patti

The day before! But we usually start roasting the turkey by 6:00 or 7:00 am, depending on the size. My husband is a natural early riser, so he's the one who puts it in the oven, but it's usually prepped and ready to go.

Our tradition has been 12:00 NOON. Yes, that means getting up really early on Thanksgiving morning, but that's just the way it's always been done in my family and the families I grew up with. The visiting and the football games were after the big meal (any holiday meal, not just Thanksgiving). Dessert eaten mid-afternoon, and by the time we were ready to leave, we might've eaten a small second plate of food and packed up leftovers. No one leaves without leftovers. I envy those of you who do it later, but anytime I've tried to break this tradition, I get shot down by too many dissenting votes. OTOH, I kind of love that everybody's gone at a decent hour and I can kick back and relax. Oh, my location is south Louisiana. I don't know if it's a regional thing.

Wow, that does look and sound delicious! Thanks for blogging.

I made a roasted cauliflower soup recently with extra sharp cheddar. Actually, I attempted it a week before, but made the mistake of tasting a piece of the roasted cauliflower and then couldn't stop eating it. Poof! All gone! None left for the soup. I tried again a week later and showed more restraint. The soup was delicious.

There is only one coffee. Community coffee, medium roast. That is all.

I love their fried chicken livers! And their biscuits. And onion rings. Love that chicken at Popeye's!

Heath bars, 5th Avenue, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Almond Joy, M&M's plain and peanut, haven't tried the pretzel ones, would probably love them.

The first time Daddy brought home a sack of oysters and the four of us kids sat around him as he shucked them and doled them out. I needed a saltine and some Tabasco in order to take the first plunge, but after that, it was all good. Actually,anything Daddy brought home was usually a treat. Hot & spicy boudin & cracklins, tamales from the local street cart, watermelon to split open and share. Mama's seafood gumbo, fried chicken, & her Sunday pot roasts. Daddy's fried fish (fresh caught), boiled crawfish & crabs. He was heavy handed with the pepper and that's the way we all liked it. Tomatoes and cucumbers from his garden, and one year, an overflow of cantaloupe. Root beer floats, my first fried shrimp po-boy, oh man, heaven on French bread. Our Louisiana grandmother would put a little bit of coffee in our morning cereal when we visited. With the sugar and the milk, it was cafe au lait rice krispies. So good! My grandmother's corn macque choux, so delicious, a little sweet and a little heat. I wish I could have it again. Her fig preserves, gooey, sticky, just sweet enough. Great on toast, fabulous on ice cream. Oh, and the hand-cranked ice cream. The grandkids took turns sitting on the lid for the final turns as the cranking got more difficult. Our Texas grandmother always had hot homemade biscuits and sausage for breakfast. Sweet tea by the pitcherful. Pinto beans and hot buttered cornbread. Simple, but perfect.

Rice pilaf with toasted pecans, mushrooms, sweet peppers = yum.

Not only artistry, but humor! I love it.

We call those dinners "every man for himself."

One pound ground beef and and one pound ground pork, a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce as well as a few dashes of Tabasco. Couple squirts of ketchup, a handful of chopped onions & peppers, a little minced garlic, some breadcrumbs, one egg, and a heavy hand of Tony Chachere's seasoning. Mix, form into a loaf, and place in a baking dish that has been sprayed with Pam. I usually bake mine in a 9 x 12 pyrex dish and not one that the meatloaf just fits into. C'est bon! Ooh, I forgot. Sometimes I lay a couple of slices of bacon across the top.

My mom always added the trinity to the blazing hot roux and it helped cool it down. My mother grew up in Texas and she learned to make gumbo from my father's mother (whose first language was Cajun French), so this technique has been around a long time (grandma died at 94 two years ago).

Great looking gumbo, just the color I like. I hope there was enough for leftovers!

I thought Wingstop was a chain. We've got one here, in Lafayette, LA.

When I was growing up, we didn't call them "broken yolk" egg sandwiches, simply hard fried egg sandwiches. While toasted bread is essential to most of my favorite sandwiches, not so for the fried egg. Soft white bread, hard fried egg fried in bacon fat with crispy and browned edges, mayo on one side of the bread, mustard on the other. Salt and lots of black pepper on the egg. Heaven.

Do you mind watching a video? How to shuck an oyster

My Talk About Good cookbook is being held together with duct tape. Time for a new copy, I guess. In addition to Talk About Good and Talk About Good II, the series includes Tell Me More and more recently, Something to Talk About. I don't have the last one, but will probably acquire it soon.

Perhaps a maven, a marketer and a connector could make nutria the next big thing. We've got an overabundance of them here in Louisiana. Come and get 'em. Cheap!

I cheated and used Tony Chachere's seasoning. I can't help it; it's a sickness.

Are y'all seasoning the brisket before browning? ETA: Never mind, I now have the Cook's Illustrated recipe and yes, I season before browning.

Dirty rice aka rice dressing.

I think it will be a bountiful satsuma harvest for us this year.

Thank you, Brooks. I know this thread isn't about defining what is Cajun, but I wish more people would understand that it isn't New Orleans. I will leave it at that for now.

Get great tasso here: poches