kayb

Here in the American South, we'd call those biscuits. And they look like fine ones.

Sunday dinner, for some reason, is always traditional Southern fare. And served midday. Country fried steak, homemade rolls, corn and peas from the freezer, mashed potatoes and gravy.

A slab of chicken breast, from a whole, farm-raised bird brined and then roasted in the CSO. I continue to marvel at how moist and toothsome a brined, farm-raised, CSO-roasted chicken is. With potato salad and squash.

I would suspect one reason you see fewer appliances other than microwaves in offices, etc., is that most folks have a limited lunch hour and don't have the ability to do prep work, steps, etc., prior to that time. Most places I know where people work 24-hour shifts -- say, fire departments or ambulance services -- there's always something on the stove cooking for dinner. Will be enjoying this thread as well. One of the things I love about working at home (besides my work uniform of yoga pants and a t-shirt ) is the ability to take time periodically to tend to something in the kitchen, or swap the laundry from the washer to the dryer, that sort of thing.

Thanks for the seed source recommendations. Pinetree Garden Seeds looks particularly interesting, as I need small amounts.

Oh, no! They EAT those cute little puffins? I'm horrified! But Iceland is lovely, at least via your photos. And the prevalence of langoustine soup and other preparations of those little beauties leave me salivating...

Who has leftover wine???

So very envious. I have been craving oysters and it's been way too long since my last trip to the Gulf. Also intrigued with the notion of wonton-wrapped oysters. Any seasoning inside the pouch? I guess it's my knife skills, but I have problems slicing meat as thin as I want it for sandwiches. Do you use a slicer? I've hesitated to get one because I don't eat sandwiches that often, and I have limited storage space, not to mention resources.

As one whose schedule is subject to major change on short notice, this is my chief quibble with sourdough as well. Well, that and the fact that the first and only time I tried it, it was a dismal failure.

@liuzhou, we may be on opposite sides of the globe, but we were thinking alike when it came to dinner. Brined, roasted chicken, potato salad, sauteed squash with onions. The squash wasn't very good; I think it's so late in the year the skins are getting tough. I suspect I will discard the remaining ones I have in the fridge. Another recent dinner was my first attempt at ma po tofu. I had no minced pork, so I cubed a pork loin chop in a very small dice and used that. It was a prepared sauce from the international market, but I thought it was quite good. With it, roasted eggplant and squash in a miso-honey sauce, and brown rice. The leftovers will likely go into fried rice.

Here is a recipe for pickled bologna that's very close to what I grew up eating. I would add several cloves of peeled garlic. For two pounds of bologna, I'd use a dozen eggs. That ought to make about a gallon. I remember the little country store up the road from where i grew up always had a gallon jar of bologna and eggs atop the meat case. Lunch at the store consisted of either a slab of "rag bologna" on a big cracker, dotted with hot sauce; bologna and eggs with a handful of crackers, or a regular bologna sandwich (or some of the other meats in the case) on white bread. Or a can or two of Vienna sausages. You could customize your lunch with chips, candy or other sweets for dessert, or even a piece of fruit, along with a Coke out of the cooler. Had several of those lunches in my day.

Ordering this. Thanks.

I still have green tomatoes, and looking out this morning, it appears I have at least one ripe one. I've never had tomatoes this late. Already starting to think about next year, though. I'm going to move the herbs to the front flower bed, so I need to start multiple seedlings this winter indoors. What seed catalogs do y'all recommend? I grew up with Burpee, but am not tied to them.

Dammit. And damn one-click ordering, while I'm at it. @Anna N, I noted some of the "heroic proportions" in the sandwich recipes. Must be some significantly large sandwiches. But some of the combos do interest me.

Now I'm intrigued by the mention of stuffed bream. I ate lots of bream growing up (caught lots of it, too!), but we always pan-fried it. Interesting how "poor man's food" has advanced, in many instances, to almost cult status. Bone broth and barbecue, for two -- meats from traditionally the less-desirable portion of the cow or pig. Soups where a small amount of meat is stretched to serve more people. Foraged greens and mushrooms. Beans were traditionally a less expensive source of protein, yet companies like Rancho Gordo have established themselves firmly as a boutique seller of heirloom varieties. In general, I see the trend as good, winning wider acceptance for foods that originally may have had limited scope. I will, however forego my portion of Nieman Marcus' or anyone else's collards. I don't like cooked greens of any genus or species. Never have, and I don't guess, at this stage of my life, I ever will.

Reading it now. There's a ginger-goat cheese bread I'm DYING to try. But her proportions are pretty massive; I'll be cutting recipes for bread in half (18 cups of flour, y'all? Seriously?). Not to mention, who puts a CUP of peanut butter on TWO sandwiches? Even big sandwiches?

I snagged "Beautiful Breads and Fabulous Fillings: The Best Sandwiches in America," by Margaux Sky, for 99 cents on Amazon this morning. With that kind of title, it's CERTAINLY worth a buck to find out what's inside!

H'mmm. Think I'll plant a patch of collards and see about becoming one of NM's suppliers.

Pickled jalapenos. I used the same brine I'd use for bread and butter pickles. Thought a sweet-hot would be good.

I would think brining would be a big help. It has a tenderizing effect as well as adding some moisture back into meat that tends to be dry. My farm chickens are tractor chickens, so aren't as exercised as yours. I'd brine, and then roast low and slow. You could improvise steam-bake with a roasting pan with water in the bottom, chicken on a rack. Maybe 325 until the thermometer is where you want it? Push comes to shove, marinate that baby in pineapple juice. Guaranteed to tenderize anything. Flavor may limit you to Polynesian-type preps, though.

Pound cakes freeze wonderfully. Think Christmas gift baskets. You can also freeze cookie dough. Quiche freezes well, as does my favorite sausage-egg muffin (browned sausage, egg, whatever veggies you have, a little flour and oil to bind it. Bake them, freeze them, then vacuum seal once they're frozen hard. Definitely the eggnog.Come on, now, 'fess up. How long has it been since you bought Everclear? Oh, the days of wastebasket punch.... If you get enough pumpkin crisps made, you can always go to meringue cookies. That's another good one for the Christmas baskets (they're quite festive with red and green dusting sugar). I would think they should freeze. I've been pickling quail eggs in a combo of Shaoxing vinegar, soy sauce, sesame oil and sriracha. Great in noodle soups, or just as a quick snack. I would think they should last about forever. Should work with regular eggs. You can pickle them in a non-Asian, vinegar based brine with pre-cooked brats or knackwurst (or small bologna) for old-fashioned "baloney and eggs." Be sure to use LOTS of hot sauce in the brine. Do you, by chance, have African violets? They LOVE eggshells crumbled and applied to their soil. My grandmother used to do that. Check and see if there's a food pantry in your area. They'd LOVE to have eggs, I'm sure. Put your farmers in touch with them. Check, also, with the local school cafeteria; their budgets suck, so fresh eggs would be marvelous for them. Sure wish I was there! My egg lady's chickens are currently on strike, and I have been reduced to grocery store eggs.

@Duvel -- What a magnificent meal. My hat is off to you for being able to get through it and go out afterward!

Let me offer you my tried-and-true sweet potato casserole recipe. It's been prepared at every Thanksgiving and Christmas at my house for the past 30-plus years, and in my mother-in-law's house for God knows how many years before that. You can make it up to the point of final baking/browning ahead of time; I usually do it the day before and stick it in the fridge. 3-4 large sweet potatoes 1/2 stick butter 2 eggs 1/2 to 1 cup sugar 1 tsp vanilla TOPPING 1/2 stick butter 1 cup brown sugar 1/3 cup all purpose flour 1 cup chopped pecans Boil the sweet potatoes in their skins until they can easily be pierced with a table knife. Drain and cool, peel, and mash. I don't get real picky about measuring the potato pulp. This is a very forgiving recipe. Toss in the half-stick of butter (room temp means it's easier for the residual heat from the potatoes to melt it), the vanilla, the sugar, and the eggs, beaten well. Stir until all is completely incoporated, and pour into a casserole dish. (I usually use my 9 x 13.) To make the topping, melt the butter, and combine with the brown sugar and flour. Stir in the pecans. Crumble over the surface. Bake at 350 for about 40 minutes (may need to go an hour if it's from the fridge),until it's bubbling and topping is well melted and browning. It needs to be served warm, but it's not a critical "straight from the oven" service, so I generally bake it earlier, cover it with foil, and let it rest while I'm baking rolls and other last-minute stuff. If I wanted to do mac and cheese, I'd use the crock pot for that. Boil your noodles stovetop, drain, transfer to crockpot, add butter, milk, cheese and whatever seasonings and add-ins you use, put it on low for up to two or three hours, then switch over to keep warm. I would suspect your wild card dressing,the collard green gratin and your cider roasted veggies (and I'd be real interested in a recipe for that!) could also be prepped ahead and roasted day of. I find that I can start my prep on Monday and do a few things every day, making my Thursday much less tiring and stressful.

I'm a bit of a hoarder when it comes to books in general -- I have well over a thousand volumes scattered about, most of them history, but I do have a collection of 150 or so cookbooks. I'd estimate I've cooked from more than half of them, but there are only a handful I go back to over and over. I love to sit down and read a cookbook, like one would read a novel. The first one I did that with was Shirley Corriher's Cookwise, which I credit with changing the direction of my cooking from very basic efforts to put food on the table to the adventures of taking specific ingredients through specific techniques with an ultimate goal of trying to reach a specific target taste experience. But I also love using a recipe as a jumping off point into my own creation. Sometimes it's wonderful, sometimes it's not fit to eat, but it's always fun.

Thanks. That, unfortunately, is one of the ones I've tried. I'll keep riffing. I'll get there. Eventually.