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Rocky Official Trailer #1 - Burgess Meredith Movie (1976) HD Sylvester Stallone’s tale of a palooka from Philly who gets a lucky break contains a Thanksgiving scene where Rocky’s mousy girlfriend Adrian is preparing a turkey. Paulie, her asshole brother, throws the bird out the door while Rocky watches. Paulie is forcing his shut-in sister to come out of her shell and go on date with Rocky, so he’s not as horrible as it seems at first. ( Rocky is more complex movie than people know.) In keeping with the rule of sequels that declares everything must be bigger and worse, Thanksgiving plays a role in Rocky 2, but it’s not as the setting for a complicated familial relationship. Instead, it’s a boxing match: The big fight between Rocky and Apollo Creed that ends the movie takes place on Thanksgiving. But Rocky 2 is a seriously terrible movie, so don’t watch it on Thanksgiving or any other day. Where to stream: Available for rental only on Apple TV, Prime Video, Google Play, and Yo...

Photo : Lost_in_the_Midwest ( Shutterstock ) Knowing when the turkey is “done” is the most anxiety-inducing part of cooking a turkey. You don’t want to food poison anyone, but you don’t want to serve dry, stringy meat (and shame) to you friends and family. A thermometer is imperative, but the little plastic “turkey timer” that comes stuck in your bird should be tossed directly into the trash. If you’ve been cooking turkeys for a while, you probably already know this, but first- time bird roasters might be tempted to lean on the built-in temperature indicator. The problem is that it sucks. It’s garbage. It’s not your friend. It is, however, a nifty little piece of technology; it’s just calibrated wrong. According to Cook’s Illustrated , it’s not that it doesn’t work, it just works at far too high of a temperature: A harmless compound with a known melting temperature is liquefied in the bottom of the timer device. A spring is compressed into the molten material as it cools and hard...

Meryl Streep’s Thanksgiving Disaster You don’t have to go it alone. If your guests offer to help out on Thanksgiving, tell them “hell yes” and take them up on it. Unless your friends and family are complete jerk-faces, at least one guest will at least offer to help clean up after dinner, and everyone else should be shamed into helping. Under no circumstances should you say, “oh, no, I’ll take care of the clean-up.” That’s what they want you to do, and they will leave you with a disaster area of a kitchen and some serious grudges to nurse. That said, if your friends and close family offer to help, and you take them up on it, don’t go too far with their services. You could end up with the people you care about most preparing and serving food to the people you only invited because you felt obligated to. https://www.tausiinsider.com/the-7-deadly-sins-of-hosting-a-big-thanksgiving-dinner/?feed_id=389931&_unique_id=649244a097958

Photo : wavebreakmedia ( Shutterstock ) If you have everything organized on the big day, you’ll have an easier time cleaning and keeping things neat as you whip up the best meal of the year. Make a shopping list now and get as much in advance as you can, provided it’ll keep until Thanksgiving. Identify the things that will be messy, like the turkey, and make a plan for how you’ll clean it up in a jiffy. For instance, have a garbage bag on hand that’s just for your big food messes, like your turkey container and bones. Plan your menu carefully, not only based on timing so it all comes together at once, but based on exactly how and when you’ll clean each element. Ideally, you want to clean as you go. (Last minute, you can also designate an old box to keep nearby as a dumping ground for large, dirty pots, pans, and casserole dishes to easily relocate to an unused room to get them out of the way until you’re ready to dive into a full clean-up.) https://www.tausiinsider.com/15-w...

Photo : FootMade0525 ( Shutterstock ) You can get in your head about Thanksgiving in a major way. You can start planning a meticulous schedule weeks out , do a bunch of prep to lessen how much you’ll have to clean afterward, and pore over recipe after recipe after recipe to make sure your meal is perfect . The day could go by more easily, though, if only you brought out a cooler (or two or three). A cooler is not just for chilling the beer and wine for your guests—it will solve more problems than you might imagine. Here’s everything you can use a cooler for to help you tackle the big meal. Brine your turkey The first thing you can do with a designated Thanksgiving cooler is brine your turkey. According to Life Savvy , it may not be cold enough where you are to brine your turkey outside, but this is not a problem! Fill that cooler with ice and grab “a heavy-duty plastic bag to park the turkey and the brine water in; then brine the old bird in the cooler instead of your fridge....

Photo : zoryanchik ( Shutterstock ) Wrestling a whole turkey body into a roasting pan (or   rather, onto a wire rack ), isn’t for everyone. Even I, a seasoned professional, have to steel myself for the gory moments of cutting through bone when I spatchcock a bird, and I would be totally OK with never having to smash in a breast bone again. If you have similar feelings about strong-arming poultry, it might be time for you to ditch the whole bird, and join me for a holiday turkey roulade. It’s still got the flavor and goodness of a home-roasted turkey, but it’s juicier , faster to make than cooking a whole bird, and allows you to avoid most of the grim details of deboning poultry. I t’s also damn fancy looking . If you’ve ever been impressed by a Swiss roll or had a slice of a holiday yule log , you’ve already got the concept. The idea is to roll a large, seamless piece of turkey around succulent filling, forming a log shape , and roast it. When you slice individual servings f...

Photo : Elena Veselova ( Shutterstock ) The United States Department of Agriculture might not be the first place you think of when you’re unsure whether it’s okay to stuff the turkey the night before, but they have a hotline built to answer exactly these sorts of questions. Add 1-888-MPHotline to your contacts to be the hero everybody needs for Thanksgiving prep—and, yes, they will be taking calls on the big day. The hotline is properly known as the Meat and Poultry Hotline , and you can call it year-round for any food-safety questions related to meat, poultry, or eggs. The line is staffed by humans from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET Monday through Friday. On Thanksgiving day this year, it will be open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. ET. And if you’re phone-phobic, they can give you answers by email, too. Send your questions to MPHotline@usda.gov. You can also use the live chat at Ask USDA . They have also pre-answered many of your common Thanksgiving questions, which you can access at the website ...

Photo : Africa Studio ( Shutterstock ) People on Facebook posting a recipe for “popcorn stuffing” reminded me of the following true story: When I was 16, I attended Thanksgiving at my religious aunt and uncle’s house. They’d also invited an ancient Irish nun. As a budding reprobate and dirtbag, I was uncomfortable in the presence of a fully- habited representation of Catholicism. Before dinner, Sister Mary Katherine cornered me in the den and said , “Excuse me, son, do you know if they put popcorn in the stuffing?” I said, “I’m not sure, sister, but why would they do that?” She paused and then replied, “Because that way, when it’s finished, it’ll pop its ass off !” Then she clapped me on the back and guffawed loud and long. It was the funniest joke I’d ever heard. (After dinner, we snuck outside and smoked cigarettes and she told me she didn’t believed in God anymore but didn’t regret becoming a nun because of the good work she had done.) Anyway, it was a joke when that nun sai...

Photo : Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Sliders, cupcakes, petite quiche, and pigs ‘n blankets have something in common: They were all mad ideas, miniaturized food favorites that quickly became the greatest party food of our time. Now the baked potato wants in on the appetizer action. Make it mini, pop it on a skewer, and you’ve got a new classic party snack. I fully dislike regular baked potatoes. No matter how you flavor and prepare the skin, the average baked potato is a balloon of unflavored potato inside. Then you need a plate to dissect it and dump condiments inside, most of which will remain cold. It’s cumbersome, requires sitting, utensils, and focus—c ertainly not party food (and it remains a mystery to me why it’s fun at all). The mini baked potato corrects all of these issues. Baby potatoes are about an inch across, so added flavor on the outside actually works for the entire thing. They’re on a stick so you can grab it, walk, and mingle with friends at the party. Everything ...

Photo : Tirachard Kumtanom ( Shutterstock ) Some recipes are easy to cut in half or in thirds; one cup of sugar becomes a half, or a half a teaspoon of baking powder becomes 1/4 teaspoon. And t hen, there’s the egg—t he one thing that math can’t really split. If you have a cookie or cake recipe that you’re trying to small batch in half, or by thirds, and there’s an odd egg out, you need to grab a whisk. The most reasonably accurate way to divide a single egg is to scramble it up and pour it out. Scrambling the egg well will break up the membranes so the yolks and white can combine evenly. You’ll get a more accurate ratio of egg representation, and with the membranes broken, you’ll be able to stop the flow more accurately when you pour. Pour out exactly how much you need for your recipe using a kitchen scale to weigh it. Depending on where the recipe was written, recipes refer to the average egg size in that particular country. In the U. S. , that would be a large egg, but in th...

Photo : Y.P.photo ( Shutterstock ) Due to a single misstep that resulted in shattering my left ankle, I have been staying with my parents during the week, because I am still—three weeks after the incident—not quite capable of performing simple chores or cooking for myself in any meaningful way. Luckily, my stepmother, Annette, is a very good cook, so I have not starved, and have in fact been enjoying eating someone else’s cooking. I may not have inherited any of Annette’s genetics, but I did inherit her sandwich-making skills, as well as her knack for adding startlingly simple little extras that make all the difference. (Like putting a damp paper towel under your soup bowl to keep it from sliding around.) Annette is currently very into putting sweetened cream cheese on things, a little luxury that that costs very little but delivers a whole bunch of joy. On fruit, on banana bread, on a plain biscuit—sweetened cream cheese gives everything it touches a cheesecake vibe, and that’s ...

Photo : etorres ( Shutterstock ) During the Great Depression , peanut butter’s low cost and high protein content made it an indispensable ingredient in countless meals and sandwiches. The nut spread—and newer, more allergy-friendly variantions —remain a popular food to this day. But peanut butter has plenty of uses outside of cooking and eating. In fact, it can come in handy for several jobs around the house. Here are a few to know about. Household uses for peanut butter Most people know that peanut butter can be used to help remove a piece of gum stuck in someone’s hair, but that’s only the beginning. Generally speaking, smooth peanut butter is preferable for these household tasks, but in a pinch, you can make chunky work if you have no other options. Some of the ways to use it include: Lubricating tools Home and garden tools that open and close —like wrenches, pliers, and shears—typically need some lubrication in order to work properly. If you don’t have any lubricant around,...

Photo : Chitaika ( Shutterstock ) Eggnog is as Christmas as chunky, colorful lights–it’s not for everyone, but some households are all about it. Whether you have a yearly event concocting your family’s secret recipe, or buy liters of the store bought variety, try adding it to your pancake mix and make the most Christmassy breakfast of your life. Eggnog is a creamy, spicy holiday drink, and undoubtedly fabulous on its own hot or cold, but it also works well as a dynamite flavoring in countless recipes. It’s basically your milk ingredient living its best life. There’s already a combination of warming spices, egg yolks, cream, and, heck, even booze, already mixed in. For various, inexplicable reasons, should you have leftover eggnog you can’t get rid of (maybe a friend gifted you too much, or you’re not in the mood to drink it and you’d rather eat it), make eggnog pancakes. Simply substitute equal parts eggnog for the liquid ingredient in your favorite pancake recipe, and proceed as ...

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Photo : Claire Lower People love cheese. So much so that they get kind of weird about it. I know vegans are tired of hearing “I could probably give up meat but I could never give up cheese,” but it’s true. I really never could give up cheese. I need it. It works out well, then, that I am paid to think and write about food, and one of those foods is cheese. It gives me a creative outlet, and a good excuse to eat as much cheese as I want. Here are a few of my favorite cheesy things we published this year, in no particular order. https://www.tausiinsider.com/15-of-our-favorite-ways-to-eat-cheese-in-2022/?feed_id=326240&_unique_id=63ff9a0336da2

Photo : Claire Lower If you ordered a “baked potato” at a restaurant and were served a Yukon Gold, you’ d probably be a little confused. Baked potatoes— “jacket potatoes” in the UK —are canonically Russets. B ut sometimes canon is worth fucking with. Russet potatoes, with their thick skins and starchy insides, are the standard for baked potatoes. The tough skins get crisp , and the fluffy, sightly arid interiors beg for butter and sour cream. Yukons, on the other hand, have skins that are thin enough to blend into a mash, and creamy innards that are slightly sweeter than their larger, tougher counterparts. Baking the thin-skinned yellow potatoes may seem like a fools errand that could lead to burnt exteriors and dry insides, but I’m thrilled to report that isn’t the case. Yukons are incredible when baked low and slow. This is not a new strategy. I first heard read about it on Martha Stewart’s Instagram account a couple of years ago. I tried it out immediately, then tried to write ...