Author: Sidekick

Keto Thanksgiving Prep – Final Day

Not much prep left. Today I’ll just double check that I have everything I need for tomorrow. I harvested thyme & sage from the garden about a week ago, just ahead of a frost. I brought my rosemary into the basement, and it seems to be doing fine inside.

We do nothing different with the turkey for Keto. The only change we make is for the gravy. Instead of using a bunch of flour, we use just a couple teaspoons of xanthan gum. And it makes the best tasting gravy you’ll ever have. The one trick we’ve learned is to mix xanthan gum with oil or grease if you can. But not water. It does NOT mix with water very well. For gravy I’ll put some drippings in a shaker cup and shake it with the xanthan gum. Just be careful to let it cool first, and then open the lid very slowly, otherwise you’ll get a faceful of hot spray.

5 years ago, I made my first solo turkey. As with most of my recipes, I looked online at multiple recipes. Took a bit from different ones and came up with my own. So here is the “official” Stewart Family Turkey Recipe:

Rinsed turkey and removed giblets package and neck.
Put sliced lemons, fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary and sage), a couple celery stalks with leaves & half an onion inside the cavity.
Quartered the other half of the onion and lay in the pan’s bottom.
Then I laid a few of the herbs over the top and sprinkled a little salt and pepper.
Soaked some cheese cloth with a stick of melted butter and a small bottle of white wine and laid that over the top. Then popped it in the oven. 
Baste right over the cheese cloth every 30-60 minutes. 
I keep forgetting to take a before pic, but here’s a little over an hour in. 

Just over an hour in
My first solo turkey (2015)

Keto Thanksgiving Prep – Day 3-4

This weekend my prep comprised taking out the turkey so it will thaw by Thursday. That may not seem like much, but this also included rearranging the fridge so it would fit.

I also made a Keto friendly pumpkin pie. I really didn’t need to make one so early, other than the fact that we wanted pie…

Coconut flour pie crust
Ready for the oven
Ready to eat… well, maybe a little more whipped cream

Here are the recipes I used:
Coconut Flour Pie Crust
Pumpkin pie filling

Keto Thanksgiving Prep – Day 2

Today I made a cream of mushroom++ soup for our green bean casserole. We basically use the regular green bean casserole recipe we’ve always used… A can of cream of mushroom soup, a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, three cans of cut green beans, a dash of black pepper, and instead of the French’s French fried onions we use spicy pork rinds.

Here’s the base recipe I use for Brown Butter Mushroom Soup

The first time I made this, I followed the recipe exactly. The second time I made this I decided this is great all it’s missing is a bit of onion and celery to incorporate the cream of onion and our celery soups.

Here’s what I’m putting in today.
6 T butter
2 T fresh chopped sage
1/2 c diced celery
1/2 c diced onions
3 6.5oz cans mushrooms, chopped
7 cups pork roast stock. (Yes, that’s what I meant😃)
3/4 c heavy cream (because of the extra stock)
1.5 tsp Xanthan gum
Salt & pepper to taste

Just before using the blender
Everything in, ready to blend

Instead of a food processor or blender, I just remove the soup from the heat after step 3 so it can cool a bit. Then I blend it up with an immersion blender, turn the heat back and stir in cream and xanthan gum.

Finished cream soup
Finished cream soup

I only need about 1.5 cups of this for the green bean casserole, so I’ll save that in the fridge, and freeze the rest for the next time I need Keto friendly cream soup.

Keto Thanksgiving Prep – Day 1

On November 18th, I started prep for our 2nd Keto Thanksgiving.

1st Step – breadcrumbs for stuffing. Last year I tried multiple keto bread recipes, but this year Aldi carries no carb bread by L’oven Fresh. So I’m using that this year to make things easier.

Here’s the recipe I used for cook time & seasoning- DIY Stuffing Cubes.

OFFWORLDER coming to KS

OFFWORLDER Issue #1

by Mike Baron & Jordi Armengol
launches at Noon on Kickstarter
12 pm CDT  (5 pm UDT)

We have some 24 hour specials that you don’t want to miss out on.  We have 4 reward tiers that are discounted in price, three are limited in quantity.

We are also giving away 2 sketches drawn & colored by Jordi Armengol.  Anyone who pledges for a physical reward tier will be entered in a drawing to win 1 of the 2 sketches.  Yes, that means 2 of you can win!

We also have special Kickstart exclusive covers by Pat Broderick!

OFFWORLDER Volume 1

Unfortunately, we did no meet the funding goal for OFFWORLDER Volume 1. However, we are still committed to getting this story created and in your hands. We are going to be reviewing the campaign and determining how best to proceed.

We would like to thank everyone who supported the campaign by backing and/or helping us spread the word. We hope you will all continue to stay with us as we more forward. And of course, to support the project when we re-launch the campaign!

Sidekick says HELLO!

Hey everyone, it’s Sidekick.  Just wanted to drop a quick note to say hi, and welcome to our blog.  Going to touch on a little bit of everything here, and we’ll of course let you know what we have up-coming from Fanatic Comics.

In April, we will be launching Ravage: Kill all men! Redux Issue 1 By Chuck Dixon on Kickstarter.

Ravage Kill All Men Redux

Once OFFWORLDER finishes, we’ll also be launching it on Indiegogo.