Stitching Up a Storm in Alamo City

Crazy cooking right before Christmas

Jordan got home on Monday - we decided to do some ridiculous cooking before the rest of the family arrives in town this weekend.

So we pulled out the Momofuku cookbook and got busy.  My favorite grocery store in town, Central Market, was a little scant in the Asian aisle, so we went to a Korean market on the East side of town and found the rest of everything we needed.   (The people in the store were lovely. The other customers were especially helpful.)

We made Asian fried chicken, noodles with scallions and asparagus with a poached egg - for the first time with all the recipes, I think it turned out very well.   Quite tasty.  And you know me, I think a poached egg on top of just about ANYTHING is the best meal one could have!!  Love those things!!

As crazy as it sounds, I have been stitching more than usual.   I'm still working on the Linda Carter Holman piece - I'll show it to you in a day or two.

Happy stitching and/or cooking.
Jane

Thanksgiving re-cap

Since Thanksgiving is almost my favorite holiday I thought I'd share a few pics and details.   We got back from Barbados on Friday night (the day after Thanksgiving) but I had planned in advance to have our Thanksgiving meal here on Sunday.  Our local offspring + our friends Bob and Ann came over to help us close out the holiday weekend.

Here's what I made:

        Ina Garten's roasted turkey breast (did them on the grill)
        Mashed potatoes and gravy
        Sweet potato casserole with marshmallows
        Cornbread, shrimp and andouille dressing
        Cranberry/Jalapeno Salsa
        Spinach Madeleine
        Kelly's Onion Pie
        Endive, Apple and Blue Cheese Salad (sort of an updated Waldorf)
        Marie Helene's Apple Cake
        Pumpkin Pie

Ann brought Butternut Squash soup and Dixie Belle dressing

Manda brought Cornbread/Tamale Dressing and Cranberry Salsa (a different kind)

Holly brought Cherry Pie

It was a feast!!!   Crazy amount of food for 8 adults and 2 babies.  Can you believe we ended up with 3 kinds of dressing?   And sort of at the last minute, I decided not to make another stuffed pumpkin.  That would have been over the top - even for me!!

Jakey's latest antic is that whenever he sees a camera, he leans toward it (or pulls the lens toward himself) and says, "CHEESE!!"   Funny boy.  Papa's pretty funny, too.

Happy holidays.
Jane

P.S.  Almost the best part of making the turkey breast is using the leftover bones and meat to make Turkey Gumbo.   I have decided I'm addicted to anything that is served over rice.   Love that stuff!!!

 

Sauté revelation

A couple of weeks ago we had a birthday dinner here at the house for Matt, my wonderful SIL.   Because I love them and thought he might, too, I made short ribs, and I made a double batch of them so I could make some kind of pasta with them later.

My favorite dutch oven is the Le Creuset that I have - I've had it for a couple of years now, and it's definitely my go-to pot.  I have a bunch of All-Clads, too, but even though the Le Creuset is quite heavy and I have to wash it by hand, it's been my favorite since day one.  

I didn't have anything big enough for making a double batch, so I did two single batches side by side.  And I was AMAZED at how much different the veggies looked from pot to pot.  The vegetables in the Le Creuset came to a golden color -  the ones in the All Clad were more brown.  I guess you could argue that the difference was due to the fact that I didn't have them on burners of equal size.   But I would say back that if you've ever sauteed onions in a cast iron skillet vs. a stainless one, you know what I'm talking about.

Le Creuset

All Clad

I even called Mark over and had him look at the two pots to see if he could tell a difference.  He chose Le Creuset.

They were pretty good, either way.   And the pasta we had a few days later was as good if not better.  Love short ribs.

We had a pineapple upside down cake for his birthday cake.   He doesn't like our usual hummingbird cake, which is made with mushed up bananas.   So I made him this cake, which was pretty good. 

Happy birthday (a month ago), Matt.

Love, Mimi

 

This was my mother....

Not literally.   But I came across this picture today on a blog.  I was looking for ideas for things to put on my mantel and saw this picture.

My mother was a canner extraordinare - my brother said about her that "by August or September every year, our basement held almost as much food as Kroger’s vegetable aisle;" it was grown by my dad in our huge garden and canned by my mother.

She was a very modest lady - she would not have worn such an outlandishly frilly apron or red lipstick, but both she and her canned vegetables were at least as pretty as these.  Years later, among the many other things we miss about her, we're still thinking about her canned tomatoes and green beans.  And the grape juice made from the grapes grown on the arbor in their backyard?   Oh, how the church people loved it when Charlotte donated her grape juice for Communion in place of the Welch's grape juice.

After my grandmother (my dad's mother) moved in next door to my parents, there were lots of "bean breaking" parties around the kitchen table - my mother; my grandmother; an elderly neighbor lady, Mrs. Pell, who had a private kindergarten in her house next door for years; and me.  Canning season created opportunities for the women to gather, break beans and share stories. 

Great memories.
Jane

 

 

Thanksgiving.

I know it's late, but I thought I'd tell you about our Thanksgiving.   I got back from Israel on Monday night late - right before Thanksgiving.

Originally I was going to do a huge meal for just a few people, but I got some sense talked into my little brain and decided otherwise.   We had invited friends out - just one couple - and Ann had offered to bring a first-course soup.   So I ordered a smoked turkey from Rudy's - the best BBQ place in town - and we had turkey panino (just learned that panino is plural for panini - I'm not that smart).

I made a big salad and a fun apple dessert, and we were all set.  It was a great day.   Ann brought some individual pumpkin tureens for the soup.   When we had it all plated up, I SO wanted to take a picture of it, but didn't do it.   Big mistake.   It was a beautiful plate.

Since we did the laid-back meal on Thanksgiving Day, and Matt and Manda were back in town back on Friday, we decided to do our big Thanksgiving meal on Sunday.  

It was a fun meal - all the usuals - for the most part, no new recipes, just all the traditional and pretty good ones.

Of course, we made a big turkey.

It was a fun day.

Hope yours was good, too.
MIMI