Abra

Ok, enough lurking on this thread! I already spend too much time taking pictures of my food, but I enjoy so much seeing what you all have for dinner that it's gotten like a public radio pledge drive, where I feel guilty if I just lurk and don't pay my dues. Today I made my annual giant pot of mole, and last night I smoked a turkey, so here was some smoked turkey in mole on pan fried corn tortillas with some pan roasted corn thrown in. Actually, that was my husband's supper. I had tofu and vegetable soup, and some roasted pink banana squash, but I didn't deem it beautiful enough to pose for this august assembly.

Wow, congratulations, Mary! I'm hoping I can find that up here, so I can see what all the buzz is about. You must be so pleased.

Jeepers, you're cooking up a storm today! The little sparrow poop is possibly my favorite dish-name of all time. There's just something about it. Your yogurt won't curdle if you temper it first with a bit of the hot liquid, then only add the tempered yogurt to the dish after you've taken the pot off the heat and it's no longer bubbling. Me too on the beany goulash. Beans in goulash???

Oh drat and double drat! So is it the consensus that previously frozen salmon is not going to work?

In the end I just left the meat sitting on the cut-off bones. I figured if the bones were still in, they'd get aged too. I'll probably use the bones as a rack when I roast the meat, to add flavor and improve the drippings. I started it last night, and will serve it on Sunday. Fridge temp on that shelf is 38.

I have some wild Alaska salmon sides in the freezer, and have been planning to gravlax them in a couple of days. But now I see Katie's caution on defrosted salmon. You guys that are using Costco salmon with success - that's frozen, right?

Daddy-A, it was a 14 lb turkey. I wanted to get it up to about 350-375 and keep it there, but alas, it insisted on hovering below 300 most of the time. It ended up being almost 3 hours, which I thought was too long. I've done whole turkeys on the Weber in less than 2 1/2, and this one was spatchcocked, because otherwise it didn't fit under the upper warming shelf on my smoker, so it should have cooked faster. However, I have to say that the fact that two huge bald eagles came and perched at the very top of a nearby tree, sunning themselves for at least 15 minutes and watching me, did make it all less peevesome. We brought out the telescope and were able to have a good look at the "eagle eye" gleaming golden in the winter sun. They were posing, for sure, but I didn't have a camera capable of capturing them, so believe me when I tell you they were majorly impressive. I think they wanted the turkey.

I just did a spatchcocked turkey on the offset smoker yesterday. Although it was only in the low 40s, the damned thing took forever. I really had a hard time keeping the temp up, and that was with a fire absolutely roaring in the firebox. The turkey took close to three hours to get up to temp, when I would have expected under two. Used up a lot of wood, too. It tastes pretty good, but even though I brined it, I think it would have been jucier if it hadn't been on the smoker for so long.

You know, what is really striking me about this blog is the Kookiness Factor. We all seem to take outselves so seriously, and I'm sure that if we all painted ourselves green we'd be a more interesting lot. And I love how you already have Ullie on the path to Righteous Kookiness. It's wonderful. The oven story was so poignant to me. I too think about how other women's hands have worked with my tools and recipes. Speaking of recipes, this might not be too special if you already have a chocolate zucchini collection, but I think it's really good. This is the recipe I use.

I can get it from either store in town, including Safeway. They do trim up the meat a little, even though they get it in boxes. I just ask them to save the trimmings until they get 5 pounds and then give me a call. No one has ever charged me for this.

This will be just right for the busy holiday week, a place to cuddle up and dry our socks by the woodstove, and have a bit of something soul-strengthening together. I used to live in Saskatchewan too, just for 4 years, in Regina, so I'm eagerly looking forward to any recipes from that part of the world. Do you need a recipe for chocolate zucchini cake?

Quarter some red flame grapes and steep them in icewine, or Beaumes de Venise, or something like that, overnight, possibly with a star anise or two if you want to be really trendy. Put a big spoonful of them into each glass, then fill with cava, or a sparkling dry rose would be lovely. Toast at midnight.

Ellen, that is gorgeous! Thanks, Bill, for detailing the FC method. But now I'm worrying about the bones. FC specifies boneless, so I had the butcher remove the bones, but leave them with the meat. I was just going to roast them separately and gnaw on them, but should I set them under the meat as I roast it? In that case, should I freeze the bones until next week, or dry age them too? I'ts an excellent piece of meat, by the way, from our local Misty Isle Farms, and it's fabulously marbled.

Has anyone used the method from Fine Cooking, which has you dry age wrapped in cheesecloth for 7 days? I'm thinking of trying that for Christmas dinner.

Lovely, Jamie. I'm adding Haas to my list for January, and I hope you'll be on it too. This is one of my favorite blogs ever.

Awe-inspiring. Aw shucks inspiring, too. We're coming up in January. Be ready!

Here's a question, and one for the last pages. Are there any food experiences that you've not had, and long for? The bite not taken, the restaurant driven past, the country flown over?

Alas, my chance of applying "the product" seem ever slimmer. Forbes is not able to ship to the U.S. in case terrorists decide their rocketable products have another application. I need a care package! Actually, we're long overdue for a trip northward, and maybe I'll be able to pick some up.

Shalmanese, I'm trying your two-step stock right now. I've never done that exact trick and I have a couple of chicken carcasses that needed to get into the pot.

Lancastermike, you 'n me, baby. I'm sorry I didn't get to smoke at your request during my blog, but I've had this weekend pegged for smoking a turkey, so let's get out there together and light that fire!

Sado San has a gorgeous eye for presentation. And, dare I say, it's undoubtedly post-aruguloid in its inspiration and iconoclasm. Personally, I adore arugula. I can't help it, and I'd eat it every day, if possible. So, my question is, can my normally sturdy self-image ever recover from the crushing blow dealt it by your leaf-withering dismissal of arugulites? Oh, the ignominy of being pre-post-Modern at such an early stage of life.

Thanks for posting that, Ruth! My grandmother used to take me to Blums in San Francisco. I'd get to wear my white rabbit fur headband and carry the matching muff. That was the most grownup thing I could ever imagine, going out for Blum's cake in a rabbit muff. I must have been 8 or 9 at the time.

Splendid blondes, er, blog, Jamie. I'll take the plunge and ask the question that's on the tip of everyone's tongue...who the heck are all those models you hang out with??? Ok, Eva we get, but the others? Are you like a total chick magnet, or what? Thanks for the Forbes link - what a cool product list they have. I've written them asking for cedar and balsam jellies, and spruce tips. My husband will be delighted to hear about how they will soon be enhancing our igloo.

Blum's Coffee Crunch has surfaced? Where??? How about the Lemon Crunch? Those were the epitome of elegance, when I was a kid. Never had the Racetrack, though.

I'm so glad to see you're alive and well! Keep your eye on your mailbox.