zoramargolis

last night: roasted kabocha squash soup with lots of other veg: onion, leek, fennel, carrot, celery, quince, aromatic herbs, ginger, lemon grass, duck stock wild goose salami, homemade by Mark N. and Emily S. p'tit basque marinated roasted red peppers olives rustic bread

As J pointed out to me this morning, this is probably the first Thanksgiving of my adult life that I plan to do no cooking at all. We declined an invitation to a cousin's house in Timonium--I'm not yet physically up for a long round-trip car ride. So we are going out to a nearby restaurant for dinner, albeit not for turkey. I am fine with it, though J seems somewhat wistful. Thanksgiving has always been his favorite holiday of the year, and we have always celebrated with having family come here, or traveled to be with them. I am hopeful that things will return to the usual state of things next year, although this getting older nonsense is unpredictable.

tacos al carbon made with marinated skirt steak frijoles negros de olla (made in the pressure cooker) guacamole and chips pico de gallo roasted green chile salsa DB Vienna lager last of the pecan pie

last night: (canned) tuna and white bean salad with butter lettuce and spinach, celery, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, olives, avocado, scallions, garlic, capers, lemon, olive oil pecan pie, made with a butter/vodka crust. the filling was a riff on John Thorne's recipe from _Outlaw Cook_: his biggest innovation is using Lyle's Golden Syrup instead of Karo; second is sucanat raw sugar instead of brown sugar. I didn't have sucanat, but I did have piloncillo, which I believe is the very same thing--unrefined, evaporated sugar cane juice. in any case, the pie turned out delicious, with crispy crust and pecans, and tender custard with great depth of flavor. We had it with whipped cream--tried the "bartender's method" of shaking cream in a cocktail shaker with the spring from a cocktail strainer. Well, it worked, but not as easily as in the video that went viral online, and it was kind of a mess getting the cream out of the spiral wire of the spring. Not sure I'll do that again.

masa corn cakes from the freezer fried eggs warm salsa verde Peet's cappuccini

last night: rice noodles in a miso-shrimp-dashi broth with napa cabbage, baby bok choy, wild-caught shrimp, scallions, cilantro and go-ju-jang satsuma mandarins

Moctec in Landover, MD. You have to call and order it "para tamales" a couple of days in advance and then go pick it up. It's the real deal. I haven't made any masa in a long time. I don't have access to the right kind of corn.

posole verde tortillas

You must mean "au jus gravy." And don't forget macaroni and cheese au gratin. Although the high falutin' has gone to "mac and cheese" pretty much everywhere these days.

For 4 pounds of bone-out pork shoulder, I would double the amount of everything else. That's a lot of meat.

Saute onion, garlic, tomatillo, with ground cumin, ground coriander seed and Mexican oregano to bloom the spices. add pork shoulder, roasted peeled poblano chiles, broth or water, salt, pepper and aromatic herb bundle: celery leaf, parsley, thyme, bay leaf. Cook slowly on stovetop or slow oven until meat is tender. Serve with chopped cilantro and chopped onion.

I love broccoli stalks. But they absolutely need to be peeled. The peel strips off fairly easily with a knife. The inside of the stalk is crisp and juicy, and can be eaten raw, steamed or sauteed with the florets, grilled roasted or pureed.

Terrific short documentary videos with food as focus. I'm just posting just the first episode in each of these locales, Oaxaca and Tehran, there are others. http://munchies.vice.com/videos/munchies-guide-to-oaxaca-part-one http://munchies.vice.com/videos/the-munchies-guide-to-tehran-part-1 Here's the home page of the Munchies site: http://munchies.vice.com/show/the-munchies-guide-to

You can grind meat in a food processor. cut into chunks and put in the freezer for about 15 minutes, then pulse. I do it all the time. But you can do a quick stew in bbq sauce. Brown chunks of round quickly, and cook in the sauce--thinned with some water so it won't stick and burn--just until tender. Some sauteed onion and garlic, and aromatic herbs can only make it tastier.

Round will get very dry if you braise it for too long--not enough fat and connective tissue. You can use it for stroganoff or paprikash (quick-cooking stews) or the other possibility is to grind it, with some added fat if desired and use it as "ground round" in chili, meatloaf, meatballs.

Will you brine or salt it yourself, before cooking? If so, get an unbrined bird. If you'd rather not brine or salt it yourself, buy a pre-brined bird. Brining/salting makes a huge difference in flavor and helps keep the white meat moist.

Having purchased a couple of different inexpensive burr grinders that were flimsy and loud, and kicked the bucket after fairly short-term service, I invested in a Rancilio Rocky. It purrs instead of sounding like silverware in the garbage disposal. And it has withstood daily use without a hiccup for about eight years. click

I've never heard of this. Could you please elaborate?

last night: per J's request for a light supper of "Chinese chicken salad": stovetop grilled marinated chicken tenders sliced atop a big bowl of shredded iceberg, celery, cukes, scallions, orange segments, jalapeí±o slices, cilantro, ginger-sesame vinaigrette. and since it needed to be old school to satisfy, J had crispy chow mein noodles with his.

an Ottolenghi meatless monday eggplant cheesecake, based on a recipe from his new book _Plenty More_ with the addition of roasted red pepper, caramelized onion, parmesan cheese, and fresh parsley. delicious. oven roasted broccolini ottolenghi's (apple) cake with maple frosting, recipe found on food52.com--I substituted quince for the apple, and added cardamom to the batter. Instead of muscovado (dark brown) sugar in the maple cream cheese frosting, I used coconut palm sugar. fabulous. 2011 Ancely minervois

meat loaf with spicy ketchup twice cooked new potatoes: steamed and then cut in half and fried in duck fat haricots verts with garlic and lemon vanilla ice cream with elderberry coulis 2006 Glorioso rioja

Here's a link to my recipe for avocado chocolate mousse on Food52. If you use a little bit less coconut milk, it will be a quite stiff ganache and would work fine as a cake frosting. If you are using bittersweet chocolate (ie. 65% or more), there won't be any milk in it. The only drawback is that the chocolate might be a bit intense for kids. If you can cut it with marshmallow fluff, it'd probably be more child-friendly.

linguini with slow cooked bolognese (hot Italian sausage made by me with eco-friendly ground pork, onion-leek-garlic-fennel-carrot-celery base, pureed fresh tomatoes, other tomato products to beef it up, roasted wild maitake 'shrooms, porcini powder, wine, aromatic herbs) lettuce and cucumber salad with lime vinaigrette Bonaparte baguette garlic toast comice pear 2011 Cantina Zacagnini montepulciano

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Thanks.