kayb

An uncommonly long and warm fall here means some folks' tomatoes are still producing well, albeit smaller tomatoes than in midsummer. I bought some at the farmers' market and got gifted a big bunch by my neighbor, so I made tomato soup. Today, I'm going to try to get the pears started; they need to be peeled and cut up, and then they sit in sugar overnight for cooking and canning tomorrrow. And I've found a source for Arkansas Black apples who promises they'll be in near the end of the month, so it'll be apple butter time. And then, perhaps, I'll be through canning for the year.

Absolutely beautiful. The food AND the view. I was planning to be back in Boston this fall and was going to make a trip out on the Cape, but life intervened and it's not going to happen. Sigh. Maybe next year.

Growing up, I had to fight for every turkey I ever got. My father claimed the Army fed him turkey every day on the troop ship headed to and from Korea, and he didn't care if he EVER saw another turkey. So I'd wind up winning and getting turkey about every other year for Thanksgiving (it was almost always ham for Christmas). Now, I cook a turkey every Thanksgiving. Last year, my farmer who supplies all my meat saved me a turkey to slaughter just before the holiday. Since he was a fresh bird, I didn't get to specify how large I wanted him; he would be however big he got. He was 24 pounds. There were five adults and one kid. I saved one whole side of the breast, vacuum packed it, and then took it out and sliced it along with the ham for Christmas. And I had turkey broth and shredded leftover turkey frozen for-freakin'-ever. Best turkey I ever cooked, though. Got another one coming this year. And if he's 24 pounds, well, he just is, and we'll have turkey aplenty to do us for a while. My traditional Thanksgiving meal always includes sweet potato casserole, cranberry salad (with apples and oranges and pecans, family recipe we've had every Thanksgiving and Christmas long as I can remember, cornbread dressing, giblet gravy, generally homemade mac and cheese for the sons-in-law, who love it, and a green thing of some description (roasted broccoli, green beans or Brussels sprouts). I always make a couple of desserts, including the obligatory pumpkin pie (for which I do not care, but the eldest child does), but we rarely get into them until the next day. Leftover cornbread dressing , mixed with some giblet gravy and spread in a ramekin with a "nest" hollowed out in the middle, makes an ideal vessel for a baked egg the next morning, btw.

I saved that recipe for mincemeat and pork cake, and always planned to try it. Never did. Now I've saved it again, and perhaps this time, will get to it. Thanks.

I really, really want to work in your office.

Have never had/cooked pheasant. I've heard it tends to be dry. Does it? If so, what do you do to it to offset that?

I bake a Bundt cake about once a year. Might as well just use the oven.

If it would ever get cold, I'd make posole. I still have, and use regularly, @Chris Amirault's mother-in-law's recipe, for which I have been grateful for several years now. Only posole I've ever made. See no need to try to improve on Sweet-Baby-Jesus-that's-good! For some reason, I have a tendency to hit some weird filter on my phone that gives me this sort of greenish sepia tone photo. Sunday lunch was sirloin tips in onion gravy (with rosemary and marjoram) over mashed potatoes, with a side of purple-hulled peas topped with tomato relish. Definitely better than the photo looks. I have taken to adding a sizeable spoonful of my homemade Greek yogurt into mashed potatoes. Does good things for them. Butter, and a small splash of heavy cream. Yum.

A sentiment I'm sure many of us have shared...

I can make a pie crust, but I never do, because I see no reason why I should when the Doughboy does one that's as good as mine and a helluva lot easier. I cannot make chicken and dumplings. Comes out like wallpaper paste every...damn...time. I've tried biscuit dumplings, pie crust dumplings, in-between dumplings. I can make something approximating chicken and dumplings...with egg noodles. Could not, for a long time, make a decent milk gravy. I'm about to get that one down. Don't know why I had probs with it; I could make a white sauce just fine.

Oooohhh. Good one!

I can't get it to load, either.

Only one that would tempt me is the stackable insert, and I have that. Although the carry bag is pretty cool.

Now THAT's a grilled cheese!

A couple of years ago, I decided to try my hand at fruitcake. Being a proper Southerner, I made Eudora Welty's White Fruitcake, from the Junior League of Jackson, Miss., cookbook. It was horrible. Pasty. Doughy. Not wishing to trash 20 or more bucks' worth of candied fruit and nuts, I cogitated a bit, froze the fruitcake, sliced it 1/8 inch thick, and baked the slices a second time. Fruitcake biscotti. It was a hit in the Christmas baskets. Ain't making it again, though.

It wasn't terribly photogenic, so I didn't photograph, but I made potato-corn chowder for a friend who's recovering from hiatal hernia surgery and is limited to smooth soups. Where I'd normally leave the corn whole, as well as some of the potatoes, I blended the whole thing. On the advice of a nurse friend, who said lower-fat was better for that kind of surgery recovery, I left out the cream and cut back a bit on the cheese. Onion sauteed in bacon fat; four or five medium Yukon Golds, cubed; a pint of frozen corn; two cups chicken broth, two cups whole milk, a cup of grated cheddar stirred in at the end. 15 minutes in the IP, blended with the immersion blender. Tasted plenty creamy.

Re: Raisins. I don't loathe them. Given the choice, I'll avoid them. I can only quote Dorothy Parker: "This was not plain terrible. This was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it."

Thanks! One for the potential Christmas list....

Don't get me wrong. I love everything mentioned above, along with most of the other things I've bought due to this forum. But it's cost me money over the years, it has.

We have those big wheeled carts you take down to the curb. But it was hot today, and it had been out there all day. I just couldn't do it. I'm still cursing when I think about it. Decided to just eat the pancakes, sans egg and bacon. I have leftovers. Will add the egg and bacon tomorrow.

Just read the whole thread -- one of the things I love most about eGullet is the travelogues. Thanks, and particularly thanks for the great photos. And the menus. I have a question about the meringues (as meringues are among my limited sweet skills). What kind of cream in between, and with what are they coated so the shavings will stick? This may be a Christmas potential, as I have a ton of frozen egg whites.

I've eyed that proscuitto panino before. Good?

Oh, heck, honey, if that's all you buy after the enablers on this forum get to you, you'll be better off than I am! (Let's see, a sous vide circulator, an Instant Pot, a Cuisinart steam convection oven...not to mention all the small stuff....)

...Throw something out from the fridge without first looking to be SURE what it is. I was cleaning out the fridge today. Picked up a carryout box I knew (or thought I knew) was leftover Thai fried rice from when we had takeout the other night. Tossed it. Then when I was cooking dinner, I went to the fridge for the smoked turkey I had picked up Monday, from the restaurant two hours from here that smokes the best turkey I ever ate in my life.... Yep. I contemplated going out to the trash and dumpster diving for the most recent bag, since it would have been at the top. Decided against it. Cursed, at length and creatively. I am cooking the fried potato and cheese pancake from Six Seasons. Not to be outdone, I shall poach an egg to go on top of it, and warm up a couple of slices of bacon. Nyah.

They're worth it when it comes to making apple butter. Trust me on this.