Hey all, sincerely hope you're well.
Many of our American posters are gathering together with family and friends today. They're likely to hear plenty of awful takes from their liberals. Unscratched, freshly scratched, or pre-scratched chuds alike, there are sure to be brainworms all around the table and openly airing their unhinged grievances. Please feel free to share their awful takes here. This thread is open for supporting one another, venting, laughing at bad family takes (both stale and bespoke).
This thread is intended to be a supportive space to bring the community together. Please be kind to one another. As always, discussion of struggle sessions or attempts to relitigate them will not be permitted.
Have fun and keep cozy! 
CW: meat, dairy
I live far from family and have been so for probably 15 years now. used to do a Friendsgiving type of thing for years with others, but we've scattered and I just moved to a new place.
it's kinda nice having a long weekend where everything is closed and I am somewhat compelled to make something out of the ordinary for myself to enjoy. also went to the doc for a routine checking and I'm down like 15% of body weight in the last 6 months, my blood/metabolic tests all came back optimal, so I figured a holiday treat meal would be funny.
this year I made elite tier fried chicken and pancakes. was gonna do waffles instead of pancakes, but my waffle apparatus is MIA. local buttermilk, mustard powder, and hot sauce based brine (hot sauce was this stuff a friend of mine brought back from Nicaragua) and fresh ground (ground by me 20 minutes before I'm putting batter on the skillet) spelt pancakes served with syrup from a friend's taps.
since it's just for me, it was all small portions (couple thighs, 5 small pancakes) so not a lot of volume of food was being made, but the same number of steps. 15+ hour brine. double dredge. for the first 75% of the process, I was like "what the fuck am I doing, what a colossal waste of effort", so many dirty dishes but as I got to the home stretch of everything being plated hot and crispy I was like "I am a genius" lol.
I've spent the rest of the day chilling with the cat on the couch and watching slop.
Damn, that sounds like some truly awesome chicken and waffles. Do you have a recipe you could share?
if you YT search epicurious/ chef frank proto's fried chicken, I followed that. I just tweaked the brine based on what I had. brine doesn't have to exact because it's osmotic and really the acid of the buttermilk and the salt are doing 90% of the work. the mustard and garlic powder and hot sauce are just gonna give an accent. he talks mostly about process, time and temps to get a great outer layer that seals in the moisture but you can eyeball what he's doing and adjust. the crusty crunchy layer was perfection. chef frank is a king.
for the pancakes I just used some King Arthur Flour recipe and doubled the butter because lol. in truth I probably should have halved the butter because spelt doesn't hydrate as much as AP.
Nice! Thanks kindly. I'm adding this to me and my partner's "recipes to try list," and hopefully I'll remember to let you know how it went after we try!
no problem! frying stuff is crazy fast and intimidating because of things like spattering and grease fires and the high heat. high potential for a big mess, but always gonna result in a medium mess. definitely one of those kitchen moves where you want to know where everything is going before you start. having a wire rack to set fried stuff on is crucial so it doesn't get soggy/stays crunchy. and something I learned: you can keep fried stuff warm and ready in the oven at 200°F for as long as you need to wrap up the rest of whatever.