kayb

So, if I were to maybe cook some asparagus for you tonight...? Ohhhh.....you're hitting my weak spot. (One of several!)

Looking forward to the week....and I can mourn my lack of fresh local veggies and fruit while I read all about yours!

I cooked the grits first, with cheese, and layered them in the bottom of the ramekin; cracked the eggs into a small bowl and gently slid on top; drizzled with a couple of tablespoons of cream and sprinkled with bacon. There was enough salt in the grits and bacon that I didn't salt the eggs. I didn't do veggies this time, but I have in the past (zucchini and/or yellow squash, asparagus, peas, most any spring veggie are good). Have also used scrambled up sausage or diced ham in place of bacon. Baked at 350 in a bain marie for 15 minutes. Snadra, looking forward to reading yours this week!

And here we are...at the end of a week of food blogging (and heavy-duty cooking). It hasn't been a typical week for me -- I generally don't cook this much, this heavily, this often, but a combination of holiday, days off, house guests and wanting to share as many favorites as I could resulted in a pretty heavy kitchen week for me. I'll probably eat fast food most of this coming week to make up! You've had a lot of traditional Southern food from me this week,so today, it's a completely non-traditional day. Well, we'll start with last night, a pizza with caramelized onions, figs, goat cheese and bacon: This morning, it was ouefs en cocotte. Mine differ from the traditional in that they have a layer of cheese grits on the bottom. We had them with toasted and buttered pumpkin bread. Dinner, served midafternoon so my house guest could start home, was possibly the best thing I've eaten all day. I had some country stylel ribs -- boneless cuts -- and I braised them with onions, apple juice, cranberry and caraway seed. It was pretty wonderful. I served it with braised red cabbage and German potato salad. It's been fun. I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. I'm looking forward to reading the next one!

Breakfast this morning was country sausage patties, along with what was going to be rosti, from a recipe that called for baking them in the bottom of muffin tins and turning out perfect, crunchy rosti. They stuck. So I had hash browns. Tasted good, though. Accompanied by some of Thursday's curried fruit, with the last of the creme fraiche on top. Oh, and we had leftover cinnamon rolls from yesterday, of which I had failed to post the photo: Lunch was at Maddie's Place in Little Rock with my daughter and son-in-law and his parents, who were en route back home after a holiday trip to visit some of his family. The owner/chef at Maddie's is a former chef at NOLA, who moved home with his Little Rock-born wife to raise their children, post-Katrina. It's a great Cajun/Creole place; they make their own Andouille sausage, and make a chicken-Andouille gumbo that is outstanding, as well as shrimp and grits in an Andouille reduction that's just wonderful, if tremendously rich. The best thing I've ever had there -- and it's way too much for a midday meal -- is a pork cutlet, pounded thin, breaded and flash-fried (reminds me of a tonkatsu), over cornbread pudding -- sort of like dressing, but different -- and accompanied by homemade Worcestershire sauce. It's marvelous. I passed on that until the next chance I have to eat dinner there, in favor of a cup of gumbo and the small order of shrimp and grits. That sort of kicked out my idea of braising country style ribs in a German style cranberry/apple sauce tonight; that's way too heavy for me tonight. So I'm thinking it's pizza -- I have a crust in the freezer -- with whatever I can find in the fridge to put on it. Can you put sweet potatos on pizza, I wonder???

Kim -- If you'll google "saveur" and "cheddar cheese biscuits," that should get you there. Or just go to the Saveur site and look. Snadra, it's honey. I love honey with cheese. This honey comes from the same farm where one of the cheese is made (a sheep's milk) and the two go marvelously together; I wonder if it has something to do with the sheep and the bees dining at the same buffet....

Odds and ends from today (after my early shopping expedition, we napped, watched football and basketball, read and were generally lazy all day). The pumpkin pie from yesterday: The steamed pudding: Lunch was the noshes planned for last night -- cheese, pate, fig-and-olive tapenade. And a glass of cabernet sauvignon. Dinner was turkey enchiladas with arepas.

I'm thinking turkey enchiladas. Or maybe pasta with an alfredo sauce and turkey. I'm about to eat sweet potatos and cranberry salad for breakfast, though.

Back from Black Friday shopping....and I forgot to take homemade cinnamon rolls out of the freezer before I left, so they're defrosting and will rise in a warmed oven and hopefully it won't take too awfully long. I made rolls yesterday and my recipe makes two dozen...didn't need that many, so I used half the dough to make cinnamon rolls for this morning. Update on the steamed molasses and cranberry pudding -- astounding! Recipe is here: http://www.food52.com/recipes/7558_cranberrymolasses_pudding_with_vanilla_hard_sauce This will be a new standard at my house for holiday meals (albeit I'll know to steam it longer). The pudding itself is just barely sweet, with the tart pops of cranberry. They both play beautifully off the silky, rich, buttery sauce, which is not a traditional hard sauce but is the perfect accompaniment for the pudding. I cooked mine in a Bundt pan, and steamed it in a big enamelware roasting pan. The pumpkin pie wasn't bad, either. I did get back to a small sliver of that before bedtime. Photos of both to come later; I was so glazed over last night I forgot to photograph either one. Snadra, my dressing is pretty minimalist. I make a pan of cornbread (a 9-inch iron skillet or cake pan) a day or so before, break it up in big chunks, and let it get stale. The morning of, I crumble it roughly into a big bowl, pour about 2 1/2 to 3 cups of chicken stock over it, and go off and let it soak. I use my potato masher to break up remaining lumps, add three beaten eggs, onion (caramelized, this year, but I've used onions just sweated until they're limp), rubbed sage, and black pepper. The only way I can tell if it's seasoned correctly is to taste it; you want to taste the sage, but you don't want it overpowering everything else. It goes into my 9 x 13 baking dish and into a 350 oven for an hour. Most people put celery in their dressing. I don't like celery, so I don't. The sweet potatos -- three large ones, baked the day before -- are peeled and mashed with about a half-cup sugar, a half-stick of melted butter, a beaten egg and a teaspoon of vanilla extract. The topping is the other half-stick of butter, melted, a half-cup brown sugar, a quarter-cup flour, and a half-cup (or maybe more, I don't measure) of chopped pecans. It bakes about 40 minutes at 350. And come on to dinner any time! Kim, the recipe for bacon jam is here: http://www.evilshenanigans.com/2010/05/bourbon-bacon-jam/. And it is To Die For. I can't wait to put it on a grilled hamburger, with some smoky Provolone cheese! The biscuits/scones are from Saveur: http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Cheddar-Cheese-Biscuits. I rolled my dough a bit thin, and I think I just handled it too much. Didn't hurt the flavor, though, and the crumb was still pretty light. I suspect I may have the single left-over one this morning to go with my cinnamon roll; a good carb-fueled breakfast! Lunch is in Little Rock today (edit: Ooops, that's tomorrow! Lunch will be leftovers.), meeting my daughter and her husband, who are on their way back from his grandmother's Thanksgiving and birthday celebration. Dinner will be some iteration of leftovers, perhaps turkey tetrazzini....or turkey enchiladas....we shall see. Also have to strip and break down the turkey carcass, and boil it for stock. And watch Alabama and Auburn tonight!

Oh. My. Goodness. I have eaten entirely too much. And I feel a nap coming on. But perhaps I can get a post out there first. The spread: Clockwise from 6 o'clock: Turkey, dressing, curried fruit; mac and cheese, with a Parmesan/panko/pimenton dulce topping, in the blue oval cassesrole; behind that, praline sweet potatos; green bean casserole; barley pilaf; rolls and cranberry salad. We skipped the pre-dinner apps (pate and fig-and-olive tapenade, with assorted cheese and crostini and crackers) because we were still full from breakfast: cheddar cheese scones and bacon jam. Whoever invented the idea of bacon jam is a genius. This version has bacon, caramelized onions, maple syrup, cider vinegar, and other stuff I don't remember at this moment. But it's wonderful on cheddar cheese scone, which was intended to be a cheddar cheese biscuit but for some cause did not rise. So I called it a scone. Dessert has been placed on hold as none of us are capable of eating. We'll get back to pumpkin pie and molasses-cranberry steamed pudding after while. Maybe. As the overall photo shorts some of the dishes, here are some individual shots. The dressing: The green bean casserole, ready to go in the oven. I made a mushroom veloute with button and cremini mushrooms, and added in the beans I'd cooked earlier, put caramelized onions on top, added bread crumbs. Much better than the Campbells' soup and Durkees FF onions version. Sweet potatos, ready to cook: These are baked, mashed with some sugar, an egg and some vanilla, then topped with a crumble of brown sugar, flour, pecans and melted butter. They are to die for. The pudding, steaming: This was the one "Huh?" of the meal. Recipe called for an hour and 15 minutes' steaming. I gave it that, carefully unwrapped it -- and it did not look as though it had cooked at all. Fortunately, we were all full and had no real interest in dessert, so I wrapped it back up and it's steaming again as we speak; I'm about to check it. We uncorked a Grayson Cellars pinot noir, which went wonderfully. The turkey was not a particularly pretty bird, but was perhaps the most moist and juicy and tasty one I've ever cooked. I did not brine. I put a handful of caramelized onions, a stick of butter, and a handful of fresh sage leaves in the cavity, and I rubbed the skin with olive oil, sprinkled with kosher salt and black pepper. He was a 10-pounder, as there were only four of us, and he roasted for a bit over three hours. He was perhaps the most moist and juicy bird I've ever cooked. Someone asked about the curried fruit; it's canned peach and pear halves, pineapple chunks, and tart pie cherries, drained and arranged in a baking dish, topped with a mixture of melted butter, brown sugar and curry powder, and baked until it creates a nice syrup. It's a dish I picked up from my former mother-in-law, God bless her, who will be 101 in February and is still going strong. I'll detail the pumpkin pie and pudding later. Right now, I feel a nap coming on.

Bourbon chicken liver pate, from the Epicurious website (old Gourmet recipe). Put it in a pretty crock on a plate, surround with crostini. A platter of crostini arranged around a trio of dishes -- one with ricotta or chevre, one with fig and olive tapenade,one with a tomato, garlic and basil topping marinated in olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I love anything you can do to or with a sweet potato -- unless it involves marshmallows, pineapple or orange juice. My Thanksgiving SPs will have a brown sugar/pecan topping, as that's what the kids want. Me, I'm just as happy with a plain one baked, with butter. But mixing in some bacon lardons....now THAT has me thinking!

Whew! I'm tired! But all I have left to do tonight is to puree the pate in the food processor, pour some clarified butter over the top, and stick it in the fridge until tomorrow. Here we go: Cornbread, cooling, ready for tomorrow's dressing. Fig and olive tapenade. Chicken livers, simmering, for the pate. It's the Bourbon (except I use brandy) chicken liver pate from Gourmet, back in around 2003. The aforementioned Reuben chowder (verdict: pretty good. Would've been better if I hadn't been almost too tired to eat.) And last but most assuredly not least, the cranberry salad. This has been on every Thanksgiving and Christmas table as far back as I can remember. I have no idea if it's my mother's recipe, or if she got it from somewhere else, but she always made a double recipe and kept it in the fridge, as I still do today, where I will go to it like you'd go back to the ice cream carton or the cake or pie plate. I eat it for breakfast, I eat it for lunch, and I will make it as long as there are fresh cranberries to be had. (I've tried freezing, and it just isn't the same; the thawed berries tend to get soft.) If this were any easier, it'd be illegal. For a single recipe: 1 bag cranberries, washed and picked over; 1 green apple (I use Granny Smith); 1 red apple (I use Honey Crisp or Jonathan); zest and flesh of one orange; 1 cup pecans, chopped; 1 1/2 cups water, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 package raspberry Jell-o. Chop all the fruit in the food processor and toss together with pecans in a big bowl. Heat the water with the sugar until it's almost at a boil and sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and whisk in Jell-O. Pour over fruit and stir; chill overnight before serving. Don't be hating on the Jell-O, here. Rather than congealing, it tends to make a syrupy base that sort of glues the whole thing together. The turkey may not get brined tonight. He may get roasted straight as he sits. The sides are what the dinner's about, anyway. Oh, and I forgot the curried fruit when I was detailing my menu. That's a standby from my former mother-in-law.

Serious prep is under way! I've made cornbread for the dressing; the cranberry salad; the fig-and-olive tapenade, about to start on the pate, and bake the pumpkin pie; had take a break at the computer to check recipes. Also have sweet potatos baking for tomorrow's casserole. Have yet to brine the turkey and string and snap the beans; the rest takes place tomorrow. The final menu, unless I change my mind or forget something: Turkey (oven roasted, as it's supposed to rain) Dressing Giblet gravy Praline sweet potatos Barley pilaf Mac and cheese Maybe -- still undecided -- garlic mashed potatos with sour cream Green bean casserole (homemade version of the canned soup and FF onions version) Cranberry salad Rolls Desserts will be Chocolate Saffron Pots de Creme, pumpkin pie, and a cranberry-molasses steamed pudding with hard sauce. The last noses in because I was entranced with the idea, and it sounds so much like a traditional Thanksgiving dish. As is typical, there will are five dishes on the menu that have been on every Thanksgiving table I can remember -- the turkey, the dressing, the gravy, the sweet potatos (OK, when I was a kid, Mama candied them, but we've had the praline style for 30 years) and the cranberry salad, which is my absolute favorite part of the meal. And there are three things I've never made before -- the chocolate, the steamed pudding, and the homemde version of the casserole. Way too much for four people, but I can't help it. It's in my genes. Maggie, the Reuben Chowder is a recipe I ran across recently and decided I had to try. It's here: http://foododelmundo.com/2010/03/17/reuben-chowder/ Photos later. Back to work!

Pierogi, I was the photographer; managed to stay out of ALL the pictures! And yes, I'm thrilled with Surfas within walking distance. And I spend ENTIRELY too much money there; they smile when they see me walk in! Prawncrackers, chili is sort of one of those eye-of-the-beholder things. Tradition would call for cubed beef chuck, peppers and stock; no tomatos, and assuredly no beans. I, on the other hand, prefer the version that has about 2 or 3 pounds of coarsely ground beef (or part venison). I brown that with onions and garlic; drain it, put it in a stock pot with diced tomatos (about 2 29-oz cans), tomato sauce (a 14-oz can), and the seasonings that strike my fancy; add three or four cans of kidney or red beans (or pinto beans, for that matter); add a bottle or two of whatever dark beer I have on hand, a cup or so of strong black coffee from that morning, and simmer away for at least 3-4 hours, tasting and correcting seasonings. About an hour before serving, I'll add the cocoa powder -- a tablespoon or two for a normal sized 6 1/2 quart stockpot holding around a gallon of chili. About 30 minutes before serving, you can add some masa harina to thicken, if needed. Some people like thicker chili, some thinner. I prefer thicker, myself. Some don't like beans, and I've made it without beans. Some add whole kernel corn, which I've done on occasion. Some will serve it with grated cheese and sour cream; others won't. The important thing, to me, is a variety of chiles, so you get different layers of chile flavors, and a lot more cumin than you think you'll need.

Tonight was chili night with several hundred of my fellow Hot Springs folks. The occasion was the Downtown Merchants Association annual Chili Cookoff, always held the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, always capped off with the flipping of the switch for the downtown Christmas lights. The last three years, we've won the best booth contest. Last year, we won best non-traditional chili (ours has beans, and so is considered non-traditional). This year? We wuz robbed! Our booth was a work of art -- at least we thought so. Our chili didn't look, or taste, too bad, either. And a big crowd turned out, as is the general rule in Hot Springs, where if we know how to do anything, it's have a party at any excuse. Originally, I was named chef-in-chief for this adventure. But the duty really got shared, and the chili wound up a group effort. We all took part of the 15 pounds of ground beef home to brown it, with onions, the night before. I got the pot started with a great deal of can-opening (tomatos and beans) and seasoning (ancho, Hatch and chipotle powdered chiles; cumin; Mexene chili powder; salt; a six-pack of dark beer; a half-a-pot of strong coffee). And then I had to go to a meeting, so the rest of the crew took over and added, well, other stuff. When I came back and taste-tested, it was lacking a couple of bottom notes, so I added some cocoa and a little more cumin. It was decent. I've made better. And I was so busy I never got a chance to eat. So I came home and had cheese and crackers and wine, which I did not photograph. Tomorrow, it's sushi for our office pre-Thanksgiving lunch, and I'm making Reuben chowder for dinner while I do the bulk of the prep for Thursday because I haven't been nearly as diligent as I'd planned on that particular chore. But with just four of us eating, and all of us here, I can just delay service until about 5:30 or 6, instead of my planned 2:30 or 3, and give myself a couple of extra hours on Thursday. I have, however, already had my first Thanksgiving disaster. Came home from the grocery Saturday morning, put turkey and ice on the front porch to go in cooler. Brought in and put away remainder of groceries. Did not leave the house the rest of the day, nor Sunday. It warmed up yesterday, so I figured this morning I'd best check the cooler and see if I needed to replenish the ice. And found the turkey, and the empty ice bag, sitting next to the cooler. Fortunately, it was a basic grocery store turkey, and they still had them on special, so I simply went back and got another one tonight. Which is in the cooler, with ice, and will go in brine tomorrow afternoon to finish thawing. Thank God for loss leaders. A total of a bit over 24 pounds of turkey has cost me a total of a little more than $10. Next year, I'm taking the plunge and getting a heritage turkey from my local organic farmers, just to see if there's that much difference in the taste. (Not being a huge turkey fan -- this is the one I cook every year -- I'll be interested to see if it DOES, in fact, make a big difference to me.) Lots of prep photos tomorrow!

A quick shot of lunch today: We have a branch of Surfas here in Hot Springs (the only extant branch, I think; thank God Les Surfas' wife is from Arkansas and wanted to retire back home), and as they're a block and a half from my office, I often walk down there for lunch. Their menu is limited, but I do love their three-cheese grilled cheese sandwich, with farmer's cheese, gruyere and blue cheese mayo, on house-baked sourdough. The salad is mixed greens with dried cranberries and walnuts, with the house orange vanilla viniagrette. And it's less than six bucks, which means I eat there maybe twice a week.

What is this spicy pumpkin butter you speak of? It's much like apple butter. Again, it's something I sampled at the Farmers Market, liked, and went home and googled for recipes. I took the basics from several different ones, and combined a 29-ounce can of pumpkin puree, 2/3 cup brown sugar, a cup of apple juice, a teaspoon of cinnamon, a quarter-teaspoon each of allspice and nutmeg, and an eighth-teaspoon of cloves. That all simmered about an hour, until it thickened up nicely (several recipes noted you could cook it overnight in a small slow-cooker), and went into a container in the fridge. It's excellent on biscuits, and on sourdough toast!

Lunchtime today found me in the next town over, and hungry. So I stopped by Keeney's, a mom-and-pop grocery store in a questionable area of town, with an annex of sorts at the rear, behind the meat counter, with a sign that proclaims, "Deli." Keeney's is hailed for its barbecue, but I've always been a fan of its plate lunches -- simple and unvarnished country cooking, on styrofoam, no frills. Today I opted for meat loaf, purple-hulled peas, and could not resist candied yams (as mine on Thursday will be in a casserole, not candied). The meat loaf was good, if a bit heavy on the bell pepper. The candied yams had a rather thin syrup, and I was apprehensive, but the taste was excellent, just a hint of spice and just enough sugar. The star of the show, though, was the baby loaf of cornbread. Tonight,it was a patched-together dinner with cheese ravioli in pesto cream sauce and open-faced meatball sandwiches. I'd made pesto Sunday from my basil that was being threatened by the cool nights, and I used the ubiquitous egg roll wrappers as pasta, because making pasta is a skill I've never acquired. The meatballs were in the fridge and I needed the room, so, voila, dinner! (had to run the meatballs under the broiler to melt the mozzarella, too.) Tomorrow night is chili, as our office is competing in the Downtown Merchants Association annual chili cook-off and yours truly is the chef-in-chief. I need to bundle up all my seasonings and assorted other necessary stuff tonight, as well as starting some prep for Thursday. I think I'll call it a success if I get cornbread made for the dressing, and cranberry salad put together. So with that, I'll bid you a fond adieu until tomorrow!

I will make it a point, sometime this week, to go to either McClard's (President Bill Clinton's favorite barbecue, as this was his home town) or Purity (my personal favorite). No shortage of great barbecue here!

Chris H -- No kitchen pictures until I clean it up a little! I cooked all day yesterday, and did not leave it in as good a shape as it should be. The fridge is pre-Thanksgiving packed (the turkey is slowly defrosting in a cooler on the front porch!) But I will provide pics, I promise. No methocellulose or xanthan gum, though. Chris A -- Moved from W. Tenn. to Memphis to go to college, lived and worked in that area for the next 30 years, moved to Hot Springs for a new position a year and a half ago. Love it here, although I do miss some of the food shopping opportunities in Memphis!

A quick breakfast post to get things started. I don't cook breakfast, usually, on work mornings, but this morning, I warmed up a couple of pumpkin-and-ricotta turnovers I'd made yesterday. These were inspired by a pumpkin-and-ricotta tamale I got at the tamale stand at the Famers' Market recently, just because I couldn't comprehend a pumpkin-ricotta tamale and had to try one. I used spicy pumpkin butter and egg roll wrappers for the outside. Good stuff!

Welcome to my kitchen. I’m honored to have been asked to chronicle a week of my meals for an eG Foodblog; my skills and my imagination don’t come near a great number of the people who frequent this site. But I do love to cook, and experiment, and I credit eGullet with helping me expand my culinary horizons in the two years or so I’ve been following this site. Born and raised in the rural South, those influences permeate almost all my cooking. You’ll see a traditional West Tennessee Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, not appreciably different from the ones my mother and grandmother cooked 50 years ago, although I’ve added a few of my own twists. I picked this week, partly for that reason, and partly because I’ll be off work Wednesday afternoon through the rest of the week, and you won’t have to endure my frequent weeknight meals of carryout and quick-fix. But you’ll get some of the slow-cooker soups and stews and the like that stand between me and starvation (or fast food) on weeknights, as well as some of my breakfast favorites since I’ll have time over the holiday weekend to make many of them. I live in Hot Springs, Arkansas; I’m fortunate enough to live on the lake, as evidenced by the “mystery photo” of my sun deck in the “coming attractions.” I have a 21-year-old daughter who lives with me, along with a 15-year-old “son” I acquired this summer and am dutifully trying to teach to eat something other than pizza, mac and cheese, and burgers. I have two older daughters who live elsewhere, and one of them will present me with my first grandchild in February. I work as a business developer, which means I sometimes have crazy hours and often come home too late to even think about cooking; the flip side is I get to travel a good deal and enjoy wonderful food in some really good restaurants around the country and abroad. I’m looking forward to cooking for you this week. Happy Thanksgiving!

What ingredients are in that sauce? Is there a taste to which it is akin? I assume you know what is black garlic (aged garlic). I use EVOO, balsamic, a little red wine, a little soy sauce and a lot of black garlic, all pureed into a thick sauce. The taste is very interestingly sweet, It's not like anything I can compare it with. Black garlic does not taste like garlic at all. dcarch Where would one find black garlic? Is there an online source? I feel relatively certain I couldn't find it around here....

My top 10, although the order can change from day to day: 1. Pot roast 2. Red beans and rice 3. White bean and sausage soup 4. Vegetable beef soup (made with the leftover pot roast) 5. Chili 6. Posole (for which I will ever be indebted to Chris Amirault for his mother-in-law's recipe!) 7. Slow-roasted pork with whatever spices and sides spark my interest that day 8. Tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich 9. Pasta e fagioli 10. Single malt scotch (preferably Glenmorangie), two ice cubes.