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And sitting here eating breakfast . . . . . . which I hardly ever do, but the waffle/syrup discussion was getting to me so I made french toast out the rest of a boule I baked over the weekend because I don't have a waffle iron . . . mmmmmmm. I looked at my plate. On my plate are thick chunks of bananas. I won't eat bananas unless they are still partially green and firm. I'll bake with them, but I can barely gag down a fully ripened banana. And when I was a kid, I know I drove them all nuts by not eating. What kid turns down cookie bribes just not to eat? Then, I would only eat either the white or the yolk of the egg. Kinda like your potato/rice thing, patti, it just switched on me all the time. And only "rabbit food," not all tossed together in a salad. Of course now salalds are one of my favorite things -- as long as you don't toss the croutons in there. My son could never decide what condiments he wanted on his sandwiches -- mayo? mustard? Which kind of cheese? So I'd do halfsies for him. And he'd eat it all. Last time I was up there on a visit and making sandwiches for all for lunch -- he looked at me and said "Would you?" So I did. I've now been branded by my lovely DIL as the official reason he still can't decide on the condiments. But now he makes his own sandwiches.

This under the larger HEB apple umbrella -- when my mr bought pink lady apples (one of my favs also) at our local HEB today out in Bee Caves the produce guy told him to pop them in the microwave whole for a couple of minutes until tender, slice, then drizzle with melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. Now I love baked apples and apple dumplings but would not have thought to do them in the microwave. However, I may have to try this with one anyway.

I was just finishing up a coconut green curry beef with baby eggplants from the garden and had cooked rice (which will now be tomorrow's dinner) . . . My mr came in loaded for fajitas and determined to drive the grill this evening. So I chopped some avocados, dressed with lime juice, a dash of S&P, sliced some Romaine heart tops, grilled purple onions, made some refried beans with slow-cooked pintos on hand from the freezer to serve with rice, and threw together some fresh table salsa with the last of our tomatoes, cilantro, lime juice, japs, and sweet yellow onion. Grated sharp cheddar, heated tortillas and set out sour cream. Meanwhile he dosed the meat with grapefruit juice, and rubbed it down with whatever, let that work while he nursed the fire and a beer. Fajitas were delicious. Even though what I really wanted was the green curry.

OK. Here's the Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls Oven 375 F 1 cup hot mashed sweet potatatoes 1 cup warm potato water, warm water, or scalded milk 1 cup scalded milk (yes, 2 cups total liquid) 7 or so cups AP flour 2 Tbsp dry yeast 1 cup butter, softened 1 cup sugar 1 to 1-1/2 tsp salt 4 large eggs 1/2 tsp mace, ground the spread: 1 stick butter, softened brown sugar 1 to 1-1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground 1/2 to 2/3 cup broken pecan pieces (or walnuts, or hazelnuts if chopped fine) (optional) More for on top with glaze if you like. Beat together the sweet potatoes, liquids, and 1 cup of flour, allow to cool to lukewarm. Stir yeast into mixture, cover and let the sponge rise until lightened. Stir down with a wooden spoon. Cream butter and sugar, add salt and eggs, blend thoroughly. Stir creamed mixture and flour into sponge. This is a rich dough. You want it to be firm but not a stiff dough. Knead for several minutes. Butter dough ball, place in bowl, cover and let rise until doubled. Pat dough out onto floured board. Roll dough into rectangle to about 1/4 inch. Spread with the soft butter and sprinkle on a good amount of brown sugar, and the cinnamon. Sprinkle on nuts, if using. Roll it up into a long log, pinch-seal edge against board and cut into 1 inch slices. Works best to cut by slipping thread under rolled dough then pull up and together to close loop. Place slices in buttered cake pan(s), cut side down, just so they touch. You can do one big cake pan or 8"/9" individual layer cake pans. Brush with a little melted butter or spray. Let rise again. Bake at 375 F for about 20 minutes. Glaze (or not). All that being said, I usually put covered dough ball in fridge to retard overnight then pat down, roll, shape and finish. I have also completed through shaping rolls and set covered in pan(s) in fridge. Then take out in the morning let rolls finish and bake. But lots of times you just don't have the room for that on holidays! These keep really well -- if there's any left. Which also means you can do the whole thing the day before, then brush tops with a little butter, warm up in the morning, and then glaze.

Thank you for your response. Yes, Botulism. How does this correspond to different altitudes? If I'm at sea level (or close to it) versus someone at X feet elevation? Where the atmospheric level affects boiling point? The temperature related to the microbe's bacterial spore destruction for safe consumption would be an issue would it not?

I'm sure it would never be the same. I have a theory about simple dishes like chicken and dumplings, chicken fried steak, etc. Fundamentally these are very simple dishes to make. But that very simplicity means that small changes in technique or ingredients can make a big difference. It's all about just the way she worked the dough, or how she decided when the dumplings were done, or how she judged how much milk to add to the finished product, or how she knew the oil was just the temperature she liked for chicken fried steak, etc. There is no duplicating that. This is one reason I believe that, once my grandmother died, her chicken and dumplings and her chicken fried steak died with her. ← But not to you, they didn't, slkinsey. Your grandmother's smiling.

That's the noodlish dumplin's! And yeah, maybe you're right, 'cause I learned that from a native TX gal! Who I'm sure learned it from her mama. No C&D? You have been deprived, slk!

Viva, beautiful cake! And great shots all the way through. Andie, thanks for posting the recipe -- a bow to Meemaw and your aunt as well. Thannks to all the recipe/pics and discussion I'm now thinking the mincemeat would be ideal in my cornbread dressing for T-Day.

Great photos, Brent! Now I want one of each color -- but may need to start with a dirty bog, and work my way clean. Was that last dirty bog in a huge pressure cooker?

Well, the flat dumplings I do are still really dumplings, not noodles -- just a flatter ribbon-shaped (though still thick) puffed dumpling. Noodles are noodles, and dumplin's are always dumplin's are at our house.

What kind of peppers did you use, claire? And what did you think was off? Even though it was still good. I do a stew similar to that, with sweet potatoes too. It's a west LA/east TX kinda thing. I use roasted red peppers in mine -- usually Anas 'cause the gardens full of them -- and they are pungent without being over the top hot and messing with the SwP.

Seared asparagus spears, in butter, lemon, touch of garlic, S&P. Braised cabbage or Endive. Molly Stevens has a great braised endive recipe in her All About Braising book. AnnaN has hers for cabbage in eGCI I think, or in recipe archives.

Absolutely. My spice cabinet is never without the skinny little jar of file. Also, as my mr, born in Monroe of Lafayette folks, says (not original with him of course, but he does say it) -- as long as there's ditches no one's going hungry. He grew up squirrel hunting with his dad in LA and MS. Although I'm the one more likely to eat the 'gator!

Toliver, I think you would find a distinct difference between sauces made from year one and year three aged peppers. The first year I grew my Tabasco peppers I made bottles of vinegar sprinkle type sauce (which I do still every year with some of them) with whole peppers/vinegar/salt/garlic clove. But I saved the rest back to age. I have had three year and four year aged pulp to make the red sauce for a couple years now and although the peps are hot to begin with -- damn! they do get hotter and more flavorful. Of course I don't have oak barrels to age them in, but the sauce is still mighty fine. I keep mine cool during aging and they don't actually ferment, but that could be an entirely different thing with the oak barrel aged peppers for McIlhenny.

Can any of this be done ahead? Well, I'm assuming the syrup can be, but could I bake it partially and then warm it the rest of the way? I'm running low on oven space, but it this is better made fresh, I can find the space! ← Sure. You can prepare the dish without garnish the day before, baking covered for about 30 minutes. Cool, keep covered, fridge it and bring it out to warm to near room temp before putting back in the oven. Add garnish. Finish baking another 30 minutes, then at the end uncover as in recipe and serve. So you can do that while turkey (or whatever) is resting and being carved.

Just saw this on Animal Planet: Desert scorpions become Chocolate covered dessert scorpions from HotLix in Pismo Beach CA. Sans stingers, of course.

Definiely mustard/horseradish anything savory goes on the meat side for me. If using mayo, or say bleu cheese, or a Caesar salad dressing (yep, kids, creamy and right out of the bottle on sandwiches) that belongs on the salad side with lettuce and tomato. I like my onions on the meat. And, please, don't toss those croutons in the whole salad first! I want them crisp. When I can choose I want them on top, let me play with it myself.

I share your thinking completely. I mean, it's stew-twenty bucks of wine in there seems excessive. I keep some cheaper wines (7-10 bucks at a discount place) for things like this. I also like Julia Child's suggestion of using vermouth instead of white wine-it adds a nice taste to pan sauces. ← I love using vermouth! Started that years ago when a friend left a bottle at the house. Good to be in fine company there. For wine, never cooking wine. I can't drink wine by the glass but love what it does for food. I also keep a bottle of cheaper but decent wine around to cook with. If I want vinegar I'll use vinegar, so some descretion is called for. The Sutter Home is a good example.

Woooo! edsel! My mr would love this! I have to be NA or I would love it too.

Sweet potatoes and/or orange flesh squash (butternut/acorn . . .), butter a bit of cinnamon and/or ginger, brown sugar (the maple syrup Elie suggests is wonderful also). To silk it up a bit either dash of cream or OJ.

Check out my entry on the Dinner thread from last night. The pork steaks are heavenly braised. Ingredient list was almost complete -- forgot to add garlic to the list. You can alter that, of course, to suit taste. It's not the prettiest pic -- looked better on the plate than I could do with camera (kitchen lights are awful and my mr was looking at me like "Again?" so I took shots before I tabled mine ). Great way to do the pork steaks, they are meltingly tender and flavorful when braised.

This has been a wonderful blog, Susan and Prepcook. Vicarious enjoyment both in visual and literary content. Thank you. My mouth has been watering and the trip through your week around Daytona I have thoroughly enjoyed. Holds a special place in my little heart as we spent part of our honeymoon there. Then returned the next year for the Daytona 500. Yes, we too eat many meals with the roundy-rounders!

I do dumplings both ways. Depends on my mood for dough. The flat fatties are oh so good, and often I can slip even more of those into the pot. Dumpling for dumpling, they feel lighter. The soft ball dumplings are yummy when we've got more of an "I want bread" thing going. But no matter which, I always herb 'em up, with mace or carraway, sage, lemon basil or lemon thyme. I like baby carrots in mine too. Never add milk, as therese suggests they are plenty rich as is.

Just jumping in here from TX! I couldn't resist your thread. Actually, one of the Omni hotels in Austin had a great buffet at lunch. On the cold tables were all the usual, though high quality offerings of ham, turkey, lots of salad fixings, breads, wonderful soups (and always a big pot o' chili -- hey TX, remember) etc. So you hit that first. But twice a week they had Italian "buffet." (Other focus on other days.)The only thing over sterno was the sauces (at least three) to keep warm for the chefs. Three or four chefs would stand behind tables. First, fresh ingredients, meats, astounding assortment of fresh vegs, and olives/peppers, fresh herbs, garlic. You would pick whatever you wanted. The chef would toss it for you in OO in his saute pan over open flame. Pick your pasta next, always an assortment (they were pre-cooked, of course, but well-kept), then the sauce. Each chef cooked individually for one person at a time. It was damn good stuff. Of course if you didn't have an idea of what was going to be even marginally sympatico among ingredients I imagine you could get a less than satisfying meal. Then on to extras -- Shredded fresh Parm, red pepper, garlic sticks. Not bad stuff. And a very pleasant arboretum to dine in. A perfect walk away from the office. So, you guys have anything like that up there?

OMG! We almost had to break tradition this year and were going to drive to MIL's in Lafayette as she is not feeling like flying here. But mr has a new job, doesn't feel like jumping out of state right now, and my turkey is saved! Mom and brother will be here, probably the girls, depending on their work/lovelife/college (not necessarily in that order ) obligations. So the menu is coming together. Pumpkin-something-wonderful for dessert from brother this year, his fresh cranberry/orange relish, something green from Mom (plus whatever else she thinks up to bring. ). Turkey, cornbread dressing, rolls, stuffed squash, and sweet potatoes with plantains and pecans here, for sure. What does everybody do the night before? When I was in college one of my jobs was managing and baking in a pizza shop. Wednesday night before T-Day was one of the single biggest selling days of the year. Easy, fresh pizza, we bake or you bake, no strain, no mess, no clean up involved. Guests usually arrive the day before and I like to do something light for dinner, completely removed from the next day's offerings, and fairly simple. Considering doing frittatas with fried polenta this year (make ahead basics like polenta are good things ) and a nice green salad. What will you kick off with?