kayb

Starving. Smelling the carbonnades a la flamande braising away in the oven. About to make cream cheese grits for the beef to go over. Possibly favorite fall dish ever.

Add some grated onion, lots of salt and pepper, an egg and some bread crumbs to those grated potatoes and have yourself some latkes!

Sartoric, love the idea of this salad. So simple. Can't wait to try. dcarch...is the black garlic roasted prior to pureeing? Lovely things. Should take the sting out of a losing football team. After a trying afternoon that involved leaving my car at the shop after the alternator gave out on, of course, a rainy afternoon and getting rescued, an hour away from home, we ordered out Asian. I had sushi, edamame and yakitori.

Played with my basic white sandwich bread recipe, subbing 1 1/2 cups (of a total 3 3/4) of a/p flour for whole wheat, and adding a quarter cup of flaxseed meal. Then had to dash out on an unexpected grandchild run during the second rise, which resulted in the loaf overproofing and then falling on one end. Didn't seem to hurt the outcome. Next time I'll up the honey; I think it'll go better with the whole wheat. OK, so it's a bit lopsided. Texture (and taste) were fine, though. Then a day or so later, I got in the mood for a quickbread, so I made apple oatmeal walnut quickbread based loosely on a recipe from Stonyfield Yogurt, with liberal additions and substitutions. It was quite excellent, hot with butter.

I love anything you can do to a butternut squash, and I find it works particularly well to roast and/or saute it and combine it with goat cheese. I've used it for ravioli filling, thinned it out to serve as soup, used it in lasagna, and put it in risotto. I like curried butternut squash as well; goes very well with chickpeas, and I've done it with chicken and beef as well. My current favorite, although I'm not much of a pumpkin person (someone else may have my share of all the pumpkin pie in the world) is a pie pumpkin filled with sausage stuffing and baked. Good stuff.

Put me down in the traditionalist camp for Thanksgiving. It's the one time a year I cook a turkey. (I will make chicken and dressing throughout the year, but a turkey is limited to Thanksgiving. Sometimes he's fried, sometimes he's roasted, sometimes he's smoked, but there will be turkey and the traditional sides -- green beans, sweet potato casserole, cranberry salad, dressing, homemade rolls. A few others may rotate in and out, and desserts are interchangeable (It's been cheesecake the last few years). Why? I have no idea. I've run the gamut for Christmas, from beef tenderloin to brunch to cocktail buffet to lasagna to a shrimp boil. Easter tends to be more menu-specific -- ham, green peas, potato salad, asparagus, deviled eggs. Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day, something on the grill. But unless it's just me by myself for Thanksgiving, I'm going to cook the full monty. Because I love it.

Today was the last day of our farmers' market for the season, and I missed it, as it was pouring rain (northeastern fringes of El Nino) and i had my 3-year-old grandson here. I have, in fact, missed the last three, due to travel and illness. I think we were down to a few late tomatoes and squash, and winter veggies and sweet potatoes.

I wish I could offer more help. It was from the tray that said "grouper" in the fish market. I can tell you it was a sizeable fish, though, as my one-pound chunk I bought was a bit less than half of a big filet that was on a tray of big filets that appeared to have been sliced off a larger fish. Would not surprise me if, before being dressed, it had weighed in at 40-ish pounds. My filet ranged from about two inches thick (the end you see on the plate) to less than an inch. I wound up folding the thin end, and taking it off the fire earlier than the thick one, and I still overcooked it a touch. The thick one was perfect. Sorry I'm not more help.

Brought grouper home from the coast, so I grilled it last night with a lemon butter baste. I love grouper -- so mild, such a great flavor, and it lends itself to almost any prep, but it's hard to beat a simple grilled treatment. And I do love my GrillGrates -- didn't even use a basket on this! Served with rice pilaf and green beans sauteed with ginger and garlic, soy sauce and mirin.

I went back to 2007 and didn't find an appropriate topic for this, so if there is one, please move it there! (And btw....is there a simple way that I'm just ignoring to search topic titles? I've never been able to figure out how to do so.) Just got back from a week in Destin. Though I've vacationed many times on the Redneck Riviera, and been through Destin a few times, this was my first time to actually stay there. We enjoyed some excellent food. Started the trip off with dinner in Biloxi, Miss., at Mary Mahoney's Old French House. Located in what used to be a beachfront residence, ca. 1740, that now has a casino interposed betwixt it and the water, it's been preparing purely marvelous Creole cuisine since the 1960s. We had fried softshell crabs for an appetizer, followed by shrimp and crab au gratin -- lots of shrimp, lots of lump crabmeat, in a rich cheese sauce and baked en casserole. A bit heavy on the celery flavor for me, but excellent. Service was, as always, impeccable. I have never had a meal there that was short of "Oh, wow!" Next night, in Destin, we picked up crab cakes from a local deli, Sarah K's Gourmet; a dozen small cakes, maybe 3 ounces each, for $30. Bore them back to the condo with instructions to heat at 400 degrees for 20 minutes, which, indeed, turned them out perfectly. They were great with a remoulade sauce and a cucumber-wasabi sauce. I put together a salad of tomato, avocado and corn kernels, and managed a dressing with some mayo, some lemon juice, some Cajun seasoning and a little mixed herb seasoning I'd tossed in my supplies box. We skipped dinner the next night after a long day on the beach; just snacks and beer. The next night, we ventured down to the Destin Harbor area, and tried Brotula's, one of a dozen or more seafood houses lining the harbor. I had Royal Red shrimp, one of my favorites; they're a deepwater shrimp, almost impossible to get anywhere other than on the gulf, and they taste more like lobster than shrimp; in fact, they're served steamed, with drawn butter. Simple, marvelous. I cleaned my plate. The following night I reverted to an old standby at Dewey's Destin Seafood, two doors down from Brotula's: Steamed shrimp with corn on the cob and potatoes. Just really, really hard to beat, long as you've got good cocktail sauce (theirs was; lots of horseradish, and enough Tabasco!). Couldn't get through my pound of shrimp, but they were good for lunch the next day. And then the next night, I shifted gears and went for oysters. Apalachicola Bay oysters, at Boschamps' Oyster House. I contemplated char-grilled, contemplated Rockefeller, settled on Oysters Boschamps, which brought the little morsels on the half shell, where they'd been broiled briefly with feta cheese, caramelized onion, and bacon marmelade. Have mercy! These little sweethearts were absolutely outstanding. Plump and juicy and tangy to complement the flavor bursts of the onion and bacon marmelade, with the brine tasting just marvelous with the saltiness of the feta. Purely brilliant. Wish I'd had room for another half-dozen, but I'd had a bowl of crab and corn chowder beforehand; on a return trip, I'd forego the chowder and concentrate on the oysters. Good food. It's hard to have bad food when you're surrounded with fresh seafood any way you look (but I'm sure people manage). Anyone else got favorite Gulf Coast restaurants to talk about?

I love toasted black walnuts in banana bread and bran muffins.

I'd been laid low with a stomach virus much of last week, subsisting on soft drinks, Saltines and the occasional fruit smoothie for four days. By Sunday, when my stomach decided to rejoin the land of the living, I was ravenous. I'd had an idea for Juicy Lucy French Onion Meatballs a few days ago, and I had the makings, so I set about those. Standard meatball mix (1 pound ground beef, 1/3 cup cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup heavy cream, onion powder, garlic powder, Lawry's seasoned salt, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, black pepper, an egg) and divvied it up into six decent-sized meatballs. Each one got shaped into more of a bowl, and filled with a spoonful of caramelized onions and a tablespoon of grated Gruyere, before being closed back up. These went in the oven in a deep-dish pie plate to bake. Then the rest of the onions (I caramelize a Whole Bunch at one time and freeze them in one-cup portions), some garlic, some red wine and some beef broth got simmered together for French onion soup, which in turn was poured over the meatballs, the heat turned down and the meatballs braised for an hour; then the remaining Gruyere sprinkled over and returned to the oven to melt the cheese. The meatballs, while certainly juicy, didn't have the cheesy ooze I wanted; I think I would have been better served to have left part of the Gruyere in cubes to go inside the meatballs and grated the remainder. Taste was excellent, though. Should have been served with mashed potatoes or noodles or something to accommodate the soup/gravy, but I wanted potato salad, so potato salad I had. And baked apples, with raw sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. All in all, a very good welcome for my tummy back to the land of the living.

spipet, that is one more lovely croque madame!

First meal in four days -- I've been in the grips of a nasty stomach virus. Home-canned tomato soup (actually left over from last summer), with a grilled cheese sandwich and pickles. So far, the stomach is accepting it moderately well. I may venture further into solid food tonight. We had butternut squash and apple soup the other evening, first cool night of the fall. Very good.

It's not a flank steak. My presumption is it's top round, but it's a thin piece....someone up thread referred to it as the "cap piece," I believe.

Ah, if I only had a NY trip on the calendar....

Being from the land of all things pig, I can recommend to all of you two sources for two different kinds of ham: 1. Petit Jean Meats Smoked Picnic Hams. Available in a variety of styles -- cooked, uncooked, bone-in, boneless, sliced, unsliced, peppered, unpeppered, whole, half. Pricy, but worth it. Best smoked picnic I've had. Available here. I can also testify to their bacon and "smoked beef," i.e., pastrami. 2. Broadbent Country Ham. My first experience with these came when I bought one at a charity auction. Phenomenally wonderful example of "American proscuitto," that marvelous, salty, long-cured ham. However, after dealing with a whole country ham -- which is a metric s***load of ham -- with less-than-stellar knife skills, I have opted, since then, to order their sliced packaged ham. I prefer the breakfast slices, myself; the center-cut "dinner steaks" are just too doggoned big. I dearly love it. Available here. There is nothing better on a fresh hot biscuit, with sorghum molasses and butter.

You've compelled me to google bulla. I may have to try this.

Can't help it. I love holiday gatherings with gigantic meals. Especially if I'm cooking. But I loathe pumpkin pie.

I get a good bit of round steak in my beef share and enjoy it. Jaymes' aforementioned Swiss Steak is a favorite, and I've pounded it, or sliced it thin and SV'd it and breaded it for a primo Country Fried Steak. One of my very favorites, though is rouladen, made after one of my favorite German restaurants, where the round is pounded thin, wrapped around a bratwurst and a good kosher dill pickle spear, then wrapped with bacon, and browned and braised in red wine with caraway. That, with some German potato salad and red cabbage, is a sure signal fall has well and truly arrived. I also like to SV a London broil cut, then chill, slice thinly, and marinate in a viniagrette. Keeps ages in the fridge, and it's marvelous on a salad, or on any kind of appetizer plate, or for a light main in the summer.

ElainaA, I have a small wooden card file box that's crammed full of cards like that, along with clippings and cards from other cooks in our small community who were her friends. I really want to arrange several of them and frame them; must get my much-more-crafty-than-I daughters to do so. There are, in fact, enough of the recipe cards to do one for each of them as well as for me.

Oh, Lord, Shelby, that looks marvelous! About once every two or three years, when somebody gives me (wild) ducks, I make duck gumbo with some of that good Andouille sausage. This may be a year for it; will have to put out the call for a couple of ducks. Like you, it takes me forever to make it -- it's generally a Saturday undertaking while football is on TV. I was highly disappointed in dinner last night. I made an eggplant casserole EXACTLY -- well, almost exactly; I didn't have any celery, so I left it out -- like the recipe in the cookbook from the restaurant that makes it. It did NOT taste like theirs. And I took leftover chicken, picked it off the bone, shredded and diced it, then combined it with a cheese sauce over egg noodles cooked with peas and carrots. Just not terribly tasty. An experiment coming up Friday. Juicy Lucy French Onion meatballs. Meatballs with cheese and caramelized onions in the center, baked in a sauce that's a thicker version of French onion soup. With, of course, Gruyere on top. And mashed potatoes, fried okra, good crusty bread. Tomorrow's a long workday, so it's takeout from the Thai place.

I'm enjoying these. That applesauce cake looks good. May have to try it. My mother was not an exceptional cook -- she was a perfectly adequate cook, but not exceptional -- until it came to the area of pastries and candies, which was weird because she was a Type I diabetic and couldn't partake of any of them. She made tons of different Christmas candies, petit fours for every wedding shower in three counties. She made a coconut cake that I can STILL taste right now, and ditto for her banana pudding. But the best sweet thing she made was doughnuts. They were quite a production, generally involving making up the dough on Friday nights and frying on Saturday mornings, when the marvelous aroma would waft through the house all the way to my bedroom (front corner; kitchen was in the back corner, same side) and I would all but float back to the kitchen, half asleep, following my nose. She would fry up the doughnut holes for me, and I would sit down with a bowlful of them, and a glass of cold milk. The recipe, in her handwriting, on a grease-spotted, dog-eared 3 x 5 index card, is as follows: Potato Doughnuts 2 cups milk 1 cup sugar 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1 1/2 tsp. salt 1 cup mashed potatos 2 pkgs yeast 1/4 cup water 3 eggs 1 tsp lemon flavoring 1 tsp cinnamon 8 cups flour (I presume self-rising, as I don’t remember Mama cooking much with all-purpose) But what's really fun are the directions. In their entirety, they read: Fry in three pounds shortening. Glaze with 1 1/2 boxes powdered sugar I swear. I've always been terrified of trying them. Mama, rest her soul, has been gone 20 years. One of these days, I'm going to get brave enough to try those damn doughnuts.

I'm glad you posted this, not that I'm planning on buying such, but I was sitting here wondering what I wanted to eat and read this and decided to have a smoothie. Frozen strawberries, a banana, some yogurt, a little protein powder, a little milk. Yum! I have a big Cuisinart countertop model that has a smoothie setting that I use quite regularly. Just hadn't been in a smoothie mood for a while, so again, I'm glad you brought it up.

They appeared to have a zone-free induction cooktop when Cyalexa and I ate at The Catbird Seat recently. I was lusting for it. I suspect lust for it is about all I'll get to do.