November 21, 2023 - Gobblers, Elf’d, Crowds, Carving

Can AI elves serve a huge crowd their Mexican Monkey Bread before John Carver murders everyone?

Special Note: This marks the 26th issue/6 month anniversary of Boo’s N.E.W.S. - I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. As we prepare for Thanksgiving, I wanted to share what I’m thankful for this year: you - your encouragement, ideas and overall positivity. Whether you have shared this on your social media, forwarded to friends, donated to Boo’s N.E.W.S. or even just told me you enjoyed something you read, I truly appreciate your engagement and support. Boo’s N.E.W.S. readers are the BEST!!!

Nuggets of Information: Talking Turkey 

Thanksgiving falls on a Thursday this year, and the Boo’s N.E.W.S. Food & Entertainment Desk has pulled together tips, videos and information to help make your Big Meal a success.  

According to the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, approximately 46 million turkeys are served each Thanksgiving. There are many ways to prepare turkey – brining or not brining, Cajun, smoked, deep-fried, oven-baked, grilled, sous vide, and I’m guessing InstaPotted and Air-Fryered.  

When Lisa and I were dating, she brought home a free frozen turkey from work, and I decided to put it on the grill/smoker for a low & slow cook. She had heard about a method where you bag the turkey, to lock in the juices. We bought the special turkey bag, and to add to the juiciness, we used colorful toothpicks to pin cherries, orange slices and pineapple chunks to the outside of the bird. When we finally opened up the bag, the dye from the toothpicks and the juices from the maraschino cherries & orange slices had created a hideously multicolored monstrosity that looked like what we imagined Tammy Faye Bakker’s face would resemble if she was left in the tanning bed too long. It was juicy though... For more Thanksgiving fails, check out this video. 

Obviously, I am not one to turn to for turkey advice. One resource available is the Butterball Hotline, where turkey experts are available to answer any and all questions. For an inside look at how this works, check out Stephen Colbert’s stint manning the phones.  

One trend sweeping the interwebs is using a waffle iron for things other than waffles. Stuffing? Yes please. Mashed Potatoes? Okay then! Either of those could be the “bread” in your leftover turkey sandwich.  

For desserts, I say go big or go home. According to Guinness World Records: “The largest pumpkin pie weighs 1,678 kg (3,699 lb) and was made by New Bremen Giant Pumpkin Growers (USA) at New Bremen Pumpkinfest in New Bremen, Ohio, USA, on 25 September 2010. The diameter of the pie was 6 m (20 ft). The crust was made of 440 sheets of dough and the other ingredients were canned pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin spice.”  

A question I am often asked is “What do I do with the rest of the French’s Fried Onions after I’ve used what I need in my green bean casserole?” Weird that I get that question a lot. I guess I just look like someone who would know this. Personally, I never have that problem as I just eat them while cooking everything else. But if this is something you struggle with, check out this website, filled with recipes with intriguing names like “French’s Meaty Party Pinwheels” and “Mexican Monkey Bread.” If you know me, you know I would never turn down an invitation to a Meaty Party or a chance to hang out with Mexican Monkeys. 

Enrichment:  Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Last week, Boo’s N.E.W.S. Muse Lisa and I enjoyed a date night that officially kicked off our holiday season. While the second part of our evening is detailed in the Selected Content section below, we started off our night at Illuminarium, for their “Winter Wonderland Spectacular.” According to their press materials, Illuminarium is an immersive experience, featuring 4K laser projection, audio beams creating a unique and precise sound experience for each individual, in-floor haptics producing realistic sensations for visitors, and even scent, adding authentic enhancement to the immersive experience. This is achieved with no wearable hardware of any kind - this is not a 3D or 4D experience. Strobe effects, gentle floor vibration, immersive sound, and realistic & responsive projection may all be part of the show you experience, but nothing is intended to be frightening or disorienting. The experience takes place completely indoors within two rooms. 

It was delightful – very impressive visuals and sounds. From enchanting nutcrackers and swinging jingle bells to whimsical candy cane carousels and more, every corner of this immersive experience is filled with wonder. We like these types of experiences, and it reminded me of the Van Gogh Experience and Imaginarium. Our friend Pam Kruseck is the Group & Tourism Sales Manager at Illuminarium Atlanta, and was a wonderful host during our visit. She explained that this year’s production included elements from the innovative experiential art powerhouse, ARTECHOUSE. Here is a video I took that gives an idea of what it is like. (You can see some people on the far right for some scale/context.)

While the show itself was amazing, another favorite part of the experience was the Elfie Selfie station. They took our pictures, and an AI engine adjusted our normal human faces to be more elf-like. I think Lisa looks adorable, and considering her amazing gift-wrapping skills, experience with cold climates and love of hot cocoa, I’m convinced she would make a great elf. I found my elfie a bit unsettling. I need to check 23 & Me to see if I’m the love child of Barack Obama and Bryant Gumble. (I’ve always suspected it.) If I ever go missing, I hope they use that picture on the back of the eggnog carton.  

We highly recommend Illuminarium’s Winter Wonderland Spectacular this holiday season. It is a warm, wonderful family-friendly experience. If you do go, please share your Elfie Selfies with us! 

Workshop: Cooking for a Crowd 

This Thanksgiving, we are joining friends for dinner, and the table will have 17 people at it. That’s a good amount, but nowhere near as big as some of our friends’ turkey day meals. I was chatting with Mark “The Sharpener” Urbano, and his in-law's, the Pressnalls, have hosted Thanksgiving dinners with more than 40 people at the table. The amount of planning, coordination and butter required for an audience that big is impressive.  

But what about preparing food for even larger crowds? The largest college football stadium in the United States belongs to the University of Michigan, where on game day crowds can exceed 100,000 fans – all hungry for football and concessions. In this video, go behind the scenes to see how the staff at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor prepares and serves food to the hungry fans.  

If professional football is more your speed, this video shows how crews prepared food for 215,000 people over the course of a week’s worth of activities related to Superbowl LIV in Miami in 2020. 

While both events are certainly incredible acts of culinary production, they do have the luxury of being on land. For the chefs, line cooks, dishwashers and servers on a Royal Caribbean cruise ship, the tight spaces, all-you-can-eat buffets and lack of easy replenishment make serving even more challenging.  

Each of these experiences is aimed at taking care of paying customers. At India’s Golden Temple Food Hall, over 100,000 people are served free meals EVERY DAY. They have been serving meals since 1577 and are open 24 hours a day. While it is tied to Harmandir Sahib, the largest Sikh shrine in the world, they serve everyone and anyone – regardless of religion, gender or ethnicity. Good thing this is all free. I’d hate to be the server asked to split the check on that dinner.  

Selected Content: No Leftovers 

The second part of our holiday kick-off date night was a sneak-preview screening of Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving which has the awesome tagline “THERE WILL BE NO LEFTOVERS”. If you love the gory-bloody-slasher-splatter-pilgrim genre, this movie is perfect for you. Roth, a member of Hollywood’s Splat Pack, is the creative force behind the Hostel series and Cabin Fever, and is an accomplished actor as well.  

Featuring solid performances from Patrick Dempsey, Gina Gershon, Addison Rae, and others, my favorite casting was Rick Hoffman as Thomas Wright, the owner of RightMart Department Store, where, at the start of the film, a Black Friday sale turns into a deadly riot, setting the stage for the rest of the film. Hoffman is best known for his role as attorney Louis Litt on Suits, a series I am happily binge watching. (I had to as strangers kept asking me if I was “Harvey Specter” and I didn’t know what they were talking about. Either that or asking about excess fried onions - this is my life, people.)  

I like going into movies without too much advanced information. I knew this was set in current times, and there was a murderous pilgrim type character, but that was all I knew. I didn’t even realize it was an Eli Roth film beforehand. I won’t provide any spoilers, but the first death is relatively benign, at the beginning of the aforementioned department store riot. A man slices his throat on a shard of glass, with copious blood splatter. I thought “Oh - right – this is one of those movies.” From there, the deaths got more and more ridiculous and gruesome. Lisa isn’t a fan of “jump scare” movies, but this one had enough humor and over-the-top characters to leave us laughing as much as squirming. (She liked the cheerleader/trampoline death.)

Would I recommend this movie? Sure – if you like schlocky bloody humor-infused horror movies. I doubt it will make the Hallmark Channel’s list of holiday movies, but overall, we enjoyed it and would give it two bloody thumbs up. Here is the trailer if you want to get a sense of what it is about.  

Until next time - I hope your week is filled with food, friends, family and fun.