Cusina

Mayhaw Man, you cracked me up here.

Still impressive GG, thanks for the rundown. I'm always curious as to what grows well in different climates.

I had one of these babies. He turned 4 yesterday, but that was a weird year. You think regular turkey is bland, try the hospital variety. This is a great thread. Such fun to read other's menu plans. Our dinner is extremely traditional and will be hosted at my mother's house this year, she and I trade off. There will be 10 of us at the table. The meal itself is a sit down affair with family style service. Dad carves the roast beast in the kitchen (not a proper bird unless it's been cussed at a bit) and it is served on platters in small batches. She does: da bird (stuffed and done in a nesco roaster, which is suprisingly juicy and good and leaves room in the oven for other things). Stuffing, also delicious. Best dish on the table year after year. Real Mashed Potatoes, which the boys peel while watching the game. (the Pack is on this year, woo hoo.) Gravy, perfect every time, she is the master. Apple pie Home made yeast rolls, also very delicious I'll bring: Green beans with a grueyre cheese fondue type sauce and almonds (though I'm seriously considering replacing this with that asparagus tartlet) Sweet potatoes - done with maple syrup and apple pie spices Cranberry applesauce Pumpkin praline cheesecake Herbed butter Bachelor brother is bringing: Beer Cheddar Ale spread (thanks to JAZ) Smoked summer sausage from our local butcher, da bomb Crackers Mom has some sort of sweetish German white wine that she likes with turkey. Schwartze Katze maybe? Can't remember, but we go through several bottles. Prior to dinner is beer for us, I've been encouraging my brother to bring Sierra Nevada's holiday brew. Mr. Kinsey, that meal sounds amazing. Very impressive and expressive.

Beautiful garden GG, what's in it? Give us a rundown?

I like a roasted red pepper dip that is pretty simple. ________________ Chop, fairly small, a jar of roasted red peppers, or preferably 2-3 large red peppers off the grill 2 cloves garlic and a handful of basil, chopped Add to about a cup each of mayo and sour cream. Mix this all together with a little dry sherry or worcestershire and salt to taste. ________________ Or you could always do baked brie.

Pumpkin, sweet potato curry? or Mushrooms and butternut?

Squeat, you are going to get your wish. There is snow headed your way GG Mora, we got a fair dusting of the stuff today. I enjoyed the milk out the nose story. They sound like cool kids. Hope you have time to make that gingerbread house. We used to do that with our neighbors every year. They are really creative fun.

Well, my corner of northeastern Wisconsin, there is a very good Korean/sushi place. Hands down the busiest and most popular "ethnic" restaurant in a pretty white bread town. The staff appear to my less than trained eye to be Korean and they are very polite and friendly. Many of the menu items seem to be authentic as well. I used to go out for good Korean in Chicago, though it was with a Korean friend and I couldn't even begin to tell you where the places were. The signs were not in English. I was along for the very enjoyable ride. This flatlander white girl loves Korean. It sounds like I'm in the minority though. What a shame.

I cooked our Sunday roast beast at 150 this week. It did come out well, though a bit more done than I usually like and the outside was dry and not crisp, despite searing it stovetop. Next time 15 minutes less in the oven. I need to invest in one of those wireless gadgets. Thanks for the good advice.

That is impressive and you all look so damn happy about it too. Thanks for the great pictures.

Don't forget ibuprofin. I did a number on the top of my middle finger a few weeks back (steam burn from carrots). Blistered, 2nd degree, but not 3rd thankfully and it sounded a lot like yours. The worst part was knowing that I did it out of pure stupidity. The pain is actually a good thing, I was told, it means you haven't completely destroyed the nerve endings. Still no fun. Mine hurt like hell for about 2 days. It did heal completely though after a few weeks of ugly looking peeling. Just keep it from getting infected.

Thank you beans. The 1st batter appears to be similar to my old one excepting that mine had a twist of lemon and no cardamom. I'm going to make some up this afternoon. The ice cream based batter is interesting, not something I've tried before. Has anyone made it? I also love egg nog. My mother often makes it for the holidays out of her red and white checked cookbook, circa 1967.

Will someone please post a good hot buttered rum? I love them and used to have a great recipe, but it's obviously run off with the remote, our longest extension cord and a few loose socks. Anyone?

Tolliver, sorry. I didn't mean to leave you hanging! The treasure hunt went really well. I took pictures of obscure things in our house and used them as clues. The kids had a great time scrambling around finding their prizes. It was cool as the kidlets ranged in age from 3 to 9, and I was worried about finding something that would amuse them all. The pizza lunch was awesome, this particular pizzaria does the best za this side of chicago. Delicious! Total treat for us. The cake was, well, a bakery cake. Next time I need to do one from scratch but I caved in and let him pick one out of the glossy picture book at the grocery instead. I found it ironic that the side of the box said "we use only the finest ingredients". The icing on that cake was so blue it hurt. How that can possibly qualify as the "finest" I have no idea... Didn't seem to faze the kids though, they loved showing off their blue tongues. And I'll PM you the Mud Cake recipe. I can't say for sure if there are copywrite issues with it, so better safe than sorry I think. Now, go read GG Mora's blog, she's off to a great start! ~Cusina

I make and freeze little cream puff shells. Fill them the day of with chicken salad or whatever strikes your fancy.

Wow, insta family is right, what a transition. Are the four of you pretty well in sync as to what you like to eat or is it a challenge to please everyone? We go through a lot of diet tonic too, more so in the summertime. It's even better with gin in it. The pictures are coming through, loud and clear. Post more!

I'm with Trish, like a cranberry applesauce blend. Port and cinnamon? Now that has potential too.

I make a pumpkin/sweet potato puree style soup in a chicken or turkey stock base that is delicious. Usually add curry, ginger and allspice.

Wow, those look great. Have you noticed that whole foods carries homemade style marshmellows at about $6 per 2 dozen? Crazy expensive. They coat theirs with coconut, which is tasty.

hmm... tough choice, however. Parmesan Cheddar, preferably white and aged Gruyere (as in fondue, yum.) Havarti would be next in line.

I'll ante in with my piddly 31 and that includes the bartender's guide. I'm a library user too. I've checked out dozens. Love to read them, hate to store them.

Gorgeous, thank you!

Oooo, congratulations!! I love having a second. Ours is in the basement for lack of other space, but I use it a lot. Much of it is full of beverages, but we also keep our frozen staples in there too, like marinara and stock. And vodka. I love having it for things I want to keep out of sight too, cakes and other tempting things that might get nibbled away if left in full family view. Enjoy!

I'm enjoying this already. Have a great time blogging and thanks for patiently waiting through mine. Do post pictures, we'll love seeing them. ~Cusina

Thanks GG Mora, I'm really looking forward to reading your blog. Take it away! This has been a lot of fun. Writing down what you eat and how it impacts you is an interesting exercise. Good food for thought, literally even. I'll go out with a bang. Last night was Sesame Street Live, during which I consumed 1 Miller Lite and a handfull of plain M&Ms. Afterwords we came home, put the kids to bed and I had some of that awesome dark chocolate and two fingers of scotch. Healthy living at it's finest! Where else in the nation do they serve beer at Sesame Street Live? In hindsight that is just plain weird, but hey, I was happy they did. Hope you all enjoyed this glimpse of North Eastern Wisconsin and my life. Thanks for joining me and giving me great feedback. eGullet is a damn cool spot. ~Cusina p.s. The Badgers blew it... ah well. Maybe the Pack will do better today. And if you can't see the photos you might want to check that cookies are enabled for this site on your browser. Not sure if that's the issue, but it couldn't hurt.