Old traditions can be tricky in the modern age. In the UK, on 5 November, we still celebrate burning Catholics at the stake. That said, as with a sizeable chunk of British culture, it is fast disappearing over very recent years, being replaced by an American style Halloween. The lack of noise of fireworks this year was particularly noticeable. Same at the forthcoming festivities - again, over a very short number of years, it is now rare to see mention of Father Christmas - it’s all the American Santa Claus. I reckon another decade and both traditions will have gone.
In Germany, it’s St. Nicolaus who fills the shoes with candy. A popular tradition with kids, not surprisingly 
Yeah. It’s all just a big sham. Used to be some sweets, now they terrorise their parents into getting them video games, expensive mobile phones/things. These days with all this politically correctness BS one has to be careful with their opnions. Me, I have no problem voicing my unpopular opinions, in a sarcastic way no less, when someone asks (and they do every year) if I have plans or “celebrate” this stupid holiday (and all other stupid holidays).
Apparently, Petes are supposed to be black because they come through the chimney. Now some people really take offence at that and it has nothing to do with the chimney.
But back to the food topic, I did have a bit of the almond pastry after making photos of it. A very popular meal on Dec 5th is cooking on an open (stone) grill at the table. All supermarkets sell (marinated) platters of raw meats/fish/vegs etc specifically for this day.
Spam musubi. Yum 
http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2008/04/tutorial-how-to-make-hawaiian-spam-musubi-sushi.html
Added a little sliced avocado, liked, will add more next time.
WFD: Tonight, we having a Sunday evening meal of…
…Garlic and Paprika Rubbed Roast Chicken from “Arthur Schwartz’s Jewish Home Cooking”. Garlic; sweet Hungarian paprika; whole chicken spatchcocked, S & P, olive oil.
…Pommes de Terre Douces from “The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York” by Claudia Roden. Sweet potatoes; butter, milk, sliced onions, ground cinnamon; S & P, sunflower oil.
This recipe comes from Morocco.
…Fermented Cabbage.
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You mean Father Christmas doesn’t exist?
I’m heartbroken.
As for dinner, a combination of two well established British dishes - cauliflower cheese and macaroni cheese.
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Cauliflower and cheese is a British dish, really? I’ve loved that combination for year, traditionally just steamed cauliflower florets, mixed with whatever cheese on hand. Lately I’ve been making a lot of mashed cauliflower mixed with cream cheese to give it a bit more substance, as a potato substitute. Because my MIL can’t eat cheese for thanksgiving I made a roux then mixed mashed cauliflower into that and it was surprisingly very, very good. The starch of the roux made the mixture much more potato-ish than the cream cheese combination.
Absolutely. And a dual purpose one at that. It works as standalone vegetarian main course - it needs spuds and, maybe, something like green beans. And it works as an accompaniment to meat - say bacon or, indeed, roast beef.
Some thoughts on the subject here - http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/nov/15/how-cook-perfect-cauliflower-cheese
Love the idea of counting down to the solstice! Tonight, it’s a ready meal I am afraid, salmon , followed by fruit and yoghurt. Quick meal before I go out singing. Lots of festive cooking over the weekend, cake and biscuits ahead of the holiday.
Here in London we had lots of fireworks in the weeks around Bonfire Night, sort of merging into Halloween one side and Diwali on the other.
Chicken gizzards with Sichuan chili bean sauce and 2 kinds of Sichuanese preserved vegs, garlic, onions, ginger, sherry. Gizzards were extremely tender, hardly needed to chew, fork went right through without any resistance.
(imgur photo hosting site appears to be down so I see if I can drag the pic here directly)
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WFD: Tonight at Casa Gio & Geo it’s Marcella’s infamous 1-2-3 Sauce. We’ve cooked it several times in the past, the first being not exactly a failure but not exactly something we were expecting though we ought to have. It does take a bit of getting used to though because it’s contrary to sauces many of us have learned. However, it’s surprising what a fresh tomatoey sauce the ratio creates.
Two cups tomatoes w juices, 5 T butter, 2 onion halves that are discarded before tossing the pasta with the finished sauce. Sauce simmers uncovered 45 minutes.
We’re having ricotta ravioli with the sauce, and a small tossed green salad with RWV vinaigrette.
The first time we cooked rigatoni and that just didn’t suit the sauce at all. Ravioli the second time we cooked the sauce made all the difference. It’s been the ravioli ever since.
ETA: I don’t toss the ravioli. Just ladle the sauce over ravioli when plating.
And you don’t miss the garlic, Gio? I’m such a garlic freak that I’ve avoided the recipe despite the raves because I’m afraid it will seem flat, although all that butter has got to make anything delicious.
It has never occurred to me to use port wine cheese in mac and cheese, even though I love the stuff. Filing this away for future use. BTW, I posted a recipe for low-carb mac and cheese on another thread that I heartily recommend - don’t be put off by the tofu and cauliflower! I promise they are completely transformed!
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Saturday night I was pressed for time and needed to use up some mozzarella so we had frozen manicotti from a local place that was covered in Rao’s marinara sauce and the mozz and parm. Super easy and surprisingly tasty thanks to the decent manicotti.
Last night we had my version of Chicken Scarpariello based on the memory of a dish from a wonderful little Italian place that we used to love several years ago. It is one of the few times that I use blsl chicken breasts, which are cooked with Italian sausages, artichokes, mushrooms, white wine and cherry peppers with some brine from the jar. And of course lots of garlic. Some boiled potato quarters are added to soak up the delicious sauce, which is mounted with butter at the end.
Tonight is cheapish date night, probably at a favorite Cambridge pizza joint that has a fun 60’s-70’s hippie vibe.
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I am a garlic freak too and I adore this sauce as is, although I have added garlic to it which is equally delicious. I typically add a splash of wine whether I am using garlic or not, just to release all the alcohol-soluble flavors. We love it on cavatappi.
Oh, thanks, biond. That’s really helpful. Maybe I’ll try some with garlic and some without. I also always add some alcohol to my tomato sauces so I’ll do that, too.
Wow. You musta cooked the shit outta them! Looks great.
Just 2 hrs of slow braising, just as I braise most tough cuts of meat. You really do need agressive seasonings and spices to overpower the somewhat strong smell. I actually didn’t really smell much of the “original smell” when I was eating the meal but whilst braising (with nothing added yet) you do smell it.
