What's cooking?

Bucatini all'Amatriciana last night that I prepared with homemade sauce from last September. Served it with a very nice Montepulciano d'Abbruzzo, a 2006 Villa Medoro, highly recommended.

Drew

Big pot of turkey soup is simmering on the stove and the house smellz wonderful.

Today we are having hot turkey sandwiches. Tonight we are putting the carcass into the crock pot for stock. Tomorrow we are having turkey club sandwiches. Monday, who knows?

Today I'm smoking the turkey and preparing all sides for a full Thanksgiving feast that we missed on Thursday, (went to mom's for a brunch at her retirement community). I'm feeling a little like Groundhog day

Drew

We're having people over tonight for supper and we promised there'd be no turkey on the menu. I'm making a beef stew and my wife's putting together a coconut-raspberry tart. One of the couples will be bringing a salad and we'll have smoked trout-horseradish dip and pita chips for nibbling with aperitifs.

[Robin Garr]

Believe it or don't, tonight we roasted ... a turkey thigh! Although we were at two different turkey dinners on Thursday, we were fairly moderate in our consumption at both, and I wasn't turkey'd out. Plus, I wanted leftovers. So I used my standard recipe - http://www.wineloverspage.com/wineadvis ... 1123.phtml - with a natural/humanely raised turkey (from Whole Foods), and am now loaded with tryptophans again and very happy.

Very cold in Redding, so today I put a 7 bone roast in the crock pot, sitting on a large, sliced onion, Serrano pepper, and an Anaheim chile pepper, sliced, rubbed down with Dijon mustard, lemon juice, zest, Worcestershire, salt and pepper. It marinated in the crock pot until about 10 am. I added a bit of beef stock, Minor's Au jus, and cooked it on low for 6 hours. Then added fresh garden carrots, leeks, fresh garlic cloves, more salt and pepper, turned to high and let it cook another two hours. Served with baby Yukon Gold spuds, roasted in duck fat and rosemary. A fresh green celery heart salad with a new olive oil and syrah vinegar vinaigrette was great. The resulting juices will be defatted tomorrow and the gravy will be wonderful with leftovers.

Let's see, since last Wednesday: clams, turkey, haddock, turkey, turkey, salmon. Turkey tomorrow, I think!

Our family TACOS! Went shopping for groceries this morning and remembered that all the store corn tortillas are too small these days, and the King and too large. So I have to make a run to Trader Joe's to get the ones I like. I really dislike going to multiple stores.

Veal Milanese; butternut risotto; butter braised Savoy cabbage

[Robin Garr]

Mary's cooking tonight: Roast root veggies (pumpkin, onion and potatoes), with a little local pastured-pork bratwurst on the side.

[Jenise]

Helping my friends' 11 year old twins make an anniversary dinner for their parents. They've chosen the menu, all finger food: ribs, fries, fried shrimp, corn on the cob, pea pods, bacon and M&M's.

Mary's cooking tonight: Roast root veggies (pumpkin, onion and potatoes), with a little local pastured-pork bratwurst on the side.

Robin, where did the bratwurst come from? Is it a place that does mail order? I'm always looking for good sources.

[Robin Garr]

Robin, where did the bratwurst come from? Is it a place that does mail order? I'm always looking for good sources.

Carrie, I'm guessing not. It's from Misty Meadows Farm, a small (husband and wife) operation just west of Louisville that sells at farmers' markets here. They probably raise a few pigs per year and sell what they can make locally. But I'll bet you can find something mighty similar at a local farmers' market near you!

Tonight, it was crab cakes with mashed potatoes and roasted brussels sprouts. A little more ambitious than usual for Friday night but it came out pretty nicely.

[Jenise]

We had a vegetarian meal of romaine salad with lemon vinaigrette, brussels sprouts and red Camargue rice. Delicious, but it sure looks boring in print.

Chinese red-cooked chicken.

-Paul W.

[Robin Garr]

A tossup: With a couple of nice tender, juicy chicken breasts left over from a free-range hen we roasted over the weekend, it's leftover chix for sure. But it's either poulet l'estragon au riz (I cook) or chicken pot pie (Mary cooks). With a high in the middle 20s here today, the comfort-food quotient of pot pie is calling our names.

[Jenise]

A tossup: With a couple of nice tender, juicy chicken breasts left over from a free-range hen we roasted over the weekend, it's leftover chix for sure. But it's either poulet l'estragon au riz (I cook) or chicken pot pie (Mary cooks). With a high in the middle 20s here today, the comfort-food quotient of pot pie is calling our names.

Oh you're making me hungry. Chicken pot pie has to be one of the best foods in the entire world! Btw, you can have both worlds: add tarragon to your chicken pot pie--I often do. It's a fave.

[Robin Garr]

Btw, you can have both worlds: add tarragon to your chicken pot pie--I often do. It's a fave.

Good point, but Mary was the chef (actually, I was the sous and did all her prep), and she chose the fresh sage. Sage, tarragon and thyme seem to winter over pretty well here, and rosemary unless it drops to 0, so even on a frigid day, the kitchen herb garden is still there to serve us.

Guinea Hen - what chicken aspires to be. Done Tuscan style, i.e. split, rubbed with olive oil plus minced salami, oregano, sage and garlic, then roasted with an occasional basting of wine and pan juices. With mildly cheesy polenta and steamed broccoli dressed in balsamic, olive oil and drained olive juices. Nice with a 2001 Fife Mendocino "Redhead" blend.

[Jenise]

Btw, you can have both worlds: add tarragon to your chicken pot pie--I often do. It's a fave.

Good point, but Mary was the chef (actually, I was the sous and did all her prep), and she chose the fresh sage. Sage, tarragon and thyme seem to winter over pretty well here, and rosemary unless it drops to 0, so even on a frigid day, the kitchen herb garden is still there to serve us.

Lucky you! My first sage plant lasted four or five years, but each one planted since then, including 2010's, died by September before the cold weather came. Can't for the life of me understand that. Btw, your post prompted me to thaw out two cornish game hens that night which I roasted with tarragon butter stuffed under the skin.

[Jenise]

Guinea Hen - what chicken aspires to be. Done Tuscan style, i.e. split, rubbed with olive oil plus minced salami, oregano, sage and garlic, then roasted with an occasional basting of wine and pan juices. With mildly cheesy polenta and steamed broccoli dressed in balsamic, olive oil and drained olive juices. Nice with a 2001 Fife Mendocino "Redhead" blend.

Boy does that sound fantastic. You're so right about guinea hen, btw, do you have a regular source down there? I sometimes see them (frozen) at Whole Foods in Seattle, but beyond that they're out of my grasp.

[Jenise]

Tonight's main course: grilled blue marlin on lentils sauteed with tomatoes, onion and garlic. Will dream of the Southern Rhone that would pair so perfectly with that, but alas settle for lemon water.