Someone Like You 57/61: Family portraits - Beecher/Stabler

[drsquidlove]

Someone Like You
by Dr Squidlove
drsquidlove @@@ livejournal.com

Oz/Law & Order: SVU crossover

Tobias Beecher's trying to rebuild his family in the shadow of the man he was in prison. Elliot Stabler's struggling to continue in the wake of divorce while his job eats away at his soul. It makes for an odd friendship, but it works.

Comments

Re: Couscous salad

[drsquidlove]

Okay. So. A few things on this. Yup, I do know that couscous is not traditional, and I know that you guys are freakin' weird about Thanksgiving.

Admittedly, part of what I'm doing stems from me being quite appalled by Thanksgiving. (Like iskra suggested.) From all description, it's a holiday so unspeakably awful that one could only have affection built in via childhood reinforcement, in much the same way Australians eat Vegemite, or Americans call Hersheys 'chocolate'.

But this is not going to be 'most' US tables. Holly has picked out the menu, and she's a food wanker. (Hence Toby commenting on the drive that she'd wanted to scrap it all for a seafood extravaganza.) She was raised by rich grandparents, where it's not unlikely that they would have gourmet versions of traditional food, and in the last year she's become the sort of precocious foodie who'd choose to cook Caribbean stuffed snapper. So it seemed logical to me that she'd be doing twists on some of the traditions.

While the couscous demographic might be slim across the American population generally, I wouldn't say that's true in NYC. (For Thanksgiving, sure, but not at a restaurant or dinner party.) I'm totally okay with Dickie and/or Elizabeth balking at breaks with tradition, but (aside from Holly) the only kid at the table is Harry. And Holly might well stick spiders in his bowl, so she doesn't care if he doesn't like it.

There's also a little influence here from my experience of Christmas (which admittedly, is not straightjacketed in the menu like Thanksgiving). There's a movie idea that the Christmas family gathering is one day, but for plenty of people, it's two or three separate occasions, as you cover divorced parents and/or in-laws. You don't want the same meal three days in a row, so you change it up. This may be Thanksgiving for these four, but it's actually Saturday, and Elliot's kids did the down-the-line turkey dinner with Kathy on Thursday. So while it's weird to change the menu, it seems weird to me to stick as tightly to the menu as I did.

So, yeah. There are reasons.

Thanks wycombe.

S.

Re: Couscous salad

[wycombe]

Well, of course you know what you’re doing. What was I thinking?? I can’t believe how many little things you know about the US and the setting of this story, not that people can’t travel and learn things if they are from somewhere other than they are writing about.

Yes, TG is very weird, at lease insofar as just about everyone insists on having this same dreary gag reflex inducing meal every year, no matter how broad a food universe they have during the other 364 days. Otherwise, the “unspeakably awful” baggage depends on the person and their history. As you obviously know, the one good thing about this holiday is that most people get concurrent vacation time that enables them to host or travel to connect with friends and family that they would like to connect with.

I have little affection for this holiday or its menu. I thought that the drunk uncle, and his yelling at the TV football game was right one the mark. I would love to join forces with someone with Holly’s food sensibilities at Thanksgiving. I just thought I was the only one.

“Food wanker”. Hilarious. Well, of course she is. She’s artistic. And, like Toby, for related reasons, she probably likes to be in control of whatever she can control. Food is big. And for Holly, who can see what’s at stake here, this get-together needs a whole lot of controlling.

Aside from this particular weekend, it’s something that Toby and Holly can have fun with doing together, including watching all the cooking shows and pouring over all of those glossy and brainy cooking magazines. It all makes perfect sense. And yeah, NYC. When she said what size pieces she wanted the peppers chopped up, I could see it all. But their Vermont stove top must be as big as Texas.

The one thing that I am hoping to get out of this precocious meal planning is a flaming dessert that will make everyone applaud and yell when they bring it on. It’s just a question of which one…I couldn’t possibly guess. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see.

Thanks for explaining your perspective on all of this. It was interesting.

Re: Couscous salad

[drsquidlove]

I do live part time in the US, so I've got a pretty good line on a lot of stuff, but I've never spent Thanksgiving, for which I am increasingly thankful. Digging out the base menu wasn't too hard; it's working out how it all goes together that's complicated, so for that I chased my friend Elayna, who was kind enough to give an incredibly detailed explanation of when you cook what and what's expected of guests, all the nitty details. And that's when I learned about ambrosia, which I still suspect may be a joke at my expense, much like all those people who pretend to like kale chips.

Heh. My google searches for fancy Thanksgiving variants suggest you are not the only one who'd want to change it up. Though I have to say, I wouldn't eat any of Holly's additions, either. But I do like the idea of them bonding over learning to cook together. I picture Toby, fresh out of prison, wanting to know how to look after himself, getting frustrated that cooking simple meals isn't nearly as simple as he assumed it would be, but when Holly comes into the kitchen he has to curb his temper. And together they figure it out, and it becomes a symbol of their united push for independence. Yay!

Ha. No flaming desserts. They've got to save something for the future.

Your comments were really helpful; I had reasons for what I did, but this was a good reinder that I needed to work those justifications in a little better, so I did some adjusting on the next couple of chapters.

Thanks, wycombe!

S.