kayb

Had to spring for the appetizer book. Those and brunch are my favorite things to cook. And eat.

I'd go with a cornbread dressing, but that's because I can't abide any other kind. I'll highly recommend my sweet potato casserole; you can prep it the day before, and just bake it day-of (as you can the dressing). Boil three or four big sweet potatoes, enough to give you about four cups of mashed flesh. Mash with an egg, 1/2 stick melted butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar (optional, depends on how sweet your sweet tooth is) and some vanilla. Spread in bottom of baking dish. Make a streusel topping with 1/2 cup each brown sugar and pecans, 1/4 cup flour, and 4 tbsp butter, melted; crumble on top of sweet potatoes. Bake at 350 until streusel is nice and melty and potatoes are bubbling, about 30-40 minutes. Family favorite at my house. I make a cranberry salad that's another holiday tradition, and best made in advance as well. Chop up 1 bag of cranberries, 1 red apple, 1 green apple, 1 cup pecans; dump in a bowl. Zest an orange, and peel and then puree or chop the flesh, and add that. Make a simple syrup with 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water, bring to a boil, take off heat and add 1 small box raspberry jello. Pour over fruit and stir. Refrigerate at least overnight. This isn't a congealed salad; the jello makes a sort of syrupy dressing for the fruit. This has been on every holiday table I can remember for more than half a century. A green thing -- I tend toward asparagus or Brussels sprouts. Rolls, obviously. Pumpkin pie is hard to beat as a traditional dessert, though pecan pie is another good one.

(Cringing at the prospect of foie gras in aspic....)

Along that line, this is the absolute best savory cheesecake I have ever had in my life. I keep contending I'm going to make it for a big party, in tiny tart shells.

Finally got my email from DHL that I presume was regarding the Darto pan shipment. It was in Spanish, and none of the clickable links work. So I will hope that means mine is on its way.

@Toliver, I could buy you a drink damn nearly every day and not beat what you're costing me in cookbooks. Had to spring for Bobby Flay, whom I don't much like, but brunch is my very favorite meal both to cook and to eat. And the Garden and Gun book (if you have not discovered Garden and Gun, you should; it's marvelous, and not nearly as Second Amendent-ish as it sounds).

But their sausage is SO nasty. (There is a downside, I guess, to being raised on homemade Southern style breakfast sausage. We killed the hogs, neighbor made the sausage and cured the hams and bacon. I now have horribly high sausage standards.)

Oh, dear God. Just kill me now. That looks marvelous.

Thanks, @Kim Shook. Filed. I missed getting to Squatters while in StL, but did manage a couple of good dinners. Baked ravioli at Rigazzi's, which continues to be my favorite restaurant on The Hill, and a German sausage dinner at Schneithorst's the next night. Red cabbage was a bit too sweet, but the knackwurst was the best I've ever eaten. Tonight, comfort food, and the makings of sandwiches for the next couple of days. Meat loaf is about 1/2 inch thick for maximum glazed crust. A slab is going on fresh bread with Tallegio cheese tomorrow for breakfast. Maybe another for lunch. Obligatory green peas andashed potatoes to accompany.

I continue to be astounded and highly pleased with the quality of Aldi's ham. Got one in the freezer right now, in fact. Must learn how to make pea soup. My one effort at it was a dismal failure. But damn, it makes white beans tasty!

Just about my favorite soup in the world is white bean and sausage soup. You brown Italian sausage, and while it drains on paper towels, saute some onion and garlic in the fat. Dice up a couple of carrots and saute them as well. Add a pound of white beans (I love the Alubia Blanco in this, but the Marcella and Tarbais also work well). Add beans and cover with water or broth by two inches; add a can of diced tomatoes and a shake or two of Italian seasoning for good measure. Cook until beans are tender and creamy. Stir in a bag of baby spinach, or a pound of frozen chopped spinach, just until the fresh is good and wilted, or the frozen is warm and dispersed through the soup. Wonderful with fresh foccacia and a glass or three of Sangiovese.

I'm liking the first one @curls posted above. Simple, understated but has some good looks to it. Should go with most dishes. I could see it with the Ozarks theme, although something more angular and a bit rougher might fit better, more like the second one curls posted, although that design doesn't appeal to me nearly as much.

I'll be in StL Monday-Wednesday. May have to hunt down Squatters before you close it down!

Add me to the "no skinny handles" list. I want a good, heavy flatware that balances well in my hand and on the plate. Nothing overly ornate. In the link @blue_dolphin posts, I love the Boheme pattern (here). Just my personal preference.

@shain -- Many thanks!

Yes, please!

@Kim Shook -- That has a pound cake-ish look about it. Is it?

Bumping this topic to ask a question. I am picking up an entire side of smoked salmon a local organization sells as a fundraiser this weekend. I would like to make and pressure-can, so it would be shelf-stable, a smoked salmon spread. The only smoked salmon spread I have ever made is with cream cheese, which is excellent, but I don't think it would hold up to pressure canning. Any ideas? Could I do a sort of rillette with olive oil? What seasonings? Pressure and time? My tendency is to let the smoked salmon carry the spread, with just a little dill and lemon juice and zest. Any help out there?

This was the biggest pork chop I have ever seen. It looked like a porterhouse. About an inch thick, close to six inches across at its widest point. Must have been 14 ounces. With blackened peas (just ok), mashed potatoes, and fruit salad. I scraped most of the breading g off.

As far as the dinners go, Thanksgiving is pretty much locked down from year to year. We go traditional -- turkey, cornbread dressing, sweet potatoes, cranberry salad, mac and cheese (for the kids!) and some kind of obligatory green thing. And rolls. Christmas, I have more latitude. I'm leaning toward a cocktail buffet. I'm thinking a nice rump roast, sous vided to medium rare, chilled, and sliced. Horseradish cream. Baked ham or pork tenderloin, sliced. With Taleggio cheese and Jezebel sauce. Slider rolls. Shrimp with cocktail sauce. Crab salad. Rosti with sour cream and caviar. A nice mix of pickles and raw veggies. Curried fruit. Copious quantities of Prosecco, mimosas and whatever you call the equivalent with cranberry juice. New Year's Day, of course, requires greens and black eyed peas. I do mine with smoked sausage and tomatoes, baked with bread crumbs on top.

I'm thinking spiced wafers for gift boxes. Had contemplated crackers to go with some kind of spread (the Rain Coast Crisp recipe I have is excellent). Thinking of a different direction for either Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert this year -- a cinnamon apple pound cake with maple glaze. Also may try my hand at a sweet potato pie.

I don't know, but I hope someone does. I'd like to try that!

Ooohhh...how about wrapping a slice of fried bacon around it? And then drizzling the whole thing with maple syrup? I'd be a regular customer! I used to frequent a breakfast place who did French toast that way, cut into strips and then put those on skewers, wrapped bacon around them, and a final flash fry to crisp up the bacon. You could fry the bacon and wrap the waffle stick before it cooled , and then it would hold its shape.

@liuzhou, how do you reheat your Scotch eggs, or do you eat them cold? I haven't made them since I got my CSO but it strikes me that might be a good vehicle. Most go to the Asian market and get quail eggs. Love them in Scotch eggs. Just the right size.

I love my Instant Pot. I make all kinds of soups and stews, most of which freeze well, and it's the best thing going for cooking dried beans. I do some roasts, etc., that I would normally braise in the oven for hours and hours -- pulled pork for carnitas, pot roast, and so on. All that freezes well. You can adapt most any recipe to the Instant Pot, as long as it has enough liquid. If you don't want that much liquid in your dish, you can put water in the bottom of your pot, put in a trivet, and put your dish in a separate vessel to go in the pot (PIP, or Pot-in-Pot, cooking). I have a set of two stacking dishes that are about the equivalent of 6 1/2 inch cake pans that I use a lot for curries; meat and sauce in one, rice in the other. It's marvelous. Think I paid $20 for the pan set, and it's been worth it. Also, be careful with using thicker liquids. It's usually best to cook in a thin liquid and then thicken later, maybe on the saute function. Thicker liquids will often burn and stick, on the pressure cook function. Lots of good recipes out there on the web, and some good cookbooks as well.