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The dam has burst, and I've added yet another pair of cookbooks to my collection. What happened was, Hank Shaw (he of the blog Hunter Angler Gardener Cook) was wrapping up a nationwide book tour at last weekend's Chick of the Woods Holiday Forest Fair in Chaska, Minnesota. He was also selling cookbooks. Here's what he wrote on his blog about the presentation: I missed the presentation. It was -16F here that morning, and I took a long time to get going, and I arrived too late. But the greenhouses were still packed with foragers and crafts, and he was still there signing and selling books when I arrived. He seems like a lovely man. I enjoyed chatting with him, to the degree I could: the table was busy, and everyone was chatting -- with him, with each other. It was a good time. I came for his latest book: Those of you who have read any of the Camping, Princess Style topic know that my darling and I spent a lot of time in the southwestern United States, especially at this time of year. (If he were still alive, we'd have been long gone from Minnesota.) I do like the food. I like the cultural mix. I like the idea of "borderlands" where everything is mixed and shared, and lines are blurred. (Well, it's supposed to be. 'Nuff said.) Besides, I like Hank's writing. I've checked out some of his earlier books from the library. If I were a dedicated hunter, angler, gardener or forager I'd probably have bought some of them before now. This book is the first I've seen that looked like I could use it a lot...starting with making tortillas! The book is broken down by region, with stories. It's beautifully photographed (of course) and I love the inscription he wrote for me. Well. As I said, the dam had burst by that time. He was discounting the books. I looked at all four that were available, and decided that I probably could get good use from this one as well, given my love of fish and seafood: An example of a recipe I want to try: It will all make good reading, and teach me good techniques (I hope), and give me some good ideas.

Me neither! It was very cleanly done.

These had melted cheese inside, but crispy cheese on the outside sounds amazing. Sorry about the embezzling restauranteur. Looked like Peekskill has a few good Mexican offerings, and a nice wine and liquor store where I got restaurant recommendations. Many restaurants were “closed for the season” this time of year, so you may want to do your Peekskill restaurant tour in the summer.

Never seen a Modelo can opened like this?

Wow... I grew up in Peekskill and I don't remember anything like that there!!! Then again, it was a long time ago and I don't think birria existed anywhere in NY at that time...

Last week we had our staff Christmas party at the house, but managed to not get a single picture (mainly because guests showed up early...) It's always fun playing Santa and handing out gifts to all the children of the staff, and bonuses to the staff members. We make one main and a ton of desserts, and all the other families bring a main or a side. Mrs. M made a lovely ham, miniature pumpkin pies, a blueberry topped cheesecake (and mini's of that as well), and a massive charcuterie spread. She found a bag of 1kg of frozen, cubed apples, which I turned into little apple hand-pies. My youngest daughter and I thought they reminded us of McDonald's pies, but good. Then this week was a party for a larger group of workers in the area, and being the Southern Hemisphere, it was too be a barbecue (braai, because it's South Africa), but the rain pushed us up under the canopies. Mr's M. was supposed to be bringing a pasta salad, and I was helping her chop the veggies. Curiously, she disappeared around that time and left me alone with the dish, which is how we ended up with a chili-crisp & jalapeno pasta salad. Chopped white onion (quick pickled to reduce their intensity), red & yellow bell peppers, jalapeno, cubed gouda cheese. I had just added the typical mayo and mustard and was looking for seasoning when a little voice told me to just dump chili crisp in. I obeyed. Nothing else was added. I'm not going to say it was the best pasta salad I've ever had, because that would be prideful. But it was.

Portobellos with Truffle-Spinach Filling - not really photogenic but very tasty. Portobellos are quickly pre-seared under the broiler and then filled with a mix of spinach, truffle paste, truffle butter, onion, garlic, toasted breadcrumbs, cream cheese, parmesan and sage and baked in the oven

Clams with fermented black beans and chilli. Finger food served with a baguette for juice dipping purposes.

I adore birria tacos or more specifically queso birria (these have melted and crispy cheese on the outside.) Sadly, the only place around here that did a good job of them has closed. Apparently the husband embezzled a lot of money from the business.

Road food on a cold day in Peekskill NY - pork birria tacos with jus, corn and chorizo, and Modelo Especial

That's vintage stuff, @Shelby!

I can't recall if I posted last night that I had frozen pot stickers. Lots left and I felt chilly this evening, so made a soup with broth, veggies, spices and some of the pot stickers. Turned out great and warmed me up just right. I'll do it again!

Since the only ones of us who still cook have limited time and energy this year, we've decided to have Italian. My sister and her husband host. She is going to make eggplant Parm and I'm to pick up a lasagna from a very good local restaurant here to take. I'll take bread and salad. My BIL will make some sort of dessert. He does a fantastic tiramisu (makes his own ladyfingers for it) but I don't know if that is what he'll make.

I would love to hear about this recipe. I usually use the recipe from @Ann_T. It is excellent.

As most of you know, my house is onion and garlic free because my housemate, Carlos, is deathly allergic to them. Well, he's gone to Guanacaste to visit his family for 3 days so it's time to indulge. Tonight was one of my favorites, garlic spaghetti with shrimp. I even made enough for breakfast tomorrow.

Squid ink linguine with seafood sauce. (again) … so easy to buy a handful of fresh marinara mix of seafood including mussels, salmon, white fish, shrimp, scallops, calamari rings and make a sauce sometimes tomato based and sometimes not with lemon and thyme. The squid ink gives a nice silkiness to the pasta - I’m hooked.

Lentils?

Doilies! 🙂 https://pieceworkmagazine.com/push-pull-doily/

And someone else made them for me, too! Bonus! I'm just so tired this year, I didn't even want to make my own. 😆 But I will probably still end up spending quite a bit of time on salad, side/veggie dishes and dessert. I will report back on taste/quality!

@FauxPas, please try and remember to tell us what that vegetarian tourtière tastes like. Mushrooms, potato, lentils, walnuts, sourdough bread crumbs –– what's not to like! 😋

I'll second that. Costco sells them in their usual large quantity and they freeze very well. Ask me how I know.

I went through some drawers in the dining room and pulled out a few things: Lots of lace tablecloths and a billion lace? Crocheted? Things in all shapes and sizes like this:

Not Kirkland, it's made by a Quebec company - Plaisirs Gastronomiques. It's quite big, almost 2 kg. This is the vegetarian one, from a small local place - Honey Grove bakery: I'll just put out chutneys and sauces and people can choose what they like. Edited to add: And the sun just came out and temp has climbed to 17C (63F) so it's feeling pretty mild for mid-December. 🙂

Probably should have been Gumbeaux

No no I really don't! I really appreciate the information.