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I wonder what makes these BIG little guys so different from the snail I have enjoyed often baked in a snail shell (the shells do come separately -- and clean ) steeped in butter and garlic? Escargot in butter and garlic is almost steak-like in chewing texture once baked. I for one would be willing to try, fifi, if we know my insides aren't going to crawling with undesirable guests! Texas snails on the world culinary market. Hmmmm. . . would that be with or without the smoking jackets on the can? Although I presume the smoking jackets would be good form in the . . . uh, smoker? Some relative -- Grandmother or an elderly aunt -- gave my mom a full length nutria coat back in the 60s. (Wonder what ever happened to that?) It was a beautiful golden fur. Never thought about eating them -- large rat with nice coat was always my picture of the critters!

That's ok. It's always fun to find something that you forgot. This year my wife made this great cranberry relish stuff that has to made ahead of time to marinate (it has orange peels (I used satsuma peels) in it and the stuff is awesome) and we completely forgot about it. No big deal. Just more for sandwich making today! And the turkey probably looked a bit like this(although you are a much better photographer than I). ← Yes, it did! Thanks for saving my sorry butt and posting the link, Mayhaw Man. We also had giblet gravy, per the recipe with the turkey, mmm-hmmmm! Mabelline, the pit turkey sounds wonderful! (Done piggies like that (well, if you can call a 350 lb porker a piggy!) I think you'll love that cookbook too. Mine arrived in the mailbox the day before Thanksgiving, unknown to us since we hadn't realized we didn't check the mail, and into the house Thanksgiving afternoon! Mayhaw Man was kind enough to give my the recipe staight out of the book when I just knew it wouldn't arrive on time. (ETA was yesterday according to Amazon.com after I ordered it -- so it arrived sooner than expected. Must be holiday magic. ) Fifi, you make me blush. Bread is fun! After all these years baking bread essentially by the whim of the moment -- and accumulated experience -- I just got the BBA by Reinhart. Fabulous book -- I would definitely recommend it. Now I know why some of things I do (I've been pre-fermenting for years!) work to make great bread! The yacht club party buffet sounds delicious, fifi. That's one damn good way to not cook for Thanksgiving. Tamale little bird sounds like a winner too. Maybe more tamales in the pan since there won't be as many inside the bird. The Mexican/Southern fusion dinner last night was actually quite good -- I think the plantains carried it off. And the White Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake for dessert was heaven on a plate. Gotta go do some brunch now for departing family to set them on the road. More pics later. I'm back! We cut the big loaf for lunch yesterday. (It was good toasted with butter for brunch of poached eggs and bacon this morning too. ) Served it with cheese board, fruit (apples, pears and red grapes), and wine, for an antiturkey lunch on Friday. edited to add images

Well we ate, and then ate more. The day started with lots of coffee and assorted sweet rolls (baked while everyone else was snoozing). I just started out with my basic sweet potato dough I use for cinnamon rolls, and other sweet breads. Next thing I knew I was done with the cin rolls and into the other things. We ate something of almost all of it but the big loaf, which is filled with golden raisins and pecans. That we'll cut to serve with the cheese plate and fresh fruit for lunch on Friday. And this sweet potato boule that goes to my neighbors in the morning. Also soft white dinner rolls and hard mixed grain dinner rolls. The loaves I did for turkey sandwiches, which we haven't gotten around to yet. However, that's sounding pretty good right now, it's been about 12 hours since we ate and I've napped twice since then. Which is good because I forgot to sleep with all the baking and preparations so I napped for a couple of hours after the turkey went in this morning. When I went to sleep it looked like this, well, before the EVOO soaked cheesecloth shroud of turkin' was applied. When it was done it was unshrouded -- and a deeply reddish brown glorious bird it was! And the two strips of bacon were immediately snarfed up by the two cooks in the kitchen at the time, brother and me. this was the best! Not a piece of that bird that wasn't finger sucking good! Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking camera, I was thinking get this food out there to the troops who had become seven hungry souls lurking around the kitchen and ready to get past the relish tray and deviled eggs -- which they had devoured. The gorgonzola/garlic chive spread stuffed in celery was the the hit on the starters table. The experimental pork mincemeat version for the dressing is another new goodie to add to my holiday traditions list. OMG! that was so good! And I still have half a quart left for something else. Brother made White Chocolate Pumpkin cheesecakes in 4.5" springforms -- with a sour cream/Grand Marnier baked topping. We are so happy he decided to come this year! Confession: I also forgot the baked sweet potato with plantains and pecans sitting in the warmer so we get to enjoy them tomorrow night all new! This will be an appropriately Southern/Mexican fusion meal with the turkey sour cream enchiladas my mr promises to make for dinner. With company here the holiday continues through the weekend. How was the buffet, fifi? And the pit turkey, Mabelline? Did you do better than I did and actually take some shots of your bird?

Love to have you Mabelline, welcome all the time! That is some spread you're laying out! Pit cooked turkey and feral pig in the squash. Goodness, girl, that sounds like real home. (Nudge, nudge . . . for the tamale turkey too!) Enjoy your feast. A movie or three, or a bowl game, where someone else is doing all the moving around is going to sound really good to me too about Thursday evening. And that was such a good suggestion! OMG, fifi, now you've hit on the ultimate combination, I do believe! So you're going to do that next year? What time should we arrive? No intimidation -- but I'll post pics of rolls. I think I need to go shape the little devils about now. Once that's done I can start on the light wheat dough for the other rolls and bread offering. Gotta make sure there's plenty of bread for those post-debauchery turkey sandwiches.

Aaaaaaw, thanks, tanabutler! Logan is so cute! (But you're wise not to be licking baby handprints off your monitor -- taste nothing like salsa verde. ) Last night I had remainder of the cauliflower soup with curry oil drizzle from two nights before and toasted rye buttered croutes. Just as good the second time. The soup holds together well, stays velvety and loses none of the subtle flavor. Then later while I was doing sweet potatoes with plantains and pecans for Thursday I had some sweet potato chunks left over so I sliced those, baked with butter and some home blend Cajun seasoning then mashed together. Cup of mocha/cocoa for a late dessert as the cold front rolled in. Cozy. edit to add: Chufi, meant to tell you that is luscious looking tart there.

Doing a new thing with the turkey here -- I've smoked 'em and roasted 'em -- this year will be roasted again, but using a recipe from Country Collections Cookbook, written by the good ladies in Monroe LA (which is where my MIL will be staying at home this year, as opposed to visiting here). Idea came from Mayhaw Man, who swears by it, so it's bound to be good. Turkey so appropriately mixes in with our mixed heritage household -- my mr was born in Monroe. I'll post some pics of that as it goes along. I've never covered one in EVOO saturated cheesecloth before so this will be interesting. First, in a couple hours I'll get it out of the fridge and rub inside and out with a paste of EVOO, s&p, Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard and vinegar. Then return covered and let it be until tomorrow morning. The sponge for white rolls and bread is working on itself now. Sweet potatoes, plantains and pecans are done, acorn squash is partially pre-baked and ready to be stuffed with wild rice and apricots tomorrow. Cornbread for dressing is broken and drying. So it begins, I've got plenty more to do yet.

I like the Italian beef idea for your lunch also. Whether you do the roast and au jus or the long simmering pot both can be done ahead if necessary and reheated at school. The pork with sauerkraut is great, and easy also. A big ham. Leg of lamb, roasted with garlic and basil or rosemary -- and lamb is often a deal during Dec. If you have vegetarians that are still egg/dairy eaters, not vegans, the options are much greater. I do an Italian spinach pie -- much more cheese than a quiche and very satisfying. Easy -- 1-1/2 lbs of good mozz and provolone (grated), cut spinach (fresh and cooked or cut frozen if need be), four eggs, crushed red pepper, garlic, oregano, thyme -- mix all together, bake in crust in deep dish 10" pie plate for about an hour. With a lot of other food around you can cut this in 8-12 slices for portions. Big pans of winter squash gratin, eggplant Parmesan en casserole, or orange-flesh squashes like butternut sliced and layered with a savory and fruited dressing -- dried apples, dried apricots, golden raisins. Vegetable stew with sweet potatoes, black beans, onion, and corn, for vegetarians use a veg or mushroom stock base, season with salt, red pepper, thyme, basil.

I just have to say, Sam, that the cauliflower soup with curry oil is cream velvet bliss. I'm eating the remainder from dinner two nights ago right now. No, just the basic cauliflower soup I'm eating, not your full on two layer get it done for the holiday soup! I'm thinking about that for Xmas. Thank you for letting us all crowd into your kitchen while you orchestrate this food romance.

Aaaah nuts, fifi! We'll nail you down next year! Maybe you'll repeat that tamale stuffed turkey? I may have to try that one myself for next year!

Installed and working! Hot dogs for lunch, Dave? OK, fifi, me too, I'm sorry. Naaaaah! Nobody puts a dog on the stove for this group without expecting to get shit back for it!

Salsas with fruit component are excellent as Jason suggested. One of my favs is golden Romas, sweet onion, nectarine and habanero. I call it Afterburner 'cause it goes in sweet and kicks you after your mouth is workin' on it. You can also do this with some of them for multi-use storage. Just clean and pop off the stems, pack into a sterilized pint or quart jar for canning (this is a quart -- I also had pounds of them last year and didn't even grow them this year!). These are whole but I also halve them sometimes before I pack them. Then pour hot, salted (1 tsp salt/pint) vinegar/water (3:1) over them. Stash in pantry or fridge -- you can see by the condensation these were fridged. Then you can do about anything with them you would any other hot pepper. They keep their shape well like this and don't get mushy like they do by freezing them sometimes. Take out a couple, chop, add to dishes for a hit of hot/sour intensity, or to add whole or halved to a jar with other vegs/fruits to perk that right up! The handy habanero.

Hmmmmm.....source of great amusement. Perhaps we should have a man made tea sandwich contest at Varmint's pig pickin'? What other dainty foods do men love but don't make? ← Can we say mini-quiche?

Thanks, memesuze. Those are encouraging words for my green babies. Wow! We've had rain, but you've had RAIN! Don't float off! Me, too! I love lentils with thyme -- essential. I look forward to plucking both thymes fresh in the dead of winter as I can the rosemary. And this lemon thyme especially brightens carrots, green beans too, and fish!

We have such a widely varied culinary heritage here in Texas, as we explored a bit last winter at our Austin eG TX Heritage pot luck. So, for Thanksgiving, what ultimately means tradition to you? I've got cornbread in the oven at this very moment to set aside, break up and dry out for dressing on Thursday. To serve with the turkey. I do that every year. Sweet potatoes? You bet, with plantains and pecans. Acorn squash stuffed with wild and brown rice/apricots/pecans. I guess I can't be in TX without a glut of pecans for Thanksgiving! What Thanksgiving traditions do you follow? Or are you building your own? And we'd love to see pics from everybody, wouldn't we?

How have I missed this thread? I have loved reading through it this morning. Preserving is one of my fav ways to utilize the fruits/vegs we grow! This is prompting me to do what I have been needing to do for quite some time -- transfer my many hand-written tomato, pepper, pear, wild persimmon, grape and other preserve/conserve/relish recipes into docs. Pears are so versatile and make a great base for lots of relishes and chow chows as well as sweet preserves. A friend would give me a bushel basket every year -- the first time I went wild and made up several recipes for them. Still good! Great ideas here everyone!

Always interested, Toliver, in trying a different approach. I love beer batter for fish. This sounds like something I need to try. Thanks if you can get it.

Eunny, if you're looking in on this when buying sweet potatoes in the US, fresh or canned (even if they're called yams!) you really are getting sweet potatoes unless you're in a specialty market for Caribbean food. The two are similar but not at all the same. They are both roots. Yams are not from N America. So, choices then become based on variety which is usually exhibited by color: Red, orange, yellow, or even nearly white. That said, some of my favorite ways of eating/preparing them are: Puerto Rican sweet potato chips! Baked plain to carmelize with butter or nothing. Sweet potato, black bean, corn stew with pork and Cajun spices. Baked then mashed with lime, EVOO and soft cooked jalapeno, salt. Curried sweet potatoes (with peanut butter or tahini -- depends on what I've got -- both are good, just different.) Curried with coconut milk also, mashed. Sweet potatoes (mashed) for bread doughs and in cinnamon rolls. Makes breads/rolls moist and a lovely golden color. These cinnamon rolls are holiday season tradition for me the last several years, ever since I thought to try them one T-day morning with an extra SW. Will be served with coffee on T-Day morning. Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls Also on menu, another from my own kitchen is Sweet Potatoes, Plantains and Pecans been doing these for a long while. Started out doing them with bananas as an alternative to that marshmallow thing (bleh!) but the baked plantains are so much better I switched a few years ago. Ummmm, so yep, I guess you could say we really like 'em sweet 'taters!

Great menu! Love your take on some classics. You should have happy guests!

Perfect for an afternoon party, tea or not -- or just us light munchin' at home, and good on the road. I always like to make at least two kinds, even impromptu snacking for us. For a planned party I'll do four -- whatever strikes me at the time. Some favorites: Smoked salmon with cream cheese, lemon/dill curried mayo chicken salad sliced tomato, s&p with avocado mayo cream cheese with minced ham and black olive thinly sliced rare roast lamb or beef with mustard horseradish (best on rye) pimento cheese topped with a slice of jalapeno liverwurst, mustard and thinly sliced onion and for kids (of all ages ) peanut butter/honey with a forked slice of banana, sprinkled with nutmeg

When roasting turkeys I most often place a chunked sweet onion, and good sprig of fresh rosemary in the cavity, preparing the dressing separately. I know this will be received with gasps by by many eG'ers here. However, I like to have a clean carcass to make stock with afterward. But this year I'm making a different cornbread dressing with pork mincemeat that just may benefit most by stuffing that bird instead. It's a 15 lb turkey this year, a bit smaller than usual so it will not be in the oven as long (another of my considerations when choosing not to stuff the bird). Turkey will be covered with EVOO prepped cheesecloth. Ideally the stuffing would be able to be removed from cavity as a whole for serving. What are your general views on stuffing the birdy or not?

Blanching almonds? Anyone? What are your recommendations?

Jumping in here very late on this thread. Total count right now is 24. I also lost quite a few (19) when a storm hit, peeling off part of the roof of my storge bldg on the property while I was out of state in grad school. Did not even know the damage had occured for weeks. By then the cookbooks at that end and many others as well were pulp. I still go to the shelf thinking one will be there. Most recent additions are: Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart All About Braising by Molly Stevens Emeril's Potluck (smirk away, but there's some good stuff in this ) City Tavern Baking and Dessert Cookbook by Walter Staub (at Philadelphia's historic City Tavern -- over 200 years of recipes and history, one of those chatty cookbooks; interesting to see recipes from Thomas Jefferson and cronies as well as what Staub is doing now) Slow Cooker Cookbook by Natalie Haughton (it was a freebie, but might prove worth the shelf space ) The Cooking of South-West France by Paula Wolfert (love this one and awaiting the new edition spring of 2006!) On order: Cotton Country Collection by the ladies of Monroe LA Great recommendation for this from Mayhaw Man and I ordered it for the turkey roasting method he was describing, among other good foods. It will, of course, arrive the day after Thanksgiving. And do you get extra points for a personal signing?

Wonderful for all the above. I use mine all the time, blending in cooking pot is a dream! Soup weather right now -- I used it last night for creamed cauliflower soup and tonight for tortilla soup. It's one of the early Brauns with an attachment for grinding nuts and spices. The tall cup mine came with is ideal for whipping (very cold) cream or milk. Dips, dressings, sauces, glazes, gravy . . . Hot cocoa! Susan, get thee to thy local mart and get one today!

I do appreciate a more pointed question from servers than "How is everything?" but I'm not going to be upset by it. Offering pepper - or grated cheese -- for my food before I have tasted it is inappropriate. I then need to either make the server wait while I taste and appraise the dish under their watchful eye (maybe it's just me, but I don't go out to eat to actually have people watch me eating ) or ask them to return in a few minutes. I appreciate it when a server is friendly and observant without intruding on converstions or hovering too much. A bit of informality is not going to throw me, but a "thanks, guys" at the end of a fine meal is like finding a Hershey bar on your chocolate plate -- unexpected and inapproriate in a formal setting. And the bit about "thank you, thank you, thank you," bowing and scraping is a bit over the top IMO. One thank you, enjoy your evening, etc., is quite sufficient! We don't go out often and choose where we do go based on food, service and ambience depending on our mood. I don't expect to receive the same service/informality at a fine restaurant as I am sure to get from a diner. "Thanks, guys!" from the waitstaff at the diner is just fine with me.

More rain, more soup. Just seemed the perfect thing to do while I was making stock for t-day uses anyway. First we had avocado salsa verde with crispy fried corn tortilla chips. Then tortilla soup mounded with shredded chicken I sizzled with roasted red and green Anas from the garden, avocado slices and sour cream. Beer to drink (NA for me). Latte and oreos for dessert.