kayb

Add me to the list of Chum's admirers! (Lucy, the fat pug, says she would like to be like Chum when she grows up.)

I have never prepared one, but when I lived in Bentonville (aka Home of the Walmartians), there was a restaurant that did a smoked prime rib. It was the most marvelous thing I'd ever eaten. One night, someone broke into their smokehouse and stole about a dozen prime rib roasts that were winding up smoking. Always figured they had a helluva dinner.

Happy birthday! And happy new-kitchen-to-be.

While I'm not AnnT, I'll pass on my favorite method for ham. Buy a butt end, rather than a shank end, if you're buying half a ham.Stand it up on the cut side on a rack in a roasting pan. Score the skin/fat, almost all the way to the meat. Trim any fat that's more than an inch thick. Coat the whole thing liberally with cheap yellow mustard. Pack brown sugar all over it. Spritz the sugar with bourbon in a spray bottle. Tent it with foil, stick in the oven for 20 minutes per pound at 300F. Let it cool to room temp before you slice. (also works on a pre-sliced spiral ham, and even on a boneless one, although I think a bone-in has a better flavor).

I have eaten most every portion of deer there is, except for heart. What's the taste/texture like? Wonder if anyone uses deer intestines like tripe/chitterlings? (I eat neither one, so it wouldn't much matter to me if they did.)

Thanks. Based on that, I probably won't try it. So far, I think the best one I've found is Rose Levy Berenbaum's soft white sandwich loaf.

Brilliant! What recipe do you use for your sandwich loaf? I have several I like, but always up to try another one.

@MetsFan5, my deepest sympathies on the loss of your brother. He was, indeed, far too young. I think there is comfort both in the giving and receiving of food in a time of grief. I know my immediate response on hearing of a death of someone in my "circle" of friends and family is to take to the kitchen. There seems to be so little that a friend can do that cooking and bringing food becomes a tangible expression of sympathy. And when my parents each passed on, there was comfort in knowing that so many people cared about them that our refrigerator, and indeed our kitchen, overflowed with food. (My standard dish to take is a big tray of sausage and biscuits. They don't have to be refrigerated or warmed, and they're easy to grab and eat without preparation, at any time during the day or evening)

Venison...chili. M'mmmmm.....

We had our traditional Thanksgiving. It was good, and I managed to refrain from cooking nine bajillion side dishes no one wants. I have way too many leftovers, regardless, along with possibly the worst head cold known to modern man.Taking to the couch to watch football and otherwise not move all day.

TFTC, I'm sorry to hear of your husband's health issues. Hope you managed to have a good Thanksgiving in spite of them. Liver would NOT have been an option at my house, unless it was chicken livers made into pate.

2 pints (or cans) corn (if you're using cans, the canonical usage is one can whole-kernel, drained, and one can cream-style. I use frozen I put up last sumer) 1 box sweet Jiffy cornbread mix 2 eggs, beaten 1 cup sour cream 1/2 stick butter, melted Stir everything together and bake about 45 minutes at 350. Easy. Good.

It's really hard to beat the corn pudding recipe that is based around Jiffy cornbread mix.

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Works for me! I do dearly love pineapple upside down cake. I make it often with this cake recipe. Now, if I could just master a soft-boiled egg...

@Smithy -- even as I cook all week for Thanksgiving, you make me hungry. I do dearly love the Redneck Riviera and the seafood. And while I love crab legs, well, the grouper.....there just ain't much better'n grouper. I just wish one could successfully freeze it and bring it back to flyover country. I've tried. You can't, or at least I can't. No matter. I'll retire down there someday.

I have successfully used a banana bread I dropped on the floor when I took it out of the oven for a bread pudding. Worked pretty well.

Or you can get taco shells and Gorton's crunchy fish sticks, a head of cabbage and some apples and some avocadoes at the grocery, and make your own.

A purely theoretical suggestion, as I don't use either a stone or a steel in my oven, mostly because I don't make that much pizza: If you are going to get a steel cut to size at a machine shop (probably your cheapest alternative, should you have a machine shop within easy shouting distance), you might want to get a couple of hand-holds cut in the front side. I would expect a steel of that size, 1/4 to 1/2 inches thick, to be fairly heavy, and handholds would sure make it easier to handle when you took it out or put it in. It's been my experience that most folks who own/run small machine shops are generally open to you coming in and saying, "Hey, I need something this wide and this deep, shaped like this. My father made me a cutting board shaped like a pig, and wound up having a cottage industry of people who wanted one like it.

@Anna N -- would you share the recipe for Parmesan pudding? And if no tomato pesto, then what, if anything, would you recommend with it?

Hushpuppies should be firm enough you can essentially mold them in your hands before frying. They're good with some whole kernel corn mixed in, too. And I have had excellent hushpuppies made with beer. Don't have a recipe, because I don't deep-fry much of anything if I can help it.

My only thought not already mentioned would be that my personal preference would be to have the spices at eye level as opposed to a lower cabinet. Definitely convenient to the stove, though. YMMV. Will be interested to see photos of the in-progress!

You can use your favorite white/yellow cake recipe; I have typically used one from Dorie Greenspan, but this year, I think I'm going to use the one my mother always used that I re-discovered when going through her recipe box. See this blog entry for that one. Either bake it in three or four layers, or cut two layers in half crosswise. It's the frosting that makes this cake. Take a 12 oz of sour cream and mix in a cup to a cup and a half, depending on your sweet tooth, of granulated sugar and 1 1/2 packages of fresh-frozen coconut. (Reserve the other half-package; you'll need it.) Take 1/2 the filling and fill liberally between layers of cake. Use it all.. Take the remaining filling and mix it with a container of Cool Whip. I have tried this with whipped cream, and I can't figure out how to stabilize the whipped cream to make it hold for several days in the refrigerator. If you, or anyone else, knows how, I'd be MOST grateful for a tip. Use this to frost the top and sides of the cake. Sprinkle the remaining coconut on top and pat onto sides. Finally, the critical step: In an airtight cake container, refrigerate the cake for three days before serving. This allows the moisture from the filling and frosting to soak into the cake. For a proper Southern holiday dessert, serve with a side dish of ambrosia -- mandarin orange segments and pineapple tidbits, drained, mixed with another package of frozen coconut, and topped with a couple of maraschino cherries. This cake freezes quite well, which is what I always wind up doing with half of it.

The annual cook begins today. Cranberry salad, sweet potato casserole (to be compiled and into the freezer, to await baking Friday, as we are having our T'giving dinner a day late). Very possibly the coconut cake, which must sit in the fridge a minimum of three days prior to cutting, in order to soak in its juices. T-minus-7 and counting!

Having been on a (homemade) yogurt and (homemade) granola kick for the past two or three months, that's what I had today, too.