suzilightning

breakfast was eggs "butch" benedict made with some homemade english muffin bread, hollandaise sauce with some pimenton d'espice and canadian bacon. the eggs were poached and appropriately runny. i could only eat half of mine so johnnybird finished it. i wonder if that is why he had to take a nap about noon?

monday john got home about 1800 from jury duty. egg noodles and short ribs shredded into their braising liquid along with roasted cauliflower. john made it home last night just before the snow but still around 1830(early since he is on jury duty until he is dismissed, his case ends or 26 January - whichever comes first) i made him a pizza with ham, artichoke hearts and olives. i had a craving and made a big bowl of oatmeal with milk and topped it with some homemade applesauce, dusted with toast dope and a drizzle of maple syrup. it was perfect with a cup of hot cocoa. i just pulled two packages of pounded chicken tenders. stopped yesterday and picked up fresh sage leaves, prosciutto de san danielle and provolone picante. chicken saltimbucco with some pasta for dinner later. hmmmmm....i do believe that i want a gratin, though. and there is the backstrap of venison john brought home from Quattros' that i portioned out...maybe for dinner tomorrow.

somewhere else on cook's country they have moved to replacing some of the water in the dough with vodka that seems to provide some flakiness without the breaking. as far as the fried mush ... make some toast dope with the dried maple syrup instead of the demerara sugar.

you and my mom would have gotten along famously. she would come home from work any day it was nice, change into her fishing clothes and then head for the docks or one of the beaches. course i don't care if i ever look another bluefish, weakfish or rock fish in the face again!!

shelby- i am looking forward to any recipes you have on quail and the pheasant pie. john had his first pheasant last month and loved it(course it was roasted draped with bacon didn't hurt). i used the carcass and the darker meats to make stock and pot pie. i currently have 4 quail and 2 squab in the freezer and john is going to be stocking up on venison and pheasant when he goes home next weekend. we grew up with the mantra that whatever we hunted/fished/etc we ate so i'm with you. well....except for the groundhogs on the farm that were eating the young fruit trees. do you hunt as well or focus on the preserving? even though your blog ends before Kansas Day any chance of a K.D. party?

some have been claimed but not all, folks

new year...more books to get rid of. please don't be shy and pm me... The Best Thing I Ever Tasted by Sally Tisdale Bon Appetit Best International Recipes Best Pastas volume 1 Best Pastas volume 2 Deliciously Light Fast and Easy Tastes of the World Cheese by John Fischer The Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking I Loved, I Lost, I made Spaghetti by Giulia Melucci Rare Bits: Unusual Origins of Popular Recipes by Patricia Stevens With Bold Knife and Fork by M.F.K. Fisher

OMG the sauerbraten was so good. not as good as an august one after starting in may but, hey.... ended up with extra spaetzle and gravy so bought some roast beast to shred and add to the mess - and it does look like cat vomit but tastes like heaven. just made a gumbo with some chicken legs and italian sausage, red, green and yellow peppers, onions and garlic. really flavorful with bay, juniper, sage, oregano and a tiny bit of tarragon. the sauce, at least, if wonderful. added some frozen peas to it and have both boiled fingerling potatoes{probably for a frittata} and some brown rice for the sauce to soak into. it is toooooo cold for down here

some chicken thighs and some andouille thawing...a nice big pot of gumbo tomorrow.

lisa- though i am late to the party(unususal for me not for the johnnybird) it has been so much fun and you may have just filled in a missing piece in john's inablility to gain weight with the info on NCGS. will research it and ask his gastroenterologist when we see him next month. we do eat a lot of rice pastas but add into the mix john's lactose intolerance (don't marry a dane/german/english mix) and cooking is uh..... an interesting challenge. hey, eG gave me my own foodblog: the neat thing is seeing not only the superstars(fatguy, lorna yee, chufi, pam reiss, etc) but the everyday folks of us who are passionate about cooking and eating, who may have money or are monetarily challenged (at least at the moment), who have jobs or are unemployed but for whom cooking and eating and somehow feeding or saucing(?) with cocktails is very important. suzi from nwnj ps - ack- a - me is a south jersey/western ny thing...kinda like soda or pop. blog on sister-girl

what an odd day here. i am freezing inside the house(ok, maybe because i still have the creeping crud from thanksgiving)though it is about 50 degrees outside. last night made some good mac and cheese and a squash and shallot tian. tonight will be potato pancakes, homemade applesauce, red cabbage, spaetzle, sauerbrauten and plenty of gingered gravy. i also have a set of a new recipe for oatmeal bread made with molasses to bake off - and a bit of thinly sliced black forest ham to heap on it - after it is spread with some butter of course. actually i'm looking forward to having some time to make some soups and am craving chicken and sausage gumbo - though i would kill for some tasso!!!! let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

can i come to any of your houses? at casa de in-laws we have to do something about mid-day on the 25th since my sister-in-law is on the 3-11 shift on both the 24th and 25th. it is going to be white trash heaven. my mother-in-law #1 wanted to buy a ham (though she doesn't like ham but everyone else does and she will eat it), buy tinned baked beans, tinned yams and premade rolls. the final version isn't that much better but it will be: stuffed eggs - not deviled since i don't use mustard pre-cooked frozen shrimp that one brother-in-law will provide. we will keep one sauce for the regular folks and let that bil load up a small glass with horseradish so he can't taste or feel anything else. sweet and sour hotdogs - grape jelly and chili sauce with mini franks swedish meatballs - mil #1 will buy premade meatballs and heinz brown gravy savorings - brother-in-law likes these so he will be bringing them cold cuts - sister-in-law is buying black forest ham, turkey and finlandia heavenly light. i will provide homemade portugese sweet bread and brown bread. please....please....help me, help me.

wednesday night was salisbury steak made with ground buffalo, some beautiful baby bellas and some good beef broth. served with honey glazed carrots and whole wheat egg noodles. john is off to the hudson valley for a concert and a hike this weekend. he is due back on sunday so i have a piece of beef in the fridge marinating for sauerbraten. red cabbage, some green beans and mash or spaetzle to soak up that gingery gravy. having a friend over for dinner tomorrow and sending her home with some food to tide her over after a procedure she is having on monday. some homemade oatmeal bread - a new recipe but i'm not satisfied with it yet - some cranberry bars and leftovers - baked macaroni and cheese. i'm craving yellow and green squashes so i'm thinking a tian with some tomatoes, shallots and some herbs.

early in november went to a demo at our local shoprite that featured cranberries. took away two recipes out of 5 (and the thought that though i am not a graduate of cia i could have done a better demo)and have learned that the store really needs to test the recipes better before they distribute them. just have made a "harvest cranberry bar" that i actually had to add more liquid to in order to be able to actually "spread" it and added some oatmeal and replaced the butter with light olive oil since the husband doesn't eat butter. this is the third time i have made it - once by the recipe and now twice by a bit of a tweek in order to actually eat it. funny how if you follow the recipe it says that the batter should flow - in your freaking dreams.....

cold and about to get windier here. back from the gym and cut up about 4 onions. into the dutch oven on low to carmelize with some duck fat and butter. some leftover beef stock, some leftover chicken broth and some pheasant stock will join them in the pool in about 35 more minutes along with some white wine, a bay leaf and a bit of thyme and a bit of tarragon.

did the turkey sandwiches with miracle whip and cranberry sauce on portugese sweet bread. after dinner stripped the breast carcass and put the bones into broth with some aromatics. let it drip overnight. skimmed the fat and made turkey vegetable soup the next day. since we only do a breast we don't have a lot of extra meat or bones though i do have a pheasant carcass to deal with tomorrow from sunday's dinner.

overall it went well. apple cider brined turkey breast cooked a bit earlier than i thought - though my mil's stove runs high. 6 lb bone in took about 1.5 instead of 2+ hours to cook properly so i kept rotating in products. she wanted to precook the stuffing the day before and "reheat" which would have totally dried it out. sister-in-laws mashed potatoes were more like aligot - very, very gluey. and after all the husband didn't eat them since she used regular milk and butter - things he will not eat. love the sweet potatoes. will do them again. have to make sure that the husband is at the table before food goes on. it ended up that there was no blessing and oldest bil was halfway through his dinner before johnnybird wound his way to the table that left his mother and i standing until he could get to his place in the tiny dining room.

i second dorie greenspan's book. another one that i actually bought for myself was anna thomas' "love soup". my criteria for buying a book for myself is do i want to copy out over 1/4 of the recipes...i did.

ame down with a rotten cold - what i get for doing the good thing and going up to poughkeepsie to feed the inlaws. for thanksgiving we started with stuffed mushrooms and pepperoni and mozzarella bites then on to cider brined turkey breast, mashed potatoes, twice baked sweet potatoes with pineapple, cranberry roasted brussels sprouts, green beans with garlic and my mother-in-laws sausage stuffing all with gravy. the carcass was picked over and then simmered with some aromatics to make the base for a turkey vegetable soup the next day. cranberry and turkey sandwiches on portugese sweet bread all around. out to dinner on friday for my father-in-law's birthday sunday john got to taste his first roast pheasant that we picked up at quattros out in the valley. their family and john's go way back in the area and i love to go there and stock up on their homeraised game. roasted with a veil of bacon on the breast it came out wonderfully. served with leftover sweets, roasted fingerling potatoes, some carrots, cornbread stuffing with apples and onions and madeira gravy. before i got feeling so yucky yesterday made some asian meatballs (ground pork, sesame oil, toasted jasmine rice powder, soy, water chestnuts) and baked them. today hollowed out a small roll, smeared some hoisin mayo on it and filled with sliced meatballs.

friday night was pasta night at the eyrie. john wanted shrimp with artichokes, olives, capers and lemon olive oil. i wanted meat sauce. took the meat sauce, some lactaid cottage cheese that i drained most of the day, some grated hard cheeses and some no cook noodles and made 2 lasagnas. one for dinner last night with leftovers for the beginning of this week and one went into the freezer. will take it up to my sister-in-law to put in her freezer for christmas so john can have something he can eat since she makes hers with full fat mozzarella and ricotta. the one thing i have found, though, is it is best to dip the no cook noodles in hot water before layering them. don't have a pasta machine and no access to fresh pasta sheets - which i would love to find so, since i do lasagna only about once a year or so these sheets work well for me. leftovers, another set of portugese sweet bread, finish the prep on my turkey stock and then a turkey, spinach and pasta casserole with some hard cheese and garlic panko crumbs. john is currently making his version of french toast. that means 6 eggs beaten, white bread dipped in the eggs then a hard, hot, fast fry in some olive oil and then served with homemade applesauce - currently northern spy - and maple syrup...from one of the 6 half gallons in the basement.

I not only get to cook but have to transport everything up to the in-laws. Nibbles: shrimp(precooked, frozen) one brother-in-law will contribute. stuffed mushrooms from Julia petite sweet pickles Main: turkey breast in an apple cider brine then roasted; gravy mother-in-law's sausage stuffing. i'm going to learn how to make this this year. i seem to remember pork sausage, chopped celery, bread crumbs and eggs Sides: mashed potatoes sister-in-law is going to try these green beans with garlic and lemon olive oil sweet potatoes with crushed pineapple brussel sprouts with cranberries Dessert: 2 kinds of pies from sister-in-law and Cool Whip, Lois for the sandwiches later Portugese sweet bread. will have to fight the mil about NOT having bread or rolls on the table with both potatoes.

steve - how about a cheese pumpkin instead of a kabocha? my baking is savory, not necessarily sweet - i do the turkey, green beans, brussel sprouts, sweet poatoes - sister in law is going to try mashed potatoes. brother-in-law is bringing the frozen shrimp and i will restrain his hand with the horserasish sauce so others can actually taste anything else. will do stuffed mushrooms then i do bake the breads - portugese sweet, oatmeal and this year a johnnybird's famous, outrageous toast dope portugese sweet raisin bread for breakfast. will try to learn my mil's recipe for sausage dressing - taking the celery out!!!! the sister-in-law is buying two pies. let's say not everyone - or anyone - is really into cooking. i am considered a freak among many folks since i enjoy cooking and actually send lunches in with my husband - most people i worked with kept saying "don't let my husband know you actually make your husband's lunch/dinner".

oh, yes...yess...YESSSSSSSSS last night after all the stuff i gave him john wanted some eggs with ham on bread so that is what he finished the night with. today sent him in with some toasted raisin bread to start, leftover turkey, stuffing, and beans with cranberry sauce and then some buffalo sliders and chips. there is a bacon covered meatloaf in the oven along with roasted sweet potatoes. i have some spinach leftover that i am going to "cream" to go with the meat and potatoes. made some portugese sweet bread for john's luncheon that has been changed to thursday. getting ready to make 3 sets of bread next weekend for the holiday. then it is time to make clam chowda for the night before thanksgiving as per my family tradition - manhattan, not new england.

actually my bread isn't like the squishy Hawaiian King rolls you can buy around here. it has a nice crust from the amount of sugar that goes into the basic recipe. you might have success with something like a potato bread recipe with about 1/2-3/4 cup sugar added. sorry i can't help more - though i can send you some of the rolls if you want...

it's that time again - approaching u.s. thanksgiving so it's time for oatmeal bread and portugese sweet bread. we never ate the bread with the meal but it went into the oven when the turkey came out so we had bread for sandwiches later when we were picking nuts and making the fruitcakes. tried something different this time and took one of the blobs, formed it into a rectangle, spread it with some of john's spread then covered it with johnnybird's famous outrageous toast dope and patted in some golden raisins. baked it and that is what we have been having, toasted, for breakfast - johnnybird's famous outrageous toast doped portugese sweet raisin bread.