Happy Holidays - Guest Food Post
Level 2 - Value Investor
Welcome Avatar! Today we have a simple holiday post from Octopod our resident chef. We do have the standard investment/crypto related post slated for later this week (on CBDCs). That said wanted to take a quick pause for some holiday fun.
Season’s Greetings from behind my kitchen stove. Octopod (Link)
Special thanks to BTB for reaching out to add some Holiday cheer to the Substack.
The network state that is The Jungle continues to grow and thrive. What started as a few dozen cartoons has grown into a network of experts that range from fitness, finance, affiliate marketing, e-com, medicine and now a cartoon Gator dentist has blown up and started a toothpaste biz.
The results keep playing out: if you have an expertise… equal opportunity, unequal results.
The Case for Cooking
While the continual message has been accumulate USTT, don’t flex, stay incognito and build multiple streams of income… there is one area of your life that you can maximize quite easily for optimal pleasure.
The food you eat.
With sky-rocketing food costs, if you’re a Door Dash or Uber Eats dependent you’re down bad at this point. Quality down, Price up.
Two ppl walk into Chipotle now and they’re lucky to get out for <$50 USTT. (CAVA > Chipotle, IYKYK).
If you’re on a budget or just trying to stash as many USTT as possible, building some simple and easy cooking skills will have you whipping up salmon, lentils, rice and beans that are 100x tastier than what you can get at your local SleazeCake Factory.
Cooking doesn’t have to be time consuming.
In many cases it’s more efficient, time-wise, to cook a meal at home vs going out, waiting for a table, placing your order, waiting for your food, eating, waiting for the check, cash out… go home.
Homemade For the Holidays:
Since the holidays are here this is the perfect time to do a little basic cooking that can leave some lasting impressions for you and your loved ones.
Whether you’re an extravagant gift-giver or on a budget, one thing we can agree on is that the trend of just scooping up gift cards to pass out is a little over-played and doesn’t require much (if any) thought.
In fact, some people still recall and bring my attention to gifts that I gave them years ago… homemade, from my kitchen.
Food is universally understood to be able to bring people together and make memories.
Homemade gifts from your kitchen are an extension of this and can make a powerful impression over the holidays.
Let’s be real… who does this anymore? Few
Harry & David have a thriving mail order business that crushes it around Christmas, which is fine and good. But recipes that you can make at home will always carry more soul in them and carry the gift of the time that you spent to prepare for your special people.
Since time is our most precious commodity, using few minutes of yours to make something delicious will carry that small degree of “priceless” in your bakes.
EASY HOLIDAY BAKING IDEAS
For the sake of brevity, I’m going to link some recipes and ideas that I’ve already dropped on Twitter or Substack, then drop a recipe here that I’ve never shared.
-For the Hot Cocoa lovers there’s just one trick to maximizing that choco-flavor in the most popular holiday drink.
I give a full walkthrough here to make the best Hot Cocoa, perfect for holiday parties.
-Another simple idea that will delight frens: Homemade Nutella. The process is quite simple and the first 2 ingredients aren’t sugar and palm oil. You can give out small jars to special frens.
-If you’re looking for something very unique and festive then check out this Curried Fruit recipe. The combination of sweet fruit, warming spices, and umami is an absolute stunner dessert that slays when served warm over ice cream. Or in the morning on top of your greek yogurt.
Again, you can make this, put into small jars to gift out.
-This recipe and 6+ recipe ideas were all included in this free Substack.
-ICYMI I just dropped a fool-proof walnut fudge recipe. This is slightly more involved but if you have any inclination for cooking this will blow your frens away.
BLOND BROWNIES RECIPE
Introducing Blond Brownies. This recipe has been made at the holidays in my family ever since I was a kid.
It’s one of the more unusual recipes I’ve seen because they’re not Blondies. They’re not Brownies, but they are “Blond Brownies”; extremely addictive and delicious 🤤
Luckily the recipe itself is very simple so if you have an oven, a mixing bowl and sturdy mixing spoon you’re all good.
Ingredients:
4 cups graham cracker crumbs (Original > Honey)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 cans eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp sea salt
4 cups chocolate chips (Nestle dark morsels 53%)
Method:
Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9x13 metal baking dish with soft butter. *If you using a glass pyrex 9x13, set temp to 325F).
To make the crumbs, lightly crush graham crackers in a food processor and pulse until the crumbs look like sand.
Add 4 cups to a large mixing bowl, add the salt, vanilla, eagle brand and chocolate chips. Stir thoroughly with a sturdy mixing spoon. The batter will be very thick and take a little muscle to fully incorporate it. (It’s worth it)
Once the batter is homogeneous with no dry pockets, spoon the batter into the greased baking dish and spread out evenly. Sometimes a bowl scraper works well for this part if you have one.
Bake at 350F for 30-40 mins, or until golden brown and the edges start to pull away from the pan. (Check at 30 mins, rotate pan if not done).
Allow to cool at room temp completely. Cut into small squares and serve.
These are rich and gooey when slightly warm, but my fave is eating them chilled. They freeze really well which means you can make a double batch and have around for a while to savor every now and then.
I hope you enjoy this family recipe as much as my frens and family have over the years 🙏
PRE-MADE OPTIONS
If you are hell-bent on not doing any cooking I made a list of my Top 10 Holiday gifts that would thrill any food lover or home cook.
The Pannetone made by "This is from Roy" is an absolute nirvana dessert. It's one of the few prepared food items that I'd pay double for... it's that good. 🤤
You've also got access to what I consider the Valhalla of brisket from Snow's BBQ.
Check out the link above for the full list
For those wanting some holiday menu help, I'm dropping a full menu with recipes this coming week and also working on a collab with BowtiedWineGuy to help with holiday libations!
Wishing you wonderful Holiday Season with you and yours, filled with good food and memories. 🙏🎄🎁
Thanks again to BTB, would not be here without them and the community they started. I found BTB later than most. You can find Octopod here
If I can go from a fine-dining chef behind a stove, to building WiFi monies online... anyone can.
2023 approaches.. cartoons will win. Glad to be here with you all.
Disclaimer: None of this is to be deemed legal or financial advice of any kind. These are *opinions* written by an anonymous group of Ex-Wall Street Tech Bankers and software engineers who moved into affiliate marketing and e-commerce. We’re an advisor for Synapse Protocol and on the JPEG team.
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O fuk I'm about to cooooooooooooooook
Unreal! Thanks Octopod. Toons gonna be eating good on DeGen Mountain.