viva

My mother is also a very good cook. She's the boss on Thanksgiving. There's usually a team of us in the kitchen the day before Thanksgiving and the day of, cooking up a storm, same folks almost every year. We've each developed our own specialties, but the mother is *clearly* in charge. No deviations from the plan are allowed, but suggestions are welcome. For some reason, she always takes control of the soup and the chicken & dumplings... nobody else gets to touch 'em. Except when we sneak tastes behind her back. I almost always do most of the desserts (not only at Thanksgiving, but at most family gatherings), particularly the more time-consuming or difficult ones. As a result, over the years, I've gotten fairly good at baking for a home cook. I'm pretty anal about following the recipe and mapping it out, so she knows if she gives me a centerpiece cake that will take all day, I'll get it done to the letter, and I'm fairly creative about decorating. This does not extend to the fruit pies...I am not allowed to do them. Even though I make better crust than the neighbor who does them year after year. It's a political thing. She makes the fruit pies every year, and would be hurt if she wasn't asked to make them. I never get to touch the side dishes. There's a neighbor and an aunt that are usually in charge of that. Either the kids or the men are in charge of cleaning and prep work. My father can cook, but it would be 2005 before it was ready. Each dice of onion would be exactly the same size. And every dish in the house would be dirty. Another neighbor can't really cook, so she always does the decorations, and she really gets into it. I was allowed to *host* Thanksgiving one year. IMHO, it was a commendable first attempt (most of my screw-ups were timing related in terms of food being ready all at the same time). However, I don't think I'll ever be allowed to host again, because of the loss of control on my mother's part. She was definitely agitated because I was in charge and she wasn't in command! However, because I had an outstanding turkey, and I'm obsessive-compulsive, I have now graduated to being responsible for *one* of the turkeys. My uncle is responsible for the other, so we have a little competition going year after year. ETA that I also had a very good soup, that the mother tried to duplicate the following year. She wouldn't let me touch it, so it didn't turn out the same. Heh. On the other hand, we have my sister, who strategically screws up several easy recipes (like chocolate chip cookies... oh, did they need a whole stick of butter?), thereby convincing the mother that she can't cook, and getting out of all cooking duties. She's usually just in charge of monitoring my father and making sure he's not in the way.

I would have to answer Italian, Indian, Chinese and Mexican. I would defer French to 5th place, just for the sake of only picking one cuisine from Europe, and the fact that I (personally) perceive Italian food as being more widely spread throughout the world...everywhere I go, there's an Italian restaurant of some kind! Any omission of Native/South American cuisine would be egregious for the reasons noted above... chocolate, chiles, potatoes, yams, corn, squash, tomatoes, turkey, tortillas...

I would object strenously to mustard on my chili dog. Bun, dog, chili, hot sauce, and cheese. Velveeta, baby. If it's processed food, let's go all the way with it!!! Chopped onions & jalapenos are acceptable garni, but not required. Instead of treating chili dogs like a dog with chili as a garnish, I treat my chili dogs like a bowl of chili, with the dog & bun simply being the tasty delivery vehicle for getting the chili into the mouth. It's a dog philosophy, really.

Add more milk/cream *and* some more cheese.

Cost Plus has a good selection of clear bottles that I use for limoncello and other infusion fun. Not sure if they have the selection on line, but they're all over the place.

Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. I sometimes got a bad bird there, but it was so cheap that I would just get another one.

Yes there are! A badly-made cookie. Like one that's too dry or dense. Case in point: Spicy Peanut Butter Cookies from one of Emeril's cookbooks. Might as well be a hockey puck.

No, no - you *dip* the waffles into the syrup. The syrup *must* be on the side. Your waffles would get mushy otherwise! And no bloody ketchup on hot dogs. Dog, bun, mustard... that's *it*.

Convivo closed? Damn - it was on my list of places to try.

Another little update: I made another one of the pork cake recipes. This is one of the boiling water/chopped fat types: ¾ pound very fat pork, chopped 1 cup sherry (I used rum) ¼ cup light molasses 1 cup light brown sugar 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon cloves ½ teaspoon allspice 4 cups sifted flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt ¼ cup chopped orange peel ¼ cup chopped lemon peel ½ cup seeded raisins ½ cup currants ½ cup walnuts 4 eggs (I used a different combination of dried fruits ... cherries, pears, etc) Pour boiling water over pork and let stand 10 minutes. (The water kind of half-cooked the pork - it turned opaque instead of pink, and the fat softened. Here’s what it looked like whilst standing) Drain and chop by hand. (I chopped to about ⅛-inch) Mix with liquor, spices, molasses, and sugar. Sift flour, salt, and baking soda together, add fruits and nuts, and stir well. Add to pork fat mixture & stir to mix. Add eggs & stir to mix. Pour into a greased loaf pan. (I used a Bundt pan & another mini-loaf… here’s the batter before baking…) Bake at 350 for 2 hours. (My cake only needed 90 minutes in a Bundt pan) And here’s a shot of the mini-loaf & interior: The chunks in the cake that look like pork? They’re pork. I diced to about ⅛ inch after the boiling water step, but you could still see ‘em and taste ‘em. I must say that it did not have the complexity of flavor that came from the mincemeat recipe, and it was *a lot* heavier... kinda sat in my stomach like a rock. MeeMaw's recipe, I think, distributes the fat and meat throughout the dough better for moistness and flavor. The little pork chunks were interesting, but may put some people off. The MeeMaw cake will definitely be my gift cake. I’m glad to see folks interested in this! Crescat Pork Fat, Vita Excolatur: "May the use of pork fat grow from more to more, and so be human life enriched"

I too am going to use nightscotsman's marshmallow recipe this year! Nightscotsman: influencing cookie bakers across the country. I'm going to do pumpkin marshmallows, sandwiched between two thin crispy rum-ginger cookies, and dipped in dark chocolate. The other variation will be cranberry-orange marshmallows, sandwiched between two thin hazelnut crisps, again dipped in dark chocolate. A favorite from previous years is a white chocolate cookie with a peppermint ganache, dipped in white chocolate. Can you tell I like sandwich cookies? I've recently purchase Maida Haetter's Great Book of Cookies, and RLB's Christmas Cookies, so I need to peruse them for more inspiration.

Apparently Dr. Pepper is coming out with a new line of "limited edition Fountain Classics" sodas, of which the first is Cherry Vanilla Dr. Pepper (both diet & regular). Anyway, even though they are released since last month in the Southwest, I've only seen a couple at the grocery store, usually buried at the bottom of a pile of 12-packs. It was worth digging it out...I managed to get a 12-pack of the diet kind. Nice, but not overwhelming cherry flavor, and it doesn't have that fake sweetener aftertaste. There's a bevnet.com review here: clickety.

Andie, I'm happy to do your family recipe proud. I think my stepmother will be very pleased as well - I can't wait to see if this is the type of cake that she was fondly remembering from her youth. If it ain't, I'm taking the whole thing back home with me! :)

I'm linking over to a thread on the Southern Food Culture forum on Pork Cake...here. It's a marvelous recipe that Andie shared for Pork Mincemeat Cake. It is, quite simply, one of the best fruit cakes I've ever had. Don't be put off by the pork! You don't really taste pork, but it adds a richness and flavor that's missing from a lot of other recipes. It's definitely made a fruit cake and pork fat convert out of me.

Well, folks, I finished the Pork Cake last night. Yay! First step is the batter. I’m pleased to report that there is probably 3-4 times as much mincemeat in Andie’s recipe than you need for the cake, so there’s plenty left over for stuffing experimentation and, well, just general snacking. I added chopped dried apples, dried pineapple, and sultanas in the final batter, and used Applejack again as the liquor. All I have to say is that MeeMaw must have had a mean right arm, because stirring the flour into the mincemeat requires muscle power. “Batter will be stiff” is an understatement! Heh. Anyway, after adding the brown sugar-egg mixture, the flavors in the mincemeat came out even more. I had enough batter to make myself a little mini-loaf too – because the cake is a gift, I need quality control, don’t I? Just to make sure it’s a good gift? After 2 hours of smelling wonderful, the cake was done… This is a picture of the interior of the half-eaten mini-loaf. Sorry that it isn’t in the best focus, but let’s just say by the time I realized the focus problem, the mini-loaf was <ahem> gone. It was ***delicious***… by far one of the best tasting fruit cakes I have ever had. Snaps to MeeMaw! I’m clearly going to need to start rendering my own lard, because pork fat is just a whole ‘nother flavor dimension. Next up I am going to make another of the recipe types, wherein you chop the pork fat and pour boiling water over it. The dried fruit is soaking now. Thanks for your family recipe, Andie! I’ll let you know how my family likes it in a few weeks.

But...but... the canned beef ravioli rock. I always add more jar sauce (whatever is in the fridge), because I like the stuff *swimming* in sauce. That way, I can happily dunk a piece of Wonder bread in the sauce. Yum.

I bow to your knowledge. Thanks!

Is Fee's the best in terms of bitters? I would like to stock up as I am seeing more & more interesting cocktails with bitters. What about Peychaud's...I've seen that one mentioned frequently too. Is it just a different brand or is it completely different? All I have in the house right now is Angostura.

I went to the U of C, and this thread is making me miss Harold's (on 53rd) in a BIG WAY. The crispy skin, the white bread, the hot sauce, the overall Harold's ambience. It's all good. I gotta figure out where to get good fried chicken in Phoenix, but it won't be the same. All I've got are some boneless skinless chicken breasts in the freezer, so this is a craving that will go unsatisfied tonight. <sob>

Martha's is the best... ...the ultimate in comfort food. I bake it in a large shallow baking dish & double the breadcrumb topping, so there's plenty of crunch! Second best is my grandmother's with Velveeta. Served with fried catfish. I also like the cavatappi noodles instead of elbow... they hold more cheese sauce.

cakewalk, I think they are slightly sweeter/less acidic than regular limes. You can't make a decent caipirinha with regular limes... key limes are key. IMHO.

I may bring any extra mincemeat to Thankgiving and do a little stuffing experimentation exercise. It's still sitting there, looking tasty, and I am trying to keep from eating it all before I make the cake. To borrow Emeril's phrase, pork fat rules.

An utterly lazy way is to add a jar of tasty spicy salsa. I do it all the time. It's heresy, but it's fast!

The Pork Mincemeat Cake Experiment began last night with a fresh batch of candied orange and lemon peel. I added a bit of triple sec to the sugar syrup for some extra kick. This morning I found my pork fat at the local carnicerias – they were much more helpful than the local chain grocery, although unfortunately my Spanish knowledge does not extend to “pork back fat”, so we were all gesturing at our backs while saying “pork” and “lard”. It worked. The only change I made was to add white figs to the dried fruits, but keeping the total weight of dried fruit the same. Here’s everything all chopped and ready to be ground (with pork & pork fat front & center): This was my first foray into meat (well, anything) grinding, and damn is it fun! Was it wrong that I kept singing “the worms crawl in, the worms crawl out” while the standing mixer was grinding away? It is Halloween, after all. I’ve got to find more recipes where I get to grind stuff. [/end brief juvenile foray] Anyway, here’s everything all ground up and ready to be put in the oven: 2 hours later, here’s the mincemeat out of the oven: It smelled and tasted ***phenomenal***. (I ate a bit.) There was no obvious “pork” flavor, but it was rich and fruity. There was really no liquid fat to drain off the mincemeat, it had the consistency of a very moist stuffing. I didn’t worry too much, since I don’t have a problem with a little extra pork fat. I moved on to cooking the mincemeat with the liquor… here I substituted Applejack and rum (Appleton, heh). Jarred it up, and it is now resting peacefully for the next week: I’m hoping there might be a little extra mincemeat in addition to the 1.5 lbs that the recipe calls for, because this, added to a little cornbread or similar, would be a spectacular stuffing for turkey. Next weekend, the actual cake.

I'm all over this. Thank you for passing on MeeMaw's recipe, andiesenji!! I picked up dried fruits at the store today and will be making fresh candied peel tonight. Will stop at the butcher tomorrow for some pork & pork fat... actually I asked at the grocery store today (wishful thinking), and got a blank stare: "you want what?" Yeah, you heard me. Pork fat. <sigh> I think MeeMaw's recipe is the closest to what I am looking for, I'll post pictures of how it looks during the process! I'm also going to try one of the chopped fat/boiling water recipes, if only because I want to see how it turns out. I'm thinking that maybe Applejack might be a good liquor to use as well? I've been hankering to use some after the Applejack thread popped up in the Fine Spirits forum.