Margaret Pilgrim

Asparagus "Hamburger" and smashed potato, Russian blue cheese dressing

WOOF!!!

Christmas Eve dinner. Son and brood came over to build the croquembouche Standing rib was okay, as was Yorkshire and several veg. But the croquembouche was worth the wait.

Tangentially, I was amused by egg cartons marked "Free range Grass Fed hens". Now if THAT isn't an oxymoron...

Didn't have any mushrooms which you should try to include. Sauted floured chicken tenders, then sliced onions. Sour cream with some flour stirred in, chicken broth. Dash Worchestershire and Dijon mustard.

Ditch Child A, Invite us. Sell CSO. You won't need it. Cheers.

Veg Chicken breast "stroganoff"

@Paul Bacino If I'm not mistaken, that's "Neck Bone with HOMEMADE pasta". Nice.

Some salad Country rib with pasta Pork country rib with tube pasta

This requires beyond genius imagination. Hat's off! My head is still reeling. eta = problem: in our house, regardless of how many times I multiply the recipe, there is never leftover Yorkshire.

Rye, cranberry, chocolate chunk, poppy seed, Maldon salt cookie from Mokonuts Cafe, Paris

Here, for the ramp challenged among us, is a delightful dressing with only four ingredients: cream, chives, lemon juice and salt. Patricia Wells claims it's her staple reach-for dressing.

My mother made gingerbread cake topped with 7-minute frosting and dribbled with melted chocolate. B Pattisserie makes a lovely gingerbread cake dusted with powdered sugar. It's elusive flavor AFAIK and I'm guessing, contains fresh ginger, cocoa. and coffee. I've come close with this recipe.

Italian onion soup (Cipollata) richer than French since it includes cheese and egg incorporated into the soup. Quite delicious. Very filling.

Some foods (latkes, fried calamari and prawns, French fries) just aren't meant for table service. They need to be smokin' hot and the exterior shatteringly crunchy. But when not possible, served with applesauce and creme fraiche or Mexican sour cream will suffice. I tend to fall into the no flour, only potato starch, camp.

Husband busted out some suit-cased home foie gras, broke open a fine sauternes, so I pulled out a jar of bar-le duc. Well, it is the season... Lidia's chicken and potatoes With buttery zucchini

Better tonight. Fuyu with clementines in clementine "vinaigrette". Chile relleno, red sauce, green sauce, creme fraiche

Totally agree with both your first premise and later recs. We almost never buy seasoned meat or other prepped foods. This just somehow called my name by price and faith in the grocer. There was nothing "wrong" with this meat, just that it was seasoned for another demographic. But your warnings are valid and well received. I will most probably leach out some salt and repurpose as Chromedome suggests. We throw out scraps but not overly spiced stuff for our furry visitors.

Nice. Kind of frying pan shirred eggs (Œufs cocotte). Will try. Thanks.

Totally understand and agree. So I have an additional question for you. I have a Simone Beck chocolate cake recipe that.includes whiskey. In your understanding, will, say, a quarter of a cup of booze in an 8 or 9" cake cook off during baking? Our take is that it just isn't worth the risk for guests. Yours?

Oh, yes! Gỏi cuốn, my favorite order. With grilled chicken or barbeque pork. Nice to have something so delicious also be healthful.

I suggested chili. Husband suggested toss. I may still override. I could also work in ragu.

No pretty pictures. Not bad Israeli couscous seasoned with onion, fine herbes, parsley, and, sure a bit of butter. Chard stalks stir-fried with green onions and oyster sauce. So far, passable. But with an unforgivable logic lapse, I picked up a preseasoned flap meat. The meat was super tender, perhaps a red-flag, and the spices really interesting. But the SALT LEVEL should have made this product illegal. Beyond unhealthful, it was gaggingly salty. Too bad. It could have been so good. The piece above is after serving both of us. And this was only half of the slab. Trying to decide if we should toss both out for feral animals or if it is better going to compost. Sad.

Absolutely agree. I was speaking to lindag's response which is not unusual with complicated procedures. IMHO it is better to modify a recipe to reflect one's time and temperament.although creating a less suave product than to avoid attempting it at all. Just my MO.

While I love Donna Hay, I think that you can simplify this recipe and come up with close to comparable results. As a concept, I love it. Many thanks.