kayb

@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.

@TdeV --- Sure wish I'd been on the guest list for that dinner. @gfweb -- my Irish ancestors agree wholeheartedy that a potato is a vegetable. I'm due for potato salad -- my go-to comfort food. Dinner tonight -- no photo -- is brown rice, with butter and brown sugar. Because I was in a mood. I will have to have a protein shake before bed to get in the day's requirement of protein.

I have not done venison saddle. But my rule of thumb is to do venison 1.5 times as long as I do a comparable cut of beef.

I think I'll call it "clean out the crisper drawer salsa." Yellow tomatoes, red tomatoes ( @Shelby, I peeled the damn tomatoes), serrano, Anaheim and red bell peppers, onion, mango, kernels from four ears of corn, cilantro. It'll ferment for 2-3 days and then I'll likely can it to go in Christmas baskets. Peppers were hotter than I thought. Hands are burning!

I did the same, and read it through last night. Oh...my....God. I can't wait to try some of those recipes. Marvelous sounding stuff.

I do the same. I've used the CSO on 100 degrees and steam function, too, but I prefer the microwave.

Living in a chicken-egg producing state, I can answer some of your questions. A lot of older chickens do, in fact, go to soup making plants, while others go to processors that cook, grind and reform the chicken into nuggets and cutlets. Most pet food plants work off the trimmings from other processing plants (lots of skin, fat and bone meal in there, not a lot of meat). Laying hens are generally retired at something less than 18 months old from commercial operations. Barnyard chickens can last longer, but in any event not much more than two years.

I regret, for all y'all's sakes, that Yarnell's ice cream is available only regionally. It's the best.

I've cooked and reheated successfully in an oven.

What is it that looks like an apple in a cage?

Thanks! @Thanks for the Crepes, I'm currently under a doctor's orders to eat 80 grams of protein a day. I'm not a vegetarian, but not a huge meat eater either. I couldn't do it without protein powder shakes. They're decent with just cold water, the powder mixes well in coffee, and they're great sprinkled on oatmeal or stirred into a fruit smoothie. Apparently one can use them to add into muffins, etc., as well. Haven't tried that yet. I eat a lot of eggs, and peanut butter, too. Tonight's dinner: Pimiento cheese sandwich with bacon and tomato, and a bowl of chili.

you and I are obviously siblings separated at birth. I loathe Starbucks' coffee.

@gfweb -- may I have details on that hot sprout slaw? Contemplating a different way to fix sprouts for T'giving, as it is the one green thing all the grands will eat.

I've used Kroger click list a few times, not a lot as I live near the store and find it easier to just drop in and grab what I need for that night. Have to say they've been good about subs, and the one time they had an issue with my order (they lost it entirely, and it wasn't ready when I came to get it), they gave me $20 off a $60 order. Can't complain at that.

That's a thing of beauty.

Reporting in on duck breast sandwich: First, it came with a camo can koozie, something I hadn't anticipated. It's on what appears to be a brioche bun. The bun encases a 3/4 inch thick slab of duck breast, seared well. No sign of pink inside. The advertised "cherry sauce" tasted like barbecue sauce to me. Topped with french fried strips of onion. It was fairly tender, but dry. I did not get a significant taste of duck. It was edible, but I won't hurry back for another one, not at $6.99 for a sandwich or $8.99 for a combo meal. I'll stick to the cheeseburger and fries at my local burger joint.

Wise woman. Two to eat, two to cook with.