Pierogi

Awwwwwwwwwww, Bruce. You had me at calabacitas. I so love them.....

Bruce (C. sapidus) - Oh yum. Tortilla soup (*good* tortilla soup) is one of my favorites, and your's looks outstanding. I need to make some again soon. heidih - As you know, our overcast day turned pretty nasty right around dinner time. I *had* planned to make deep-dish pizza today, but got caught up in some Christmas baking and housecleaning, and was WAY too tired for all that rig-a-ma-roll by the time dinner rolled around. The other dish I had provisions for, and had planned for tomorrow, was Chiang Mai beef, but that didn't seen suited for a cold, damp, rainy, stormy night. So I got the brilliant idea to use some rice vermicelli in an Asian beef broth to go with. Ohhhh, man. The Asian beef/noodle soup was better than the Chiang Mai beef (the dogs got about half of that....). I used about 1&1/2C of leftover TJ's boxed beef broth, with about 3/4C water. I augmented that with some beef flavor Better Than Boullion (about 1/2 tsp), a drizzle of Maggi, a couple of fat slices of fresh ginger, a couple of smashed fat cloves of garlic, about 4 sliced green onions and a sprinkle of MSG/Accent (hanging head). That simmered while I made the Chiang Mai. The rice vermicelli (sai fun???) soaked while all that was going on. In went the drained noodles to heat up again in the broth, and right before serving, I splashed in some soy sauce, sesame oil and just a hint of lemon juice left over from the Chiang Mai. It need a touch of salt, amazingly enough, and that took it to umami heaven. Just what I needed on what was, as I said, a nasty night. Well, nasty for Los Angeles. Warmed me from the inside. The Chiang Mai was good, but the imprompteau soup was way better.

Believe me, living all (well, ok, MOST) of my life in sunny SoCal, I can identify. Pulling trays of festively decorated Christmas cookies out of the oven, wearing shorts, flip-flops and a tank top, with my hair up in a knot on top of my head because it's 80°F outside with a dry wind is prime in my holiday memories....hating to turn on the oven on Christmas day to cook the "traditional" meal...oy ! "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas"....usually in SoCal its the tumbleweeds spray-painted white and stacked as a snowman ! Really enjoyed this Snadra. Let us know what you end up doing with that hominy. I've got posole on my agenda with mine this week !

Finally hit me this evening as I was prepping dinner. I don't hate the mincing/chopping/slicing work. I don't hate loading/unloading the dishwasher. I *would* hate handwashing dishes, but mercifully the aforementioned dishwasher takes care of that chore. Don't hate putting away the flatware. Don't hate breaking down proteins. Nope none of that. I absolutely, resolutely and without any sane reason HATE cleaning herbs. Especially small leafy ones like mint, parsley, cilantro, thyme, etc. And I use these suckers a lot. Don't mind chopping them. Absolutely loathe washing and drying them. To the point where I'll think....."hmmmm, do I really *need* it in this recipe?"

Holy moly (or maybe mole, arf arf arf ). I have the same brand of hominy in my pantry, who knows how many thousands of miles away from you ! That's actually pretty trippy. I thought they were semi-local to the US Southwest.

I have absolutely NO clue who it is, but I am in serious lust over that cobalt glassware. I love, love, LOVE cobalt glass !

A mini-prep food processor (since I usually cook for just one), so I don't have to haul out the big Cuisinart, a silicone cannele mold, since I've become addicted to those delicious little morsels and a candy thermometer. Well, really, instead of the mini-prep food processor, I'd *LOVE* a replacement to my dear old Braun Ultramix that died last year, but since Braun decided not to sell these things in the US any longer.....I'll just have to deal with the mini food processor. But the molds and the thermometer stand regardless.

I'm asking Santa, pretty please, for Dorie Greenspan's "Around My French Table", Sarabeth Levine's "From My Hands to Yours" and the Tartine bread book...... Honest, Santa, I've been a very, VERY good girl.

I was a guest, but still came away with a BOATLOAD of leftover turkey (no one but me liked the dark meat, *suckers* !). I had another complete meal from some of the turkey and some of the dressing (which was my contribution to the feast) with some newly made mashed potatoes and gravy on Saturday. Tonight, I killed the meat with turkey enchiladas with creamy tomatillo/cilantro sauce. Really an excellent recipe. The sauce was salsa verde, a couple of tablespoons of canned Ortegas, cilantro leaves, heavy cream and S&P blitzd together in the blender. Jack cheese in the filling and on top. Quite, quite tasty. I had bought a breast half and a couple of drumsticks (wanted thighs but they were sold out when I got there) because I wasn't sure how much leftovers I'd get, if any, so those are now in the freezer for future use, and future tetrazinni, ScoopKW. That's one of my favorite leftover dishes ! Well, I didn't really kill all the leftover turkey myself. There's been a couple of little doggies with very fat little bellies, belching turkey burps for the past few days.......

After several years of non-baking due to an escalating medical condition and work pressures, I've become part of the "leisure" class by retiring earlier this year. So I'm really looking forward to re-visiting my Christmas goodies, and adding a couple of new ones this year. For SURE the list will include these classics from my past: Sherry/Bourbon balls (will probably make these tomorrow, since they taste best aged) Polish tea-cakes Butterscotch pretzels Snowballs (aka Mexican wedding cakes) Peppermint sugar cookies Bishop's Bread (aka Pierogi's Not-A-Fruitcake) I'm thinking of adding: Kahlua truffles Dorie Greenspan's World Peace Cookies Alfajores Old classics which COULD make the cut: Cranberry/Orange Nut Bread Orange Poppy Seed cookies I'm very excited to get back to the smell of creamed butter permeating the kitchen for days on end !!

No. JC was better than *ALL* the schmucks on Food Network today. She simply set the standard.

YES !!! Get a couple of bottles, in case the supply dries up. Once you start using it, you will become hooked on it. Granted, it's *NOT* an everyday taste, but nothing else can replace it. The threads here on eG will guide you towards many, many delightful adult beverages using it. A bottle will last you a while, as I said, since its not a taste to be used daily. But, once you have it, and use it, you will not want to be without it.

Wow. Head rush. Watermelon in the run-up to Christmas. In my narrow-vision, blinders-on view, I forget that for our compatriots in the Southern Hemisphere, this is prime fruit/fresh veg season. Even for those of us on the US West Coast, if we want to do the "eat local" thing, melons, rhubarb and such are long since gone...... This should be fun. Those artichokes were GORGEOUS by the way, as is the wisteria.

Absolute WORD.

Bacon. Jam. *sigh* Thanks for the link, although my cholesterol (and hips) probably don't concur.....

Two came with the range, and two is what I use. Never seen the need for more. I leave them in when I run the "clean" cycle, and any accumulated crud (which, honestly, isn't much, it mostly collects on the bottom) is incinerated. Although, I have heard/read that leaving the racks in during the "clean" cycle leads to sticking along the slides. However, as Marlene said, a little veg or mineral oil (like you use to oil your cutting boards) rubbed along the edges that fit into the guides takes care of any sticking. NOTE: key words there...."a little" !

Ohhh, man Bruce. That sounds just about perfect for a cold, Fall, pre-holiday evening. Good job.

Octaveman, could not agree more on the garlic naan. It's seriously fabulous. And JAZ, I also totally agree about the "handmade" tortillas. I bought them because of that same article, and had the same reaction. I'll take a decent commercial brand any day over those. I'm not a huge fan of TJ's regular corn tortillas, either, for that matter. A couple of new finds that I was very pleased with. TJ's house brand refrigerated whack-a-can crescent rolls. They had none of that "artifical" taste that all of the Pilsbury canned rolls have. TJ's also has biscuits and cinnamon rolls in the fridge case as well, but I haven't tried those. The crescents, however were excellent. And their refrigerated pomegranite juice is about 1/2 the price of the same size of POM Wonderful, and just as good.

Let's not forget Ming's "let's plate this UP".....

.....And found the turkey, and the empty ice bag, sitting next to the cooler..... Dont'cha hate when you do stuff like that ? I always feel, like...d'oh ! That's why I've become an almost compulsive list-maker/sticky-note leaver. They're my off-line brains... Which of the lovely ladies (or should I say Cowgirls) in the booth is you? Lovin' the blog so far, and as a SoCal resident, who knows from the "original" Surfas, you are one lucky lady to have one in walking distance. How do you control yourself from the rest of their seductive offerings???? BTW, I had *no* idea they had an off-shoot in Arkansas !! Blog on sister ! ETA----errrrg, messeed up the quote, but you get the drift, I hope....

I have always thought that the exclusion of clean-up time in "total prep/cooking" time calculations was the great unspoken lie behind "30-minute meals" and the like. If, for example, you watch one of those shows, you'll see numerous prep/cooking vessels that have to be dealt with after the fact. Now, the TeeVee people have the legions of unseen minions to take care of that, but I don't. I'm frankly blown away by the concept of a "30-minute meal" needing 2 sautee pans, a pasta pot, a salad bowl and a baking sheet. Even with a dishwasher, rinsing/scraping with all that is an issue. For me, 30 minutes to get the dinner on the table is nothing compared to the hour clean-up ! And for most home cooks, doing a strict mise-en-place makes it worse, because you've got all those "pinch/prep" bowls, all those plates with chopped veg, all those pots you used to blanch stuff, all those other bowls to shock and quick chill. Not gunna happen. But to the subject of "prep/active/total" cook times, like most seasoned cooks, I do use them as a guideline, and appreciate them when they're printed. Like others, I hate the surprise of a time sink in the middle of a recipe that I hadn't anticipated. The recipes I like most actually call that out in the header...."prep time, 15 min., active time, 30 min., unattended time 3 hours, cook time 30 min.". That gives me a realistic window of what's actually involved. Without that, too frequently I find myself (because apparently I'm ADD when I read a recipe the first time....) thinking dinner's going to be done in 45 minutes and hitting the "refrigerate for 90 minutes to meld flavors, then roast for 45 minutes." I don't like those kind of surprises.

Please tell me this is a joke..? That sounds like an emetic, not a sweet. No, I don't have a TV, long (not interesting) story. I wish it was a joke....you can find the recipe on foodnetwork.com.... Her recipe for chocolate mousse is even worse. Cool Whip mixed with Jello pudding cups.

Oh my......after a medical appointment (mercifully NOT as unpleasant as DanM's), several errands, only one of which was completed successfully, I realized I was absolutely famished. I had intended to grab a sandwich or salad at Trader Joe's, but since they were out of what I actually went there for, I blew off the food as well. Unfortunately, on my way home was the siren song of Carl's Jr. And I realized I hadn't had one of their Western bacon cheeseburgers in forever, and I used to think they were pretty good. In I pulled, as if drawn by magnets. One medium size Western bacon cheeseburger combo, please. The burger was good, and their fries have really improved recently. But about 1/2-way through each of them, I was really done with the taste, especially of the burger. I finished them both, because I'd paid for it. Now I feel like I've got a lead ballon in my tummy. Don't know if its the grease, sugar (from the massive Coke you get with a "medium"), or the salt or what, but I am still uncomfortably full, 2 & 1/2 hours, and a 30 minute dog walk, later. But I did enjoy it.....and it'll kill my cravings for it for another year or so.

And ya know, Andie, they aren't even all that good tasting to be able to justify all the bad stuff. I mean, they're not like fresh-fried real onion rings, dripping with salt and catsup, or really gooey, cheesy nachos, or fresh-fried zucchini with ranch dressing, or a really, really decadent and gloppy (in a good way) deep-dish pizza. NOw, *THOSE* are worth the sin. Heck, they aren't even as good as Mickey D's shadow-of-their-former-selves fries. They're just....weird. There's really not enough in the sandwich to satisfy you, and they don't really taste good, and when you're done you're like, hmmmmm. That was weird. If I'm going to do food sin (and I do, Lord knows, I *do*), I'm gunna do it with something way better than a McRib.

Oh. God. Oh. My. God.