Plumluvfoods on WICC ep 70 Thanksgiving sides

We prep your holidays with our Thanksgiving side show!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Come you overstalling a world of sound. Chef one on
the mic making hearts.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Down, the Jeff Jeff Brown shotguns myself, Chef Dead and
the background making.

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New be Found.

Speaker 3 (00:20):
Talk girls the face they must down any night, Try
conversation song.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
The Daylight from Ball Made Dishes, Street Boostal Tides, The
Sheef Spring Made Mont Guys.

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Too Soon a podcast ra Chefs can't beg by sucking.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
Off again to marry conversation. So the fast say sound
heavy on the knee, Chef.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Fum in the list and the rest. Happy Saturday, ladies
and gentlemen.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
What's going on?

Speaker 1 (01:04):
How you doing out there us? We're doing great. Thanks
for asking. Hope you're doing well too. Hope you having
a great Saturday. Hope you're getting prepared for those holidays
because they're right around the corner. I'll tell you what.
You can feel it in the air. It almost smells
like snow. It smells like wintertime. It smells festive. That
a thing, and it's the thing for me. I'm not alone,
of course, I'm joined by the one and only, good

(01:25):
old Jeffy. It's smelling. It's smelling festive, a thing outside
like just the weather. I feel like I could smell
when it snows, can you I think you can.

Speaker 4 (01:35):
Yeah, I think you can smell the the the air change.

Speaker 1 (01:39):
You know, we've been getting a little teasing around here,
like some flurries are kind of showing up now and then.
So it kind of feels like.

Speaker 4 (01:45):
Yeah, last week it got cold. It's the cold set
in last week. And I think, like on Tuesday, I,
like I said, set in. I kind of feel like
you're right. I feel it kind of comes and just
settles on the ground for a few months.

Speaker 1 (01:56):
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
Yeah, yeah, winter came.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, I guess something like that. Well, what the holiday
is coming up? Friends? And Thanksgiving right around the corner.
We're doing little Thanksgiving series and today is the beginning
of said series where we're gonna talk all about Thanksgiving
side dishes. We're going to talk about some of the
dues and don'ts. If that's a thing, I don't know.
I guess I shouldn't say that, Jeff, because like some
people's are don'ts might be somebody's dues, right, Yeah, you.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Can't yuck somebody's young, I guess. But there's some Like
we did last week, we talked about right and wrongs
and things that trigger us, and I think on holiday meals,
traditions are what's important. So yeah, yeah, you know, your
family tradition is your family tradition, and whether it tastes
great or not, it's what you're used to.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
I get down with that. I get down with that.
I think you're right about that. Like I, I guess,
no matter what you're making, even if we or say
I'm not speaking for us, le's for me if I
disagree with like what you're serving. But there's still like
a culinary way to you know, make it or not
make it. You know what I'm saying, Like I's the
right or it's wrong. Well, there's a right and wrong
way to make correct. That's what I'm talking this week.

Speaker 4 (03:02):
Yes, but at the same time, there's more than one
way to get to the top of the mountain. We decided,
and or skin a cat, or skin a cat. I
was trying to be a little nicer to the folks.
Skin of deer, skin a deer, more than one way
to skin a deer.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Chicken. Yep, more we got enough references. Yeah, I can
throw some more. Lacing a shoe, I've seen we're talking.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
About it anymore. So many words that I now am
thinking of shoes.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, that's all it took. But yeah, so I thought
we talked about some sides, and you know, Thanksgiving sides
because for me, Thanksgiving Listen, the turkey is great, right,
I love that, But it really is kind of all
about the side dishes. Jeffy, do you feel the same way.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
Yeah, And I think the side dishes go around whatever
your main is going to be. So like somebody might
do a ham on Thanksgiving, right, they might do that?

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Feels crazy, but yes, I agree, And you're seeing more
and more people. We'll talk about this later, of course,
there's more and more people now who are doing less
of the tradition Thanksgiving. I actually read an article and
we can maybe get into this later if you want,
but about people who were doing you know what juicy
lucy is?

Speaker 4 (04:06):
The burger is. That's the one with like the you
put a piece of butter in the middle of it,
cheese like usually it's.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Middle of it, and then you you kind of like
engulf it almost like a big meatball, and you make
it like a burger, but it has this big chunk
of cheese in the middle of it. Well, I read
people doing turkey burgers, but stuffing it with stuffing and
cranberry sauce like a juicy lucy and having that for Thanksgiving. Correct,
that's they're Thanksgiving like turkey dinner. It's this turkey burger

(04:32):
Brooklyn thing or something. I don't know. That's probably that's
like a like, I don't know, I don't know what's
going on with that. I think I'm kind of a
traditionalist when it comes to Thanksgiving. Me like, I want
my you know, I want my stuffing, I want my potatoes,
you know. I kind of want a good gravy and
all that. And friends, you're gonna hear us talk and
we're gonna repeat this a million times for everybody who
just joins the show. But like, gravy is an important side,

(04:53):
and we're gonna we're gonna dedicate an entire segment to gravy.
So when you don't hear us say gravy right away,
don't don't get upset. We recognize gravy. I'm not hating
on gravy, Jeffie, are you No, I definitely don't hate
on gravy. Gravy is one of the greatest things in
the whole world. I would I would drink it if
I could, if it were socially acceptable. But I think, uh,
what exactly our sides though? Like what I mean, gravy's
a side, I think so I think gravy could be

(05:15):
a side dish. I think aside is anything that goes
with the main.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
So, okay, okay, that's fair.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
If we decide we're making a dinner, and let's say
we're having steak, right, we're having steak for dinner. Whatever
we're serving with said steak is the side, right, unless
it's the garnish, which is a different situation, right, because
some people would you know, if I make a good steak,
I may take some asparagus tips, cut them up, mix
them with some herbs and some lemon juice and garlic.
Can call it, you know, a a asparagus. But that's

(05:42):
not really a side. That's now a garnish to me.

Speaker 4 (05:44):
Okay, So if it's not like a full sauce, like
gravy can go on multiple things on the dish. That's
why it's a side, because it can go on the
multiple go option potatoes, and it goes on the stuffing,
and it can just you know, you can rub it
all over you if you want. Yeah, so gravy is
its own thing.

Speaker 1 (05:58):
But I mean it's a side dish or something that
kind of like you said, lifts up, you know, it
elevates the main.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
So it's a starch, a veg or a sauce.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
Okay, we can call it that. That's good. That's good.
That's good.

Speaker 4 (06:11):
That does that seem right?

Speaker 1 (06:12):
A starch a ved or a starch, a vegetable or
a sauce. Okay, I kind of like that rule, that's good,
that's good.

Speaker 4 (06:17):
Something like that. I just feel I feel like those
I'm trying to picture what's on my Thanksgiving table.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Starch, so like a roll could be a side, like
if you're like a bread, like a like a like
a nice delicious like yeah, you know Parker House roll
type situation, that's a side, you know.

Speaker 4 (06:32):
I also, I mean, what about like a slice of
pumpkin pie on your plate? M jump ahead of the
whole You never throw a slide on there.

Speaker 1 (06:41):
I do not. I do not. I'm not a big
Thanksgiving dessert guy, which doesn't surprise you. But you know
what I know, I know, I know I don't evenly
eat assert and Thanksgiving there's so many things to eat,
not even have made tons of desserts and I just
don't really eat them. Pie is so good?

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Is it? Though?

Speaker 4 (06:57):
It is my face because if it was so good
when we make it all the time, I would make
it all the time. But no one wants to eat it.
I'm the only one who wants pumpkin spice in July.

Speaker 1 (07:07):
Well, you are a PSL guy, that's for sure.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
I'm deep, I get in, I want it. I like
that flavor.

Speaker 1 (07:13):
So let's go. I think I think we'll save pies
for desserts, like we should definitely have desserts be a
section two.

Speaker 4 (07:18):
Okay, desserts. Desserts are a side I guess of sorts.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
Let's start with the standard. Let's start with stuffing or dressing. Okay,
I think this is one of the most key things
when it comes to you know, that Thanksgiving meal. And
then interesting part is that I say it every Thanksgiving.
You know, I think that dressing or stuffing, And we'll
we'll define the two here shortly. I'll let Jeffrey define it.
But I think that the it's such a delicious side dish,
I feel like we should make it more often. Jeff Yeah, yeah,

(07:43):
I make a great and dewey sausage. Stuffing. I do
a great urban grand manner stuffing like it's such a
great one. But anyway, can you define stuffing and define
dressing or is there a difference in the two to you?

Speaker 4 (07:55):
Well, I mean to me, stuffing or dressing is uh,
it's like a because it doesn't have to be stuffed.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
Right, I'm the outside and don't get me started. I'm
anti don't put anything in your bird.

Speaker 4 (08:14):
So they call it stuffing because it was stuffed inside
the birds, so it could be almost anything. So stuffing,
as we know it is an edible mixture, often composed
of herbs, starch like bread, or other ingredients, used to
fill a cavity or other food item during cooking.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
And I'm upset that you said cavity and it's.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
Yeah, fill that cavity with chuffing and it helps maintain
moisture and absorbs flavors.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
It does. But what it also does is if you
look back at how growing up, possibly maybe your mom,
your grandmother who made the turkey, would like start at
three am. It has to be in the oven for
all this time. Generally it's because it was stuffed, and
when its stuffed, it's denser. When it's denser, it takes
longer to cook. You know, I can make a big turkey.
I can do a twenty twenty two pounds turkey in
four hours. It's it's not rocket science.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
No no, no, no no.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
I mean honestly, people hate I mean they all look
at me like I'm crazy. Now I spatchcock everything. Oh yeah,
I cut it all apart.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
So batchpocking what it means is he cuts the backbone
out of it and then almost lays it, kind of
presses it flat. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
I mean, in fact, if I'm doing multiple birds, sometimes
I'll I'll do all different parts of the bird on
different areas in the house because I have a small kitchen.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
So we're gonna talk about cooking birds. Yeah on the turkey, yup,
on the turkey of it. So we'll do.

Speaker 4 (09:29):
But I'm saying, but people look at like, you know,
traditionalists like or people who you know are used to
just stuffing a bird and putting it in the oven,
in a bag or whatever. When they see me tear
it apart, they're like, you just ruined it.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
Like yeah, I'm gonna do And I'm like, what, relax,
my friend, that's like easy. So the stuffing itself or
the dressing, whatever you want to call it here, yep,
I mean generally bread mirror plaw, which is onion's carrots
and celery, the drippings or some sort of stock I do.
I'm just telling how I make it, uh a little

(10:01):
stock or or obviously the drippings from the from the
turkey that you don't use for the gravy. And I'll
throw some herbs in there. I like to use a
little bit of regane. I like to use a little
bit of rosemary time, all that good stuff, sage, rosemary,
and yeah, little stage of course, I go easy with stage,
can stage and be overpowering. Yes, Thanksgiving percent and there's

(10:23):
nothing wrong with them, just one hundred percent. But uh,
you know, and then you kind of bake it in
the oven and it kind of gets almost firm. It
gets that texture that you know, I don't know how
to describe it. It's just like almost like a spoon
bread type texture.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
So what I'll it's I think it is a savory
bread pudding. Okay, Okay, so it's like a custard almost.
I actually make it similar to a custard, like I'll
add a couple of egg yolks to my interestousness. That
holds it together.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
It gives it like consciousness. I wish counter here, the Justice.

Speaker 4 (10:55):
Counter would be great everyone at home drinking. But and
I like it to have like a crisp top, and
I want it to be soft and like, you know,
all the flavors come together, and yeah, I want it
to be like custardy.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
I want it to be like wet. I'm gonna try
putting egg again. It I've never done that. That's a
good I get it. Like it makes a lot of
sense to me because I put butter. I mean, what's
the difference. It's all fat, right, Yeah. And uh my
boss actually taught me that. He does it in his
stuffing and I kind of looked at him, like what
the hell are you doing? And he's like, dude, you
don't do that. I'm like, I've never heard that in
my life. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
Like he's like, let's try mine, let's try yours. And
we did, and I was like, dude, I'm sold.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Now we do it. It's good, right, it's good. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:35):
Really it really helps add just a little bit of richness.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
It makes sense, you know, Like and I said, it
helps and I.

Speaker 4 (11:40):
Like to use I think got to start with a
really good stock.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
Yeah, I think so. And I think if you're making stuffing,
particularly for Thanksgiving, you need to use turkey stocks. Some
people try to get buy with chicken stock. You can
buy a good turkey stock in the grocer store. Use
a turkey stock.

Speaker 4 (11:56):
Listen, if you really have to get the better than
bullyon turkey starter or whatever, you know, reconstitute it. At
least it tastes like turkey, you know. Yeah, you want
to carry on with the turkey flavor. You don't want
to just all of a sudden go left with a
beef bullion or whatever.

Speaker 1 (12:10):
I'll tell you. You know what really surprised me when
I make it, because I used to have to deal
with some of this in my in my for my dinner.
You know, using veggie stock works really well, and it
actually kind of tastes closer to a turkey than a
chicken stock does. In my brain.

Speaker 4 (12:23):
A good vegstock absolutely absolutely veg stuck. I feel like
you can get some really wonderful flavors out of vegetables,
especially if you roast them a little bit and then
make a stock out of them. I mean, you can
get some great, great you know, mommy and and you know,
calmly kind of flavors and sweetness that that you know

(12:43):
definitely goes well with a Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (12:45):
Absolutely, and I think the herbs are a really important
part of that. And you know, try to use fresh rubs,
and you can, obviously, if you're afraid of fresh rubs,
you can use dry herbs, but remember use less of
it because dry ups can be very, very pungent and
tend to have a little bit of funkiness to it.
But one of the tricks you can do with dry
herbs is if you smush it between your fingers or
smack it in your hands before you use it. It
brings out the natural oils by increasing the surface area

(13:06):
as you crush it in your fingers, and you'll get
a lot more flavor out of it. So try crushing
your dry erbs up in your hands. I'm not a
dry rub hater. I'm not a massive I choose between
fresh and dry. Obviously I'll take fresh. But I don't
like hate dryer herbs, do you I know? No, definitely not.

Speaker 4 (13:22):
I I grew up using dry herbs, didn't. I didn't
use really fresh herbs until I was oh yeah, you know,
probably in my twenties and working in restaurants, like right,
you know, like find any restaurants, you know, like even
a Pizzerias. When I first work at All Pizzerias, all
sprinkletwer regno on top of yeah, all dried herbs and
the pizza sauce it was all dried herbs around, like
we didn't even finish with fresh basil. Interesting, you know,

(13:44):
we didn't even get fresh basil. It would go bad,
you know.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
What I mean. It was like it just well back then, Yeah, totally,
no doubt about it. So I think it's fun to
play with stuffing too. And what I mean by that is,
like I said, one of my favorites to make is
I do a like a Cajun style with an underway
sausage and some leaks and peppers, and you know you
kind of saute all that together and that fat comes
out of those that enduey sausage when you're cooking or

(14:06):
the Chriso either one you use you the one and
then yeah, use that on your on your bread and
it just when you toss all together, it just gets
a lot of really good flavor.

Speaker 4 (14:15):
Just a different, a different punch with it. You know,
but you still use that turkey sock. Yeah, and you
know you don't have to use bread. I make a
delicious rice stuffing. Uh, that's that's really really great. I
got it talking crazy now and no, I got it
out of the James Beard. Uh, American Food Cookbook. I
had a gluten day old rice kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Or how's that? What is that? No?

Speaker 4 (14:34):
Actually? Why modified it? It to wild rice and brown
rice like a fifty to fifty. You cook them separate
and then you fold them together with a whole bunch
of macerated fruit and uh, you know, onions and celery
and and a ton of herbs, and uh, it's really good.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
You know, I've done really good. You said that the
fruit thing, it was just interesting. I've done a great
fruit stuffing too, Like you can put some great dried
fruits in there, you know, dates and raisins, and I
know you hate raisins, but you know you can get
some dried apples in there and things like that.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
Listen, Mike, can I tell you my every year I
make the same stuffing. The it's the exact same stuffing
every single year. I do not I do not go
off the radar, but it is hot and sagey sausage. Okay,
you know what I'm talking about, comes in that tube

(15:28):
that's like you would you wouldn't eat this sauce. It's
like the Jimmy Dean.

Speaker 1 (15:31):
Oh, Jimmy and breakfast sausage you make, you make, you
make like uh like like sausage and gravy with yep.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
No, So you got to get the hot and sagey one. Okay,
you gotta find it. It's usually like pathmark or something.
You gotta like be looking. Get the hot and sagey,
tons of celery, lots of herbs, parsley, thyme, sage.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (15:52):
I take some scallions. Then I do dried cherries, chestnuts
and dried apples. I do rioche and corn bread and
a bunch of stock and knobs of butter. Mix the
whole thing together, put in a tray and bake it.
And it's the same every year. I love it. It's
my and a couple eggs. I put like two eggs

(16:13):
in mine because it's big, you know. I just like
mix them up and then fold them in.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
I gotta try the egg thing. That sounds great, though,
count me in.

Speaker 4 (16:18):
I Every year I make the same one. I love
and at work, I make the same one every year
and it's tons of pearl onions and tons of button mushrooms.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yeah, yeah, with all the other usual suspects, no fruit,
so stuffing. I think it's kind of a big one there.
I think mashed potatoes is also big, and we should
talk about a little bit before, just kind of classics,
before we have to go to break here. I think
mashatatoes are very very important.

Speaker 4 (16:37):
Jeff, listen, yes, and I think i've I think people
get way out of bounds with mashed potatoes. Like you
just need butter, milk, salt, and pepper.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
You can even get away without the milk. You don't
want to, you know.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
I mean, in my opinion, you should boil your potatoes
with the skins on whole, take them out, peel them on.
They're just able to be handled. Don't mash them until
they stop steaming, uh hot milk and butter, you know,
put them in a pan together, boil it, pour that
over into the mixer as you whip.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
It, and that's it. I think you said something there
that people might might, you know, jump over there the mixer,
the hand mixers, that maybe that's the best to me,
that's the best tool for making mashed potatoes, the.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
Old school hand mixer, like the two beater hand mixer. Absolutely,
I agree. I couldn't agree more because you have more control.
You can get all around, you get to the bottom,
you can get all the little the parts and break
them up and stuff.

Speaker 1 (17:36):
And potatoes are cooked well enough, it tends to not
over mix them either. And I think one of the
key things you should do when you're making mashed potatoes,
very very key, is you let them rest. Because when
they rest, as a tend to steam and the moisture
is coming off the outer layers. The outer layers at
to separate a little bit, adding a little more air
to it inside the potato, which makes it a little
bit more fluffy. So if you watch the potatoes as
they're cooling, the little layers are sort of separate on

(17:59):
the potato. That is how you know when it's time
to hit them with the with the mixers.

Speaker 4 (18:03):
That's a great one. Biggest faux pot with mashed potatoes.
Do not use a blender or a robocoup. No like
people don't like they turn to geezy and yeah, it'll
it'll make it smooth, but it will have the consistency
of glue or like what's that alley goat?

Speaker 1 (18:18):
You know that one that's like all stretchy. It's just
it's one. Yeah, it's just it's just overmixed in that
point and there's too much. I mean, is it the
glut nickeds ordvice? I can't remember what it is, but
I don't know what it is, but it's not good. No,
you don't want to do that. But the hand mixer,
like old school like cake mixer, that's the one right there,
that's the one right there.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
We have a meg one that I love. It's great.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, dude, those work fantastic and so but yeah, I
think I kind of agree with you there, Jeff. Sometimes
I put a little garlic powder in it, just just
a sprinkle of garlic powder or or you know, uh,
look at you're getting crazy. Well, it's kind of like
the flavor of a potatoes where when I was a kid.
That's why I like it just a little bit. But
I am a little bit different than you. I want

(18:57):
to peel the potatoes before I cook them, which I
understand what you're talking about and why you would do that,
but in my world, I think I peeled them first.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
Uh, just with the peeler.

Speaker 1 (19:06):
And I also think don't get crazy with potatoes. I
use just Idaho potatoes. You know that you would bake.
You know, that's all we use for it. It comes
out great every single time. It's almost fool proof. But
UH want two key things to remember your friends. Always
start your potato water cold, very important. If you don't,
the out of the potato will overcook before the inside
potato is cooked. And make sure that water is salted.

(19:29):
Salt that water. And I think it's important to have
it almost like pasta water you want to taste like
the ocean.

Speaker 4 (19:33):
Jeff, Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Definitely, make sure you
salt that water. Potatoes pasta they can just take so
much salt, way more salt than you realize that, right
that they can, Like you'll put way more upon the
salt in the water, and then you're still gonna salt
them when you're making in the mashed potato. Absolutely you
had the cream and butter, you're still gonna add a
little more salt, pepper and stuff, and it's gonna be
They're gonna be phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
You know, But if it's funny, because if you try
it if you. I mean, this is crazy to say,
but you want to do an experiment, tried not salting
the water potatoes, and try salt in the water, and
you'll see when you finally want to make your finished product,
the amount of salt that you'll put in will be
double than what you think it's going to be because
you didn't salt potatoes. Yeah, I couldn't agree more so, Yeah,
salt potatoes. Uh, we got we got a couple minutes
for a runner break. I think green beans are important

(20:14):
with blow through quick. I think green beans are really
important to do there. I think it's a it's an
important part of it. And growing up for me, deviled
eggs had to be a part of it. Jeff. Really,
I know it's crazy, but you know that's what we did.

Speaker 4 (20:26):
We've had we always had celery with uh like cream
cheese and like olives really yeah, like or like celery
with peanut butter and raisins. They always call like, you know,
celery for some reason was like on like like for
little kids at the table.

Speaker 1 (20:40):
I don't know it was.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
It's and my wife still to this day she makes
I'm like, what are we making that for?

Speaker 1 (20:45):
And she's like I love it, and I'm like, Okay,
it's great, let's go for it.

Speaker 4 (20:48):
You know, so we always have like, you know, eight
celery stocks with some stuff on it.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
Weird. Yeah, and I've never heard of that one. That's interesting. Man. Yeah,
I mean to each throw and I guess, but yeah, Uh,
deviled eggs were a thing we had to have for sure,
which was I get it. It's kind of weird. Now
I didn't think it was. We're growing up, but now
I look back, I'm like, yeah, devil eggs was kind
of a weird thing to have. It's more of a
summertime thing, right, you know what it is for.

Speaker 4 (21:09):
Me, deviled eggs or just any church gathering, like, Okay
brings eggs.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
You know.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
That's a picnic. You're like, oh, some double eggs at
Nancy Breath. The Devil Diggs Again, that's.

Speaker 1 (21:20):
Exactly who it is. When we come back right here
on Plumblove Foods on WYCC, we're gonna be talking about
some of those side dishes that you know, maybe are
a little bit different that maybe your family is specific
to what you've done, or maybe just completely out of bounds.
When it comes to Thanksgiving dinner, you're checking out Plumblove
Foods a Chef Jeff and Chef Plumb right here on
the Voice of Connecticut WYCC, and a little bit later on,
we're gonna read some of the social media comments we

(21:42):
got back on that question of what's served only at
your Thanksgiving dinner and not really anybody else's that you've
ever seen. Stay right there, we got more Plumb Love Foods.
As we celebrate the sides of Thanksgiving on this show,
We'll be right back. Stay stay right there, Blum Love

(22:10):
Foods right here on a Saturday on WYCC, the Voice
of Connecticut, Chef Plumb, Chef Jeff hanging out with you
as we celebrate some of the sides of Thanksgiving to
help you, you know, maybe guess inspiration or start to
think about a little bit of what you're gonna serve
with that wonderful turkey dinner. We're doing a whole series
on Thanksgiving and next week, friends, we're gonna talk all
about our friend the turkey. Don't worry, We're not forgetting,
We're just focusing on sides right now. I guess this

(22:32):
feels kind of backwards, Jeff, because we said before, when
we start this whole show off, you know, defining what
a side was you it has to match the main.
But we're doing the sides before the main here on
the show.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
Hmm, well, because we're doing sides for every main.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Okay, that makes sense.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
I'm with things and we're just gonna go, you know,
and we like to be we're outside the box man
artist in order. We're not in order.

Speaker 1 (22:52):
Were disorderly, baby, that's right, that's right. We're like, yeah, well,
I got ready to make a reference to an old
Fat Boys movie, but no one's remember that for me.
Disorderly remember sure, I know, I know, I know. If
you've missed any part of this program, you want to
catch up to the show, all you do is go
to anywhere you get your fine audio programming. Those are
called podcast friends, and this show will be there and
you can get this very program plus any episodes in

(23:14):
the past. And there's a whole truckload of past episodes.
I think there's five hundred and some episodes now, which
is out of control, so you know, a lot of content.
We actually had someone to tell us a couple I
guess maybe a year ago that they were driving across
country and they got the show and they listened to
the show the entire time they drove, which seems like
an awful lot of Chef Plumb and Jeff.

Speaker 4 (23:33):
To be honest with you, yeah, it's pretty crazy.

Speaker 1 (23:36):
It's pretty crazy.

Speaker 4 (23:36):
I have friends from all over the country that will
tune in every once in a while and go on
like runs with us hilarious and then call me and
yell at me about things you talked about six months ago,
and I'll be like, what are you talking like, dude,
I don't agree with that?

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Yeah, right, what what do you mean?

Speaker 2 (23:53):
Like?

Speaker 1 (23:54):
Man, that was six months ago? What are you talking about?
But yeah, we're talking all about Thanksgiving sides and one
of my favorite things. And the first break we covered
kind of some of those you know, the staples, the
stuff and the mashed potatoes, that sort of thing, and
you know, I think, yeah, I think those are kind
of the things that everyone has at their table, but
I also know that at certain families there are some

(24:15):
family specific things that happen. When we ended the break,
we started talking a little bit about that how I
mentioned at my house growing up, there was always deviled eggs,
and Jeff hit me with the right cross of, well,
we make ants on a log, which I thought was hilarious,
which is, you know, it's peanut butter and raisins on
a stick of celery, which is I mean, by the way,
a great snack.

Speaker 4 (24:35):
Love it. To be fair, we don't do the peanut
butter and raisins really that often less someone requests it.
We actually prefer the cream, cheese and olives.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
And it's probably the olives out of a can. No, no,
it is green olives with memento. All right, all right,
I still I don't know about this.

Speaker 4 (24:53):
And which are great in a martini. And we said,
no judgment here. Everyone's different. We're not judging.

Speaker 1 (24:58):
We're just we're just talking about and we don't judge.
That's well, we're trying not to. Yeah. I have trouble
with that just a little bit. Yeah, well you because
you're a judging well, I mean when it comes to
this store of stuff, yeah, everything else. I think in
general I'm not very judging, but when it comes to this,
I know you think. So here's the things I don't
like to see on people. I want to judge your clothing,
it's not many. I want to judge what you eat.

(25:18):
I want to judge who your family is. And I
want to judge how you raise your children. It's not
that much. How you talk, how you talk for sure, yep, yep.

Speaker 4 (25:27):
How you smell.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
You gotta smell good, Jeff. I mean people don't smell good.
There's no reason for it. Very important, very very important,
you know. So see, so see it's not that much.

Speaker 4 (25:39):
Yeah, yeah, it's not. I mean, you know what, You're right,
You don't judge much.

Speaker 1 (25:44):
Yeah, thanks, Yeah, appreciate that you want to fix your
want to fix your hair. By the way, I was
just I'm kidding. Yeah, okay, I'm kidding. I'm kidding.

Speaker 3 (25:57):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (25:58):
Some staple things I think that are import until your
Thanksgiving dinner are also you know, cranberry sauce and mac
and cheese. I think those have to be there, don't you. Yeah? Absolutely,
And I think the mac and cheese is simple, and
the cranberry sauce, I mean I can make you cranberry sauce,
you know, six ways to sign.

Speaker 4 (26:13):
The mac and cheese.

Speaker 1 (26:14):
Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (26:15):
Oh you slipped that in on me. I heard the
cranberry the mac and cheese.

Speaker 1 (26:18):
Guy like a baked mac and cheese Thanksgiving. Absolutely, that
must be a Southern thing. Well it's not because my
you know, my wife's family they did mac and cheese
as well.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
Probably because they knew you were from Virginia. They were like, oh,
we should make mac and cheese for him.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
So you feel this is now it feels like you're
judging me.

Speaker 4 (26:35):
I'm not judging. This is not judgment free zone. I'm
just calling it as I see it.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
I see these things. It's called an observation. Well, mac
and cheese is delicious with gravy.

Speaker 4 (26:44):
Yo, it is, but only certain mac and cheeses are
great with gravy.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
I don't want to think crazy. I want a good
baked mac and cheese for the baked, like not super creamy.
Yeah you almost got you almost like cut it in wedges.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
Exactly that one with a lot of gravy. My friend's
grandma used to make a mac and cheese with no
milk or row or anything.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
She would just like milk cheese on pasta.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
No, she would use the pasta water. She would take
a little of the pasta water and she would just
dump like great pounds of cheese and dump it in
there and mix it up and throw it all on
the thing and then bake it.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
And it would just do that. It would be like this.

Speaker 4 (27:26):
As soon as it would cool enough, you know, you
cut it into pieces. And she always made like, you know,
Nora gravy with it, and we would just pour the
Nor's gravy over. Wow.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
I mean that kind of sounds pretty good. Actually it slapped. Actually, man,
that's all right, all right, well, but cranberry sauce, so
shot to Graham, So here the thing, cranberry sauce. I
can make you five different types, six ways of Sunday.
I can cranberry sauce you all day long. However, when
it comes to that Thanksgiving meal, Jeff, yes, you don't
want to say. I know, and you're going to aggravate

(27:56):
me to know. Why does it aggravate you? The cranberry sauce.
Cranberry sauce.

Speaker 4 (28:01):
I have a brother in law named Michael, who I love,
dearly love him, and he bring because he knows I
hate it so much, and he brings it and he
pulls that off a bag and then he opens the
can and he get onto the onto the plate and
then he slices it. In the slices. I'm like, it's
the most Bill Cosby of side dishes.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
And when he's done is he's like, wa la, Look
what I've Look what I've created.

Speaker 4 (28:26):
Jeff, He's like, this is what Thanksgiving is all about.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
I tend to agree. I think that that cranberry sauce
is like the perfect accompaniment to a slice of turkey
with gravy and and and and and particularly when you
put some some dressing or stuffing on there. I think
it's it goes hand in hand.

Speaker 4 (28:45):
So for me as a kid, I hated cranberry sauce
because I don't I didn't like the picture. It's not
quite jello, and it's not quite it's not like a
very smooth paste.

Speaker 1 (28:57):
It's like a it's like it has an interesting, a
grainy thing kind of going like yeah, and it's like weird.

Speaker 4 (29:06):
And I was like, And then I had real cranberry sauce.
I remember the first time in someone's house, and I
like that, what is this?

Speaker 1 (29:13):
This is so good?

Speaker 4 (29:14):
I could eat jars of this and I love it.
I love I love cranberries in general. I think they're delicious,
They're so tart, so good, they're great, like leftover cranberries.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
I make all sorts of stuff out of there, like
a lot of stars in those too. So when you
actually make cranberry sauce at home. It's really really simple.
You know, a little sugar. It's a little sugar, a
little orange zest, you know, and make a simple syrup
out of it. Put the cranberries in there and let
it ride and you'd be surprised at the cinema stick
piece of cake.

Speaker 4 (29:38):
I'm pretty sure. It's a cup of sugar, a cup
of water, some zestive orange and cinnamon stick and just
and you boil the bag. Bring it to a boil,
and then turn it down and then.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
Turn it off because what happens is those those berries
are to pop and the starters to get released, and
it thickens itself up nicely. It's great. It's delicious, which
I think is I mean, it's a great way to
do it, however, and I'll eat it. It done there,
I'll eat it, and I love it, and it's delicious.
But I love the canned cranberry sauce. I'm not gonna lie.
And you know, there was a place in Florida I worked,
you know, a lifetime ago, where I would do a

(30:10):
special and I would make a cranberry mayo. I'm mixing
a cannut sauce up with some mayonnaise. It was the
greatest stuff ever.

Speaker 4 (30:15):
So I mean in mayonnaise, I'm sure it's delicious, uh,
because they probably hide some of that texture. But I
just think great, great cranberry sauce and mayonnaise is so sad.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
I mean it's just so good. Yeah, same, it's great.
One of the things we should Wet'll say for the turkey.
I was just gonna emphasize how much black popper I
think is important to the meal. Thanksgiving meal. I think
it's a it's a big one for me.

Speaker 4 (30:39):
Really it is.

Speaker 1 (30:40):
It is, all right, So cranberry sauce. I just wanted
to get an honorable mention there before we move on
to some crazy things here.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
But yeah, it's a must of some sort.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Yeah, you have to.

Speaker 4 (30:48):
You have to do apple sauce a years at all, No,
do you? Yes? I sometimes make because you know, there's
so many apples in the season this time of year,
so I usually I'll make like an apple kind of
pear sauce. I'll throw a whole bunch of together. I
boil them.

Speaker 1 (31:00):
You know, I'm not mad at that. Yeah, I get it.
That's good. Yeah, do you core the apples first? No?

Speaker 4 (31:06):
I don't skin or core my apples. I throw them
in there, I boil them, and then I food mill
the whole thing and that takes out the skins and
takes your skins and seeds out, seeds out, and it
adds a nice color the skin food mill is and
what food mill is a device also that I think
we call them a riser. Another thing is it's like
a It looks kind of like a colander that has

(31:29):
a different sized plates that go into the bottom of
it with thicker or smaller holes, and then it has
a handle that locks in that has a crank arm
that kind of like pushes whatever you put into it.

Speaker 1 (31:44):
Across almost like turns the lack of a better term,
turns the blade. It pushes.

Speaker 4 (31:49):
It's like a blade that kind of like smushes whatever
you put in there across the holes.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
And it doesn't crush. It's like a force.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
Yeah, it's almost like a light force of a like
if you're going to put it in a tammy or
a calendar and kind of like slap.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
The smush it through a calendar, right right, But it
doesn't it doesn't. It doesn't have the force to crush it.
So that's how you keep the skins out of it
and keep out. It keeps out the the the seeds,
and it's kind of self scraping, so it kind of
keeps itself. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (32:12):
It's great for tomato sauce too, if you throw whole
tomatoes and throw them in there and then I just rock.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
That's great. So yeah, I think I think, uh, apple sauce,
I'm not mad that I'd be okay with that. I'm
into some apple sauce, Doug. Yeah, that's that's that's fine
for me. But let me ask you, so what have
we said so far? Well, we've got you know, our stuffing, stuffing,
cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, greats, green beans. Yeah, I think

(32:37):
green beans are important to the meal. Just that's kind
of my brain. I think every Thanksgiving din I've ever
been to, there's always green beans.

Speaker 4 (32:44):
Right, yeah, all right, screaming cast routes and squash.

Speaker 1 (32:48):
Have to be Yeah. I think squash is a squash
for sure. You know, even like a little roasted bugout
squash something simple like that to you know, you get
those beautiful colorful squashes you cut up and roast off. Yeah,
I mean definitely definitely, But what about let me ask
you this, Jeff, But what about And I've seen some
of these before, So what about someone who just makes
a rice peeloff at their Thanksgiving dinner? Is that weird?

(33:11):
Because I think that's a little strange.

Speaker 4 (33:12):
It doesn't bother me at all, especially if it's like
a rice peal off that has like say, apples and
almonds in it with a bunch of rosemary, and you know,
it's like it's like, you know, they make it into
something cool. I'm into that. I Like I just said,
I make a delicious rice stuffing sometimes that I think
is really great, and uh, some people don't eat bread.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
So it's like, you know, I feel like rice is
a weird side for Thanksgiving. I feel like it's but
I don't know, but it's just weird because I'm not
used to it doesn't mean it's.

Speaker 4 (33:36):
I'm just gonna say, it's just this. It's we're not
big big rice eaters in our homes mm hmm, Like
we eat rice like once in a while. But like
it's like, you know, there's a tons of people in
this world that rice is like pasta or is their
main meal bread? Yeah, like you know, they just have
it every single day. So it's like, it doesn't. It
doesn't freak me out at all.

Speaker 1 (33:52):
No doubt, no doubt. So yeah, I mean, I guess
rice is okay, that's not a crazy thing. All right,
Well this is the other one I found, and it's
kind of crazy. A lot of people like, like, wait
was it? Does that say? Grilled grilled arted chokes? Like
what are we talking about here? First of all, it's Thanksgiving.
Do you have any idea how hard is to clean
an art choke? And how many you need for all
the people coming over with Thanksgiving? I can't chokes. Well,

(34:16):
they're in the grocery store right now. I think that
it is kind of the time of year form, is
it really?

Speaker 4 (34:20):
Yeah? I think so, or at least the end of
the time of year form. Yeah, it must be the
end of the time of year. I mean it doesn't.
It does make sense. A lot of harvest. Everything's like
full bloom and kind of pushing out getting over.

Speaker 1 (34:30):
But what a pain in the butt to clean and
take off all the pointy parts, cut it open, get
that little you know, that frilly stuff out the middle
of it. Then you got to boil them. By the
time you do all that, like they're starting to turn
brown like it's just I don't know. Art chokes are
paying the butt and a lot of work for not
a lot of meat, you know what I'm saying. I
mean I I I'm a huge artichoke fan. I make

(34:51):
them all the time, steam boiled. To me, it's not
a ton of work.

Speaker 4 (34:56):
It is work. It's it's a it's a labor of love.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
You know, you just got a big head.

Speaker 4 (35:01):
Actually, it is kind of a big payoff if whoever
you're serving to them loves them, because you make a
delicious little something to go with it. The leaves. You
dip it, eat it, you know. It's kind of about
like it's.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
Like no one actually yeah, no one really eats the leave.
They take the dip off of it and kind of
like scrape.

Speaker 4 (35:19):
Scrape that little bit of there's like that little bit
of meat that kind of it's really what's coming off
of the heart when you pull the thing off. It's
like a little bit of heart that's attached to the
end of that hard spine of the artichoke that you
kind of scrape it off like a shell almost like
it's almost like eating a little like a vegan oyster.

Speaker 1 (35:34):
But how do you feel about it being a Thanksgiving dish?
Is that strange?

Speaker 4 (35:40):
I mean, I'm sure there's Italians out there that would
scream at me and they're like, no, We've made.

Speaker 1 (35:43):
Them every year.

Speaker 4 (35:44):
It's amazing, you know whatever, Like cause I don't think
it's weird to have like an an apasta at like
a Thanksgiving meal, like to start, you know, to have
like anapasta out when people show up and like have
crackers and cheese and stuff like that around the house,
you know, when people show up for Thanksgiving, So to
have like a some like you know, I would probably
buy like store bought art of chokes that were like
grilled or something, you know, just to make it easy.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
I doubt I would be grilling baby art of chokes
for that, right, But all right, so maybe not a
strange what about? All right? This is what I thought
was interesting. Sweet potato lockas. I mean, I don't have
a problem with a nice christy potato with with a
Thanksgiving meal. I don't. I'm not mad. I'm okay with it.

Speaker 4 (36:24):
Yeah, I locas, which is a potato pancake For anybody
who doesn't know what a lock so a sweet potato pancake,
So you know, it's probably like grated onion, grated sweet potatoes, egg,
maybe a touch of flour or something to bind it,
and then uhr, starch and then they're they're fried in

(36:45):
shallow oil. Delicious. I think I wouldn't be mad at that,
Like if I came to your house and you were
like I looked on the buffet and there was some
sweet potatos, or even I'll go a step further if
like you said, I made root a root vegetable lock
is with apple, you know, and it's like parsnips and
the vega and sweet potato and a beet or something,
I would be like cool, you know, that seems interesting,

(37:08):
Like it's like an interesting side and it's uh, seasonally appropriate.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Feels like a very family specific dish too, like you know,
like someone's family. That's what they do. You know, they
have the sweet.

Speaker 4 (37:18):
Potatoes a Jewish tradition for hankah. Definitely, So it's you know,
it's not crazy like people love and kids love lock
is too, like it's a it's a real crowd pleaser.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
Yeah, and again when you make them a after you
fry them kind of season and put them salt on them,
that's all I'm saying, yeah, very very important. Okay, this
is what I'm not so sure about. A creamed cucumber salad.
You've seen those where they rip it up with dill
and yogurt or whatever, and.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
Yeah, buttermilk and white trash vinegar. Yeah, I listen. I
love this salad. My mom makes it, like keeps one
in her fridge. She makes it and really yeah, she's
like she'll do it like every you know, till they're gone.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
You know.

Speaker 4 (37:55):
She like when she grows her cucumbers and souff she
does them in her fridge all the time, right, which
I think is a little bit I don't know, like
never a big fan of sal Are you a fan
of it? Or you just kind of like keep your
mom happy. So I'll say. What I'll say is it's
not my favorite cucumber salad, but the taste of it
is very nostalgic. Like when I go to my mom's

(38:15):
house and it's in her fridge, I picked through. I
always open up the top of where and pick a
few out, and she's always give a spoon and.

Speaker 1 (38:19):
I'm like whatever, And I like, well, you do you
tend to ease your hands a lot. I'm a pig. Yeah,
it's disgusting, but cat kind.

Speaker 4 (38:25):
Of well everyone no one believes me, but my hands.
I have good bacteria And would you stop it?

Speaker 1 (38:31):
You're making it so gross.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
Right now I'm saying, called hand spice.

Speaker 1 (38:35):
All right, we're moving on. We're moving on. The traditional
Korean loaded deviled egg pasta was something that got reported.
So they make like a pasta salad. Yeah, that's what
I's been saying.

Speaker 4 (38:47):
Are you talking about plumb? This is not a Thanksgiving list.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
This is like a This is like a I'm telling
you I got I got these A lot of these
from where they come from here. This is this came
from a mash dot com unexpected Thanksgiving side dishes that
people love.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
Someone was like, found this. It's like August Church picnic list.
And then they were like, oh man, we need we
need a weird list for Thanksgiving. You said, August Church
picnic list. That's a weird one.

Speaker 1 (39:14):
Deviled egg pasta said was definitely something that as a
kid was was was around. Like I'm not saying it
was a Thanksgiving, but it was around. And it's the thing,
you know, make a bunch of doublet eggs, then chop
them up, toss them with some pasta. There you go,
you want to get really crazy, throw a little relish
in there, sweet relish. Well that's what makes it deviled, right,

(39:36):
I guess is that the time. I don't know, I'm
just joking. I was like, what's so devil so devilish?
The sweet relish? So I mean, but come on, you
would eat this was at a table? You'd like, I'm
gonna give that a try. All right.

Speaker 4 (39:48):
First of all, I'm not rude.

Speaker 1 (39:50):
So if I go to your house, I try everything
to be a man. I'm a man. I walk in
there to do with being a man. But yes, it
does in my mind.

Speaker 4 (39:59):
Okay, Well, you take it like a man, even if
it's terrible. You take a bite of everything, and you
look everyone in the eye and you go, mmmm, thank you,
this is really good. And then you go home and
you tell your wife how much you hated certain things.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Okay. That Never that's how it goes. Never do it
in public.

Speaker 4 (40:16):
In public, you taste it all.

Speaker 1 (40:19):
So I've been doing it wrong, yes, clearly. And you
judge in public a lot, which is not good. Well,
I'm a big guy, you know he doesn't. Guys, he's
a sweet your co chef at your job posted a
picture that I thought was really annoying, and it was
something that I thought was just very like, you know,
this is going to be a little polarizer. I m'd
say it was very like generational. Some guy talking about

(40:39):
something on Twitter and not Twitter on Instagram about like
I figured out that I just basically want to do
nothing or whatever. And I sent him a message back.
I said, you understand, this is a human being that
made me a bully in high school.

Speaker 4 (40:52):
I just want you to know that I don't think
that I don't know if he made you a bullier
circumstances did, but I think that that.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
That human whoever that was, whoever had that mentality, made
me a bully.

Speaker 4 (41:04):
Listen, man, there's so many different people in the world.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
Bully plump, that's what my nickname.

Speaker 4 (41:09):
Is, bleep plump, and I'm old chuckle Jeff.

Speaker 1 (41:12):
That's that's right. Uh okay, what about a shredded carrot salad?
You ever seen this? I hate this so much. You
shred it, you throw some raisins in it. Sometimes it's
got a little shallatt dice in there.

Speaker 4 (41:24):
This is what I feel like when my black friends
are making fun of potato salad that white people make
when they're like, why you put raisins in it? Why'd
you do that? And I'm like, what are you talking about?
I think this is the salad that everyone's thinking.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
What caused it?

Speaker 4 (41:36):
It's all it's sweet, it's weird. It doesn't make any
sense to me. I don't know who came up with
it and was like and.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
They probably did even show their own carrots. They probably
bought a bag of shredded carrots.

Speaker 4 (41:47):
No, back then, you couldn't buy bags of shredded carrots.
You had to get the box grator out and you
had to just just really, you know, elbow those suckers
down and.

Speaker 1 (41:57):
Add some Yeah. I get a little knuckle meat in
there sometime, and.

Speaker 4 (42:00):
There's always a bit, you know, depending on who is helping.

Speaker 1 (42:03):
But uh, but that carrot's out is not It's not.
I mean, listen at the end of Thanksgiving dinner and
you're making that sandwich in the afternoon, you know, or
the late evening or the you know, a little bit
of carrots out and there's not bad dude, you shake
your head vehemently.

Speaker 4 (42:18):
No, I will, first of all, I barely like carrots, Okay,
I like I'll eat them cooked sometimes I just don't
love them cooked. I don't like the flavor of them personally.
It's not my favorite at and then shredded, just shredded
mounds of carrot with raisins and that like sweet coleslaw

(42:42):
dressing that people put on it.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
Yeah, you don't like that. I'm I'm just trying to
I'm trying to trigger you right now. I'm not a
big family, to be honest with you. And then it
gets crazy. They start putting nutmeg in it and stopping
cardimen and like.

Speaker 4 (42:57):
Look, and they'll be like this is aion and I'm
like what, No, it's not because you put human in it.

Speaker 1 (43:04):
No, trust me. I've been to Morocco. They don't have
carrots out. I promise you they might know where we win.
It's true, that's very very true. We got a few more.
I want to go over and come back before we
jump into it. But then we'll spend a couple of
minutes finishing some of these off, and then we're gonna
go into our gravy break friends. But before we do that, listen,

(43:25):
it wouldn't be Thanksgiving, it wouldn't be an episode of
plumb Love. Foods. It wouldn't be a Saturday with Plumb
and jeff without our house band, The Flames. They've written
a song about Thanksgiving sides for us, so we're gonna
play it for you when we come back. We're very,
very excited about Jeffy loves this one, and I'll tell
you what, it might be one of the best, some
of the best work they've done so far. They're definitely
going into different genres. It makes me very happy. Stay
right there, yep, you're checking out plumbl Foods right here

(43:47):
on the voice a wicc with Chef Plumber, Chef Jeffs.
Stay right there, We'll be right back.

Speaker 3 (44:10):
Where giving good Thanksgiving, Oh love food spanness please aure avoriche,

(44:42):
run of the Mill side dishes from Bacon, Corn, Shouting Carts,
crawn great Stubborn from Chef Mom.

Speaker 1 (44:54):
And Jeffy between Fundy.

Speaker 3 (45:04):
Chef Parma Jeffy and then.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
Praise Greens and Colleague Parmazon Biscuits song and but now
I'm bread pudding from Palm Loves Kitchen and Turkey.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
And Leadin Marine.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
To Chef Parma Jeffy, give big sang.

Speaker 1 (45:37):
Give pray, Oh yeah. The new song Thanksgiving side by
our house band, the Flames.

Speaker 4 (45:53):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Friends, felt a little bit, uh, a little bit that
got record Gospelly in here a little bit, but I
kind of liked it. Was it was nice, Jeffy. It
was a definitely change of pace what we're used to
from our good friends run the Flames.

Speaker 4 (46:04):
Definitely a nineties R and B vibe going on. Yeah,
Casey and Jojo the ladies fifty eight to eighty.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
That's that's the demo. Bro. That that's our demographic dog.
That's hilarious. That's that's hilarious right there. Thanks checking out Plumb.
The food's right here in the voice connect at wic
see with Chef Plumb and Chef Jeff. You appreciate your time, friends,
And if you've missed any part of this episode, you
can download it anywhere you get your fine digital audio
or podcast providers. Just go there, type it in, download it,

(46:38):
you can get it on your phones. You can subscribe
so you always have it when you miss an episode
as well. The thing we never say subscribe anymore. Yeah,
you get all kinds of stuff, a new episode.

Speaker 4 (46:46):
Food, new episode coming up here.

Speaker 1 (46:48):
It is and usually I would say ninety eight percent
of the time the new episodes are uploaded, about they
come out to drop, I guess probably is six six
point thirty on Saturdays, so shortly after the show airs.
The show then drop. If you've missed some things, you
can get it all right there. You're also asking any
of your like, you know, smart speakers and things like
that to play the show. It's very, very simple. We
can get this show anywhere, very very We make it

(47:08):
so easy, Josh, so easy, so.

Speaker 4 (47:11):
Easy, so easy easy. Just say plumb love foods and
we're there.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
That's it. That's all you gotta do, and they'll play
it for you. Don't say it more than if you
say it three times, we'll show up at your house. Exactly.
We just poof, but not in a good way, in
like a weird way. Oh I kind of want to
explore that, but we're not going to right now. It
just I feel like it would just go to a
different place that we probably don't want to be right now.

Speaker 4 (47:36):
It's not Disraeled weird. Its sides, man, this is Thanksgiving sides.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
We were talking a little bit before we went to
break here about some of the sides are a little
bit strange, and there's a couple where I want to
cover because we just kind of start talking, Jeff and
it happens. But you know, one of the ones that
I know has a special place in your heart. Ambrosia salad.
This is this is like one of your magic tricks, Jeffy.
Can you talk about what ambrosia salad is?

Speaker 2 (47:58):
Or?

Speaker 1 (47:58):
Growing up? For me, we called it honey salad? All right,
bunny salad. What's happening? What's happening? Just I'm just I'm
just typing and so I can get an actual I
want to I want your definition. No, I want your definition?

Speaker 4 (48:15):
All right, Well, I don't want the definition is it's
it's like it's like really fat. People were like, what
are we doing?

Speaker 2 (48:25):
What is it?

Speaker 1 (48:27):
What is in it? When you had it growing up?
What's in it? Cool?

Speaker 4 (48:31):
Whip, jello, condensed milk, marshmallows, coconut, canned mandarin fruit, usually
fruit cocktail mix. If you're lucky, you get the one
with the cherries and pears in there, yep. And then
you just mix this whole mogulation together and then you
let it set and then you serve.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
It and.

Speaker 4 (48:55):
Make it crazy.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
Growing up, my mom put shredded carrots in it. Oh Man,
I'm telling you, I'm so glad I never met her.
But that's what it is and what you're saying. The
interest is the internet doesn't even tell you that we
used your brain. Jeffy, you you were a smart chef. Well,
I just wanted to see if there was like a
I wanted to know where it came from. I was like, no,
we don't. You can find if you want, but I'll

(49:16):
tell you.

Speaker 2 (49:16):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (49:17):
It's one of those dishes that I feel like, if
it's not on the table, people are like, oh, where's
the salad at where's the bunny salad? Where's the ambrosia salad?
Like it's I don't know. Is it tastes great? No?
Does it taste bad?

Speaker 4 (49:27):
No?

Speaker 1 (49:28):
Is it interesting? Yes? Does everyone have it? I think
every Thanksgiving that I've ever been to everyone has a
version of the salads, particularly for their family.

Speaker 4 (49:38):
No, we don't do that in my house. Really, I
let no ambrosia come.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
Even as a kid.

Speaker 4 (49:44):
No, we didn't have him. I didn't have ambrosia. I
had an ambrosia salad at church picnics and my family
we would get it on our plates and I remember
looking at my mother going.

Speaker 1 (49:52):
What what is this she's like, just taste, it's fine.
I'm like, what is it. It's like, it's like, is
it putting? It was like looking it, It's like like
but it was good, it didays bad.

Speaker 4 (50:05):
I'm like, what was And every once in a while
and they were all different. There was never like one ambrosia,
Like somebody would mak an ambrosia like, oh I like ambrosia,
and then you went go back for somebody else's ambrosia
and you'd be.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Like, oh oh, Like I said, I think it was
very like ambrosia. Yeah, it's very very depends on the
family and where it comes from. What's it? Like I said,
my mom put carrots in it, which is crazy. This
was just terrible. Yeah, I don't think it's that bad.
I think that I think you're hating a lot. Okay,
so but to keep moving.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
For me, it's not a tradition in my house, so
it freaks me out. I feel like if someone was
like they had it, they didn't show it to you.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
I feel like if.

Speaker 4 (50:40):
Someone gave me ambrosia with granola at breakfast, I would
have been like, oh, this is great, this is a
really interesting that this makes awesome, this is good. But
like to give it to me next to my turkey
with a can of cranberry sauce. I'm like, man, why
do you hate me?

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Why'd you have me over? Sty? Do sty do to you?

Speaker 4 (50:59):
I thought we were friends?

Speaker 1 (51:00):
Well, this is what I wanted to ask you about
for sure, because I had I have, I definitely feelings
on this. And it's interesting because you don't see like
people talking about it. How about beans for Thanksgiving? Green beans?
We already talked about that. No, no, not those kind
of beans. What about like a baked beans that kind
of thing? You look upset?

Speaker 4 (51:19):
Again? This is like the August church picnic list. I'm like,
where are we who's making baked beans?

Speaker 1 (51:26):
On things? Do you make baked beans? And things?

Speaker 3 (51:28):
I do not?

Speaker 1 (51:28):
But growing up we did have baked beans at Thanksgiving.
I just feel like that's like a like like on Thanksgiving?
Was your mom like, what do we got in the pantry? Guys?
What should we make beans in there? Let's fix it?
What goes with turkey beans? Goes to turkey beans? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (51:45):
Sure?

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Why not? I feel like? Or what about like black
wescously black eyed peas? We black eyed peas or handcocks
and greens in.

Speaker 4 (51:51):
It that I would mess with and that is definitely
a winter dish to me, Like it's the same realm
as baked beans. Different because hopping John's with the it's
different than baked beans flavor.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
Baked beans is barbecue flavor. Not always, but yeah, it
goes with barbecue food like sweet ketchup.

Speaker 4 (52:12):
Yeah, unless you're English and then you put that on
your eggs.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
That's the thing they do, that's for sure.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
It's like a which that was another you're having English
that we're going to sidebar here. This is bad anyway.
Beans to me are like I wouldn't be mad. I
would eat them. I love baked beans. They're delicious. If
you smoked your turkey and had baked beans, and I said,
yes upside that, I wouldn't be.

Speaker 1 (52:35):
Mad at that turkey. I think I tak a turkey
leg I'm a smoke turkey and some baked bean, baked beans.
I'm already in all right, you got me impoorting baked
beans over top my stuffing.

Speaker 4 (52:44):
Let's go all right, now you're getting weird is on
top of the brosa salad. My mom will put everything
on her plate and then she like mixes it and
then we'll put a little ketchup. I'm like, what do you.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
Put a little ketchup? Don't do that going on here, snake.
I feel like it just hurts my feelings, Like I
want to spend a little time here talking about what
I think is one of the most important stars of
the entire show, the gravy. You know, I think a
sauce is very very important and gravy. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (53:13):
Can I just add one side dish that?

Speaker 1 (53:15):
Oh yeah, yeah, please please? S Corn pudding Okay? Is
that not a thing in the South? It is Southern.

Speaker 4 (53:24):
Mother in law makes that and it's delicious and I
look forward to it. I never had it until she.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
You know, cans of cream, corn and toss of bread
or what you do.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (53:34):
She does it with like almost like a flying like
egg yolks.

Speaker 4 (53:38):
It's like corn with egg and I feel like there's
like some grits in it or something.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
And that makes sense. Was she water bath and she
cooked it? Probably not?

Speaker 4 (53:46):
Like no, it's just baked and it's like, you know,
covered for a little while and then uncovered the more
cheese gets put on top of it.

Speaker 1 (53:52):
And the chef's world. We would probably water bath and
to keep the temperature down's little cooked so it comes
out properly. But like, yeah, I'm the same. My grandmother
would never in the corn putting. She would never water
wrath it.

Speaker 4 (54:02):
Oh no, it's always a little it's like kurdles a
little bit exactly exactly. It's like cheesy curtl It's like,
you know, it's just yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
Yeah, I'm not angry at corn putting. I'll be down
with that.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
I think it's delicious. And the other one that I've
seen that is weird. That freaks me out, as I've
seen scallop potatoes at Thanksgiving.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
See, I don't think it's too far off. I have
a at my house currently, my kids and everything for
you know, Christmas Eve. We make the evening of Christmas Eve.
My in laws come over here and we hang out
because there's so many of the grand kids to sea,
so they come here, they go to anyway, and I
make ham and biscuits and scal potatoes and but Christmas time.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
Again, totally different holidays. Months later.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
I get you.

Speaker 4 (54:45):
I get you at Thanksgiving if I invited you over
and I made the gravy and I had the stuffing,
and I had mac and cheese and I had all
the other things that you loved. You had the staples,
but instead of mashed potatoes, I was like.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Look at these scal potatoes.

Speaker 4 (55:04):
I'm man, I made these scaloped potatoes with little bits
of ham and a bacon in them.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
I wouldn't be and cheese mad, but I'd be like,
this guy's know what he's doing. This guy stinks. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (55:15):
And then it broke a little bit because you know
I cooked them too hard.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
No, why now you're making me angry. Don't do that.
Don't do that. Don't do that. You put so much
work into it and then you're gonna overcook them. Don't
do that.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
It feels like you didn't put a lot of work
into it.

Speaker 1 (55:30):
Well listen.

Speaker 4 (55:32):
I feel like I had scale potatoes once and I
was like, man, these potatoes tastes so weird. And the
guy was like, oh, they're canned potatoes.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
They come sliced. Stop And I was like, what did
you stop? We mix with our canned chicken and canned bread. Oh,
oh that's the thing. Yeah, scalop potatoes. Not angry at
corn pudding. I'm not angry at I like all these things.
I think as long as you're the staples. There's not
really anything wrong. You could serve me. And the more

(55:59):
I'm thinking about this, so gravy, I think is one
of the most important parts of the meal. Jeffrey. I
think the gravy really sets the tone. It's the topper,
it's the finisher, it's the starter for me. You know,
when I look at a table for Thanksgiving and I
look at the turkey, you know, the side, the immediate
the thing I look for is the gravy. What's the
gravy look like? Very very important. Is it too thin?

(56:20):
Is it too thick? Is it too brown? Is it
too light? You know, I have opinions on what gravy's
supposed to look like, particularly when it comes to turkey.
I'm sure you do it well. You may, you may
not admit it, but yeah, I'm sure you do as well.

Speaker 4 (56:31):
Oh no, I'm I'm a gravy kinnoisseur.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
Well, let's take it back really quick and talk about
where gravy came from. Okay, oh, take it way back.
That's right, that's right. So the origin of gravy can
actually be traced back to the Middle Ages, which is crazy,
evolving from the old French term for seasoned broth or
sauce called grave or it's g r a Z with
the umlaus over the east, so grave. It was mentioned

(56:57):
in the fourteenth century British recipe book The Foam of Curry,
which was the form of curry, which is actually one
of the oldest cookbooks around. If you ever looked at
one of these old cookbooks, like from that far back,
it's interesting, you should you should check it ouf. You haven't,
it's really crazy. Not from the fourteenth century. Yeah, you
can get you can get like remakes of like reprints
of it or whatever. You can see they look like
it's pretty cool. I've got a couple of some really

(57:18):
old ones, ye that have some interesting recipes in particularly
some Southern recipes. Anyway, just to keep it moving here.
It was originally made from meat drippings seasoned with herbs
and spices. The sauce was later spread to other cultures,
with the French, of course, developing a richer version of
it using wine and thickeners, and eventually leading to the
modern variations in countries like the United States, where it

(57:38):
is commonly served with dishes like roast turkey or biscuits.
Interesting that something like this goes so far back that
we can trace it so far back, don't you think, Yeah,
because how important it was.

Speaker 4 (57:51):
And it's a simple, simple, simple sauce at its base. Yeah,
it's a it's a it's fat with a starch thickener
and a flavored broth.

Speaker 1 (57:59):
Uh. That's it.

Speaker 4 (58:00):
Really is the simplest thing to say.

Speaker 1 (58:03):
It is.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
And you could add like like like Plum said, you
could add wine and all these other things to make
it change the flavors and change the dynamics. Sure, but
that's the basic of it.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
So throwing a garic clove and just a sprig of
rosemary makes a big difference.

Speaker 4 (58:15):
Oh yeah, you just change the whole thing. But you
could do it with butter, flour and milk, tons of
black pepper and salt and it would still taste delicious
on half the things you're going to put it on.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
Yeah, you're right about that. And you know I do
something very similar for that, for when I make my
sausage gravy, you know, which is you know, one of
the things my dad would make. I remember, it's just
a little breakfast sausage. You start to brin it off
in a pan, you know, you add a little bit
of a flour to it, hit a whole bunch of
black pepper, and then put some milk in their mix
it all up. Boom, there you go.

Speaker 4 (58:46):
You gotta make that for me sometimes because I literally
might be one of my favorite things in.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
The whole world is sausage gravy basics.

Speaker 4 (58:54):
Some sausage gravy with a sunny sided egg on it,
come on stuff might be my absolute that. And like
a really good cornby Fash like homemake. I mean, I
love it out of can too cause I can pig.
But I also like good cornby Fash and sausage gravy
or too.

Speaker 1 (59:08):
Yeah, I think it's great. But you can make this
gravy out of any kind of drippings, like whether it's
beef or turkey or pork, or you can make it
gravy out of anything, and it's probably gonna be delicious,
I think, particularly when you use that the drippings from
you know, the juices that go in the pan we
say drippings. That's the juices that go into the pan
after you roast off the bird or you know, or
or or a ham or you know something like that.

(59:31):
You know, there's nothing wrong with any of it. It's
all delicious, And you can make a gravy based out
of anything. You know, you can make a whole bunch
of onions and make an onion gravy. You can do
a mushroom gravy. There's just so many things you can do.
But when it comes to making, you can thicken it
with a few different things. Absolutely, yeah, you know, when
it comes to making gravy for Thanksgiving, you know, for me, Jeff,

(59:52):
it's very very simple. I think the drippings and maybe
a little stock, turkey stock. You know, I'm gonna bring
it to a boil, or I'll make a little root
in a pan which is just flour and butter, then
add my stock a little bit over that red wine.
Then you know, reduce it down. Then you know, just
basically make a reported pour the stock in there and
bring it to a boil. Which I think is really
really important to know though, when you're adding a thickener,
whether you're using a slurry matter of corn starch and water,

(01:00:12):
you're using a slurry out of flour and water and
a little bit of oil that helps to or if
you're making you know, a rooe, it's not going to
come to its full thickening potential until you bring it
to a boil for about ten seconds. Very very important.
You have to do that, and that's how you get
that beautiful sheen on the back of your spoon, which
is called the nape. And then we learned something with

(01:00:35):
plum that's jeffy is great, but that's what it's called
the back. If it coats the back of a spoon
is called nape. No.

Speaker 4 (01:00:43):
I love it, yeah, but very very simple.

Speaker 1 (01:00:45):
But I think it's really important because the gravy really
sets the tone for the meal.

Speaker 4 (01:00:49):
And when you say it coats to the back of
the spoon, you have to like when you dip it in,
you can you can run on your finger across it
make a line right exactly, it's it's coated, but you
could like and that line states separate. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
And the gravy just really important to to season it
and taste it before you put it out there, because
a lot of times when you make a gravy like that,
you've used a lot of liquid and it's not seasoned

(01:01:09):
as enough as it needs to be.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
So just taste it and put add some salt. You
be surprised how far they'll take you. Oh.

Speaker 4 (01:01:14):
Absolutely listen. I love my Thanksgiving gravy so much. It
takes me a week to make it. And let's laugh
at me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:01:21):
I start. I buy turkey wings. I actually just started
today I did. I buy a bunch of turkey wings.
I brown them all the way, I scrape up all
the fond I put that, I save it, and then
I take the wings and I make a stock and
then skim all the fat from both of what I
saved off the pen and from the top of the pot.

(01:01:43):
I make my root out of the turkey fat, and
then I brown my root to like a like a
golden blonde rooe, and then use the stock. And that's
my starter for it. And then.

Speaker 1 (01:01:57):
I'll thicken it a little bit more on the day of,
and then I take How much do you get when
you process? How much do you get?

Speaker 4 (01:02:02):
I usually we make up usually two gallons of gravy.

Speaker 1 (01:02:05):
Two gallons? Go ahead, Jeffy.

Speaker 4 (01:02:07):
Yeah, I usually make about what and I and when
I'm working and cooking at home too, I usually double
up on it. Like I'll do a lot of the
prep for both like my house and sure for work,
and then I'll make five gallons because they'll have fifteen
or sixteen people and actually have twelve. So it's a
you know, a lot of gravy. Takes some gravy home.
Everybody wants a little bit of gravy, you know, And

(01:02:29):
I buy a sleeve of pints to make sure everybody
gets a little bit to take home. And like everybody
gets a black container of some food.

Speaker 1 (01:02:35):
Wow, see you do all that. I'm like, look, I
am making you to go boxes. This is not the
Saint Chili's where you can bring you to go box home.
You bring food to my house. Guess where it's staying
at my house? Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:02:46):
Well, you see your family a lot more than I
see mine. But these people that are coming to my house,
I see them twice a year.

Speaker 1 (01:02:54):
So it's like, you do have it at your house too,
But I keep forgetting that you have all these people
come to your house.

Speaker 4 (01:02:58):
Yeah, my tiny little house when comes and s why
did they come to your house?

Speaker 1 (01:03:02):
Because we're the coolest All right, fair enough? But yeah,
so gravy I think is really really important. I think
it's important to season it and all the things. And
you know, we talked about some of the ways to
make it, but you got any good tips for gravy, Jeffy,
like I could give a couple tips if you can't,
but like a couple of tips for when making gravy.

Speaker 4 (01:03:19):
Oh pro tip, brown your room a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
M h. I think your roots come in different colors.
That's what that You measure roobe by the color, whether
it's you know, blonde or brown or dark. You know,
it's definitely a type of route, you know, the type
of rut is based on the color.

Speaker 4 (01:03:35):
Yeah, so I like it to be about GBD, like
golden brown. And I think that's a It just sets
a beautiful color. Like you were saying, like the color
of your gravy is like important. I think thankgiving gravy
should be golden brown.

Speaker 1 (01:03:49):
I like that too. And remember too, also friends, the
darker you make your rue, the less thickening power it has.

Speaker 4 (01:03:56):
That's a great tip because people don't realize that when
you're making I mean this is totally separate, but when
you're making gumbo and you have to get a super
dark rue, you end up.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Having to use twice.

Speaker 4 (01:04:10):
Yeah, you'd have because it does half the thickening power
that it would normally have.

Speaker 1 (01:04:14):
Yeah, So I think that's a great tip there too.
Just darken that roof a little bit for me. I mean,
the biggest tip I'm going to tell you when it
comes to making a delicious gravy at home, Uh, let
it come to that boil and let it boil for
a few seconds, like don't be afraid for it be
like a hard rolling boil, because once that happens, you
turn the heat down. You'll really see what that thickening
power is and a nice you know, as it thickens

(01:04:37):
up and it gets that knape you want in the
back of the spoon. Remember when you put that in
the refrigerator and it gets cold, it's going to turn
the jello. So don't be afraid to when that happens,
you can still use it and to spoon it out
and just heat it up. It comes out great. Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:04:51):
I think a good rule of thumb when you're cooking
out of ruse to let it cook for a solid
thirty minutes at a pretty decent simmer. Okay, you to
really get the flour to incorporate and to cook out
that flour taste.

Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
Very very important. And but just remember you can make
gravy out of any kind. Drupes you got, you got hamburger, drippings.
Want to do that done? You want to make like
you're gravy for your meat loaf, using the fat from
the burger or from the ground beef perfect, you know.
I mean, there's really not a right or wrong way
to do this, and basically gravy gravy. In my opinion,
Jeff was probably the first sauce. I don't know for
a fact. I'm just guessing. Because we're talking about recipe

(01:05:25):
in the fourteenth century.

Speaker 4 (01:05:27):
I couldn't imagine it not being you're checking out Plumblove
Foods right here on the Voice of connect a WICC
with Plumb and Jeff.

Speaker 1 (01:05:32):
We're hanging out with you. When we come back. We've
got some stuff from the social media world where we
put it out there to see what people say. Plus
we've got some recipes. We're gonna talk a little bit
of bread and of course what happens. What's the biggest
injury you get on Thanksgiving? We got the scoop right
here on Plumblave food Stay right there, We'll be right
back Plumb Love Foods on wy see the Voice of Connecticut,

(01:06:26):
right here on a Saturday. I hope you're having a
great Saturday afternoon. Hope you get ready to go have
something fun for dinner, or make something delicious for dinner.
I don't know, or maybe just have a nice cocktail
or something, or maybe you're planning your Thanksgiving dinner. Hopefully
this episode of the show can help. We're talking all
about Thanksgiving sides on today's program. As we get into
our Thanksgiving era of shows, we figured that sides is
a great place to start, because we're all gonna make turk.

(01:06:47):
You talk about the sides we're gonna serve with it.
That was my thought process, Jeff. I don't have to
make any sense, but that's what I had in mind
when we thought about this.

Speaker 4 (01:06:54):
I'm with you one hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Okay, Okay, glad to hear it. That's what I'm talking about.
If you miss any part of this show, Jeff, you
can get it someplace, can't you.

Speaker 4 (01:07:03):
You can get it anywhere you find podcasts. Anywhere, literally,
any place that you find a podcast, you go there,
you put in Plumb Love Foods and you're gonna find
a backlog of about five hundred episodes of hilarity. And
there's dumpster fires that go back five years ago all
the way up until about a year ago when we

(01:07:24):
got our stuff together and we got on the Big
the Big Air.

Speaker 1 (01:07:29):
That's right, that's right. Which, by the way, this is
episode seventy of WICC. How about that whoa wy you
see on wi CC The Voice of Connecticut, The Voice
of Kennedy also friends. Just so you guys know, you
can also follow me on Instagram at Chef Underscore Plum.
That's at chef on the score Plum on Instagram, And
of course you can follow Jeffy at Fork King Chef.
That's f o rk you make it so hard to

(01:07:50):
even have to spell it fo rk k I n
g c ch e F on the Instagram. You can
go find us there. I love to talk to you,
love to hang out with you. See what you can go.
You know, we had a couple of things come in
on Instagram. I posted the other day about you know,
what are some of the sides that you know that
you would have at your holiday meal that maybe other

(01:08:12):
people don't have. Jeff, do you you saw that, didn't you?

Speaker 4 (01:08:16):
I did see. I posted it. I didn't see any
of their responses because they came to you. So I'm
excited to see what's going on.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
Well, I got a couple. We won't go through a
whole bunch, but we've got a couple here. Newtown. Merrill's
is chiming in saying creamed onions is a side dish
that they feel like they do that no one else
really does. All right, If it's those cream pearl onions,
I don't look like right? You like those? Do you
like those?

Speaker 4 (01:08:37):
I love cream pearl onions the limit if they're done well.
If you mess them up, I'm aggravated to no extent.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
You know how to make them?

Speaker 4 (01:08:44):
Oh my gosh, I love them.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
I love them. Tell me how do you make them? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (01:08:51):
Do you peel pearl onions? I usually blanched them.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Excuse me? I yeh, you blanch them a little bit, right,
and then I almost put them in a saw tape
pan with a little bit of heavy cream.

Speaker 4 (01:09:03):
H we actually, So what I like to do is
I put them minnesau tepe pan with a little butter
and chicken stock, and then I cook that down till
almost dry, and then I hit it with some heavy
cream and then cook that down a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
Do you put any parmesan in there? Anything?

Speaker 4 (01:09:17):
I don't like cheese in mine. I just like cook
it actually, excuse me, I go wine a little stock
and then heavy cream, like kind of shit with the
heavy cream, and I cook it down, cook it down,
and then hit it with the heavy cream and then
hit it with salt and pepper and not bad. You know,
usually a little bit of chop chives and it's just

(01:09:37):
classic delicious.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Yeah, and it's not nearly as onion easy think it's
going to be no interesting cook.

Speaker 4 (01:09:44):
It out enough. The onions are soft and you can't
really cook it super aggressive. Like when I say cook
it out, you can't like boil it hard to cook
it out. You have to kind of like slow simmer
them out.

Speaker 1 (01:09:54):
Oh interesting, So you just kind of let it go
super slow. And then when it comes out that that
onion flavor that's on any flavors probably not there.

Speaker 4 (01:10:01):
Well, yeah, it's like cook it's like kind of marry
throughout the whole thing. And then then the onions are
kind of like will melt in your mouth when you
get them, like they still kind of have their body,
but they still kind of come together.

Speaker 1 (01:10:12):
And okay, all right, Alexa Farrell, our friend is chiming
in and she says, sunshine carrots, do you have you
ever heard of this. No, so I do know what
this is. This is a dish that is a basically
something I kind of grew up on as well. They're
kind of like orange juice glazed carrots essentially, like you
glaze off some carrots a little bit of orange juice

(01:10:33):
and brown sugar and butter, and then bake it in
the oven. You slice them kind of the size of
like like coins, using thick carrots, you know, talking about
I don't like it, dude, you just hate carrots? Yeah,
that might be it. But and you glaze them up
a little orange juice, brown sugar and then roll them
in the oven, and they kind of have a sweetness
to them, but they also have the carrotyness to them.
I think it's delicious. I get it, and I understand

(01:10:53):
it's one of those times that you're making awful faces
at me. It's one of those times a year thing.
But yeah, sunshine carrots. I'm not I'm a problem with
that chef.

Speaker 4 (01:11:00):
I'm just it's like I'm feeling triggered. It's just my
mom would make this dish and then be like it's delicious,
and I remember her like, mak him eat it for breakfast.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
Because I wouldn't eat it for dinner. You know, it
was like one of those okay, I was forced to
eat sort of situation.

Speaker 4 (01:11:14):
Kind of I don't know, and I just I hate
the taste of this particular dish, all right, God bless them.

Speaker 1 (01:11:21):
Chef Frank Blatti, good friend of ours, also trying to
and said lasagna Carnival exactly. I was like, what is that?
I don't know if that is. I was gonna google it,
but I couldn't get around to it. I almost don't
want to want to ask him. But I do understand
the non traditional Thanksgiving things, And you know, I do
know some people who will make a turkey, but then
they also make like lasagna, or they make a big

(01:11:42):
pasta dish or something to go with it that is
kind of out of the ordinary, out of the box,
and you think about what that dinner is usually traditionally
for Thanksgiving. But you know, I do know some people
meant to make a little aasagna or make a little
you know, pasta dish or something. It's it's I guess
it's a side dish. But if there's lasagna, I'm gonna
eat lazaga. I do you know, Lasignans are my favorite
foods in the world.

Speaker 4 (01:12:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, me too. It goes pizza lasagna in
my mind.

Speaker 1 (01:12:08):
I mean, lasagna is just a good lasagna. Come on,
what's better than that?

Speaker 4 (01:12:11):
I love? Yeah, I make them. I make a lasagna
probably like once a month. It's it's probably like yeah,
oh so, uh lasagna carnival is uh. It's it's different
than like bullet bolonaise.

Speaker 1 (01:12:23):
It doesn't have it, yeah, what's in it?

Speaker 4 (01:12:26):
It has like it has like a pork kind of sauce,
like a rich kind of like a Sunday sauce sort
of situation, like you know, like the pork like the
rib sauce. That's the classic pork sauce, like the classic
you know Sunday sauce where you put a bunch of
pork ribs or like a pork neck or something and
you cook it way down you know I'm talking about.

(01:12:48):
And then it also has like little fried meatball, so
they fry miniature meatballs and that's mixed into one of
the layers.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
And then like you know, the cheese and the popasta
obviously I mean delicious.

Speaker 4 (01:12:58):
Yeah, and sometimes they actually even add sliced hard boiled
eggs and salami into one of the.

Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
Lines, which is pretty interesting. Get a little weird now
the harbor egg.

Speaker 4 (01:13:06):
But it's a I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:13:08):
Carnival means like hooray and hooray. Yeah, so you're celebrating
the turkey a by saying hooray. Yeah, it's like the
final hooray. The Neapolitan carnival traditional is the final hoorray
of glutny before right before you were to you know,
put on lent, which is right.

Speaker 1 (01:13:29):
I mean it sounds delicious. Count me in. I'm not
upset about it, but I mean you kind of grew
up maybe with some of this too. Did you have
passage your dinner? Thanks?

Speaker 4 (01:13:35):
Oh yeah, absolutely. We always had lasagna or yeah zd
or something, you know, some sort of a Now a
lot of times they'll make the like the sausage with
the squash like sauce.

Speaker 1 (01:13:47):
Oh okay, yeahnya with a squash sauce.

Speaker 4 (01:13:49):
So that makes like a Reggaetoni bake situation with.

Speaker 1 (01:13:52):
Me, you know, which would make me upset. Just give
me the regular.

Speaker 4 (01:13:56):
Sauce fried stage.

Speaker 1 (01:13:58):
I'm not mad at it. I like it. I like it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:00):
I like squash.

Speaker 1 (01:14:01):
I I think it's delicious. Yeah, I don't know. I
never growing up had pasta at my Thanksgiving dinner, but
I'm not mad about it. I'd be like, yeah, I'll
think some of that. That sounds great.

Speaker 4 (01:14:13):
Yeah, well I think what you know, the thing is
that we were to such different locations.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
Yeah, it's very regional, right, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 4 (01:14:22):
Like In fact, a dish that I'm sure you've never
even heard of is Judica greens.

Speaker 1 (01:14:26):
Well I was getting to that actually, as a matter
of fact. Chiming in on Instagram, A Carriglio chimes in,
my lovely wife, how about that? And she said, Judica
greens so funny. Don't you give me a little rundown
of what Udica greens are? Jeffy, Yeah, absolutely, Judica greens are.

Speaker 4 (01:14:46):
It's a it's a like an Italian kind of like
green cast role, where it's an escarole that's been washed
a whole bunch of times and then boiled until it's
nice and soft, and then it's squeezed out until you
get it as dry as you possible we can, and
then it makes a bunch of parmesan cheese and some
sweet and hot cherry peppers and bread crumbs. And sometimes

(01:15:11):
people use a little purshutto or spec or you know,
capricola or gobblegoo, and then you bake it and it's
kind of like this, like cheesy, you know, it's kind
of like a escarole artichoke dip almost and it's not
quite as as creamy, but along that vein where you

(01:15:33):
eat it kind of like with breadthing. Yeah, exactly, you
eat it and it's like almost like a spread at
that point.

Speaker 1 (01:15:39):
And it's so I mean, I.

Speaker 4 (01:15:41):
First time I heard it, what are you talking about?
I've never heard of this? And then I ate it
and I was like, oh, now, I make it all
the time. I make all sorts of versions. Amber gets
mad because I make weird versions. I'll like make one.
I'll be like I made uduca greens, but I did
it with cannellini beans and preserve lemon, and this why
it's like, that's not greens.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
You know. Yeah, she sounds like she's probably right though.
It's one of those things. It's you know, it's made
a certain way to leave alone and make it that.
You know, if it has a name, you can't really
change it. That's how I look at it, you know
what I'm saying come on, he has like a regional
name like Judica Greens. Like that's you can't change that.
You can't make it your own at that point, the
town's already made its own.

Speaker 4 (01:16:20):
No, but you can make dishes that emmel it Udica
Greens with your own in variations. It's like, but you
can't call it Yuka Greens, Like I can't make you know,
a Tokyo curry, Like just like, but I can, you know,
make something similar?

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
Sure, just can't call it that. Yeah, I get. I
don't know. The question I asked on Instagram for those
who have missed it is what's a Thanksgiving side you
have only seen your family make?

Speaker 3 (01:16:47):
You know?

Speaker 1 (01:16:47):
That's what the whole point of this is, Like, what's
the you know, the side that you want to see
your family make? Another response that we got here Jeffy,
which cracked me up. As our friends over at True Cooks,
the clothing brand for chefs, Chad said uncomfortable silence, which
made me laugh a little bit. I was like, Okay, yeah, yeah,
I get that Thanksgiving can get a little weird. I

(01:17:09):
know I'm with it, no problem, never that around me. No,
definitely not, definitely not. Chef Dan the spice man chimed in, which,
of course this is gonna be a good one too.
Bray's black eyed Castle, black eyed peas castle at with
smoked duck and topped with duck chichaon. So this is
a side dish he's making, I guess.

Speaker 4 (01:17:31):
I mean, boy, Dan, Dan, that is a side would That.

Speaker 1 (01:17:35):
Is a serious side dish. It would spend all day
making a side dish and forget about the turkey.

Speaker 4 (01:17:39):
Dan's a machine.

Speaker 1 (01:17:40):
No, he wouldn't. He would get to all that. But yeah,
I mean, I think that's great. It's almost kind of chefy.
I think I think that you don't want to You
don't want to be too chefy during Thanksgiving dinner. What
do you think?

Speaker 4 (01:17:50):
Yeah, I agree, I I go all tra I mean,
these are all great things, and I.

Speaker 1 (01:17:54):
Mean that castle sounds delicious.

Speaker 4 (01:17:56):
Yeah, I mean, like I said, yuduka greens we have
because if it's like a family thing now from my
wife's family, you know, like I said, it really becomes
all about traditions. It's all about the traditions that you
share in your home with your family. So if like
you're coaching is to go outside the box every year,
and like you're like, what are we gonna do that's
different this year for Thanksgiving? And like that's your tradition,

(01:18:16):
and like, you know, this year you're gonna do a
five spice turkey with you know, an apricot glaze and
make fried rice on the side and right, you know,
have dumplings and egg rolls and you know whatever. Okay,
knock yourself out, man, that sounds awesome. Do I want
to eat at your house for Thanksgiving? I'll come over

(01:18:37):
for leftovers. That sounds great. Right on Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner, Dude,
I'm a psycho. I've eaten bad Thanksgiving dinner. Woken up
the next day at five o'clock in the morning, went
to the grocery store when they opened, bought Thanksgiving dinner
and recooked it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:51):
So I enjoy it. Oh all right, and my wife
you were a psychopath, and I was right. Well, that's
a few of the a few of the responsible we
got there I thought were interesting, just to kind of
throwing them out there. The Utica greens was I was
curious about that. I'm glad you explain that, which is interesting.
I mean, you know, like I said, we do black
eyed peas. I said in the last break that you

(01:19:12):
know down south that had you know, hamhock and some
greens in there. That that was what we made, and
you know, and it was delicious, and it would be
a dish that would go with and you would take
some of the meat off the hamhock in there with
with your with your beans, you know. So it's delicious,
it really really. I mean again, as long as I
got the basics, I'm not going to be too upset
about the other sides, are Jeff. As long as we

(01:19:32):
have the basics, you can't be upset.

Speaker 4 (01:19:34):
You can't be upset as long as you have a
few things that make it Thanksgiving for you.

Speaker 1 (01:19:40):
And just to recap those. Let's just so everyone, this
is what we agreed on here, which means it makes
it official for everyone across the entire globe. Right all right. Gravy, yes, yes,
mashed potatoes.

Speaker 4 (01:19:54):
I think mashed potatoes is a solid Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:19:56):
Stuffing or dressing whatever you prefer. Yep. I think green
beans have to be a staple. Yeah. Cranberry sauce and
some variety some some some fixation of grandberry cranberry sauce. Yep,
all right, I think that's probably all of them. Isn't it.
I mean, that's the basics turkey. Obviously, we'll talk about

(01:20:17):
turkey when it's Turkey Day.

Speaker 4 (01:20:19):
I feel like, well, we'll have a dozen sides in
my house.

Speaker 1 (01:20:23):
Oh you could have more, of course, but these are
the I think. If you have these staple items here,
now you can put whatever you want in there.

Speaker 4 (01:20:31):
That's true. If you have massed potatoes, stuffing, green beans
or Brussels sprouts, turkey, cranberry sauce, gravy, cranberry sauce gravy, yes,
I would be like I could eat just that, and
even if it was like everything else was ambrosia and carrots,
I would I could still eat that and be like fine.

Speaker 1 (01:20:51):
You know. See.

Speaker 4 (01:20:52):
Another thing to say is it's kind of important if
you're having people come to your house with Thanksgiving. I
think it's important to ask them what are their traditions
and if there's anything that they would like at your
house or like you can maybe make to make it
like a little bit more welcoming.

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
You know, do you know that if you invited me
in your Thanksgiving and I was doing Thanksgiving with you,
and you asked me that the things I would tell
you to make just to see if you would make them.
My favorite is carrot salad. I like that, like sunshine carrots.
I'm also a big fan of ambrosia salad.

Speaker 4 (01:21:20):
Jeffy, you can make a great one arm which human
and I would you'd have to have your kids coming.

Speaker 1 (01:21:26):
Well, you asked. If you asked what I liked, was
they about traditions? I would just tell you all these things,
just as if you.

Speaker 4 (01:21:29):
Make them, I'd have to break you of those traditions.

Speaker 1 (01:21:35):
Well, all right, we haven't talked a little bit. I
think it's important to talk about to is bread. I
think bread's kind of an important part of Thanksgiving dinner.
My mother in law loves to make delicious rolls for
Thanksgiving dinner every year. That's kind of Roles are important
on Thanksgiving, that's true. Yeah, I think roles are very
important Thanksgiving and also after the dinner when you want
to have that turkey first turkey sandwich, you need a

(01:21:56):
good roll and some mustard and then the piece of
piece of not sorry, excuse me, turkey and grandberry sauce
and stuffing. You just took a left on me. What
just happened?

Speaker 4 (01:22:11):
You were like, yeah, you need a roll and a
mustard and then you were like, no, turkey.

Speaker 1 (01:22:17):
I was getting excited about something and it's it's kind
of it kind of got a little weird my brain there,
but I got excited about it. You know what I'm saying.
I'm thinking about the after the after dinner turkey sandwich.
You know what I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:22:30):
Yes, to me, it's got to be soft white bread,
potato roll bread or white bread, and it's got to
have you know, a lot of the things on it.

Speaker 1 (01:22:42):
Yeah, the meal basically on there or state never used
the role.

Speaker 4 (01:22:46):
For my sandwich. No, No, I usually make Parker house rolls,
or I make biscuits. A lot of times they just
make biscuits. We love biscuits on Thanksgiving and that's kind
of like a weird thing for Thanksgiving, I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:22:59):
But we nah, I see that like crumbly biscuits are
like a little more like structure ones like what we made.

Speaker 4 (01:23:04):
Oh yeah, like a like a like a lamon and
flaky biscuity.

Speaker 1 (01:23:08):
You know, I usually make like eighteen or so and
just put them out. I'm like a yeasty Parker house
roll guy. I think I love that. A little slice
bag get is also good.

Speaker 4 (01:23:19):
Slice bag gets good. What do you do you have
I like to put my Parker House rolls. I roll
them around a little butter.

Speaker 1 (01:23:27):
Oh interesting, and yeah, yeah it was.

Speaker 4 (01:23:29):
I roll four little pieces and put them in muffin
tins look for and then I'm rise like that, so
they're like pull apart and then I have them.

Speaker 1 (01:23:36):
There's butter inside each one. Sounds delicious. Oh I make
a mean Parker House. Yeah, the problem is do your
kids eat them first? For anybody else can get them?

Speaker 4 (01:23:45):
Well, when I make Parker House rolls, I have to
make like thirty six Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:23:49):
Look, that's even not enough.

Speaker 4 (01:23:51):
It's it kind of isn't. But it's also like I'm
not making Parker House rolls for six hours.

Speaker 1 (01:23:54):
What about like a loaf of bread? Do you have
a loaf of bread at your table? Like a sour
dump or something kind of there? Just got to have
a slice of bread with your mesal.

Speaker 4 (01:24:03):
Make sour dough? Did she make sourdough? I don't think
she made sour deal last year. I mean, it wouldn't
be a crazy thing. I guess for her to make
like some sort of inclusion thread or something.

Speaker 1 (01:24:14):
Yeah, I think some sort of bread needs to be
on there for sure, you know, that's what I think.
But my things gotta be roles. I think a nice,
yeasty roll is delicious.

Speaker 4 (01:24:23):
Yeah, I'm more the business of roles on Thanksgiving. The
business of the business stand on business with the rolls.

Speaker 1 (01:24:32):
That's right. It's very important to have it, so we
definitely agree that bread has to be a part of it.
I think. All right, so listen, here's something else I
got fun to talk about before we get out of here.
You're ready for this one, Jeffy hit it. I have
in my possession, officially official from research done by people
who do research, the top five injuries or illnesses we

(01:24:54):
see on Thanksgiving. Jeffy, Oh, this is exciting. So if
you had the guests, what do you think one would be?

Speaker 4 (01:25:02):
Top five injury on things?

Speaker 1 (01:25:04):
Yeah? What do you think? I think it's like a
major injury during Thanksgiving? Uh am?

Speaker 4 (01:25:08):
I driving?

Speaker 2 (01:25:10):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:25:10):
No, no, no, no, not not like while making dinner
at the house or while dinner. Burns, Okay, I think
burns is a great one. Burns actually is number two
on the list. You know, they see quite a few
patients with burns on Thanksgiving. You know, burns wropped and
found on the face, hands, forearms, and even the feet
which comes from people dropping sauces and things like that,

(01:25:32):
because most people understand you have to wear shoes in
the kitchen.

Speaker 4 (01:25:36):
Yeah, or the other one I've seen is there's a
bowl in the sink and they go to like and
they put the calander near the bowl, you know what
I mean, and then they pour the hot just like
a hit the slide right back up and then like
you know, they and then then when they hit when
the hot boiling water hits them, throw the pot of
water and it like splat and then it like burns

(01:25:58):
them all over their body.

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
It's like, that's a lot. You have a lot, a
lot of things happening in this in this story.

Speaker 4 (01:26:05):
Yeah, yeah, I've literally seen this happen at my mother's house.

Speaker 1 (01:26:08):
Side. Orthopedic injuries is also a big one, Jeff, right
from playing football with your family on there and then
you know, Grandpa also jump in the mix. Also in
this list, I'm just looking at the time, so we
got to keep it moving here.

Speaker 4 (01:26:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:26:19):
Yeah. Also in this list, which I think is pretty interesting,
is head injuries, which I think is crazy for people
taking falls and also hitting their heads on cabinets. Uh,
you know, consider your environment. If you've been hanging out
having cocktails all day. Stomach wolves or aka sour tummy.
That tends to happen people overeating, and you know, things
like that. And of course the number one, Jeffy, the

(01:26:40):
number one cuts in lacerations. Think about people trying to
use knives and they're cutting turkeys, that weird electric knife thing,
you know, things that they don't use very often. Yeah,
and uh, you know, people were cooking oftentimes get distracted
because you know, they're busy talking and family and friends
are over. You know, just be careful out there. There's
a lot of injuries you can happen, Jeffrey in a kitchen.
The kitchen a day place, dude, kitchen.

Speaker 4 (01:27:02):
Can be a very dangerous place. You gotta take it seriously.

Speaker 1 (01:27:04):
You've got to be.

Speaker 4 (01:27:04):
Alert and aware of what you're doing when you're in there.
But you gotta have fun too.

Speaker 1 (01:27:09):
Absolutely. We hope you guys got a little inspiration for
your Thanksgiving dinner from listening to this show. You can
go find it anywhere. You check out your podcast if
you missed one. And next week, friends, we're talking turkey,
that's right. Our tips for cooking turkey, for frying turkey,
for brining turkey, for marinading turkey, for dry riding turkey,
for roasting turkey. You're gonna get all of it right
here on Plumb Love Foods on w IICC, friends, Remember

(01:27:30):
food is one of the most important things we have
in life. Everything important life evolves around food. Let's make
sure we give the time it deserves. Make a plan,
get those side dishes ready, We're ready for them. We'll
see you guys next week right here on Plumb Love Foods,
the same and the rest