kayb

A thing I have discovered of late that's good with charcuterie and cheese is preserved walnuts. I think I may on my way to becoming addicted.

Classic German Baking is on for $1.99. I'm grateful to Amazon for telling me I already have it.

Such CUTE little meringues! I made a ton one year, when I made eggnog and had a big bunch of whites left over. Wasn't making eggnog this year so I didn't make any.

I keep on hand: --A can of black beans and a can of shoe-peg corn and jar of roasted red peppers, for a bean-and-corn salad when I'm cooking something that calls for such. --A couple of cans of chickpeas in the event I want hummus in a hurry. --A couple of cans of cannelini beans to go with the cans of oil-packed tuna and a few capers for a quick lunch when I'm in that notion It's occurred to me to stock up on Rancho Gordos in the late summer, cook bunches of them and can them for those purposes. But that's more work than I really want to undertake. I am, however, contemplating some "Eye of the Goat" beans with the bone from the Christmas ham this week.

Had my obligatory NYD meal: Blackeyed peas, cooked with tomatoes and smoked sausage, greens and cornbread. I may go back and have some cornbread with sorghum molasses and butter later on, for old times' sake. The peas were over rice. I have a massive amount of both left. Ate a single bite of greens (I loathe them). I'm hoping that was enough to appease the Gods of Greens. Let the good luck commence.

Olives, somewhere on the table. Manchego. Melon if you can get it that tastes decent this time of year. Bosc pears work well. We had it with pickled elderberries at the Catbird Seat. That was astounding.

I love Foxfire. I've been to the center where the books were based, in northeast Georgia. Between Dillard and Clayton, if memory serves. Love that part of the country. I go to a conference up there every year, and come home with the car loaded down with produce; one year, I brought home 3 30-pound boxes of tomatoes ($10 a box), a half-bushel of peaches as large as an infant's head, a half-bushel of Kentucky Wonder green beans, and a bushel of Silver Queen corn. Kept me busy for the better part of a week, putting it all up. Worth it. Will have to look for Bittersweet.

Grew up in West Tennessee, on the Tennessee River, northern part of the state. But my people came there from the Appalachians, and that culture is little different from that of the Ozarks.

How about get you some extra IP trivets, and find containers that will fit them? Then just toss in dishwasher to clean.

I proudly wore scratches to near my elbows in July and August from picking wild blackberries. Fall was for wild muscadines and scuppernongs, which made, in addition to great cobbler, wonderful jelly and wine (we didn't make wine; a mostly tee-totaling household when I was a child). We'd carefully pick honeysuckle blooms, bite off a tiny bit of the stem end, and suck out the nectar. I used to pester Mama to make jelly with them; I was certain you could. Grandmama made tea out of sumac berries, and sassafras root. The first wild green onions of the year always got chopped up to add to wilted lettuce salads. Crabapples and persimmons both made jelly. Pears made preserves. Peaches and apples were peeled, cored, sliced and dried for wintertime fried pies; we dried them on white sheets on the roof of the wellhouse, which faced south, taking them in every evening. Produce from an acre's worth of garden was canned or frozen. Purple hulled peas, lima beans, butter peas, and the like were shelled, piled into a pillowcase that was tied with a string, and put in the freezer; all winter, you dipped out what you wanted to cook. Corn was frozen, but green beans were always canned. Peppers were hung and dried. Onions and potatoes were kept in a box in the basement, bedded in straw between layers. A couple of the last watermelons of the year picked before frost usually lasted until close to Thanksgiving. Bushels of cucumbers were pickled. Gallons of tomatoes were canned, some as chow-chow, some just tomatoes, some in "soup mix," with odds and ends of vegetables that weren't enough to put up a batch by themselves. Hogs were killed and butchered on the farm; sausage and souse meat made, tenderloins, chops, roasts and ribs all portioned out and frozen. Hams and bacon were cured and smoked. Later, calves were taken to the slaughterhouse and brought back as big cardboard boxes full of hamburger, roasts and steaks wrapped in white butcher paper and frozen rock-hard. We also ate quail, squirrel, rabbit, and striped bass and catfish -- and bream in the spring and early summer. We bought staples (flour, sugar, corn meal, coffee), dairy (don't know why we never had milk cows) and things like cereal and "light bread" from the grocery. Mama was not a breadbaker, and Daddy took sandwiches to work for lunch every day. I don't know that they were the "good old days," but we ate well.

A wine and cheese dinner as I settle in to bring in the new year in my preferred fashion -- alone, on the couch, watching football and reading, with my munchkin pug for company. Counterclockwise from 3 o'clock, Dansk blue, fontina, preserved walnuts, Castelvetrano olives, and a perfectly ripened Bosc pear. Wine is cheap plonk from a box (Bota box red blend), but I like it. Happy New Year, all y'all.

Aforementioned vegetable beef soup, of which I forgot to take a photo until I'd eaten three-quarters of it.

But for a few of the plants, it sounds little different from growing up in West Tennessee. One thing I badly miss from those days is quail. There are no wild quail left in TN or AR any more. Agricultural chemicals did them in. We would have fried quail, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits and gravy. M'mmmm. I can taste those delectable little birds now.

I vacuum-seal ham in about half-pound portions and freeze it. Grind some up in the food processor and make ham croquettes or deviled ham spread. I also make ham and cheese rolls, just like one would make cinnamon rolls, but with ground ham and grated cheese for a filling. Ham and scalloped potatoes. Shredded ham baked with eggs en cocotte. I wonder if one could make up a breakfast casserole with the bread, eggs, cream, cheese and ham, and freeze it, to thaw and bake later?

Sigh. The sweet potato muffins were a bust. I forgot the baking powder. What I get for making them in a semi-asleep state. And those things are good, too!

How very cool. Also a lot more work than I want to attempt! I do love quail eggs; I pickle them with knockwurst or good bologna, or, if I'm being ambitious, devil them. Also love to boil and halve them and use them as garnishes on salads, etc. And they make perfect Scotch eggs!

Yes, a beautiful dinner. But I have to ask, what are unreal quail eggs?

H'mmm. I make my yogurt with dry milk mixed to 2x strength the recipe calls for (thus no/little straining called for) chiefly so I don't have to mess with scalding the milk. Wonder if it's the same enzyme? Also, just out of curiosity, does KA have its own storefront anywhere? My local Kroger carries KA all purpose, but that's it, and it's more expensive than on the website if you're ordering enough to get free shipping. Which I generally always do.

This is straying way off topic, but we had for 18 years a massive cat named Willie who trained all our dogs (Weiaraners). They all bore a network of white scratches criss-crossing their noses where he swatted them when they did not behave to his specifications. Willie's favorite Christmas leftover was cranberry sauce. He loved it on his cat food, and I would occasionally buy a can as a treat for him for several days. He also loved buttered popcorn, and apples. Weird cat.

I am jonesing for vegetable beef soup. That may be a plan for tomorrow. Then I can take leftovers Monday when I take the small people back home.

Sigh. Mine was GOING to be turkey enchiladas to finish off the last of the turkey. BUT, grands are here, and we had unexpected company that stayed and stayed and stayed, and that meant we got to the trampoline park late, which meant we didn't get out of there until after six.... Which meant we had Steak and Shake.🤔

Thank you! As far as I can recall, I have never had this. Looking forward to trying it!

I first had them probably 20 years ago at a pot luck. Loved them, and they're still a favorite for pot lucks. It's been my experience they don't keep well, and the recipe makes a bunch, so I save it for big dinners.

When I spend a holiday alone, I use it as an excuse to cook things I love to eat. One Thanksgiving, I had potato salad and wine, because that was what I wanted.

I would think so. There are different fat levels of dry milk (non-fat, low-fat, whole milk). It really doesn't matter which you use. You can also substitute a cup of whole milk for a cup of the water, instead. Just be sure your dough is moist enough to be soft, but not sticky, after you knead it.