Darienne

@pattiRG? Rancho Gordo? Hey! I'll eat the misshapen ones!!

My mouth just watered looking at that pulled ham. And that wonderful broccoli salad. And chocolate chip cookies? Look out. Here I come!!!!

Ditto on both counts. My mouth just hung open...

I'm with you. I need a cup of tea and a lie-down. added: and I was responding to @chromedome's earlier post. Now I need a full nap with a cozy blanket.

from the Canadian government: "Veggie Paradise brand Vegan Bacon Slice recalled due to undeclared wheat (new)" Ya gotta wonder!!! Life as a celiac person has must be fairly precarious. And of course, in Canada, the contaminated pistachio debacle goes on and on and on and on.......

Help! @FauxPas... @patti... @Smithy ... anybody...what on earth should I buy from this page Zatarain's ?

I'll look that topic up. Bite your tongue!!! As for Christmas cookies I'm going to see if I can be on my feet long enough to make Orange Cranberry Shortbreads. Otherwise it's my standby---Gluten-free (although we finally realized that Ed is not gluten-intolerant) Chocolate Cake with a topping of dark chocolate ganache laced with Chambord.

Good heavens, I am in my senior years and then some, and just realized I've never even tasted gumbo, simple or otherwise!!!!

OMG, twice on one night!

Schmick....a brand new word for me. Went straight to Mr. Google for information. Thanks @sartoric. Always like to learn something new.

@blue_dolphin You do post the most beautiful salads. They look so delicious. Your plating is so well executed. Like us, you must eat a lot of salad. We have a large salad plate two out of three nights with a romaine based salad plus other salads such as Tabbouleh, mixed beans, avocado, smoked salmon for me and canned corned beef for Ed, etc. Hearty and tasty...but never picturesque I'm afraid.

Real Food, Fake Food by Larry Olmsted is an excellent book, well researched and documented and I do recommend it. Not a book to read straight through for me. I read the more broadly based chapters and those which touched upon our own situation vis-a-vis what we eat, skimmed through a couple of others and ignored a few. Truthfully it didn't engage me as much as did all those books about chocolate which I have read.

And it all comes around, doesn't it? Our parents' belonging that we discarded along the way...and now we wish we had kept them.

Sorry @Tropicalsenior I can't find my little metal recipe box which contains this recipe and Ed is having a severe Tourtière ingredients memory loss. The only thing I recall was the use of some soda pop in the crusts.

Ed (whose Mom actually was French Canadian) makes an excellent Tourtière. I think we need one for this Christmas. Ed got the recipe from his French teacher when we lived in Quebec.