Margaret Pilgrim

Forgive and allow me to repost Mary Risley's classic (albeit bawdy) video on How to Roast a Turkey.

+1 on stuffing outside the bird. Two casseroles, in fact, one for the table and leftovers and one for son to take home. Which calls for rivers of gravy for TD and two households' leftover stuffing. This year= ham plus stuffing, mac and cheese, roast yams and roast carrots. Chocolate cream pie for dessert. My parent would faint at how far from the tree we've fallen re TD menu!

I had such an epiphany maybe half dozen years ago when I stood tall and announced, after some 50 years of hosting, "I have cooked my LAST turkey!"

You send out invitations? Our group is only 6 this year...

I love chicken, pigeon, duck and most of their friends. But I truly find turkey, be it supermarket or heritage, a holiday obligation rather than something I look forward to. When hosting, a successful holiday is when I have packaged and sent home with others all of the leftovers. Special kudos when someone opts for the carcass. Now that we understand each other, Butterball has over time provided us with the most tolerable bird. Juicy (yes, I know), tender, flavorful. Whatever evil they do with those birds, it does taste good on the plate. Just sign me "Philistine".

Even before @rotuts' coup, my mother gave me $20 towards Thanksgiving dinner. Instead of the turkey she had in mind, I went to Lucky and bought one at .19/lb -> $6. bird. Did not confess my larceny, but remember everyone around the table complimenting the turkey, In later year I bought a very expensive heritage turkey that was just awful! Scrawny, stringy, tough. I mean, that bird had lead a hard life!

According to Forbes Mag, Lubbock wines are hidden treasures. Sounds like you found a couple

Let's not denigrate Lodi wine. A friend of ours is making super-outstanding wines, acknowledged by top restaurants and somms, Sandland label. eg:

For years I traveled with a small bottle of Cholula which was my cure-all for airline food.

Anna via Tri2Cook: "you're heading in a bad direction and I'm not gonna let you." An invaluable mantra for each of us and those who look to us for wisdom.

Under "mental prep", just read how to clone a honey baked ham. Last year, we paid just under $100 for a half a honey baked ham to take to the family Thanksgiving. This year, with just 6 of us, I'm cheaping it with a plain spiralied ham. But I thought, what, what if I could make our own honey baked ham? And it seems that I don't even have to reinvent the wheel! Others show us how! What a coup to have enjoy this at maybe a quarter of the price!

re "lard sandwich" in France: Very simple camp-type grill set up. Unseasoned (maybe salt) 3/16i" slices of pork belly.

So we can EAT it. We don't consider it only a Christmas bread, but a breakfast and tea bread. I remember a French hostess near t4e Italian border serving us panettone at breakfast during the summer.

Did you have to dispatch the bullfrogs yourself? My neighborhood markets sell them live but I've not killed one since my high school hospital lab job that required me to do so.

At a village fete in country France, a men's civic group was selling "lard sandwiches". I couldn't fathom what these would be but the line was long so I decided it was worth a "go". Turned out to be charcoal grilled pork belly. WOW! On a super fresh baguette. WOW, WOW! No condiments needed on this ultimate porky hand-feast. Never seen this offered since but I guess it's a household thing.

Wisdom seems to have been an inheritable trait in that family. Thank you, Lynn Marie and Kerry, indeed.

I kind of wonder if October panettone are first arrivals of this year's bake or the last of the previous year.

If you're by chance in Paris in early December, Salon Saveurs will take care of your holiday shopping. Fresh, frozen, dried, tinned, jarred, packaged, it's all here. Generous samples, a crush but not long lines. Stuff we never see here. Cheese, charcuterie, confitures, if you can eat it, it's here. Did I say foie gras? Wine and cider. All versions of preserved salmon. Herbs and spices and condiments.

Regardless of quality, I could never eat or even taste panettone in the way he just stuffs wads in his mouth. I also don't enjoy it cut in the traditional/correct way. I like it cut crosswise into 1/2" circles. And IMHO it should be heated slightly. We just pass it through hot non-stick pan, not quite long enough to toast. We go through several large ones a season, so all of this reminds me that it's time to bring (a good) one home.

I had to laugh at the emphasis on cooling time. The one time I made panetonne, I followed the directions and suspended it upsidedown to cool and drop from the mold. Dear husband came in and, not understanding the process, decided to "help" by whacking the mold a few times and nudging the loaf out with a spatula. Of course, it was so delicate that it collapsed and tore apart. Other than the fact that it was utterly unpresentable, the texture and flavor, and, yes, moistness were superb. I never revisited the recipe.

Like many mass produced things, glaceed fruit has been cheapened to what Katie rightly calls Neon Fruit. The real thing, from small producers is a different animal. True to flavor and color of the original fruit, delicious, and expensive even at the source. Besides the fancy food halls of the grand magazins in Paris, wonderful stuff can be found at Paris' Christian Constant. Yes, those stoplight red thing are glaceed chilis!

How very fortunate we are to have so many of Anna's observations chronicled here. She will be alive as long as we are here to reread her words. Thank you, Kerry, for sharing your memories with us. May she always bring a smile to your and our face.

A friend has for years extolled the virtues of Panettone by Roy , which were $50 a pop. A little rich for me. I see that this year they are $95. Enjoy!

Yo, bro! Include those shops who pollute their space with pumpkin/gingerbread potpourri. Kind of excludes us from October through December.

An upscale San Francisco bakery makes equally upscale poptarts. Our son, who to my knowledge has never tasted the Kellogg' product, adores these.