Amy I LOVE that guy on the link you posted. I sent it to my TG cook, aka younger daughter. My older daughter is joining me on my annual trip for taking care of the grands AND Thanksgiving. Younger one is adding stuffed butternut squash to this year's menu. Older one is vegan. She is here with me since the end of October. I am graving Butter. Kind of tired of using vegan only ingredients, and not adding meat in to recipes. Eating out with friends often. I have 3 more weeks! Things a mother does....

Moni, my mothers favorite line is

"Sigh. What's a mother for but to SUFFER?"

I love Kalen too! He is SO funny! I can spend hours watching his reactions to food and fashion!!!

https://youtu.be/UoFQqSPyPdk

Here's a good one that's Thanksgivingish!!!

I'm with you, colleenoz!! Cool Whip is a disgusting creation....sweetened foamy fat!! II don't understand why anyone would want to wreck a perfectly good dessert by putting Cool Whip on it when you could have real whipped cream.....or even vanilla ice cream!

I happen to think eggnog's pretty vile as well :-)

Well, if you think real eggnog is vile, I can just imagine what you would think of VEGAN eggnog! (Shudder) ;)

Cool Whip? COOL WHIP?! Blasphemous, Amylou, siggghhh.

I have come across some of those recipes with the authors life rolling out before your eyes that sometimes have a little arrow that basically says - press here to get to the good stuff.

Upthread, Lactaid prducts were mentioned as a solution for those with dairy allergies.. Lactaid milk and the like have Lactaid dumped into it and then labled "lactose free". For those for whom Lactaid does nothing, these products can cause severe allergic reactions in those who are lactose intolerant.

My two recipe site pet peeves........Why do I need a password for a free recipe site? The other one is people who completely change the recipe and then give it a bad rating, or people who just want to ask a dumb question and give it one star to ask the question! I accommodate gluten-free people because it's fairly easy if they're not actually celiac and I have a friend who is lactose intolerant......a little more difficult, but I can usually find recipes to accommodate without telling her I'm doing so because she doesn't want anyone going to any special lengths for her. Generally she doesn't eat anything when coming to coffees or Mexican Train, but if there's something she loves and can eat, she'll take some home with her and enjoy it in her own home in case there is a reaction. My doctor has been pushing the Vegan diet on me for years. I read the book she gave me and I just told her it's not going to happen. She's had some serious health issues and is doing great on the diet. More power to her, but she's in her 50's and I'm in my 80's. I plan on enjoying what remaining years I have left. :-))))

Gerogys mom... exactly! I am enjoying my life. I usually eat what I like, and don't what I can't tolerate for one reason or another... and pretty well do as I please... but... that vegan daughter thing... well, it is cramping my style. LOL

Moni

PS, I also MUCH MUCH prefer whipped cream... and I will scoop the dollop of coolwhip off before I will eat the rest of what ever desert it is on. ;)

Just saw this, and thought of YOU, Amy...

:)

Oh Amylou! ! ! Are you perchance my long lost daughter that I didn't know I had? ?? I certainly do agree with your rants!

A little story about Cool Whip and the REAL stuff. . . . .

I grew up on a farm, back in the 40's & 50's. We had some dairy cows, a large garden, etc. My mother raised strawberries (among other things) to sell in the summer. So, between the cows and the garden we always had a lot of whipped cream and strawberries. In fact, I can remember having to eat a big bowl of strawberries buried in whipped cream every day for breakfast all through strawberry season. Every. Single. Day! By the time I moved away from home, I couldn't look at either strawberries or whipped cream without gagging. I still, to this day, don't like strawberries. And I've only been able to eat real whipped cream for the last 10 or so years. But I love Cool Whip! And before Cool Whip there was a powdered product, I don't remember the name, that you added to milk and whipped it. It was probably basically the same nasty ingredients as Cool Whip, but oh so good!

I totally agree, with the exception of REAL allergies or intolerances, let's stick with the REAL thing on holidays!

Rusty

Gave up on the Cool Whip after I caught more than one teen g-kid dipping a finger or spoon in it and then licking it off only to sneak another fingerful/spoonful later. YUK YUK EWWWWW! Not enough people here to go to the trouble of actually whipping real cream so I just buy whipped cream in the can and let it go at that. This is the only time of year we use it anyway. If I have a dab more freezer room than usual (which isn't much to start with) I'll get a container of Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla to grace the apple pie with although... not so sure it adds much to pumpkin pie.

So far at least, I've never had "special diet requests" although I'm sure that will come sooner or later and I will probably try to accommodate within reason. Really don't mind simple requests such as no salt/one or another spices in a dish since it can be added later to most dishes if necessary.

My standard answer to those though that want to criticize what's on the table at my house is the following: "There is a McDonalds exactly 1.9 miles up that road at the end of this block. I suggest that you get your butt in your vehicle and see if they have something more to your liking." The wife hates it when I put forth the comment but it works 99% of the time to stop the food sniping. I have to agree with a previous poster who noted that if you don't like something on someone else's table, especially at a holiday meal that has taken more than a little effort to prepare, then just don't eat it.

This is a great thread! I grew up in a rural area on weird urban hippie food made by a mother who could and can cook. So I am open to odd ingredients and such. But many seem to expect great adjustments made to hosts of holiday meals for their own personal dietary choices. Again allergies are different.

I have a good friend who eats a very limited diet because of a variety of health issues. She brings something she can eat to social events. And when I am visiting her I try what she is serving. But her gluten free banana bread tastes like a banana omelet to me. Blech!

The funniest thing I have seen along this line recently is a YouTube video where a woman made ‘whipped cream’ from aqua faba ie canned chickpea juice. After much whipping and adding of sugar and vanilla she tasted sweet whipped chickpea foam. It ended with her plaintively asking why anyone would do this.

BTW my mom was around when the first wave of macrobiotic diets came through. Part of the philosophy is a willingness to break the diet in order to be a gracious guest. That seems to be lacking.

"I used a pound of butter in it," Yum! I'm in!!!

LOL about the aqua faba video! i'm guessing it was someone unclear on the concept. I've heard of it being used as a structural component in lieu of whipped egg whites, but while I prefer to cook my own chickpeas, I'm very familiar with the canned ones. How anyone thinks sugar and vanilla is going to make it taste less like bean farts is beyond me. It could be hidden by other flavors in a casserole or cake, as it is usually used, but no amount of whippery is going to tempt fairies to waste magic dust trying to transmogrify it into a different substance altogether!

I love the way everyone has their own, sometimes strong, preferences but are accepting of others who like something different.

I like Cool Whip. I could eat it by the spoonfuls. Oh, who am i fooling I do eat it by the spoonfuls frozen. Thanksgiving I buy the real whip cream in the squirt can.

The trouble with the whipped cream in a can is if you don't eat it like within 5 minutes of squirting it, it starts to melt. I love real whipped cream. But it's a lot of work when all you want is a couple of tablespoons. I got one of those Pampered Chef pump thingies that's supposed to be great for small batches. Don't waste your money. But here's an odd thing about Cool Whip - the sugar-free that I buy for DH, who is borderline diabetic, actually tastes more like whipped cream than the regular Cool Whip does.

Rusty, if you are thinking of Dream Whip, which comes in powdered form in envelopes, I think they still make it.

I love Cool Whip. Only ever buy it to put on pumpkin pie. When I was younger I used to love it on jello too. Of course, whipped cream in a can is good too and funner to use.

Rusty, I think that is Dream Whip you were talking about.

My recipe site pet peeve is the ones that don't have a way to print the recipe.

I don't mind scrolling past the chatty stuff, asides and step by step process pictures to get to the recipe, but I want to be able to save it to pdf so that I can easily access it again. Many sites have a print button to bring up a print friendly copy of just the recipe. The nicest sites also have a "jump to recipe" button at the top which is nice for those who want to skip all the long winded stuff. But then there are sites that don't have a print button. I've tried printing the whole thing to pdf and deleting the pages I don't want, but the recipe then ends up not aligned to a page so there's still some garbage at the beginning. Sometimes, it is possible, though annoying, to select the recipe text with the cursor and do print selection, but some sites have formatting that messes that up.

I appreciate learning about some of the vegan substitutions - though not because I want to make a light version of a recipe. We keep kosher so we can't have milk products at a meal with meat. Mostly, I just make desserts and things that are naturally dairy free, but there are times when I really want a specific thing.

I'd had smoked salmon macaroons at a social and thought they would be nice to bring to the Pesach seder we were going to, but how to make the filling without cream cheese and without using any weird ingredients? Searching on line, I found out about making cashew "cream cheese". It worked out great.

I recently found a vegan cultured butter. It's the first time I've had a non-dairy "butter" that actually tastes good enough to eat spread on a slice of toast. (Many margarines have some dairy ingredients and the ones I've tried before that don't, have no flavor - they might as well be shortening.) Cashews are on it's ingredient list and it doesn't have a bunch of weird stuff in it. I used it to make the crust for a non-dairy pumpkin pie. Coconut milk was used for the filling in place of milk.

In neither of these cases is it a "light" option. I'd guess that the cashew cream cheese ends up about the same calories as cream cheese. The vegan cultured butter is about the same calories and fat content per tsp as regular butter - probably part of why it works well as a substitute in baking.

My friend made meringues with aqua faba and they tasted like meringues made with egg whites. Any beany flavor went away in the cooking process. Basically, it has the protein necessary to provide the structure for whipping into a foam to bake into a meringue or baked good that usually uses egg white foam. But it wouldn't have the flavor and fat to sub for whipped cream.

What kid doesn't like having whip cream squirted in their mouth.

I always enjoy the comments and ratings of recipes. Some of them share
the changes/substitutions they made to the recipe, such that it's not
really the recipe anymore! But the funniest comment I ever read was for a
turkey meatball recipe on the NYT cooking site. There were hundreds of
comments... and buried within them was a simple statement: "I
substituted ground beef for the turkey, and it turned out perfectly."

My siblings and I had plenty of whip cream squirts when we were younger (thanks to an indulging grandmother), but, yeah, like Ediej states, it melts too fast. I've never liked Cool Whip, though. So it's real whipped cream for me.

I know what you mean. Do these people pay to get their recipes to the top of the search results?

And you can only "indulge" if you have lots and lots of money

The rest of us, the plebs, go with normal food made from ingredients we actually recognize

I dunno. Cream is a pretty common ingredient and indulgent.

I'm marvelling at the whipped cream comments. Yes, I've seen Cool Whip, Dream Whip and Readi-Whip in my life (not recently). I didn't like them. Didn't like whipped cream, either, unless my mother made it. Certainly none in a restaurant. They put stuff in those things, like gum and chemicals.

The only thing my mother added was a tiny spoon of sugar. It has more flavor with a little sugar, even better vanilla sugar. Not enough to make it taste particularly sweet, but enough to be sensed by the tastebuds. I do the same. It's just cream and air and that tiny bit of flavoring sugar. Easy with a mixer. Doable with a whisk.

Does cream cost more than the packages?

I don't understand what's so funny about the comment about the meatball recipe either. It's informative. Some recipes do not work well with different proteins. The commenter was saying that this one, for turkey, works perfectly for beef as well. I do that kind of thing with recipes all the time, adapt them to different uses. OTOH, when my mother first tried to make turkey meatloaf, she tried to make it with the same flavorings and concept as beef, and it wasn't any good, and she had to invent a whole new way to make a good turkey meatloaf--one that would be sure to be bad made with beef. So, a meatball recipe that's good for both would be a find!

I agree about the badly designed blogs with the recipes worth wading in for (I find better recipes in blogs than from most well known pros (who apparently let underlings post whatever recipes without the Name having actually made or even read through the recipes). Blogs are also usually a better source for me than recipe aggregators, who seem to post a lot of poorly written recipes for food that doesn't sound very good. So then you have to wade through badly placed and sourced advertising, disjointed stories, and blather about how to make the recipe that's written more for making you wade through more immaterial ads (like the Google ones that show only things you've already bought and don't want more of).

Cloud Swift, I posted awhile back about how I'd started using Mealboard instead of Word for recipes, shopping lists and menu planning, which syncs automatically with my iPad and doesn't require my computer to make peace with my printer. It has an automatic import function which will find and import the recipe. You do have to check in case something doesn't quite come through right, but it's remarkable good. I'm sure other recipe programs work as well.

Can I add to the Cool Whip rant and say that pancake syrup is not maple syrup! I can’t order pancakes or French toast at the pancake house because the syrup is just ugh. Oh, sure, I could use jam or butter or fresh fruit, but just as rolls are nothing more than an excuse to eat butter, so pancakes are just an excuse to have maple syrup.

We volunteered to bring maple syrup to our church’s pancake supper one year, only to learn that one of the organizers works for a major producer of pancake syrup and always supplies plenty. We snuck our own little vial in to share at our table. And when my child’s class had “Canada” for the school International Day, and someone else volunteeed to bring pancakes and syrup, well, the Canadian and Vermonter parents just rolled their eyes when they saw what kind of syrup was brought.

Barb, I don't understand your "indulge" comment. Stuffing is pretty indulgent as is gravy and neither adds much to the cost of the bird.

Pllog, another pet peeve of mine is that most of the whipping cream brands here include one or more gums in addition to the cream. A lot of the yogurts too. It tastes different to me with those in it. We have to go to Whole Foods or Trader Joe's to get cream that just says "cream" under ingredients. Our regular grocery store does carry at least one brand of yogurt that is unadulterated by that stuff.

I want just cream, a bit of sugar and vanilla in whipped cream.

I also find that some of the best recipes are on blogs. There are some sites that I've used often enough to have confidence that their recipes will be good, like Smitten Kitchen. The New York Times recipes have been reliable too, but a lot are behind their paywall. I finally bit the bullet and subscribed. But sometimes the recipe you want isn't on a site you like and you have to put up with where you find it.

Well, I am gonna dig in and stand behind my Cool Whip. They make them FLAVORED now. Birthday cake cool whip,curiously pink and delicious! And I use the Oreo cool whip to fill cakes that i make for SO. We both love it. I love real whipped cream too. But sometimes I crave the fake stuff in a tub. MMMMMM. One year my mom decided to be fancy and served real whipped cream on the pumpkin pie. It was the worst Thanksgiving ever. I like the real stuff on fruit and fruit pies.

Barb, I don't understand your "indulge" comment. Stuffing is pretty indulgent as is gravy and neither adds much to the cost of the bird.

Sorry, I wasn't referring to stuffing or gravy

Being vegan, going gluten free or keto can be expensive dietary choices. Even trying to use organic foods is costly,

Like amylou321, when I search for a recipe, I don't really want a couple of pages of weird adaptations. If I want a vegetarian recipe, or low carb, or whatever, I make sure I include that in the search terms.

I know Google allows sites to pay to be first, otherwise, their algorithm pulls up the most popular sites first.

Around here, we give the pronunciation, braut, to brat and eat it up.

I don't understand what's so funny about the comment about the meatball recipe either.

Pillog, the recipe was posted as a healthy alternative to standard beef meatballs, and the comment seemed tongue-in-cheek given the context of the recipe and subsequent commentary.

Oh! Thanks, Feathers, I totally missed that.

Cloud Swift, I'm kind of shocked about the cream. Why would there need to be anything but cream in cream??? Only "kind of" shocked because, of course, Americans always think we can improve on reality.

Amylou, I've never even heard of flavored Cool Whip before!! You're more than welcome to it. I like American Cheese (the good kind, not the stuff that feels like plastic). I'm just not into whipped toppings.

I recently bought maple syrup in Trader Joes and occasionally buy it but honestly I can't tell the difference between it and the fake stuff.

Oh boy, do I agree on the maple syrup. Grandpa tapped the maples when I was a child and I learned about the "good" stuff, which was Grade B and now it's something else. It was dark and assertively maple flavored and not as thick as the fake stuff. There's a completely different consistency to the "pancake syrup" at the grocery store.

My son in law and grandkids, though? They like Mrs. Butterworth's. Ah well, to each their own.

I also like whipped cream but my brother will eat Cool Whip with a spoon and skip the pie. (shrug) Fine with me, I'll eat the pie and he can have ALL the Cool Whip and we'll both be happy.

I don't follow any blogs (well, other than AnnT's) because I don't want to read the whole life story of people I don't know, I just want the recipe. Pinterest is similarly aggravating to me, I click the pretty picture to find that the recipe came from somewhere else. Click that link and nope, not there either, but there's another link, and another. Ugh, it's such a time sucker, so I just don't go there at all.

Annie

IMO, pancake syrup is an abomination. I grew up on real, 100% maple syrup from NH (family friends ran an operation) and just cannot stomach the fake stuff. I always take a small refillable bottle of my own delicious real maple delight tucked into my purse when out for breakfast. Not gonna spoil my French toast with that horrible offering on the table, LOL.

When I was young (I'm 66 now) we used Rogers Yellow Syrup or Beehive Corn Syrup which was more affordable than real Maple Syrup. Today, I quite enjoy Mrs, Butterworth. I know, as a Canadian, I shouldn't admit that :-)

When I want to whip just a little bit of cream, I use my aerator/milk frother. It is similar to this one. It doesn’t whip cream into stiff peaks but it does a pretty good job of making a nice whipped cream with soft peaks.

My immersion blender came with a whisk attachment and a cup. For some reason I never think about it when I want whipped cream. Anybody have one like that that has used it? Does it do a decent job of whipping?

Cloud Swift was SO right! Mr. Picky is a milk expert. He can tell the difference between Clover Organic, and the local processor he favors, but he likes the Clover. Sometimes, I get Trader Joe's because I happen to be there, and he says it's not as good as the local or Clover but is fine. So I'm used to buying either Clover Organic or Trader Joe's Organic cream. They list the ingredients differently, but both have the words "grade A, pasteurized, organic, heavy and cream." Nothing else. (For all I know, TJ's may be from Clover.)

There wasn't any Clover in the case, so I looked at Organic Valley and a couple others. They're okay companies, but not local or sort of local (Clover is more than 100 miles away, but still in California). And they all had gum!!! Strauss, which is also only sort of local, but excellent quality, comes in glass jars, but is also only cream. The only one! I almost got that, but then found the Clover cream in a different spot. :)

Shocked, I am! Is the gum a stabilizer for all that transport to bring Midwest cream to the Pacific coast? Is it supposed to help if you actually whip the cream? (I'm only going to aerate it, intending to make ice cream.)

I have no issues getting lovely stiff peak whipped cream out of Grade A Organic Pasteurized Heavy Cream. I don't like that mushy partly whipped cream that's in now...

So, Amylou, is it specifically Cool Whip brand you like, or the general category of non-dairy whipped topping? There were a bunch of different ones (presumably vegan) at WF.

I kinda prefer the Silk Holiday Nog (soy milk product). Not as rich and I can have a couple with good dark rum without feeling bloated :-) Sorry to be contrary :-)

There are so many people out there trying to accommodate special diets while keeping with traditional fare, I bet that's why there are so many of those sorts of recipes.

Specifically cool whip.

Did the presumably vegan ones announce themselves as " vegan whipped cream? " Or as non dairy whipped topping,as cool whip does?

"Holiday Nog!" That's better!

I didn't look closely at the non-cream, but they reminded me of Cool Whip, so I Think they probably said "Whip" in the large letters. Or maybe "topping". There were a few different brands.

The almond milk eggnog at TJ's is actually called "Almond Nog" - is that acceptable? But I have no issues with something being called "Vegan Egg Nog" - I actually prefer it as I know it won't have any egg or dairy. I wouldn't know what was in "Holiday Nog"

There's a whole bunch of people getting upset that the plant-based meat is calling itself "meat" and they are going to court and everything. I think it's the silliest thing to get upset about that I've ever heard of.

I think vegan whipped cream ones are called "whipped topping."

Personally I have no issue with folks not wanting to eat meat, but I can't for the life of me understand why they want to eat fake meat. Why not just enjoy vegetables in all their myriad forms, instead of imitating something you don't want ?

Interesting article about Cool Whip:

https://www.wired.com/2007/04/st-coolwhip/

"Why not just enjoy vegetables in all their myriad forms, instead of imitating something you don't want?"

I've been a vegetarian for 20 years for ethical reasons, not because I didn't like meat. I miss things like burgers and meatloaf and sausage, and these products let me indulge in very similar flavors/textures without killing animals. I am so grateful that they have developed these products, especially as each generation is becoming cleaner with healthier ingredients and less processed frankenfood.

I also need to eat low carb for health reasons, and most of the plant proteins are loaded with carbs. These "meat" products are high protein and low carb. I can only eat so many eggs and vegetables, so I appreciate the variety.

Jupidupi, that article does absolutely nothing to diminish my love of cool whip. I've known for a lifetime that that stuff is made up of some unknown and unholy ingredients and it was,still is, and always will be delicious.

Amy, funny thing, my DD and I were talking about our TG menu yesterday. She has been eating keto for almost 2 years now but TG and Christmas (and vacation) are times when she will cheat a little, or a lot at TG. She mentioned that she would love a small slice of pumpkin pie and that it must have some a Cool Whip on top. I laughed and told her about this discussion. Hardly anyone in our family loves pumpkin pie except the two of us and my brother. Well, maybe there are one or two I am forgetting. May have to bake one. And buy Cool Whip and some of that canned whipped cream.

edie, I use my immersion blender whisk to whip cream all the time. I use the plastic container that came with the set (fairly tall and narrow) but any narrow vessel would work. I kind of get it all going then keep raising and lowering the stick to get it to whip better.

I only use real whipping cream and could never eat cool whip after reading the ingredients...no real food there. I always keep a box of shelf stable whipping cream from Trader Joes in my refer for emergencies. Not as good as fresh, but passable with some sugar and vanilla added.

I recently had this at a friend's...yummy - the best in a can I've ever had. They got it at a local supermarket...it's from France.

Olychick, thanks! I will give it a try! I do have the tall narrow container it came with.

Annie1992 — i’m with you on that grade B real maple syrup! That’s the only thing we use when we want maple syrup. That corn syrup stuff has a mouth feel that is like cardboard gelatin.

I rarely buy or use Cool Whip, but one of my in-laws used to make this particular dessert with Cool Whip and strawberries because her children liked it. She use frozen strawberries but with a lot of fresh strawberries on top. I developed a fondness for it :-)

I rarely buy or use Cool Whip, but one of my in-laws used to make this particular dessert with Cool Whip and strawberries because her children like it. She use frozen strawberries but with a lot of fresh strawberries on top. I developed a fondness for it :-)

That Wired article on Cool Whip is funny. I do remember the polysorbate 60 from reading the list of ingredients decades ago.