lovebenton0

Incredible, Abra! Thank you for taking the time to post the final phase. I'm glad we got this thread all together. My thanks to whoever wrangled that around. Tamale making at home for me tomorrow! Just a relative few (dozen), as my friend, her 13 yr old son (my godson), and I will be having a real, full force tamalada the week after Christmas. I know, not traditional holiday timing . . . But I will be glad for the help and we'll eat tamales anytime!

Were we separated at birth? I'd fit right in your family! Very cool gift, fifi, a gold star for the nephew. I want to see pics of your new purple prickly pear. Say that ten times. Did I miss a tamalada post, fifi? Or are you just eating secret tamales?

I confess I grew up with ketchup on scrambled eggs. Now I put it on the side add sprinkle on the Tabasco sauce, dip in ketchup for full flavor. But never on French Toast. We eat ours like you eat yours, Marlene. Are you doing traditional Scotch Shortbread? Mmmmmm! I always fork-tine mine in wedges then break with fork after cooling.

Marlene, as far as your pizza stone investment I don't think anyone has mentioned how great they are for bread and rolls as well. And, yes, definitely, the cornbread dressing goes in a pan -- 'cause your turkey's going to have a whole onion (cut in half), two or three pieces of celery and a couple sprigs of parsley in the cavity. No okra in gumbo? Sigh . . . Well, we can't convert you all at once I suppose! But if you do decide to do that sometime the best way IMHO is to saute the okra with the onions after they get going (read: hot! pan) then add corn, then tomatoes if you're using those. This sears the okra a bit, adds to the flavor and seals off the perceived sliminess that people can object to. Although once cooked in gumbo there is no slime. The gingerbread church is cute -- don't give up the tradition! It's a project certainly, but four hours is making good time! Used to do that with my son too. As well as dozens of fancy-dancy decorated sugar cookies for Xmas and pfeffenueser. Not the same now without the kids around. Shortbread -- both a candied ginger and a rosemary -- takes the place of the cookies and the gingerbread bakes in a pan.

This is interesting. Thanks for posting the recipe/techniques. I'm going to try it in a couple of days once I see what temp my rice cooker maintains over time with the water added at proper temp. Perhaps a little NY Strip or pork, depending . . . I'll post pics when I do. Lamb might be a good option also given the temp expected.

Saturday night: We had such a big brunch early in the afternoon we did a gumbo and rice redux with sliced Asian pears, red grapes and bleu d'Auvergne Miramont for dessert. Last night: Seared and pan cooked chicken legs with sliced Spanish onions, lemon and black pepper, lemon thyme. Golden pureed onion sauce made from pan juices served over rice and chicken. Sweet potatoes mashed with apple cider, a bit of cider vinegar, cinnamon, plantains and pecans. Later we split a big ol' trashy Snickers bar for dessert with lattes.

This is going to be great, Marlene! Really looking forward to your blog. You're going to love the turkey! Thanks to Brooks I did our Thanksgiving turkey that way and it was one of the best ever. It's staying on my fav list for sure. Advice on your cornbread dressing if you've never made this before . . . Make your cornbread a couple days ahead, let cool and roughly break it up in the pan, cover with loose paper towels to dry out some. Also gets that little task out of the way, which is a good thing. And you are putting OKRA in your gumbo, yes? :raz

A jug of good pickles! For lots of luck in the new year! I just found two more ornaments I forgot about that were new additions last Christmas. One is an angel made of various pasta pieces painted white (the wings are bowties), and the other is a little wooden elf sitting down with a big pie in his lap. And I have one of those glass twisted wrap candies also (purple with white stripes), that JAZ mentioned, but it doesn't hang on the tree it sits in the Christmas candy dish.

Funny you should say that, I consider the Hispanic food in Chicago to be some of the best in the country! The two places in America I have lived are Austin and Chicago, so (although I've never really thought about it before) I consider Hispanic food to be a huge part of the American food scene. Whenever I go back to London, one of the main things that seems strange to me is not seeing a taqueria on every corner. ← Perhaps I was not very clear, sorry. I lived up there for long enough, years ago, and visit frequently enough now that I know what I like to eat when I'm in the area. My point is that I can get that all the good Hispanic food I want when I'm at home, in Central TX. However, it is difficult to find a good Italian beef, or good German food out in my area. The Hispanic population has grown tremendously in the Chicago area over the past decade and I'm sure that now there are good places to eat. What I don't want is to pass up the opportunity to enjoy the more common regional foods when up there. On the other hand while living in Tuscaloosa AL for a couple of years during grad school I had some of the best Mexican food ever at a little family-owned and driven joint just off campus. And the Thai restaurant two blocks away was fantastic as well. So I'm referring more to a personal general guideline. I like to stick with the region's best for the majority of my dining out. edit to add: you can sub Latino for Hispanic if you please, nothing offensive was intended in the use of the term here. Both are used in my area, but Hispanic is more common. And in the title of the thread. And I do have to agree -- this is a very broad base for comparison. Too broad to be concise in its determination, in either culinary terms or statiscally. If we lump all Asian food into one category and all Latino/Hispanic food into the other category we are talking about an extended food list on both sides with so much diversity that the categories break down.

Jaymes, that's a very cool idea. I've done that for shrimp, never thought about using it for eggnog. Thanks!

Tonight I sat right here in the chair reading eG and eating gumbo at 2:00AM. I was lucky, made it yesterday, but did need to make the rice. Then I saw this thread . . . Now I want some good rice pudding.

More at brunch time than early weekend breakfast for us today. A pot of strong coffee spiced with cinnamon shards and pecans in the grounds. Oven omelette with ham, and mushrooms and onions sauteed in butter/red wine/soy (left over from a big steak the other night), topped with Swiss cheese. Homemade cinnamon/sugar butter muffins. Peach butter. OJ.

Well, cold is relative - we seldom get a sub-zero night here. Can I count about three in the last 25 years? But when it's winter it's winter and the house and my body knows it. Love to spend these chilly days occupied in a warm and fragrant kitchen. Definitely making stock, baking bread (with the oven on low for hours to keep the kitchen in a perfect temp range for the dough), braising meats and vegs. A big pot of lamb stew, spicy hot chili, gumbo, slow simmered soups, with some of that aromatic stock. Polenta or risotto, standing over the warm pot, stirring and anticipating the creamy rich goodness. Winter is a very tactile food season to me, more time with hands on the food and process itself, as opposed to grilling or salads, quick curries or stirfry, etc., in the hot months here.

I've never used the rice flour in shortbread. When I make shortbread I actually make my own powdered sugar in the blender. I form the dough into discs, wrap in plastic, chill for one hour. Then pat out the dough to about 1/2" maintaining disc shape. Place on parchment paper on the underside of a jelly roll pan (sided cookie pan), prick with fork to form six or eight wedges, sprinkle with granulated sugar, if you wish (sometimes I do sometimes not). Bake at 325 for about 17 minutes. Allow to cool a bit, transfer to board and cut through the fork pricks into wedges. One of my favorites, great at holiday time, is to add about a half tsp of crushed rosemary leaves to the dough. Very nice delicate flavor.

Doesn't make much sense, does it? Although most places (fast food in this reference of yours) do charge for the upgrade to the "why did I order this much food?" size. So those places are not giving a consumer more for the same amount of $. Still, my biggest bitch is that a "pound" of plain ol' coffee in a bag or can now weighs anywhere from 12 to 13.25 ounces. So not only does one get less but needs to buy it more often -- which probably looks great in their sales statistics.

Well, the cable guy is coming that day. Cause for further celebration. Already aired the grievances with Satellite purveyors. Guess the DH is next! And we'll be going by these updated rules from the Urban Dictionary. We'll be eating homemade pizza with beer and vanilla IC with cinnamon/pecan sauce. No B&J's near me.

Thanks, Abra. You were very busy! Looking forward to trying this -- I love mole!

Absolutely beautiful, Abra! Thanks for posting this photo essay of your tamalada progress. Your mole is making me drool. I just knew eG'ers would do a better a photo essay.

So you're talking fat dough pizza here, not thin crust? You can get both in the Chicago area.

Ha! I noticed that too the other day, fifi! What were they thinking? Must be an "Adman" (no gender bias here) that's younger than you and me. And Patti, I like the sesame sticks too, could be very good in this -- much better than pretzels for me! Be really nice with a curry/garlic/soy/worsterchesire sauce combo with cashews I bet. I also like to toss with Kosher salt at the end as it comes out of the oven instead of salting the whole mix. Gives little bursts of salt throughout.

The dog? ← That answers that question! We had one of those and a chili dog on the tree when my son was little. I never could figure out where they came from. Someone gave us an atrocious plastic lifesaver/other candies house ornament, which is quite large for an ornament. I haven't had a big tree in years (we decorate my Norfolk pine now) so there's no way it can go on our tree. But it sits in the pot at the base of the tree because we see these people at Christmas and their daughter would miss it if it's not there. I also have a couple red glass chili peppers, a little wooden mouse holding a big pie, another wooden ornament of a moose holding a candy cane, and three or four little gingerbread men made of clay. Oh! I do still have a couple of my friend's inspired okra ornaments! Her neighbors grew a lot of okra one year and many went unpicked, drying in the field. She took about a hundred of the dried okra pods and painted and/or glittered designs on them. Everyone she knew got okraments that year. Does anyone still do the popcorn/cranberry garlands? We used to make those when my son was little. Or how about the dried oranges with cloves? edit to add: I almost forgot -- haven't done the tree yet -- I a bought a little string of paper mache (I think) red chili peppers for the tree last year.

French toast (or pancakes) topped with thin sliced Granny apples sauteed in butter then tossed with brown sugar and cinnamon. Serve eggs on the side if you wish. Bagels. Toasted and smeared with cream cheese then thick preserves. Poached eggs on toast topped with quickly satueed onions and chopped tomatoes. Spanish tortillas (egg dish, not the bread), or frittatas. Any kind of leftover diced meat, chopped veg (broccoli, spinach, asparagus, onions, tomatoes), starch (such as potaoes or chopped pasta), and grated cheese mixed in with eggs then poured in a small hot skillet. Cook on med low to bake the eggs. Run under the broiler the last minute or two to further puff the eggs and lightly brown the top. You can also add a little to the top before broiling if you wish. Cut in wedges or serve whole if doing only two eggs in a small skillet.

My favorite new twist on the old mac 'n cheese is really an old PA Dutch recipe for German Noodle Ring. Basic white sauce (two cups), 8 oz of Swiss cheese grated and stirred in to melt, salt and white pepper to taste, about 1/2 tsp good paprika. Cook egg noodles until almost done, then place them by the handful in a buttered 1 1/2 qt ring mold or bundt pan to fill without pressing them down. I use my stoneware bundt. Reserve a bit less than half of the sauce (about a third or so) for later. Beat two large eggs into the rest of the sauce then pour over the noodles in the mold. Set mold in a pan of water and bake for about an hour at 350 F. Unmold onto plate, pour the remaining sauce over the noodle ring or serve extra sauce with a ladle. Fill ring with seared asparagus spears. Cut to serve in wedges with the spears laid on top. You can also sprinkle a few carraway seeds on the top after saucing. We have been known to sleepwalk to eat leftovers of this after dinner.

I agree, geographics definitely have a lot to do with it for me. I don't go to visit people in say Chicago or New york looking for Hispanic food. (Although I can't tell you how many times I've had to insist, please I just want an Italian beef! or can we go to the great local German restaurant, for instance, instead of some bad Chili's knock off! I can get all I want of good Hispanic food when I'm home.) I enjoy eating more "regionally" -- at the very least what is good in that region even if it's not regional food. Consequently when going out around Central TX, especially if the restaurant isn't chosen in advance but the meal out just becomes part of the day, we tend to eat more Hispanic food. More of that is good and available in the area than Chinese or most Asian cuisines. Although we do have a few favs of those here certainly. On the other hand, if I'm cooking at home I cook just as much Asian (to stretch that -- Chinese in all it's varieties, and Thai, Korean, Vietnamese) as I do Hispanic food. You could walk in my kitchen any day and find tortillas and curry side by side on the pantry shelf. So, no not more Hispanic food now than ever before. For Hispanic food favorites? One of my favs has to be calabacita con carne de puerco (a rich stew of squash with pork carnitas), but damn it's hard to beat a good chicken mole too.

Thanks, Dave, for the report and pics. And that turkey breast looks amazing. What are you using to paint the sideboard?