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Kind of an alternative Thanksgiving menu for today's lunch. Bought a~ 3 lb half bone-in turkey breast at Trader Joe's and made the Marinated turkey breast with cumin, coriander and white wine from Ottolenghi, the Cookbook. It came out very moist and flavorful The extra marinade gets reduced to a green sauce with bright flavors. Here we are on the plate in the alarmingly bright noonday sun: Had this with Nik Sharma's Baked Sweet Potatoes With Maple Crème Fraîche (great recipe!) and pan-seared sugar snap peas. I kept the green sauce separate as I wasn't sure I'd like it with the turkey but it was great so I poured all out once I started eating. Too bad I didn't have the cranberry sauce ready. Could have checked the whole Thanksgiving box and skipped tomorrow!

My 2 cents: consider a saucier shape vs a saucepan - maybe you like it, maybe not. For a saucepan, consider Tramontina. the Wirecutter recommends them with an All-Clad saucier as an upgrade pick. I'm also a longtime Revere Ware user with a workhorse 3-qt saucepan. Mine came with steamer and double boiler inserts and I think I forked out a major investment of $20-25 at a Revere outlet store for my first college apartment. I still use it with those inserts on my gas cooktop but the bottom had become so warped that it was kind of useless on my portable induction burner. I decided to replace it with an All-Clad stainless 3-qt saucier (their lowest level stuff) that I ordered from homeandcooksales.com for $85. They sell factory seconds in now-and-again sales events so it may not suit your immediate need as they just closed their last November sale. No lip, spout or helper handle so it fits in the dishwasher as well as the Revere Ware. It was a very nice upgrade and I subsequently replaced my 1 qt and 2 qt Revere Ware saucepans with All-Clad sauciers and have been very happy with them. I very much like the more rounded corners for the things I tend to cook in them. I've had good experiences with several purchases from those people but $85 is still over your budget, hence my recommendation to check out the Tramontina. I don't have it but do have a nice skillet from them. Unfortunately it's not induction compatible, so check that out if it's important to you.

Yes, thanks from me, too. I love that butter! The place where I buy it usually carries the 125g bars, 250g balls and 5 kg cylinders. There was a while during the pandemic when Bordier was having staffing issues. They could make the butter but packaging was struggling to keep up so my store was just getting the 5 kg and larger sizes and repacking it in 250 g chunks. Now that I see how much hand work goes into the shaping and wrapping, that issue makes perfect sense. As I type, I’m enjoying some toast with their yuzu flavored butter and a cup of coffee:

Yep. I rarely make it for myself but it’s one of my oldest food memories. Prepared by my mom in a little Pyrex custard cup. Always a treat when there was tiny bit of still cool butter in with the warm eggs to melt in your mouth -takes me right back just thinking about it.

Gripstic has 35% off everything through the end of the month with the discount code HOLIDAY. The big handles are perhaps overpriced but so handy for big bags of pet or garden stuff.

Egg Salad on a toasted sesame bun

Nice!

Honeynut Squash Is a Tiny Squash with a Big History

Not sure if this is still the case but it was kind of a touristy place. Some of the gag items were quite witty and others just plain silly but fun to browse and I found several fun gifts there. Edited to add that if you are in need of a rubber chicken, this is a go-to!

Saw this on Twitter: I used to stop into the Archie McPhee store for grins when I was in Seattle for work so I went to their website to see if this was real. Indeed, they also offer candy canes in flavors that range from hot dog, ketchup and bacon (all kind of alarming as they look like regular red & white stripe canes), sardine, kale, pho, brisket, and more.

Poached egg on a crab cake with a kimchi mayo sauce and sugar snap peas

I pick up duck eggs at the farmers market from time to time and use them like chicken eggs, usually saving them for dishes where the flavor will shine as they are more expensive. One thing you might try is making salt-cured egg yolks. It's not going to use up a ton of eggs for you but they have a great umami flavor when grated over pasta or salads and they keep forever in the fridge once they're dried. Here's a post where I described making some. It has links to two recipes. I still haven't tried the smoked one but I did make some where I added some Red Boat salt to the salt mixture and they were great. Edited to add that there's also a topic on curing egg yolks in miso. I used the miso method to cure whole chicken eggs and posted about them in that thread and they were great. Downside is that it uses a good bit of miso if you want to do a bunch of eggs.

Wow - hope it tastes as good as it looks 'cause it looks great! The book is a good one. All the cakes are sized for a 9” pan. I've baked several in smaller loaf pans and they froze nicely. Several people reported good results with mini or regular cupcakes so I think they are forgiving. The Kindle version is currently $4.99 in the US but, sadly, not in Canada. Maybe it will pop up one of these days!

This Swirled Jam Cake from Snacking Cakes is very versatile. Note the blueberry nutmeg and plum cardamom cake ideas on the page. She also has a Peanutbutter and Jam Cake that's kind of fun. Not exactly a cake but this recipe for Jammy Winter Fruit and Browned Butter Bars from Midwest Made is very nice. It begins with making the jam but I've made them with all kinds of homemade jam and it works well. Edited to add that when my Facebook baking group covered this book, most people advocated using more jam, up to doubling it, so consider that to use up even more of your stash!

Good article! I think the 2nd sentence in that quote got a little mangled. Maybe too much glue in the copy/paste process 🙃 My last Jello project was perhaps even more unappetizing. At work, we were filming a an instructional video to show clinical trial sites exactly how tumor specimens should be trimmed and processed for a particular study. Wary that anyone would think we were misusing human tissue samples for making a video, I had the brilliant idea to make fake tumors from Jello. Researching various Halloween Jello recipes, I had fun making some realistic looking ones and some rather bland beige blobs which were what we used in the end. Might be some Jello from that project still in the cupboard but I haven’t been inclined to make any to eat!

This is based on the I Dream of Dinner recipe for Crispy Potato, Egg & Cheese Tacos. The header note just says, "So crisp, you could even skip the tortilla," so I did. The recipe calls for grated russet potato and Cheddar cheese. I used yellow potato, grated medium rather than large, squeezed out some moisture in a paper towel, and a mix of grated Gruyere and Red Leicester. Added hot sauce after the photo. Probably the quickest possible breakfast potato & egg combo I can imagine. I would definitely do this again. @Anna N, I'm glad you tried that one, because now I don't need to. I couldn't quite imagine those ingredients doing much for each other but thought maybe there was some magic I was missing!

I know you didn't ask me, but I can never miss an opportunity to plug Shaya, one of my favorite cookbooks. I've made his Bright Green Falafel several times. They are light and delicious. Here's a link to the recipe online Here's a post that includes a photo of the ones I made. They freeze and reheat very well.

Why no fan? And why choose only bottom heat? And more for my own curiosity, do you keep a temp probe inside the Anova? My big wall oven is very slow to preheat without convection so I always use the fan to preheat and then it turn off if it’s contraindicated during the cook time. I do keep a temp probe in the oven so I can adjust if needed. Is something like that that not possible with the Anova?

Rancho Gordo's black caviar lentils with a poached egg The source of the lentil recipe may be unexpected (Dr. Jen Gunter, author of The Vagina Bible and The Menopause Manifesto) but it's very good and I think it's worth a read even if you are not a lentil lover.

Clearly you hang with a tough crowd - I’ve heard of no dessert unless you finish your vegetables but drink your eggnog or jump off a bridge sounds a bit harsh!

Ditto that! I tipped a couple of bottles of that eggnog to my local BBQ peeps last year and they couldn't stop raving about it. Good reminder to make more for this year.

Here's a Thanksgiving 2020 post from @Kim Shook that has some good gravy info:

Used that Syrah Soaked Toscano Cheese Spread & Dip to make a toastie for breakfast. Tastes way better warmed up like this than cold on crackers. The apple is one of those Lucy Glo apples that I also purchased at TJ's. This one has the barest tinge of pink in the flesh. Still a very tasty apple.

I believe @Kim Shook is the queen of turkey gravy. I have a recollection that she did a nice tutorial on her process but I can't find it. Maybe she can point us to it.

A few new-to-me TJ's items: The TJ's label barrel proof bourbon is $29.99. I'm not a bourbon expert but thought it was very nice. Surprisingly smooth for something with that proof. No age statement. It's a limited release. I heard about it last year but didn't manage to snag any. Went back this AM to get another bottle. The Caramel Coffee Almonds aren't a new item but I noticed them for the first on this shopping trip when I was looking for the Maple Almonds that are now gone. These are nice nibble with a little caffeine buzz. They put a little silica gel packet in the bag so the coating stays crisp rather than sticky. The Syrah Soaked Toscano Cheese Spread & Dip is a limited time item. Unlike the Unexpected Cheddar Spread, which is like that cheese converted into a Modernist Cheez Whiz, this one has cream cheese, garlic and parsley added so it's not as luxuriously smooth. Seems more like a Boursin-type mixture made with shreds of Toscano cheese mixed in. I will add my annual reminder that the TJ's Reserve Brut North Coast Sparkling Wines, are back for their annual appearance in regular and rosé versions at the usual $9.99/bottle. I always stock up on the rosé for celebrations throughout the year. It generally disappears by Christmas or a day or so after. The wine guy at my store said the rosé is especially good this year.