Marlene

It's really easy to get into this kind of funk, particularly when travel, family, work and other normal issues get in the way. It's easy to get into a rut of cooking something quick, no fuss, and not challenging. Believe it or not, for me, the three food blogs I've done have pulled me out of a cooking funk every time. I had to make them interesting enough for people to read and in doing that, I stretched myself to make things I'd never made before, that were challenging, and fun. Or latch onto one of the theme threads here. The cookoffs, the Braising with Molly thread, the Les Halles thread etc, and try something from one of them. Maybe you only cook once a week, but you're cooking.

Ok then. I've got a whole bunch of these flanken style short ribs so I'll be trying Molly's red wine/porcini recipe (without the porcini's thanks). I'm going to do the marinade thing and I'll marinate in plastic ziplock bags because the shape of these ribs will be perfect for laying flat in the bags. I'm going to start them marinading today and will probably make them on Thursday for dinner.

Once a week or so I get my husband to use the steel on my knives. But I really want one of those electric sharpeners.

A southern turkey Scroll down a bit, but this is by far the best Turkey I've ever made. In fact I'll be making this again for Thanksgiving this weekend. The recipe comes from the Cotton County Cookbook, but it's also detailed in this post as well

Is there a prize for guessing right?

It would be great if you would put this in recipegullet. I've been eying this recipe for a week now wanting to try it. Of course, I can't find malt sugar anywhere.

Anything with sauerkraut of course. Ribs and suerkraut, sausage and kraut, etc etc. Schnitzel, red cabbage would be good too.

You could make a sauce out of them I guess. I dunno, I've never roasted tomatoes before. brush it on some sliced crusty bread, and then toast the bread under the oven. I think you said the tomatoes had garlic when you roasted them, so voila, instant garlic bread. Use the oil to toss asparagus in before roasting.

I've used Daniel et Daniel often for corporate settings, although I find them on the expensive side. For parties I alternate between Keith's Gourmet Catering and Kentner's

Potatoes Madeleines Based on a wonderful thread started by maggiethecat medium waxy potatoes garlic cloves, pressed or finely minced bread crumbs 1 egg melted butter You can use madeleine pans, muffin tins or mini muffin tins for these. They can be made ahead and frozen until ready to use. Make garlic mashed potatoes and beat in the egg. Freeze the potato mixture for 15 or 20 minutes until it's stiff enough to mold. Butter tins and press fresh breadcrumbs into the bottom of the pan. Mould potatoes into pans pressing and mounding up. Return to the freezer for at least an hour. Remove from freezer 30 minutes before baking. Just before baking, drizzle with melted butter. Bake at 400 for approx. 25 minutes. Bake at Keywords: Side, Potatoes, Easy ( RG1424 )

Pasta and Cheese with Crumb topping For the Base 1 lb bowtie or other pasta 4 T butter 1/4 c flour 3 c milk, simmered 1/2 lb sharp cheddar 1/2 lb montery jack cheese hot pepper sauce For the Topping 2 T butter 3/4 c bread crumbs 3 T finely grated parmesan Grease a 2 1/2 qt casserole and set aside. Boil the pasta in salted water for 5 or 6 minutes. Undercook the pasta. Set the milk to simmering. In a separate pot, melt the butter and whisk in the flour, letting the mixture bubble. Slowly add in the heated milk, bring to a boil and whisk until it thickens. Add a little hot pepper sauce to taste if you like. Remove from heat and add the cheeses and stir until melted. Add the pasta back to the pot and stir until combined. Add salt and pepper now if desired to taste. Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole dish. Melt two T of butter and combine with bread crumbs and parmesan. Sprinke over top of pasta mixture. Bake in a 350 oven uncovered, for about 45 minutes, until top is brown and bubbly. Keywords: Main Dish, Pasta, Easy ( RG1423 )

Up until recently I had a glass cooktop and I always used my cast iron pans. You do need to be careful about sliding it, but there's no reason you can't use it.

Is everyone using english style short ribs for their short rib braises? That's what I used the first time, but recently all I've been able to get is the flanken style. Think these will work as well?

So does French Onion Soup freeze well? I made a batch on Friday that I thought we'd eat over the weekend, but we didn't. It doesn't look like we'll get to it this week either. Can I freeze it?

My husband is from Saskatchewan, does that count for me to make this a Western forum post? We will take the RV up to my brother's this year for Thanksgiving and park it on their rather large lot. Friday night is a roast pork on the BBQ. Sat, we haven't decided yet and sunday will be our Thanksgiving dinner. We'll do a boneless prime rib on the BBQ and I'm going to do Turkey a la Brooks in the oven. I'll make cranberry sauce this week (never done that before) and we'll have mashed potatoes, glazed carrots done in the slow cooker and I'll make a rustic apple tart for dessert. Much wine and specialty coffees afterwards will be a main part of the festiviites. We don't usually do much to celebrate Thanksgiving, but this year, we've got a lot to be thankful for.

I make this one all the time chocolate flourless torte It's very very rich. and wonderful.

Just a friendly reminder to put your recipes into RecipeGullet and post links to them in the threads. Thanks.

Dave, it's not like I'm going to be cooking a whole pig in my backyard!

Mine looks like this except it's 7" not 6"

It's pretty heavy, and it's not chinese style.

I have this shiny new Wusthof 7" cleaver. It shore is purty. I'm told by snowangel, that I should of course now be able to whack apart chickens. While that has a certain appeal, I got to wondering what else do you use a cleaver for?

Butter tarts are one of the easiest things to make. If you don't do pastry (like me) you can always use tart shells (shhhhh). The vinegar is intended to cut some of the sweetness. Some people like them really sweet, some don't. And I agree with forever_young_ca, they gotta be runny when you bite into them!

I like Clark's point about bringing cooking and dining back into the home. I dine at home as often as I dine out. For dining at home, I'd like to see a resurgence of a nicely set table, accented perhaps by a small centrepiece, with all the different forks and utensils one would use at a restaurant. Creating specialty dishes at homeis a great way to introduce others to new foods in a familiar setting which hopefully would have the result of making them less fearful of dining out at different restaurant and more likely to enjoy the experience. If one dines well at home, it's a wonderful opporunity to teach children how to dine well at a restaurant. For dining out, I'd like to see more (better?) wines by the glass, half bottles etc. I like to pair wines to courses and the current offerings of wines in singles doesn't play well. I also happen to like lower light and less noise, but then I'm in the class of getting older and I'll take all the help I can get with lighting.

You can certainly use currants, although raisins are the traditional dried fruit. In either case, soaking them for 10 minutes or so is a good idea to "plump them up". Vinegar is good, although I sometimes I use it, sometimes I don't. Pecans and walnut bits are popluar in many butter tart recipes as well. I just don't use them because my husband won't eat stuff with nuts in it.

Funny you should mention this. My husband has a chronic arthitic disease and today went for his annual check up. he was told to take one baby aspirin per day and then was asked about his eating habits. "do you use much olive oil? " the doctor enquired "Olive oil! We got olive oil! Several different ones. My wife cooks with it all the time" my husband replied. "excellent" the doctor replied. I had no clue of the context until I read this thread.