onrushpam

Wisconsin. I don't have a guess... At least the first Little House book was set in Wisconsin. Later books took place in other Mid-West states.

You mentioned beans at home... perhaps some charro beans?

We'll have white acre peas in place of the black eyed ones, because there some in the freezer that need cooking. (I know, not traditional, but a GRITS woman uses what is readily availaibe!) I haven't yet decided exactly how I'll cook them, but ham will be involved. Alongside will be some collards and some cheese grits. We're taking 10 lucky greyhounds to meet the folks from our Atlanta adoption group on the morning of NYD. If time allows on return from that adventure, I will make another batch of yeast rolls. I like them even better than cornbread for soppin' up the pot likker!

These ideas may not fit with the direction you're now headed, but you mentioned wanting to include some sort of seafood... Two of our most popular "nosh" foods for company are steamed oysters and fried blue crab "cocktail claws". I buy a half-bushel oysters and set up my steamer on the stove. (I have one of those double-duty big pots with a mostly-useless pasta insert and a steamer basket.) I steam as many as it will hold (just until they open), dump those out in a big bowl and do another bunch. It is a little labor intensive, but everybody loves them. We serve simply with some cocktail sauce and lemon/butter for dipping, but most people eat them straight up. I dip the cocktail claws in a little pre-mixed fish breading from our local shop, then fry for just a minute or so. But, if you can't fry, you can forgo the breading and broil briefly in lemon/butter. (They are already cooked, so you really just want to warm them.) Or, you could always just include some shrimp along with the tortillas/carnitas/etc. for shrimp tacos. You have inpsired me to go in search of a tortilla press this week!

Marlene, I did a roast this way Christmas Day and got nearly no drippings. And, the roast had a reasonable fat cap and marbling.

I don't think I've ever told this one before... Worst meal at someone's home was actually at my own home, but not of my own making! Years ago, we lived in the same town as the in-laws and many other family members (both sides). My job had me travelling 150+ days a year. So, my entertaining forays were carefully planned. A bunch of DH's cousins were visiting from out-of-state. I decided I wanted to have them all over, but couldn't handle doing a full dinner for all. So, I invited them for dessert/coffee, thinking they'd stop for a bite someplace before heading to our place. My sweet MIL is known for making awesome Tex-Mex food. She offered an alternative plan, where she would bring the dinner and we'd just have to do last-minute prep, reheating, etc. and I agreed (with some aprobation, because she tends to be very disorganized). She showed up at my house, AFTER many of the guests had arrived and NOTHING was read to eat! She had whole heads of lettuce, packages of tortillas, containers of enchilada sauce, bags of cheese and precooked fillings! No pans of food, just ingredients! I was starting to panic as all this was carried into the house. Then, she dropped a giant zip bag of precooked/seasonsed meat and it EXPLODED! There was meat/sauce everywhere... on the walls, ceiling, cabinets, even the light fixtures! The cousins still tease me about it... how they sympathetically laughed watching me scurry around to clean up the mess, then try to keep up with more cleaning behind MIL as she busily went about cooking in my kitchen. We did eventually sit down to eat, I think.

This reminds me that I haven't been over to The Training Table for a long time. It's the dining room for FSU athletes @ breakfast and dinner, but "common" folks can eat there for lunch. They make awesome oxtails... braised and served over creamy grits with collards on the side. Yuuummmmm! I need to call and find out when they are serving them. It used to be every Thursday in winter.

They recommend using it w/in 2 weeks of purchase, which means we need to eat it in the next few days. They have told me it's okay to freeze their soft, chevre and tub cheese. I guess we'll eat this one and I'll get another for our guests.

Sorry, I meant to include the description of this cheese: It's from our local, well regarded cheesemakers. They describe it as: A Camembert-style bloomy-rinded cheese It's a small wheel, somewhat akin to brie.

I intended to serve this on Thanksgiving, but our guest arrived late and we decided to skip the noshes... I'd like to save it for guests who are arriving in a couple of weeks. I know it won't last that long w/out freezing. Will it be ruined if I wrap it well and freeze for only 2 weeks?

The best turkey I ever ate were the ones my Uncle Doug shot in the wild. I remember one Thanksgiving dinner about 15 years ago where we realized everything on the table was grown, gathered or hunted by family members (except for dairy, spices, flour, etc.) This year, I asked DD to snag a small organic turkey from Publix, where she works. Thank goodness I called her about it last week! She got the turkey and immediately put it into Alton's brine solution! It would've been brined for about 5 days! She took it out of the brine after about 24 hours, rinsed it, put it into a HUGE ziplock and brought it to me on Sunday. It's drying now. We'll see how it is. It's MUCH bigger than I expected. She said it's 12 lbs, but I'm guessing more like 15. We'll have a ton of leftovers.

Mine varies every year... This year, DD is running in a 10K Turkey Trot in the AM and won't get to our house until after noon. She has to work Friday (but not until the afternoon) and we have to leave early Friday morning to take 10 greyhounds from the track to an adoption group. We need time to clean up the mess and get organized for our Friday trip. So, we'll eat mid/late afternoon. We always enjoy a fair amount of wine and beer during prep and dinner. I want my guests to have plenty of time to assimilate all that with dessert and coffee before hitting the road home. Me, I just crash on the couch! But, not this time... I have a lot of doggie paperwork to gather up for Friday morning. Off to make gravy and rolls now...

DH and I entered a just-for-fun cookoff competition his workplace did as part of a charity event. We made a curry similar to this one, using sweet potatoes (the required ingredient) instead of squash. It was really, really good and we won the contest! One thing I added was to sprinkle toasted chopped almonds over the top. It really needed some bit of crunch.

Friends have the SimpleHuman cans and I've been relatively impressed with them. (We broke down and installed a trask compactor 12 years ago after one dog learned to open even can known to man.) I've seen the SimpleHuman cans at TJMAXX or Tuesday Morning from time to time.

Our "unofficially adopted daughter" is running a 15K Turkey Trot that morning and has to be at work at 3 AM on Friday. It will just be the 3 of us. So, I'm guessing we'll eat around 3-4 pm... as soon as I can get it on the table. Neither of my ovens is working right. So, it will take me a little longer than usual to make sure I have an adequate supply of dinner rolls baked (that's really all she cares about)!

I think Lafayette's closed. We've not been in that area on T'giving, but have been stuck travelling through there multiple times on Christmas and New Years. It's tough. Very little is open, not even the chain places. Your best bet may be to find someplace in Baton Rouge.

There will just be 3 of us, so I won't go crazy... Definitely the pumpkin sticky puddings from Epicurious, because we all love them. Soft, poofy dinner rolls. Maybe a pie later in the weekend.

Publix carries Cumberland Gap hams. I don't know if you can find them up there. But, if you get a whole ham or even one of the semi-boneless ones, they are actually quite good. I'm not a fan of the spiral sliced, etc. I also got one at Costco that was good. I can't remember what brand it was. It was not spiral and it was in a red foil package. I think it was a half, bone-in ham.

I had this sparkling pinot noir in a restaurant and thought it might be nice with turkey and such. I think it's only ~ $10 a bottle. I plan to see if I can find it at our wine shops.

If you have celery, I'd certainly add that. I don't think stuffing/dressing is "right" without it.

Can you get dried sage and/or tarragon? If so, you could do Mark Bittman's favorite bread stuffing: Clicky

Thank you much! I will attempt this at some point in coming weeks. I am SO not a pastry baker. But, I'll give it my best shot. I'll be sure to use strawberry jam (my favorite). As a quick aside... my all-time favorite meal was one at the home of a friend in Lincs. I don't remember all the details (lots of wine was consumed), but the high points were roasted partridge, swede, gratin potatoes and a fabulous treacle tart that "burst its dam". Good friends, good food, good wine and much laughter made for a night I'll never forget.

Dear Mr. Prawncraker, My dear husband recently enjoyed reading the biography of Sir Winston Churchill and apprised me of the fact Sir Winston's favorite dessert was the Bakewell tart. I utilitzed Google to find out what it is and have promised I would attempt to bake a Bakewell. I just showed said husband your photos and he said, "You MUST get that recipe! I MUST have that!" Because I love my husband, I will attempt to make his wish come true. Please help. With deepest admiration, The crazy greyhound lady

I don't have kids, but reading this thread reminded me of my God son, who is now nearly 30 years old. He was always a fan of all things sour and/or spicy (go figure). One day, when he was under 2 and not yet talking, he was driving his mother crazy whining and reaching for the fridge door. She offered him all sorts of things and nothing satisfied. She finally picked him up and shoved his little head into the fridge asking "What do you want?" He immediatedly reached for the jar of full sour dill pickles. She cut up a bunch of slices and put them in a bowl. He toddled off to the TV with them, happy as a little clam! A few weeks later, we picked up a big selection of dishes from the local Chinese place, most of it very spicy. He slammed both fists into a box of extra spicy double-cooked pork and stuffed it in his mouth before anybody could grab him. He LOVED it and wanted more! 28 years later, he continues to be a very adventuresome young man (and handsome to boot)!

Even though I have 2 fridges, I do the brining in a cooler. Should be especially easy in KC, where it is much cooler than here in the Deep South! You might not even need ice!