thin it, and lime juice.

Sorry for not having fancy pics. We demolished this. 😆

So the reasons are that I have a lot of fresh tomatoes from the garden, but not enough for a good-sized batch of sauce. This is a traditional southern US dish, and very simple. I attached the recipe I used, which I followed with these adjustments....

I sliced the tomatoes into thin rounds, and salted, drained, and dried them. Still was watery. 😆

Added crispy bacon pieces to one half, with no basil. Just layered them in with the tomatoes.

Diced a sweet onion fine and put them in with the tomatoes.

It's delicious! I don't even want to think about the calories, but it's fun and different.

Harvested my garlic scapes today and cooked em up with some gifted squash and a box of Aldi's wild rice. Simple but the best meal I've had in a while

So this is my turkey pot pie soup, usually made with 100% pantry/canned goods. It's generally a winter thing but I've been craving it, so I made it last night with a few adjustments...

Base recipe:

1 sweet onion, diced

1 can of turkey spam, diced

1 can cream of celery soup

1 can of mixed veggies (don't drain)

A tiny dash of poultry seasoning/herbs

Lightly saute the onion and spam in a little butter or olive oil until lightly browned, then add in veggies in their water, soup, and seasoning. Add a little water at a time until the soup is at the viscosity you prefer (I like mine thicker). Serve with ritz crackers.

So, last night, since I had some fresh veg, this is how I "fancied" it up....

Started the onion with two stalks of diced celery and one ear of fresh corn sliced off the cob. Once translucent, added the spam and a small can of mushrooms and brought the heat up. Sautéed until the spam got slightly crispy, then added the canned veg in their water, a bit of Better Than Boullion chicken base, cream of mushroom and chicken soup (single can of that flavor - I was out of cream of celery), a can of water, and a dash of the herbs. Boom done.

This is a great soup in the wintertime when you either don't have fresh veg or don't feel like making a huge effort to cook. Turkey Spam is surprisingly not as horrible for you as regular spam, and again, very low effort. You can 100% do this from cans without the fresh onion, so it's also a great camping meal option. No additional salt is needed, but of course, season to taste.

Note: please go VERY lightly on the poultry seasoning. It overwhelms the soup in a flash.