Katie Meadow

David, thank you thank you! Four apples never scared me. Two quick questions: you really cut the apples so small and they hold some shape? The picture looks like they were cut bigger (just curious.) What kind of veg oil did you use? KM

David, that Apple Gateau looks fantastic. Can I get a recipe for that and the caramel sauce that goes with? I'm on an apple cake kick. Thanks.

Is it because someone really wants turkey or because someone doesn't want beef? I'm so over turkey for another 11 months, but other poultry is respectable, no? You could roast a different kind of bird. We do Coq au Vin for xmas dinner every year, and the rest of the menu is simple, because we have to transport a main dish for Xmas eve and don't get back til midnight. Our traditional dessert after Coq au Vin is a Tarte Tatin, but this year I'm thinking something easier, perhaps a creme citron (lemon wine mouse) with raspberries, served with some chocolate cookies I can make ahead. I was going to ask for a kitchen torch for a present, but then I forgot. Otherwise I might be making creme caramel.

Thanks to all for helpful replies. I looked up that cheese and learned that it is a salty aged sheep's milk cheese. One of the sites I found suggested it might not be that easy to come by, and that aged myzithra or some type of pecorino can be used as a substitute.

It's doubtful anything can beat a $2.99 price. I have a simple little TM8 timer made by CDN. CDN makes dozens of timers, and they are available on Amazon. It is small, and you do have to hold the buttons, but it has three buttons for time: hr, minute and second, so at least you never have to hold beyond 59 (and it is very fast.) It has a clock feature, a memory feature, counts up after the buzzer goes off, a magnet on the back, and uses standard batteries. Cost is around $12. It is not elegant, but for a little plastic object it tolerates abuse, like being dropped on a tile floor. I do see the value of multiple timing, but timers with that feature have always confused the hell out of me, plus they usually use weird batteries. In my experience anything made by Polder is more annoying than it's worth.

Okay, I've never made this but my SIL made something she called Spanakopita, and it inspired me to do better. She used frozen phyllo, and that was the best part of the dish. Her filling was missing the spinach, as far as I could tell, and the cheese tasted sweet. I believe I bit down on some nuts, too. So the filling was pretty awful (like out of some new age vegetarian health food book), but the dough was crispy and flaky right out of the oven, and not greasy. Not critical, but my first stumbling block upon googling recipes was spelling. Spanakopita wins, but spanikopita is popular. Is it phyllo or filo? The frozen package I have says filo. Here are some other questions: Butter or oil to brush the layers? How eggy should it be? Some recipes call for 3-4 eggs. As for cheese, some recipes use a combo of feta and ricotta or feta and myzithra, presumably to cut the saltiness a bit. Adding some ricotta would make a creamier filling, I presume. That sounds reasonable, but is it typical? When I make Greek salads I've taken to using French feta, because it seems less salty than some others. My preference would be heavy on the spinach and not too salty. As for spinach, I'm going to use frozen to start with, since I have some Cascadia organic spinach and I think it's pretty good. Once I get some technique down I'll branch out and try fresh spinach. I have no intention of making my own dough, not just yet that's for sure; I already have some frozen. But rolled or flat? Some recipes make folded triangles, some make a flat casserole. Flat sounds easier to start with. Some recipes suggest scoring the top filo layers before baking. How essential is that? Does anyone have a great traditional recipe? Or other hints? I'm already hip to the fact that you need to keep the filo/phyllo moist and work quickly, and I won't be surprised it there's a steep learning curve there.

Just let me know when dinner is and I will be sure to tell you what I "hate."

Chris, that sounds delicious and ambitious. Two questions: does the Salade Compagnard have a goodly amount of lettuce? If not, perhaps something green and vegetal could be added. Also, and maybe this is just me, I might not go with two onion dishes following eachother. Maybe instead of one of them you could sub a green soup like tangy sorrel? Or if you are stuck on onion soup (does sound very yummy), instead of the stuffed onions have something colorful and refreshing. Something with beets? Or a palate cleanser sorbet? Icy and tart, like maybe grapefruit tarragon? That's what popped into my mind when I read your menu. Once I made Elizabeth David's daube and served it as she suggested, with saffron flavored white rice. I used basmatti, and it was very good. She also says noodles are common, but she calls the noodles a Macaronade, which sounds very alluring and mysterious.

A good laugh can be had by reading Andrew Newman's Advertising column in today's NYT business section. The only encouraging news is that people actually do make their own Chex Party Mix at this time of year, rather than buying the pre-made product--at least if I understand the article right. Beer and Bacon Mancakes and other Dude Food is scary enough, but the last few paragraphs describing the Velveeta Brownies are mind boggling. Apparently adding a large amount of Velveeta to chocolate brownies makes them rich and creamy, and doesn't make them taste like cheese. I'm not surprised that they don't taste like cheese, since Velveeta doesn't actually contain cheese. So it's okay then.

I don't mind most prep work, but if I'm rushed or in a hurry it loses whatever meditative value it might have. I agree with one of the posters above: I find chopping parsley (or cilantro) very annoying. And I am pretty fast, although the only person I can compare myself with is my husband, who treats parsley and cilantro like an art project. In the time it takes me to chop two onions, a carrot and celery, he makes one perfect little mound of parsley. Not that I'm not grateful. Chris, we came up with two solutions to the container problem. One is the cheap solution, in which we purchase things from the same source that uses cup, pint and quart size plastic containers that have the same size lids. The lids get stored separately, and the containers get stacked. For bigger, more substantial containers we had to shell out a little money. But we still found ones that are stackable, and the tops are still stored separately, in a drawer. Saves a lot of space, and means that it doesn't really matter if the tops get washed at the same time, and I don't have to worry about matching odd tops to odd bottoms, etc. I got rid of the idiosyncratic containers and it saved much space and frustration.

There are lots of reasons to make your own and lots of reasons not to. If I can't buy something that meets my taste, I try to make it myself. If it is something I enjoy making, I keep on doing it, perfecting it, etc. For me it is a combination of desire and talent and sometimes price. My husband and I make our own marmalade. I know exactly what I like in a marmalade, and commercial products don't cut it. We've been improving ours for several years, and now there is only one artisan in the area who makes a marmalade as good or better. By good or better, I simply mean the way I like it. We buy seville oranges in quantity during January and February, and make enough for the year. And it costs far less than buying good quality marmalade. I make my own ketchup. It was an accident. I made a ketchup to use to frost a meatloaf and it was so good I decided using Heinz was pointless. Home made ketchup is not cheaper than Heinz, I don't think, but a whole nuther universe. Then there's soup stock. I'm pretty sure it costs more to make my own chicken, ham or beef stock, but it makes me happy and tastes so much better than anything I can buy. And soup is major for me. I make those things because I love eating them and care about them. I don't make my own croissants or my own dijon mustard. Tartine Bakery in SF makes a croissant that's so good it's criminal. And then, croissants are not a staple for me. I'm very happy with Edmond Fallot mustard, and don't have the slightest desire to make an approximation. If I enjoyed making pastry or mustard perhaps it would be a different story, but there's only so much time. I'd rather make soups. As for bread, I simply got lucky. I have a husband who likes to bake bread, and he's pretty good, although his repertoire is limited. There are so many good bakeries around here, so we supplement and get variety that way. We eat a LOT of bread. Given that a good loaf of bread is pretty pricey nowadays, I think we break even there.

Don't know about you, but is anyone else here finding that FC has been lacking something for the past year? Maybe a coincidence, but the recipes seem to have gone a bit dull just about when they glammed up their design, which was a turn for the worse for me; busy photographic backgrounds, an increase in reverse-out white type on dark backgrounds making recipes hard to read, pictures often bigger than necessary wasting space that could be put to better use. There also seems to be an increased dichotomy between simple quick meal cooking and over-the-top fussy. Not a lot in between. Okay, enough whining. I did actually make something quite yummy from #104. Determined to use up leftover turkey gravy and some yukon golds, I bought a celery root and made the garlic-infused mashed potatoes and celery root. This would be an excellent sub for the regular mashed potatoes at Thanksgiving. The recipe calls for whole milk and very little butter, plus a half cup of creme fraiche. I didn't have nearly that much creme fraiche, so instead I whisked in soft chevre. The result was light and fluffy, and uses a very clever technique for keeping the dish hot while the milk and and the rest is being added. I tossed in some snipped chives at the end, since the FC calls for no garnish. Really satisfying.

That's an interesting variation on what I had the other night: I brought coppa and home-made mostarda di cremona to a friend's for an app, and he contributed a soft spreadable goat cheese and his version of toast points, which were squares of rustic white bread grilled on the barbie. The mostarda was made with dried figs, cherries and apricots and fresh pears. Goat cheese, cured pork and tangy fruit makes a super combo.

Crouton, your original post was yesterday morning. While the merits of turning the poor bird into soup vs turning it into compost have been debated, I hope it isn't still in the oven awaiting its fate. Personally I would have just thrown it in a pot if it was only out at room temp for six hours. But that is based on no scientific consideration whatsoever, just a deep desire for turkey soup. Sixty years of living a not very antiseptic life is my basis for optimism. What did you end up doing?

Cheap oxtails? Not around here. But as for something Asian, I find oxtails make a terrific Pho or a simpler version of same. Brown the oxtails in a heavy soup pot and remove. You could use other additional beef and beefbones for richer flavor. Brown onions, a little carrot, a couple of chopped stalks of lemongrass, some fresh ginger, garlic, a couple of star anise. Add water for broth and a splash of fish sauce. After two or three hours at a simmer I strain the broth, and pick off the oxtail meat for the soup. Defat the broth however you prefer. I pour the heated broth over cooked rice noodles or wheat noodles and garnish with a squeeze of lime, green onions, some thin slices of serrano chile, shredded cilantro and thai basil.

I would be very sad to have a martini with no garnish whatsover. I think the oil keeps flavoring the drink long after the twist is dropped in, and I like that lemony taste at the finish. Also it's so pretty, a zesty curlicue floating gently on the sea floor.

Special K, yes I would, but I would just cook the meat until barely done, so it remains tender and juicy. And I do pre-roast the veggies. It never ocurred to me to prebake the crust for a pot pie. Often my pot pie is deep dish with only a top crust.

Yesterday I threw the carcass (with some leftover meat still on it, much to my husband's chagrin) into a pot, roasted some marrow bones and veggies and added that to produce five or six quarts of stock. About a third of it gets frozen. I will probably make two different soups out of the balance. One will be the plainest turkey noodle soup on earth, so the taste is nothin' but turkey. The other will become a bit more dynamic; I'm thinking barley and vegetables. I don't even care much about eating the turkey on Thanksgiving, I just want the carcass to take home. I don't know what it is about the flavor of turkey soup; it makes me high. Using leftover turkey meat in sandwiches or in anything that doesn't cook it further is fine, but here's what I don't get: putting it in pot pie or any dish where the meat continues to cook makes it so tough and dry. How do you deal with that? I don't eat any of the turkey meat in my soups since it cooks for three or four hours and makes its contribution that way. I make ersatz turkey pot pie a couple of weeks after the big day by using chicken and lots of strong-tasting veggies, getting lots extra flavor from a little turkey stock and leftover gravy. That way the whole thing sort of has a turkey flavor but the meat is tender. How do you make turkey pot pie and still have succulent turkey meat in it?

I roast whatever hot green chiles I can get in the fall so I have enough to last me through spring. This includes chiles from New Mexico, if I am lucky enough to get them, or poblanos that are pretty good at the farmers' market. The easiest way is in the broiler, fairly close to the flame. Turn them every few minutes til evenly charred. Then, as above, I stick them in a plastic bag with just a small sprinkle of water, and let them steam for about fifteen minutes. After that, the skins come off easily. I don't usually roast them whole, but roughly chop them and put them in small containers in the freezer. My friend Elaine, who grew up in NM, does the same thing, but she likes to freeze Hatch chiles whole. Mainly I use them for posole verde, for green chile stew with meat and potatoes, cream of green chile soup, in scrambled eggs or as a garnish to spice up mac and cheese. Most all winter and spring the poblanos I can get in the markets here are awfully bland; they seem to be hottest in Sept and October, so I'd rather use the frozen than buy them fresh. I don't have any idea where they come from most of the year, but they don't have much heat.

I make a relatively simple chestnut stuffing and use homemade bread that is a corn-white mix, dried in cubes. The usual suspects such as onion and celery, sometimes chopped fennel, lots of butter get sweated, with Simon and Garfunkle seasoning: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme (always fresh thyme). I add a little chopped green apple for moisture, but no other extra broth. This gets put in the turkey just before roasting, and it's fairly well sealed in the cavities and behind the legs. I always cook a casserole full of it separately for the vegetarians, adding veg broth to that. No eggs, anywhere. I'm at a loss to see what function they serve.

Someone once suggested that I use apple cider as part or all of the liquid that starts out in the bottom of my roasting pan. This turned out to be a terrible idea. Although the flavor is good, there's a lot of sugar in it, and sugar tends to burn. The bottom of the roasting pan burned, and the basting juices with the added sugar caused the breast to darken far too quickly. I'm sure apple cider is useful for something at Thanksgiving, but maybe not as part of the roasting process.

Once in sixty years I think I ate the real thing: traditional green bean casserole made with nothing but canned products. Where did this thing come from? Is it a conspiracy cooked up by Campbell's and Sunset Magazine? My husband's family luckily doesn't eat this, although they do cling to another tried and truly awful tradition: cranberry mold made with canned cranberries and served with a glacier of sour cream on top. It takes my FIL hours to put it together (yes, he still has the original Sunset recipe from 50 yrs ago) and it is one of the most awesomely bad creations on the planet. And so complicated. I always bring my own alternative.

Hungry C, I pretty much need that hash. How do you make it? It looks to me like you used a mix of sweet and other potatoes, yes? Thanks, KM

The only way I like sweet potatoes combined with sugar is in a straight-ahead sweet potato pie. And I want my pie devoid of pumpkin pie spices. Otherwise I like them simple and savory; roasted with butter and salt is always good. Or mashed with a little parsnip and cream. I've recently taken to using them instead of or in addition to regular potatoes in a sort of bastardized Ethiopian chick pea and vegetable stew. Very good with harissa. Sweet potato fries is one of my favorite treats, and not so easy to find, especially good ones. And I can't imagine saying no to sweet potatoes cooked in bacon fat or sweet potatoes with paprika. Never would I disgrace a sweet potato with a marshmallow. There are no marshmallows at Thanksgiving, ever. They belong in s'mores and rice crispie treats. Not casseroles (and not hot chocolate, either.) Big Mike, I would certainly try your sweet potato onion tart. But Tzimmes with marshmallows? If there's anything that never ocurred to me it would marshmallows for Rosh Hashanah. That means they would be on the plate next to brisket. How's that even possible? Thanks, but no. I'm sure there are several laws against that.

I never heard of Jansson's Temptation, but I looked it up and it sounds fantastic. If it were up to me, and it isn't, I would banish mashed potatoes forever in favor of this casserole. However, my husband's family is very attached to the cold mortar-like substance produced by a teenager hung over from a party the night before. I think good mashed potatoes are hardest to pull off at Thanksgiving than any other time. How do you make barley stuffing? That sounds yummy.