Margaret Pilgrim

Plum duo with Russian blue cheese dressing Into every life a fiasco must fall. Undercooked overstuffed frittata looks pretty pathetic but was super rich and delicious. Ham, oaxacan cheese, onions and garlic, pastured eggs.

I could be happy with some of these cheeses from California artisan producers and certainly as well with the same from Vermont and New York.

I am really jealous of your cooling turkey stock. I haven't begun yet. I hope you and your mom have a sweet meal celebrating a real "thanksgiving" for being together. i actually prefer a communal dinner where disparate guests bring something meaningful from their past. I will never forget the ravioli my Italian sister-in-law used to bring from her Genovese mother's kitchen to our Thanksgiving. My father's New England side looked somewhat askance at them but I thought they were from heaven.

Same in NorCal. Supermarket chickens tend to be roasters, to put it kindly. My custom butcher(s) still sell "broilers" and "fryers" ranging from 2 1/2 to 3 pounds, at roughly double supermarket prices. Small chickens, it seems, are sold off wholesale for rotisseries.

The one thing I've found is that my (our) tastes evolve. I have, over time, had many favorite cheeses. Most retire to a personal "hall of fame" where I store such disparate friends as gentle brie and exuberant eppois Right now, Cowgirl "Red Hawk". well aged and runny at room temperature is a lust-after. So good with fall fruits: figs, pears, apples, as well as alone, by the spoonful.

I am reminded of the first meal I cooked for my husband returning from our honeymoon. A small beef roast, popovers, apple pie. Of course, I neglected to test the oven of our new apartment, so we had VERY RARE roast and blond apple pie, but by then I had jacked up the oven temp so the Yorkshires/popovers rose to their peaks, to the heights of the oven, and were decapitated as I pulled them from the oven. I had a lot to learn....

Peppers with goat cheese/olive/garlic sauce Hand made pasta, sausage, onions, garlic, tomato, white wine, basil...parmesan...butter finish.

Gorgeous. The stuff of dreams.

Is it possible he said/meant 200C which is roughly 400F? Ooops, I see this is addressed above.

Siorry, I don't. Perhaps start your search on the ground, asking locally for producers. And again, don't overlook checking out country supermarkets, Intermarche, Carrefour, Super U and friends for serendipitous finds.

What kayb said. This is one of my favorite dinner party dessert accompaniment: a giant cookie that you serve on a platter and let guests break apart. I'd just very gently roll the scraps together and bake as a slab. eta, it really looks a lot more elegant in person than in the site photo.

Amen, sister!

It all started out well... Comice pear with blue cheese Then the ham needed to be glazed and shooting pics went out the window. So dinner = spiral sliced ham and baked yam loaded with butter. Between us, I HATE spiral sliced ham. Husband loves them since he has a sweet tooth and the accompanying glaze. I find we have one meal straight out of the oven, another of some kind of ham casserole and then the balance gets sent to son or trashed as it dries so much faster than whole or intact ham. Just my take...

Early dinner for son, three cherubs, as Mom is away. Simple pork roast, mash, stuffing...just because..., carrots, gravy. Happy three adults and compliant 8 year old. One 6 year old ate meat as a default and had threes on carrots. Second 6 year old ate pork, applesauce and soy sauce. Me. I've cleaned up and am ready to do some streaming....

Every so often i see an ad or a commercial that doesn't resonate and I've come to respond, "If I don't like it, it isn't aimed at me." The same is true with restaurants today. Loud noise is intentional as it creates a party atmosphere that the target diner enjoys/requires. God forbid you have to make conversation with your date or partner! I read over and over that to a restaurateur, a quiet dining room is an anathema. It's a shame since I really like young, hip food, just not young, hip contrived party atmosphere.

I try to keep a tradition from my husband's family alive. I seem to be the last woman (alive) in his family who makes this bread, which I learned from his Austrian mother: poteca, walnut roll.

Not a bad gig...

Are you finding the CSO a better method than stovetop? Ease? Energy efficiency? Results?

Hello, Asherweef! You will be happy to find that there is no center stage here, just a crazy mishmash of characters. So leap onto the boards and enjoy.

Fuyu and sweet lime, purslane salad, tangerine juice/EVOO/cumin dressing. Beef and onion Shanghai noodles.

Naw, in for a penny, in for a pound.

When I grow up, I'm going to be Moe.

Cubes of apple work well also as well as the surprise of tangerine segments. Apple and grape are especially happy in curried chicken salad.

My mother made bread at least once a week all of her life. By hand. Using whatever AP flour was on sale. Every kind from good old American white bread to French baguette and batard, her specialty. Occasionally branching off to the unappetizing such as salt rising...oh god, that smell. Multi grain and single grain, amazing aromas. By hand. No machines. Wonky oven. Fabulous crust and crumb. I can only walk in her shadow.