ElainaA

Shelby -If you like Better Than Store Bought, the author has another book - Fancy Pantry - on the same theme - how to make things most people buy. My only caviat is that she doesn't process all her jams or uses very short processing times, which I think is unsafe. I process everything and use standard times from the NCHP site. But the recipes all work. And I love the concept. If your family would consider a different sweet potato recipe, I recently found one with an apple and pecan topping. I haven't tried it but it looks really good. I can't remember where I found it but I have it at home so I can post a link when I'm there if you want. (I am right now "volunteering" in my husband's office - so I can goof off any time I want. ) (I thought it might be from right here but a quick search doesn't find it.) When we still did a traditional, extended family Thanksgiving, I HAD to make the same stuffing every year - cornbread, sausage and pecans - or there was universal outrage.

I use a recipe from Helen Witty's Better Than Store Bought - one of my favorite books. The ingredient list looks a bit intimidating but it really is pretty basic stuff. I make 2 batches each fall - we don't use a lot of ketchup so that sees us through until the next tomato harvest. 8 qts. ripe tomatoes (preferably plum) 1 stick cinnamon (2"0 ) broken 1 1/2 c. chopped onion 1 T whole black pepper corns 1/2 c. chopped celery, with leaves 1 bay leaf 1/2 c, chopped sweet red pepper 1 t. whole cloves 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 t. ground coriander 2 T. salt 1/4 t. celery seed 2 c. cider vinegar 1/4 t. red pepper flakes (or more to taste) 1 T. mustard seeds 1/4 c. sugar 1 T. whole allspice 1/3 c. packed dark brown sugar 1. Wash, drain and quarter the tomatoes. Cook , stirring occasionally about 30 minutes, until soft. Measure 4 qts of pulp into a large pot. 2. Add the onion, celery, sweet red pepper,garlic, salt and vinegar. Bring to a boil. 3. Tie the spices (mustard seeds, allspice, cinnamon, peppercorns, bay leaf, cloves, coriander, celery seed and pepper flakes into a square of cheese cloth. Add to tomato mixture. Add sugars. Cook over medium heat until the ketchup thickens moderately. (I've never timed this - it takes a while) 4. Strain the ketchup through a large sieve, pressing hard on the vegetables. Discard the pulp and spice bag and strain again. Taste and adjust salt and pepper if needed. 5. Reheat. If not tick enough boil longer, stirring. 6. Ladle into sterilized half-pint of pint jars, seal and process 10 minutes for half-pints, 15 minutes for pints. Makes 8-9 half pints.

There are such amazing meals here! This one is super simple. Meatloaf (with my home made ketchup both in the meat loaf mix and on top), mega-garlic mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli.

I would second (third? fourth?) the recommendation of Bag Balm. It is really helpful for cracked skin. The best product I have used for that problem though was a cream made of 100% sheep lanolin. When I lived in Vermont it was available in some stores (usually 'natural' food stores). I've never seen it in stores elsewhere but it is easily available on the internet.

I think I'm making the apple cider caramels you posted about on the confections thread. Doesn't that, sort of, make you part of the family? (I'm thinking I will use them as centers and dip them. I'm terrible at wrapping caramels. They always look wonky.)

I do the same thing every year - but no one seems to mind the repetition. I make an assortment of chocolates and other candy - truffles, molded, filled chocolates, dipped centers, caramel, barks, nougat, brittles - and on and on. About 15 or so different candies. This year I have also candied fruit - cherries, apricots, tangerines, meyer lemons and regular lemons some of which will be dipped in chocolate. I make up bags for family, friends and some work contacts of both my husband and myself. For close friends and family (and there is a lot of extended family! ) I add one or more jars of the various preserves and pickles that I have been putting up all summer. Some times I put in a mini loaf of bread to go with the preserves. I am required to make stollen for Christmas day breakfast. Since my recipe makes a lot of dough I bake one large stollen for the family gathering and about 5-6 mini stollen for family that live too far away to be with us. (The rest of the candied fruit goes in the stollen.) The last few years I have been packing everything in reusable grocery bags - I especially like the Trader Joes' ones. Wegman's has nice, inexpensive ones too. My chocolate order from Gygi's arrived today - well, half of it arrived and their customer service promises me another box is one the way - so I'm just starting to think about what I'll be making. Edited to add: Shelby, are you doing your Christmas baskets this year? They always look spectacular!

What are you doing with the cardoon? I still have one huge plant in the garden - I've been waiting to harvest it until I decide what to do with it. When I harvested the first plant, i used about half and wrapped the rest and put it in the fridge. Two days later it was completely flaccid. So I need an idea that would use up more at once. I'd love to hear what you are doing. Pigs are highly intelligent - it sounds as though Bacon has succeeded in training you to bring him a beer when HE wants it. I have a neighbor who has trained her pigs to come, sit and stay on command. She takes them on walks and they follow right at her heel. I think you have to train them when they are very small. And she is a horse trainer by profession. She believes any animal can be trained - although I think raising chickens may have made her reconsider. Seeing a 300 lb pig sit on command is really funny.

A pork chop rubbed with sage, rosemary and thyme (3/4 of a Simon and Garfunkel rub) over a leek and mustard sauce with roasted potatoes and garlic. This used the last of the leeks from this year's garden - I only had about 1/3 of the quantity called for in the recipe. I think it would have benefitted from more leeks. Served with a salad as most dinners are in our home.

Tonight:Sweet Mama Squash soup - but made with butternut because I had half a enormous squash in the fridge. Squash, apples and onion pureed in chicken broth with maple syrup, cayenne, nutmeg and cream. Garnished with chopped apples. (An essential element.) With salad and cheese biscuits. Last night: Pasta with lots of peppers and sausage.

Do you have any pictures of Gygi's? That has been my source for chocolate for several years - in fact I put in an order yesterday. They have the best prices I've found on the web for Callebaut callets. Given your very high level of activity, I do understand you can't document everything!

I was inspired by a story in last week's NY Times magazine about Meera Sodha's new cookbook, based on recipes from her family. It has been awhile since I have done any Indian cooking. Meeera Sodha's chicken curry - lots of ginger, garlic, onions, yogurt, tomatoes,peppers, spices and chicken. Very tasty but I would up the heat if I make it again. Naan - My first attempt - it came out better than I expected but I think I need some practice. The recipe is from the same NYTimes article. Broccoli with garlic oil. This is from Julie Sahni's Classic Indian Cooking, a book I used to use a lot. I have to get back to it.

This is well timed for me as a friend just gave me an assortment of winter squash. There is a small butternut, a discus buttercup and 4 varieties of kabocha - sunshine, gold nugget, winter sweet and (I think) sweet mama. I was told they will be best if I don't use them before mid November but I'm not sure I will wait. I want to make sweet mama squash soup this week. The squash is halved, cleaned and roasted. The pulp is scooped out and mashed. While the squash is roasting, cook 1 chopped onion in olive oil, add chicken broth (the recipe says 5 cups - I use much less. I guess I like thick soup),2 peeled,cored and quartered apples and maple syrup (again I use less than the recipe calls for - it says 1/4 cup - I use half that). Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until apple is very tender. Remove from heat, stir in mashed squash. Puree is food processor or blender (I use an immersion blender). Stir in 1 c. cream, season with salt and pepper. Heat through. Serve topped with chopped apples. Delicious. This may show up on the dinner thread later this week. My favorite way of cooking butternut squash is from Fields of Greens - the squash is peeled and cut into fairly small cubes. It is tossed with a large quantity of diced garlic, salt and pepper and flour just to coat. Put in an oiled baking dish and drizzle with olive oil. Bake until soft. You can use almost any oven temperature and adapt the time accordingly. The recipe calls for a long time at, I think 275. I've used temperatures up to 400 (depending on what else is in the oven) and it always comes out just fine.

kale sautéed with bacon and garlic, This summer, several times my daughter's CSA basket contained 2-3 varieties of kale (often along with chard and possibly other greens). I asked her what she did with it all. Her response was - "if you add bacon ANYTHING tastes good."

Compared to the meals above this is super simple. But it was what we needed after a day of hard physical labor. (Yesterday our wood for this winter's heat, 12 face cords, was delivered as was the topsoil for the bed of my new greenhouse. Today we stacked wood into the bins then raked and leveled dirt. I'm exhausted.) Grilled strip steak, grilled asparagus, baked potato and mushroom sautéed in butter and sherry. I learned the mushroom technique in the restaurant where I waitressed while in graduate school (Carburs in Burlington, Vt - I wonder if it is still there 40 years later?) They would have mushrooms cooking for hours and hours, adding more sherry whenever the pan cooked dry. I could eat a whole bowlful just on their own.

Please keep us all posted on your trip! Candymaking was one of the first books I used when I started playing around with candy making MANY years ago. If I don't make Amy's Toffee every year for Christmas my sister-in-law would stop talking to me.

Well, for tonight I planned on making a beef stew. Obviously that didn't happen. I became aware that things were not going very well at work for my husband and I know that for him (2nd generation Italian) the thing that always makes him feel better is pasta. So I threw the beef intended for the stew into the food processor and made Bolognese sauce. Luckily i had gotten home early enough to give it the full 3 hours of simmering. The time is worth it.

Tonight - Oven roasted mahi-mahi with a citrus zest rub (lemon and lime) and a citrus vinaigrette with a salad of roasted sweet potatoes, carrots and spiced chick peas over spinach with a yogurt dressing.

I'm not sure if this is preserving (as I think of it) or a confection - but I took my tangerines out of the syrup today and spread them out to dry. They need to dry for a few days then will get packed away for holiday candy and baking. Tomorrow I will start lemons. I seem to be incapable of working on two types of fruit at the same time.

Not a very photogenic dinner but a very tasty one. Risotto with leeks, chicken and bacon. And a salad.

I think it is relevant that the NY Times had another story today about how much research on nutrition today is done with very small samples and over very short periods of time. ​http://nyti.ms/1H4hX3L (Sorry, I do not know how to post a live link. Paste it in, it should work.) I do not know if that applies to this study but it does raise questions. Edit to say WOW when I posted it, it came up live!

Black beans (Coco Noir from my garden- they don't show up well but they are huge and delicious) and brown rice topped with feta cheese, chopped avocado and a salsa of ginger, jalapeños, lime zest, lime juice, garlic and onion. With a tomato, cucumber and red onion salad. Last night Barney (my husband) cooked: Grilled pork, oven roasted sweet potato fries, spinach and muchrooms

Growing up Thanksgiving meant a huge meal with all the usuals - turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, pies, etc. It never really meant that much to me - perhaps because by the time I was a teenager, as the youngest in a large family,I was put in charge of the 'kid's table' out in the hall, keeping various nieces and nephews under control. Soon after I married I took over cooking Thanksgiving dinner for my husband's family (which let us go to my parents' for Christmas without guilt.). I replicated the meal I grew up on. Fast forward about 20 years and my husband's family is dispersed. My husband, daughter and I look at each other and all admit that we really don't care for turkey all that much. Since then the only time I cook turkey is when I smoke one for our summer or fall parties. Thanksgiving usually means duck now. But sometimes other things - always festive, at least to us. This year we will be with our daughter at her place and I have no idea what we'll eat. But it will be good. My mother often claimed that her favorite holiday was Bastille Day - because it was the only holiday that she didn't spend days cooking. She set off firecrackers in the back yard and made Dad take her out to dinner.

Sylvia - Do you candy just the peels or do you candy slices of the fruit?

The piece I have is cirtron fruit. I'm getting very varied opinions on this. David Lebovitz has a blog post on candying citron. From the pictures he is starting with a yellow, ripe one. He basically says "easy peasy". (Not in those words though. That's me.) Several other bloggers also have posts on it. However i also hear, from people whose opinions I highly respect, including Andiesenji, that it isn't actually so easy. If I can locate an actual unprocessed citron I will probably try just for the experience. I've never candied lemons - I think I might have to do that. I have tangerines sitting in syrup right now - up to 70 brix yesterday, so today might be the last time boiling the syrup. (My husband gave me a refractometer for Christmas 3 years ago. My family was all "What IS that?" I thought it was one of the best presents I ever got. I'm lucky, he's a tool geek.)

Shelby - Those crepes look perfect!