Lori in PA

We are on a tight budget and have always stuffed stockings with practical things like toothbrushes, deoderant and shaving cream for those who need it, etc. I usually put fruit in each stocking (just what we already have in the kitchen) and buy one bag of inexpensive candy to share amongst them. Low expectations can be a very good thing. :-)

Oooooh, ooey-gooey good! Could the recipe be shared? Pretty please? ←

I grew up on a farm -- not a hobby, picnics-in-the-meadow farm, but a working, sweating, wouldn't-life-in-town-be-easier farm. In addition, my dad was a full-time airline pilot, so we were busy. Winter was our slowest time, and about once a year some time in the cold months my parents would make an indoor "picnic on the floor" in the living room. Mom spread out an old tablecloth and she and Dad put cut up bananas, orange and apple wedges, cubes of cheese, and Ritz crackers or Wheat Thins on paper plates and put them in the middle of the tablecloth. The two biggest things about this supper were that it was: A. In The Living Room, that sanctuary where no food save popcorn or a sick-day 7Up was ever served to a child and B. accompanied by Coke, that rarest nectar drunk daily at lunch by my parents but reserved for Very Special Occasions for the short persons in the family. When my siblings and I grew up, the Indoor Picnics went by the wayside until one year my brother requested one. Christmas is the only time of year we are all together, so the new tradition for the last 10 years or so is to have an indoor picnic on the family room floor at my parents' house on the day we celebrate Christmas with them. We most often have this picnic and afterward open presents, which is a very long process as we open them one at a time in turn. The leftover picnic food is moved to a nearby table to provide sustenance as needed during the present-opening. Oh, the picnic menu still includes all the old tidbits, but my sister and I usually make some more complicated appetizer type dishes to go with them. Sis always requests my brie wheel with calvados/brown sugar spread and pecans to go with pears or apples, something we'd have never imagined having in 1970.

17 yodd says it is the smell of me cooking the stuffing veggies on Thanksgiving morning, though she doesn't care for stuffing herself.

Sigh. It all sounds lovely and (altogether now) makes me want to go back.

My folks host a Valentine's Day party each year and often give the husbands and wives special "assignments." Several years ago, the husbands were told to get their wives a gift that would really pamper her -- something SHE wanted very much. I knew the assignment and let it be known that what would really pamper me was a set of metal dry measuring cups and oblong measuring spoons from the King Arthur Flour catalog. Dh was aghast and thought he'd be SO embarrassed for the other guys to think he'd bought his wife something so impersonal. I CAMPAIGNED for those gifts -- told all our circle of friends how much I wanted them, etc. That was when dh, a non-cook and fairly plain eater, really got it. We have laughed about those tools so many times over the years. I use them nearly every day and they delight me still.

I live about an hour from Frederick but find myself there at lunch time every month or two. Where would you go if: you find yourself feeling semi-poor but want a nice meal and time is unlimited? you find yourself feeling semi-poor and only have 45 minutes? you find yourself feeling semi-poor and need to get take-out you can eat in the car?

Jackal, Did you have pseudo Thanksgiving because all the talk on here got you hungry for those dishes or did it just occur to you while you were eating them that they fit the Tday profile?

I read someone disparaging cocktail weiner sauces made with grape jelly somewhere on here a few days ago. I don't make this dish myself, but I've enjoyed it at more than a few gatherings over the years. When I read the negative comment, I thought, "What is grape jelly, after all? If it were descrbied as 'Fresh Concord grapes, simmered gently and pressed to extract all the sweet essence...,' it would be clamored over! And, that is what I see people do over those chafing dishes of weiners at parties. :-)

Leftover bread stuffing and turkey gravy for breakfast...

17 yodd: Breakfast: Eggs Benedict with Basil Hollandaise (I make) some really nice juice to go with it Lunch: "something like I would get at that restaurant in Carlisle (PA) -- California Cafe" some nice bread to go along Dinner: Gnocchi Italian salad water bread 13 yods: unavailable for comment 10 yods: Breakfast: yogurt bagel oj Lunch: fried chicken breadsticks water carrots Dinner: sushi water egg drop soup in a bread bowl (his invention, apparently)

"There. It's done. Thank you for asking, Lori." And here is a perfect example of the way one person's offhand question can cause an emotional upheaval in another. I expected you to say you worked in school administration and my query turned out to be the nudge for you to reveal something "huge." If, in your heart of hearts, this was the right time to do it, then I'm pleased to have been the means. Just call me Mrs. Catalyst.

There's GOT to be time -- you have questions to answer...

I just spent far too much time (according to my responsibilities for the day today) finishing your second blog, though it was time well spent. THANK YOU for including a picture of yourself at the end. For some reason, that is important to me -- no, I'm not a stalker or anything -- I just like to see the person and his or her environment because it helps me imagine the life they lead more easily. Also, you have re-proved my assertion that fancy shmancy kitchens are unnecessary to good cooking -- love your closet kitchen. A personal question: what is your job? I was reading in Blog #2 about how you think of your work as separate from your real life. If one isn't passionate about one's vocation, I think that is a reasonable way to handle it -- much preferable to those who work to the exclusion of having any other life, even if they find little satisfaction in their work.

Wonderful, wonderful! I was wondering how it all worked out.

When I woke up this morning, one of the errant questions I mentioned last night floated back into my head. About serving cheese -- I noticed you mentioned a few times on your blogs about The cheese plate. Do you literally have one plate on which you both store and serve the cheese? Do you re-wrap each cheese individually after the meal before storing it or do you just cover the whole plate? Any other tips about making a cheese plate part of one's life? (These questions are for after your panic and your Thanksgiving celebration are over.) I hope you enjoy your day as much as I've been enjoying your writing and photos.

Giggle -- did those three quick replies help?

In America, evaporated and condensed milk are two very different birds. Condensed is extremely sweet and thick, much less liquid than pancake syrup. Evaporated milk is canned milk that has, I think, about 2 times the concentrated of fresh milk. If you are contemplating pumpkin pie and want evaporated milk, you can substitute light cream or half and half with good results. Somewhere online there is a recipe for homemade condensed milk.

Lucy, I've been reading your previous blogs including the one with your healthy eating plan. I had a dozen questions occur to me as I was reading, but fatigue has washed them right out of my head for the moment. Tonight, we entertained my parents, sister, brother-in-law, and their two little ones. I satisfied my craving for things French by including a cheese course, which delighted everyone. I decided I wouldn't even spend one moment thinking of all the types of cheese I could NOT get in my locale, but would enjoy what is possible. That turned out to be some Sam's Club goat cheese, which isn't half bad if you haven't been to France for three years, a nice Cabot cheddar, and a Danish bleu. The local Nittany apples we sliced up to eat with them were fabulous. :-)

Thank you, Lucy, for your well-put reply to my question. In my corner of the world, I find I am somewhere between you and Hamburger Helper. I live in a tiny town of 1100 souls, but we are surrounded by fruit orchards and are blessed with several small roadside produce stands/markets which operate seasonally. In addition, I grow herbs, tomatoes, green beans, squash, carrots, and salad greens. My asparagus patch is a delight. I cook mostly from scratch and, due to our budget and fairly rural location, eating out makes up a very small percentage of our food consumption. Both of these practices are my preference, though I remain grateful for the existence of convenience items like canned legumes, prepared coconut, and the odd can of broth when my own stash runs out. At this time of year, however, my family wouldn't eat if it weren't for the local supermarket. All of the produce stands shut down except one, which has apples and citrus fruit and usually potatoes. My garden isn't large enough to permit much preservation for the winter, either, so I find myself in the produce aisle procuring many of our veggies and fruits. It would be possible for me to get dairy products and meat from local farmers, but I would have to drive many, many miles to do it, and in the case of meat, I'd have to purchase a half or a quarter of beef, for example, and store it in a freezer -- No stopping by and seeing what's fresh and wonderful, I'm afraid. I do get eggs from a friend. It's so interesting to me to see how geography affects our everyday eating! Now, I shall post this and return to my lists and tasks and enjoy imagining you doing the same thing, only 6 hours later and in different light. :-)

Add to Richard's types: an old enamelled spatterware type oval roaster with a domed lid. I have dh's grandmother's. It seems to work fine, but I've been curious how it would compare to, say, one of those open All Clad babies.

I'm bleary-eyed and nursing my coffee, so forgive me if I'm less than coherent with my questions. May I say, Lucy, that if I were to live in Lyon or if you were to live in south central PA, we'd probably find ourselves friends. Forward of me, I know, but the sight of your notebooks of Tday ideas and your ring of lists for errands compels me to say it. At least in the area of organization, we are sympatico. I can hardly formulate my queries. I want to know: how do you come to be living in France? Your dh's (so's?) name leads me to think it is love. Did the love come first or the move there? You seem to live so deliberately and thoughtfully, which is a high priority of mine. Do you have children? I find that my three wonderful offspring are a constant challenge to deliberate and thoughtful living! In western Europe, it seems more possible to achieve, but I am unsure how much that impression is accurate and how much is my romantic imagining coupled with the "vacation sensation" I necessarily have had when visiting there. (When I lived on the Gulf of Mexico, visiting friends and family inevitably mentioned how relaxing it must be to live there -- they projected their own stepping-out-of-their-everyday-lives-to-come-to-Florida onto my work/errands/responsibilities everday life near the beach. I'm sure I do the same thing about places I travel to and love.) I'm fascinated by the way food plays into your "lifestyle" (sorry -- dislike that word) in Lyon. You seem to REALLY patronize market vendors vs. supermarkets. Does it cost you more in time and money to do that? Does it feel like a sacrifice worth making for superior ingredients or to support local growers? Or, is it the natural choice for you or is it simply easier than getting everything in one place?

It sounds like a meal I'd be proud to share at your table. :-)

I eat in my car all the time. Yesterday I had lunch and dinner in there -- which is unusual for me. For lunch, I stopped at a grocery and ordered a couple of slices of good roast beef, a couple of slices of Havarti, and got a single hard roll from the bakery. I got some hot crab chowder in a cup and a yogurt and ate while I drove. For dinner, I ate a McD's Happy Meal, which does not make me happy.

Cold: Frosted Flakes all the way Hot: Steel-cut oats with an unreasonable amount of butter and maple syrup