Norm Matthews

With leftover ham, ham bones and turkey stock, I cooked some beans and collard greens. We also had corn muffins, salad and sauteed mushrooms.

Heidih, I also noticed that both King Arthur and David Levowitz suggested adding some chocolate to the pie filling. King Arthur specifically said 2 oz. bittersweet chunks added to the filling.

My nephew's wife always brings this one to our dinner. I PMed you some others that I saw on line and considered making if she wasn't going to bring this one. Sweet Potato Souffle 3 cups mashed sweet potatoes 1 Cup Sugar (I thought this was excessive so I only used 1/2 cup. Next time I may omit this completely or substitute 1-2 T. apple juice) 1/2 tsp salt 2 eggs, beaten 1/3 stick margarine or butter, melted 1/2 C milk 1tsp vanilla Mix all ingredients together and pour into a greased baking dish. Topping: 1/3 stick margarine or butter, melted 1 C brown sugar 1 C chopped nuts 1/3 C flour Melt butter. Mix together flour and sugar, add melted butter and chopped nuts. Pour over the sweet potato mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. Rebecca Moore

I looked up the recipe and it was from King Arthur Flour. The pie recipe was attributed to: Credit for this pie belongs to Alison Kave and her book First Prize Pies. Her special recipe adds three types of ginger to a pecan pie filling — with a splash of quality sipping bourbon, too. The recipe from the David Lebovitz site also gives her credit for the recipe.

I did not see any attribution to the cook (or baker) on the recipe I have, but most of the ingredients are the same. The differences are the recipe i have just says to use a classic single pie crust and 1 1/2 C. pecans to 2 C. and 3/4 C. brown sugar to 1 C. I do have some Knob Creek whiskey that I was planning to use.

Tentative menu

The ham from Heritage Foods arrived today. I'll slice it up and freeze most of it until Thanksgiving. We'll probably have some for dinner in a day or two too. My sister reminded me that when we had it at my aunt and uncle's house every year when we were kids, she always served ham because Uncle Don never ate poultry. I never knew why. But bringing back old things, I inherited moms silver plate and aunt and uncle's porcelain which will be on the table. Thanks for the Crepes, I'll ask my son if he will be up for grilling. This salad is good and I may do it for Thanksgiving. That will be a new one for TGday. 1/2 cup raisins 3 T. bourbon 1 cup pecan pieces 1 T. packed brown sugar 1/2 tsp. ground cumin 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper 3/4 cup olive oil 1/4 cup red wine vinegar 1 T. Dijon mustard Salt and coarse ground pepper to taste 2 small heads radicchio, coarsely shredded 2 heads endive, leaves separated 1 medium red onion, thinly sliced 2 medium Granny Smith apples, cubed 2 cups coarsely chopped celery feta cheese Soak raisins in bourbon for at least 3 hours, until plump. Heat pecans, sugar, cumin and cayenne over medium heat in large skillet, stirring until lightly toasted. Remove from heat and set aside. Blend oil, vinegar, and mustard in bowl with wire whisk, add salt and pepper to taste, refrigerate until serving time. Toss radicchio, endive, onion, apple and celery with prepared dressing in large bowl; serves 8. Top each salad with raisins, pecans and feta cheese.

Recipe copied and saved. Thanks.

My sister has always had dinner at her house and resisted any suggestions to have it anywhere else. Last Thanksgiving, right after dinner, she asked if we were open to rotating the event. i said I'd do it this year but figured it was out of being very tired and expected her to forget or try to waffle out of having it somewhere else. Last month she was having dinner at my DIL's restaurant and my DIL reminded her that we were having it at out house this year. She did try to waffle out of it but my DIL said I'd already mede out the menu and bought extra chairs. She made up some of that but it's at my house for sure this year. I have not made the menu for sure but one thing I plan to add is Heritage ham as well as turkey. i am going to add a cranberry relish with apples and pears that we have never had before. I am still working on the rest of the menu and would take any suggestions.

Thanks for the Crepes, Thanks for the link to the recipe. It looks good. If you click on the http link at the bottom of my post it will take you to the recipe I used. I also cook the dressing separate and don't truss poultry. With full sized chickens, I often slash the skin between the legs and body to let the heat in so that area cooks as fast as the rest of the chicken. That is something I saw Jaques Pepin do.

About 25 years ago I tried a recipe for Honey Lacquered Game Hens. It became my one of my son's favorite dishes. About 20 years ago ex #2 stole the recipe when she left. (FWIW, she also stole my smoker and Charlie's basketball goal) I've made up similar versions and we've liked them too. Actually I think I recently found the original online and we didn't like it as well as what I do now. I always have had it with rice before but today made cornbread stuffing and mixed vegetables.

The round and rump are from the back leg of the cow. The rump is the lower portion. Sirloin is between the end of the loin and beginning of the round.

Some cut of round or rump would be my guess. It looks too lean to be much of anything else.

I read that this study used consumption rates of a little over 9 hot dogs or 14 strips of bacon per week every week and that amount would increase the risk of colon cancer by 17% PS the low average life expectancy among early humans was largely due to the high infant mortality rate which bought the number down quite a bit. It wasn't terribly unusual for adults to live to old age. PPS Actually high infant mortality was the case even up to relative modern times. Understanding of the need for sanitation and pasteurized milk helped quite a lot.

That's the one.

The pan is non stick aluminum. I pressed the dough down into the pan and let it rise, then baked it in the pan. It's heavy aluminum and it browned without me doing anything special. It came right out when I turned it over. I don't know any other store close by that carries the pan. It's new from Nordic Ware. If it turned out OK with yeast bread, thought I might use it for Challah on Thanksgiving. I am lousy at braiding.

The bread I made this weekend was gone after two days so I decided to make some more. Meanwhile a friend in Seattle posted a picture of a new loaf pan from Nordic. While the bread was rising I went to Williams Sonoma and liked the pan enough to get one. I know the pan is for quick bread but I thought I'd put a loaf of the yeast bread in the pan to see how it looked. I also saw what looked like a pretty conservative Italian recipe for meatballs and sauce so I made it for dinner to go with the bread. Also had a simple salad.

We had company after trick or treating, and I didn't take any pictures, but I put a chuck roast in the slow cooker this morning with potatoes, carrots, and an onion along with seasonings, and made a pot roast. We finished off the the sour dough bread too.

mmille24, good looking roast. I don't have sous vide equipment but that gives me an idea of what to put in the slow cooker for dinner tomorrow.

It's been at least since May. I fed it daily for about a week before I used it. I had some for many years that I would keep in the refrigerator for months but after about ten years it died and I decided not to have any more. Then a friend sent me some as a Christmas present about 4 years ago from King Arthur, along with a ceramic canister for keeping it. I use a sharp paring knife and cut it deeper than I used to. I also brush it with an egg and water wash inside the gash as well as outside. I put a pan of steaming water in the oven too. I don't know how much any of those things makes a difference though. One other thing I do that helps is: when the dough has set for about 10 minutes, I insert a thermometer probe in the middle of one of the loaves and bake it to 190º instead of to time. These were done about 7 minutes before the recipe said to let them bake. You can see the hole for the thermometer probe in the top picture on the side of the closer loaf.

Last week I woke up my sourdough starter that had been sleeping in the refrigerator since May and yesterday made some French bread with it.

I thought it would be a good time to wake up the sour dough starter that had been sleeping in the refrigerator since May. I made some sourdough French bread today after feeding it for several days. We had store bought deli fried chicken and baked beans to go with it.

Every time we have a yard sale, I have a few less cookbooks. The 3 drawers below the desk are also full of cookbooks, but this is what is left. There used to be a couple more book shelves full as well as this one. There are two books in there that aren't cookbooks. One is a bible and the other is a first edition (in dust jacket) of Atlas Shrugged. After I read that book, I was convinced Ayn Rand was a total kook.

I haven't cooked much worth mentioning lately, but today I visited an Asian market, and got some pork shoulder and bean sprouts and made pork bulgogi and Korean bean sprouts. We cooked the bulgogi at the table since the kids get a kick out of doing that at their favorite restaurant. I already had this propane grill for some time when the power might go out. We already had most of the other stuff. Not pictured is a dip made with sesame oil with salt and pepper.

When I was an art teacher, we used fixitive in a spray can to keep charcoal drawings from smearing. In the storage room was a bottle of fixitive (basically a type of varnish) and one of those mouth atomizers. In pre spray can times, fixitive was sprayed on drawings with it.