There are two months left in the year. Sixty-one days left. You’d better start buying those Christmas presents now (unless you’re one of those early bird shoppers buying presents in July and you’re almost done!).
It’s also time to start planning those holiday meals that take plenty of pre-planning. The menu has to be planned out to a T timing-wise to make sure everything gets on the table at the same time. How big of a turkey do you need and when do you have to start defrosting it? Will Aunt Isobel insist on bringing her Jello Salad with fruit cup stirred in (despite no one eating it) so you have to make room on the table? How many pies do you have to bake, what side dishes are you going to make…and don’t make anything new - that never goes over well! Stick with the tried and true all the way for Thanksgiving!
Are Uncle Albert and his sister, Hazel, and her 3 very active kids coming for Thanksgiving this year? Do you need an extra folding table for the kids? If so, tell Fred to get out the folding chairs from storage and make sure they’re clean and sturdy. Time to make sure you have enough of the fine china and glassware and serving dishes, and don’t forget to polish the silver and iron the tablecloth and napkins in preparation!
OR…you can make it all buffet style and use everyday plates and utensils (or paper plates and plastic utensils), paper napkins, red Solo cups, and let people sit wherever they want around the house or outside on the back deck (if you’re lucky enough to have warm enough weather to do so!).
Regardless of what you do, pour that glass of wine, breathe, and enjoy spending time with family and friends. And if you’re not with either, enjoy being alone doing exactly what you want to do - volunteering, or staying in your jammies all day, watching football, and ordering Chinese. It’s all good!
Due to exciting find of MORE tomatoes in the market, I thought I’d make one of my summer dishes for the last time in november Hyashi Chuka Japanese Cold noodles…
Made the Chrissy Teigen Mac and Cheese with cheesey garlic bread crumbs from Cravings at BF’s request. Salad with a sharp mustard vinaigrette to accompany. I will write this up for the COTM thread tomorrow when I have recovered from the food coma
Comfort food, cheat day meal edition.
Open face hot chicken(there’s a piece of multigrain sourdough under there) mashed potatoes, buttered carrots and broccoli smothered with Swiss Chalet chicken gravy from a can(pretty tasty stuff tbh).Twas a pretty big plate O’ food, but I polished it off and don’t feel bloated at all. Maybe I’m becoming immune to the OZ
I had a hankering for shrimp, so 6 of their Gulf wild-caught came home (for a price of $6.00 exactly…can’t beat that with a stick!)
Cleaned off my deck containers of dead flowers, chairs, and herbs (the rosemary and thyme was brought inside), then decided on this recipe. A wee bit over-browned, but still so good with the Thai sweet chili sauce/apricot jam spread dipping sauce.
Steamed asparagus with pistachio gremolata sprinkled on top.
And another pic of Finny under my lap blankie, and Murphy sitting on the arm of the recliner, mesmerized by something outside when I told him he couldn’t climb on my chest for a cuddle while Finn was on my lap. THERE’S NO ROOM AT THE INN!
I like to support local businesses and a new (smallish) pizza place opened up in town so we ordered a Superior Meat Lovers to go. Not a soul in sight at 6:30 p.m. on a Saturday night. Not a good sign. The crust was flabby so I sliced some fresh jalapeños, sprinkled red pepper flakes and put it in the oven to crisp up. Fortunately, I hadn’t set the bar too high so I was not disappointed.
Sausage and lentils a la Bionda, or with roasted red onion, fennel and butternut squash rather than the more traditional carrots and celery. Leidy’s kielbasa for the sausage. Dressed in a mixed-vinegar vinaigrette (balsamic, cider, sherry) with tons of fresh parsley, thyme, rosemary and fennel fronds. Freshly baked french bread with Les Prés Salés butter. A fall favorite that did not disappoint!
After checking out of our hotel, we went on our food shopping marathon: MOAR cookies from Isgro’s, which was already busy at 11:30AM — but at least there wasn’t a line around the block as there was just an hour later ; a beautiful hunka Taleggio & pistachio cream from DiBruno’s for my PIC’s aMAZing ice cream, 3 boxes of pillowy ricotta ravs from Talluto’s, smoked sable, king salmon & a teeny jar of trout roe from Biederman’s, and several bottles of Cindy’s Kitchen salad dressings (3 large buttermilk ranch, 3 regular-sized blue cheese, 1 regular sized roasted garlic Caesar).
Somewhere along the way, I lost my mom’s bracelet. We retraced our steps, but it was nowhere to be found. I was pretty bummed, but it’s perhaps an appropriate metaphor for our relationship
We also swung by the massive Viet market to pick up a couple more mid-sized spider strainers for future hot pot dinner guests (we only had two), @bigley’s for 3 packages of lemongrass sausage. Finally we picked up a fab thit nuong banh mi at Ba Le bakery “for the road” that we’d snarfed up long before we even passed Conshocken
We’re very happy to be home, as are the boys. We had our buddy over for an easy dinner of Talluto’s ravs
We enjoyed another excellent dinner at The Farmer’s Daughter in Newton, NJ, including Bucatini with artichokes and shrimp; tavern steak frites with horseradish cream; lobster scampi nachos; crispy shrimp cocktail; meatballs with an excellent sweet potato chipotle sauce; butterbean dip with pesto. It all went great with a couple of excellent cabernets.
I haven’t been to the greenmarket in a while, so I was VERY EXCITED to go today. I went a little crazy and bought a gigantic romanesco cauliflower even though I already had a good deal left of the last gigantic (not romanesco) cauliflower I got a couple of weeks ago. Had. It has been souped and froze.
Made myself a rice bowl with tuna, oyster mushrooms, broccolini and bok choy. Very happy right now.
As promised to my Sunshine, I made up some assorted sushi rolls. I used about 1/3 of the Ahi Tuna (that I picked up earlier this week) and froze the remainder. She was quite happy and nearly finished the entire plate.
Last pizza of the outdoor season. Will continue March 7th 2026 Enjoyed every Saturday making pizza. Going to bring the outdoor pizza oven inside tomorrow. In two weeks will be starting a new adventure.
Oven pizza in the pan . Grandma , Sicilian , Detroit , Roman , Tavern style , and other .
Hyashi Chuka Japanese Cold noodles…
from Biederman’s, and several bottles of Cindy’s Kitchen salad dressings (3 large buttermilk ranch, 3 regular-sized blue cheese, 1 regular sized roasted garlic Caesar).
