Marlene

Done. They're on the menu. I can experiment on Don's family and if it works, I can use them for my big Christmas dinner. Veg will likely be done in the slow cooker. One less thing to worry about.

Then I would make them ahead, pipe them onto sheets and put in the fridge until time to bake/broil them?

I really really like the idea of using them to hold the apples!

I may be stuck with ordinary mashed potatoes. Even though I have two ovens, one oven will have the turkey in it and the other the stuffing. No, the stuffing is definately not going in the bird. In the meantime, I'd love some ideas for fillings for these cute little phyllo tart shells! I'm thinking possibly carmelized apples for dessert.

In 2006, I will eat a vegetable? I will make more asian dishes I will find a really good butcher I will learn more about french cooking I will teach my son that cooking is more that a toaster or microwave I will read every cookbook I can get my hands on This is the year I will try *shudder* Grits I will taste caviar I will use my deep fryer more and my mandoline at least once I will give up smoking without compensating by eating(ok, I'll try) I need to excerise again, so I can continue to eat Weneed to spend more time together as a family My kid will eat me out of house and home as he continues to morph into the Friendly Giant

Splain Duchess potatoes? Recipe even? how about scalloped potatoes with (dried) porcini mushrooms? i think there's a recipe on epicurious.... i made them and they are very very good -- just don't overdo the dried porcini. good luck! ← Mushrooms will only be found in this house if my husband decides he needs the insurance money and sneaks them into our food.

That sound lovely, except I don't believe I have a souffle dish! Yes, yes I know. Have I mentioned prep time? Friday I'll be at the hospital most of the day for tests. I can do so me prep Saturday morning, then it's downtown for the Firm's christmas party. We'll stay overnight and arrive back home around noon at which time my son will arrive. So I've got Sat morning and Sunday afternoon to make stuff in advance. I'll get the mustard paste onto the bird Sat morning so it can sit overnight. I'm going to make the cranberries on Sat as well. I just don't know if I'll have enough time to make this dish so it sets properly. I haven't heard any stunning potato thoughts yet!

Could you use Lyles? I saw that in Brunos recently.

I found those frozen phyllo shells! This Sunday I'll be making the first of three Christmas dinners as my MIL and SIL arrive in town for a three day visit. For this one, I'll do the traditional turkey with gravy. I'm going to make Katie's Cranberry Orange Sauce, and I'll have the jellied stuff for those who like it. Cornbread, sage and rosemary stuffing, but I have to confess, I've bought the bread mix from Whole Foods. (Well everyone saw what happened the last time I tried cornbread stuffing!). Veg will either be glazed carrots, roasted asparagus or brocoli. Now the big question is potatoes. I love mashed potatoes, but I'm thinking I'd like to do something a little fancier, but that would also go with gravy. I could do Maggie's wonderful madeleines or even Dave's molten mashers I guess, but I'm open to suggestions here. Pre dinner nibbles will be baked brie topped with roasted garlic and one other thing I haven't decided on yet. I also haven't figured out dessert. I want something light since the mains will be heavy enough.

No one believe me about the corks, and if I had any real corks instead of the plastic that I seem to get in wine bottles these days, I'd try it. Besides, cork is just so cubes don't stick together. I never claimed they prevented ice crystals. I guess it's not a problem it just seems like there's a lot of it and I wasn't sure if I could do anything to prevent it. I sort of look at ice crytals like freezer burn.

I have a question on storing reduced cubes of stock. I always reduce my stock and freeze in ice cube trays. When they are frozen, I take them out of the tray and put them in ziplock bags in the freezer. The problem I seem to have consistently is the ice crystals forming within the bag. This last time I even double bagged the cubes, and really made sure I got all the air out before closing, but I've still got all these ice crystals. I've got a new batch of stock that I've just frozen and I'd like to find a way to prevent getting these crystals. Is there a better way to store stock cubes?

I have a villaware and it's remarkably easy to clean. I'm considering getting a flip one though because I think it distributes the batter better and more evenly cooks. Mine is almost new, so it's not a matter of the non stick wearing out. It just is. Spray a little Pam and keep the one you've got!

I recently bought a KA food processor and I really like it. Like you, I don't use the shredding and slicing disks much at all, but for the pureeing, mixing and making dough, its great. I think the two best appliances KA makes are the stand mixer and the food processor. I looked at their blenders a while ago and ended up with a Breville for smoothies and drinks and a Waring for my other blending needs. Ok, so that's a little overkill, but I would pick either of those blenders over a KA or Cuisinart any day..

And of course Maggie's Potato Madelaines

And you're a grumpy old man. The martini basket I'm supposed to be giving consists of a bottle of Grey Goose, two Ridel martini glasses, a cocktail shaker, tipsy olives, silver olive picks, coasters, brie, crackers and a camembert, and some roasted red peper jelly. The "basket" is actually a mahogany serving tray. I think its not half bad!

I'm a sucker for food baskets of any kind. I always buy them for other people, then I have to force myself to actually give them as gifts and not keep them for myself. I've got the most beautiful martini gift basket that I should be giving to my brother for Christmas, and a coffee basket for my mom so far. My husband is having to pry them from my sticky fingers so he can ensure they actually get given as gifts.

I'd love a good source of beef lard in Ontario! I just took off the most lovely layer of fat from my beef stock. Could I render that? But it still wouldn't be enough.

I swear by my Wusthof Classic Sankotu, but as melkor notes, I've got very small hands. Whenever I have to choose between my Chef's knife and my Sankotu, the Sankotu wins hands down every time.

For roasting beef, your cuts should be prime rib or sirloin. All others should be slow cooked including brisket. When roasting, I always keep the temperature lower; 325 for regular oven, 300 for convection. I pull the roast at 118 - 120 for rare and 125 for med and let it stand for 15 minutes or so. For the tougher cuts, marinading before cooking can certainly help, but the low and slow cooking of three to four hours in some braising liquid (not covered, but coming about 1/4 to 1/2 the way up makes for a very tender piece of beef.

I usually spray mine with a little PAM, or Waffle Off. Even though mine is non stick, I find I need to spray it still.

This is where pork stock comes in really handy, but chicken stock will work too. Make a roux, medium dark. Add a little white wine, and you can add the drippings of rosemary and garlic and strain out later. Finish it with some white wine reduction or a concentrated cube of stock.

That's pretty much what the second and third fingers of my left hand look like right now, although on the underside rather than the top. Mine came from grabbing (and holding because it just didn't register) plates that had just come out of a 500 degree oven. Ice. I didn't take my left hand out of ice all night last night including during dinner. If I did, the throbbing set in immediately. The restaurant gave me special burn cream and all, but only the ice gave any relief at all. It was a little awkward (especially since I'm left handed) but highly entertaining to our guests.

That's a neat idea! Could you elaborate on the tart shells? How many layers etc?

And an egg poacher. A 9 quart saucepan? I don't think I've seen too many of those!

I entertained on my own tonight, since my husband is travelling. It's a lot harder to do this without someone to help you! Fortunately, (especially given the way at least one dish turned out) they are all friends and love to experiment with me when I try new stuff. Most of the stuff I did tonight I've done before, with the exception of the roasted green beans (we'll get to them later). I had intended to do brie bites with cranberry in phyllo purses, but I ran out of time. No problem, I'll just fall back on the brie in puff pastry. Great. Oops. The puff pastry was frozen. I hadn't taken it out, not realizing I'd need it. Ok, into the microwave for 30 seconds and then place on warm counter. The edges were still a bit frozen when I wrapped the brie, but it seemed to turn out well: I'd also made Tortilla Crisps which are highly addictive: Mains were Roast Pork, Mashed Potatoes and gravy and um, roasted green beans. Well, we were supposed to have roasted green beans. Unforunately, they turned into desicated green beans. I did not serve these, but I'll show them for your amusement: However, the rest of the meal turned out splendidly. (sorry, I'm still learning how to use this new camera, so some of these are worse than my usual picture taking.) Roast Pork: Mashed and Gravy I made a small loaf of bread in my Just for Dinner mini bread maker: And dinner was capped off by creme brulee. When my guests saw me torching the first one, they all wanted to torch their own, so I let them. All in all a fun night although I had to juggle the timing more since I was doing it on my own. Tomorrow night, Ruth's Chris.