FauxPas

@liamsaunt, I was looking for some ideas for Xmas dinner as step-daughter is largely vegetarian and I was thinking of a Butternut Squash Wellington. I did a search here and looks like you did one a few years back for Xmas. Your whole menu that year sounds lovely but I wonder if you remember the veggie Wellington? Was it the one from NY Times? Was it good? I am thinking of doing this one with wild rice and mushrooms which leaves the squash neck whole. Local farms are still picking some things like Brussels sprouts, kale and kalettes and want to make use of some of those items. Thinking of a shredded Brussels sprouts salad with pomegranate seeds, toasted almonds, shaved Parmesan and a lemon vinaigrette. I also have some kalettes but not sure if I will use them for Xmas or not. Does anyone else cook with these? I might add some in to the salad or roast some but wonder if anyone has tried anything different with them? I'll cook a turkey breast roast with stuffing on the side, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry-orange sauce, corn and edamame, several roasted veggies if I don't do the Wellington, pumpkin pie. My husband likes a fairly classic (maybe slightly boring, ha) dinner and I'm happy with whatever. We have some local smoked Pacific oysters for appetizers from a cannery just south of here. I'm going to make some eggnog of some kind. I ordered a few different white wines from one of my fave BC Okanagan wineries, including some bubbly for NYE. Our cat will probably have Feast of the Seven Fishes, kitty-style. hahahahaha 🙂

What do you do? Is it just the Pernod over the grapes or ??? McVities are indeed tasty!!! I never get tired of a good digestive biscuit.

Yes, from the royal icing.

A friend and I made up some Christmas cookies together. Sugar cookies decorated with royal icing. Neither of us had made royal icing before. It's easy to over-decorate these things! More icing than cookie on some of these, hahahaha. KInda fun to do though even if far from perfect. For some reason our red food colouring was not a true red but it was still redder than it looks in these photos!

Me too! 😆

Looks delicious. But we don't often see that many carbs on your plate, right? 😄

Oooh, I love this too! Those rocking chairs are so cool. (I was going to say 'those chairs really rock' but I restrained myself, hahaha) I picture hot chocolate along with the blanket. Or maybe a brandy or cognac, but personally I'd go Grand Marnier. Orange says Christmas to me. 🙂 But where is the tree with the lights that you watch from there? Am I missing it in the photos?

@Shelby, how do you do your scalloped potatoes? They just look so good! Maybe it's just I'm hungry right now and I know we are OUT of potatoes (and we don't need other groceries so don't feel like shopping) and so I'm craving them. Funny how you can live without something quite happily when it's in your cupboard but when you know you're out, suddenly it's the only thing you want. Or is that just me, hahaha. 🙂

I don't think topping up the brine will hurt. Freezing may change the texture a bit but so does the fermentation process, ha. @Senior Sea Kayakertalked about starting his ferments with frozen produce, peppers in this case:

Do you use hormone rooting powder or anything like that?

Strangely enough, we were planning wings tonight so here are some photos. I have a bit of hot sauce on the side for my wings and Mike has a ranch dressing for his veggies and wings. We call these S&P wings. We love them, folks we have served them to seem to like them also. But I really think the steam oven does a great job.

I notice that some salt is added with the baking powder coating, could you try upping the salt a bit and also adding in some pepper at that point? Or salt and pepper just before turning the heat up? Aren't the wings a bit wet at that point with the rendering? (I have never done the baking powder method, so I might be missing something with these suggestions.) I have the little Cuisinart Steam Convection oven and I do salt and pepper wings all the time in it. I mix the wings with some olive oil, arrange on a rack and sprinkle with salt and pepper. I use steam bake at about 325 - 350F for 20 -25 mins and then turn them over, sprinkle with a bit more S & P and cook for another 20-25 mins. Mike likes his wings crisped and brown so sometimes I cook a bit longer than those times. All I can say is that we love these wings and have them frequently. I guess, if you wanted to, you could try my method and add a pan of water to your oven to add some steam - in whatever oven you usually use? But not sure this is of any help to you, sorry! 🙂

Yay, you should definitely go for both! 🙂

Wow, that thing looks heavy! Good thing indeed that no one got clocked by it when it came down! 🙂

@Shelby makes her own and freezes them. She has shared her favourite recipe for them here, along with mouth-watering images: 🙂 https://forums.egullet.org/topic/163549-dinner-2022/?do=findComment&comment=2331215

I'd also read reviews of the program - Reddit has several threads about Vine. https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonVine/comments/tnrfe2/new_to_amazon_vine/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonVine/comments/17v1bwx/amazons_vine_program_is_not_as_glamorous_as_it/

I think Amazon's is invitation only through their Vine program. I think this is still up-to-date info but I'm sure Jo can add details. https://www.amazon.com/vine/about

You've got a pretty nice start there! It would certainly be easy to group some soup ingredients together for yourself or as a gift. Squash, carrots, celery, onion (maybe apple) and some ginger would be a nice start to a squash soup. You could add curry spices also, for example. Tomato and pepper soup also. Or a starter for chili? Dried cranberries and add some nuts and the dry ingredients to make a cranberry orange nut loaf? All ready to go, except for wet ingredients? Strawberries and apples would be great for muffins, scones, pancakes maybe?

I would enjoy taking them to the cows, also! Do you do much baking/cooking with the pumpkins? I can't really remember if you do or not. Your food looks delicious and so attractively presented. That apple galette looks very appealing.

I did just track it back on my own, but thank you! Looks like some excellent food and socializing and a lovely setting!

What is the WHPS? 🤔🙂

@gfron1 used pawpaws quite a bit, I think. I wonder if he ever dried them?

I don't know why I was curious about this because I don't have pawpaws and I don't think they are usually grown in this part of the world but I did some searching and found some stuff that suggested it was a bad idea to dehydrate them. Have you seen or heard of this? Seems very odd, but see here, for an example: https://growingfruit.org/t/using-pawpaws/2307/31 Here is the quote from I believe the Director of Pawpaw program at Kentucky State University from their Facebook page called “KSU Pawpaw”: Pawpaw fruit do not dry well, for some reason I have had reports from numerous people saying dried pawpaw fruit didn’t agree with them and made them a little sick to their stomachs. We aren’t sure why, if the fatty acids get rancid, or if there is something that gets concentrated when you dry that isn’t agreeable to the stomach, but because of that it isn’t recommended. Freezing pawpaw fruit is the best way to store it. Remove the skin and seeds, puree the pulp and store in a freezer bag.

There is les amis du FROMAGE. But the prices are a bit shocking. They may have more in-store than they have on their website. They also have COWS butter from PEI. You might find something at Granville Island Public Market, maybe at Benton Brothers or similar? Avalon Dairy makes organic butters. It's not easy to find some dairy products in Canada because of supply management of the dairy industry, as I'm sure you know.

I tried to link to an episode of the PBS show Pati's Mexican Table because she did a whole episode on cinnamon in Mexican cooking, but it doesn't seem to be available anymore. Here's the link to the episode summary. Cinnamon is used in Mexico in various beverages (coffee!) and in sweet baking but also in more savory applications like meat rubs and moles (sauces). https://patijinich.com/cinnamon/ You can also find recipes using cinnamon with other well-known Mexican cooks such as Rick Bayless. Here are a couple of savory ones: https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/chile-marinated-pork-oaxacan-style/ https://www.rickbayless.com/recipe/oaxacan-black-mole/