Kim Shook

Saturday was decorating the tree day. Brunch was Ham & Cheese Croissant Strata. The croissants: With the custard and Gouda: Baked: Serving: Served with fruit salad:

My understanding is that meat-eaters taste really strong - not pleasant. I'm bettin' I'd taste awful.

One of the books that my MIL recently gifted me with was this: It is from Southern Living Magazine and mine is the 3rd printing dated 1975. So not terribly old. But I was surprised to find this in the Wild Game section:

I brought home some turkey breast that my MIL had cooked Wednesday in case the whole turkey wasn't enough. To me, the real reason to roast a turkey is sandwiches – hot and cold. And since I didn’t bring any gravy home from her house, this was dinner tonight: White bread, cranberry sauce, turkey, lettuce and mayo. And Utz potato chips, of course. And some of my favorite pasta salad, Wegman’s capellini w/ mozzarella and tomatoes:

I grew up in the US South and I adore "congealed salads". As long as they don't contain vegetables or meat I love them all. You don't really taste Coke in this, just like you don't really taste Coke in BBQ sauce or ham or anything else that was recommended.

I don't think it is a cultural thing, but a science thing. Stuffing left in a bird that long at room temperature is an invitation to food poisoning.

"sorry, not sorry"?

Ham are awesome cooked in it, too. But I'd better warn you after your Norman Rockwell comment () - you don't get a really browned, crisp skin in the Nesco. It will brown - and the skin isn't flabby, but it won't be exactly like that perfect Rockwell turkey.

Wonderful Thanksgiving meals folks! We went to my MIL’s, so I don’t have any pictures. I made @Ann_T's corn custard (Southerners: think corn pudding), which was fabulous, as always. MIL’s dinner was delicious – turkey, dressing, whipped potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, two different kinds of green beans (she aims to please everyone), her blue ribbon winning yeast rolls, and three pies (apple, pecan and pumpkin). What I am thankful for is that we didn’t end up in the ER. We didn’t find out until after we ate that her stuffed turkey sat on the counter STILL STUFFED for almost 5 hours. I am not a particularly fussy person (I freely double dip, leave my butter out on the counter year around, and eat after everyone I know), but I almost fell off my chair when she was talking about timing and I worked it out.

LOL! This is very similar to the Thanksgiving card I gave Mr. Kim.

This. The heat doesn't go above 65 degrees in my house unless we are entertaining babies or old folks.

I never made a truly juicy turkey until I bought a Nesco.

Travel well and be safe. I have to admit that I'd have probably figured out a way to stay home for a week or two with that lovely snow. Snowbirds follow the sun. What do you call folks who follow the snow?

I don't like mushrooms, but the idea (and the looks) of savory French toast appeals to me. I could see a little drizzle of hollandaise over that. As far as the fruit stuffed French toast goes, I know what you mean about sugar bombs - I love sweets and some of them I've had in restaurants have just been WAY too much. When I do it, I use croissants stuffed with slightly sweetened cream cheese and whatever fruit I want - bananas, roasted pears or peaches, fried apples, etc. That way I control the sweetness.

Yep, that's the method. You can peel or not. I didn't because I was being lazy!

@suzilightning – I’ve been dying for a turkey sandwich w/ cranberries for a week! Since we are going to my MIL, I sure hope she makes enough for leftovers and I don’t have to roast a turkey breast in the middle of everything I have to do next week! @Anna N – I think the chopsticks make perfect sense – that is, of course, assuming some good bread (God knows you should have enough of that around your house lately) to scoop up any missed sauce! Last night - salad: Roasted garlic shrimp, rice and green beans: This shrimp was especially good – Mr. Kim wanted shrimp and we looked in every one of our usual grocery stores and didn’t really care for any that we saw. Happened to see an automatic billboard at just the right moment: “Jumbo Gulf shrimp $7.99/LB.”! This was from Tom Leonard and it was perfect – sweet and firm and tasting of shrimp instead of chlorine! I just roasted it – the easiest way I’ve found to cook shrimp and have it stay moist and not overcooked. I rarely cook it any other way. Wegman’s cheddar bread:

Great ideas! You can also use it in the bottom of a roaster when you bake a ham. It is a good addition to BBQ sauce, either homemade or store bought.

Was this a ghost or some kind of albino sea creature? LOL Gorgeous meals and surroundings! Thanks for taking the time to share your trip with us.

Loving the grilled cheese for breakfast ideas! @blue_dolphin – I stuff French toast with roasted pears, but never thought to put them in a grilled cheese – I’ll be trying that! @Anna N – I’m not finding your breakfasts boring at all. To me, there is no better breakfast than eggs on toast – scrambled, fried, poached or boiled! (And you will never become boring!) Breakfast this morning: Pumpernickel bagels w/ lox cream cheese! A childhood favorite and one that I can indulge now, thanks to Wegman’s. I’ve been unable to find pumpernickel bagels lately and was thrilled to see them there – as well as the very good lox cream cheese. I can remember meeting my mother’s extended family for brunch when I was a little girl and they were all appalled that she “let” me eat such a thing! I don’t think that they ever had a bagel until the sweet ones came out!

Thank you so much, @JohnT! That sounds like perfect breakfast/brunch sausage rolls to me. I've printed them out and will give a test run soon for Christmas morning!

Dinner tonight was a clean-out-the-freezer-I’m-still-too-tired-to-really-cook meal. Poached eggs on toasted hamburger buns w/ hollandaise (from a packet), sausage links and some sliced oranges that were sitting naked in the fridge from being zested for cake frosting last week. My pitiful poached eggs: They were cooked properly, though:

LOL! My English stepsister uses Little Smokies! In puff pastry, though.

My MIL is hosting Thanksgiving this year. I'm thinking of taking one of these: Sangria I or Sangria II. Looks like you can make either one ahead of time (without the fizzy for the first one). I'm leaning toward the 2nd because I can make a pitcher or two the night before and just set it out when we get there.

Thank you, @Anna N! I've never used Italian sausage for rolls before. The next time that I make them as a snack or appetizer, I'll be doing that! I've printed out the recipe! These are what I usually use when I do them. So, yes, they are in casings. But, honestly, the casings generally peel off and I pick them out when they are sauteing. It never occurred to me to just strip the casings off before cooking. Duh. But, I'm guess that the answer is that I don't need to pre-cook them at all? Just remove the casings and wrap them in pastry all raw? No problem with grease? Because if you don't have a grease isuue with Italian sausage, I don't see why I should with breakfast sausage. So this brings up another question. When I do this for Xmas, I always do them, up to the point of egg wash and baking, ahead of time and freeze. Can I still do this with raw sausages? What I would have are frozen rolls formed of raw puff pastry and sausages. I generally thaw them for about an hour and then brush with an egg wash and bake. Would this still be ok?

Growing up with an English stepdad (some of you will remember the late @Ted Fairhead), I adore sausage rolls. We had them frequently. When he made them, he usually used Jones pork sausages, which he said were somewhat like chipolatas. They are what his mum used when she visited from England, too. But here’s the thing – I remember that they always cooked them before rolling in the pastry and baking. Every recipe I’ve seen as an adult calls for rolling up raw sausage inside the pastry. So, my first questions is when done with raw sausage, does the sausage get fully cooked in the center? Especially in a large sausage roll that is going to be sliced rather than served whole like the little ones. Secondly – isn’t there a lot of grease coming out of the raw sausage as it cooks? Even with the (slightly under-) cooked and well pricked sausages that I use, I do get some grease coming out. My reason for asking is that mine tend to be a little over-done. I try to undercook them, but still have a bit more toughness that I’d like in my sausages. Ta!