[Mike Nolan]

Clove, cinnamon and ginger in sweet dishes, cumin and coriander in savory dishes. Saffron with either sweet or savory.

I'm not that fond of cardamom, but it pairs well with citrus, too.

Lime also pairs well with most chili peppers, which is one reason it is featured in Mexican cooking.

[Mike Nolan]

I'll probably make stock from the turkey necks a few days before Thanksgiving, not sure if I'm going to try to eat the turkey necks afterwards. (My wife seemed uninterested in them, but she's not that fond of turkey in general--she takes after her father that way, he'd eat turkey on Thanksgiving, and maybe Christmas.)

Anyway, here's one recipe for Turkey Necks with Rice

There are also recipes out there for fried turkey necks, which strikes me as even more challenging to figure out how to eat.

[Mike Nolan]

Spaetzle is quite easy to make, and there's a good recipe for it on this site, it came from Grizzlybiscuits, who was an active poster back in the KAF days but disappeared a while before KAF pulled the plug, and never came over to this site, or as far as I know to Zen's site, either.

It's even easier if you get a spaetzle maker, best $15 I've spent in the kitchen in a while.

Spaetzle are pretty low fat as noodles go, though if you fry them that increases the fat. Sometimes when I make Julia Child's Boeuf Bourguignon recipe, which includes making her recipe for onions braised in beef stock, I will fry some of the spaetzle in the left over sauce from the braised onions. Wow!

[Mike Nolan]

We had veal Zurich (white wine cream sauce) over spaetzle.

[Mike Nolan]

You also have to be careful going on websites to order stuff you see advertised on TV, they'll throw all sorts of options at you, all of which will wind up costing you more than the price they advertised on TV, for 'expedited delivery' or 'premium model' or something else.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm not all that fond of handles on pie pans, they get in the way when you're trying to do a nice ruffled edge.

[Mike Nolan]

I really like the Norpro non-stick 9" metal pie pans I have, they are one of the first non-stick products I've had that really lives up to the name.

After the pie is cool, just give it a twist and it slides right out of the pie pan. Sometimes I just put it on a plate, which makes it a lot easier to slice, but other times I've put it in a different pie pan. If I'm sending a pie to my wife's office or taking it to someone, I transfer it to a disposable aluminum pie pan.

I think it may just be the two of us for Thanksgiving, maybe we'll invite a friend over. (My older son and family are coming here for Christmas, haven't heard back from the younger one yet, but he's got Zeldathon in Erie PA right after Christmas, and he's kind of been absorbed into the Google world.)

I probably won't buy a whole turkey or even a turkey breast, largely because nearly all of them have been saturated with a brine solution and have way too much sodium in them.

Looking at the NorBest site, their 'all natural' whole turkey has 80 grams of sodium in a 4 ounce serving. Their 'basted' one has 320 grams of sodium in a 4 ounce serving. Guess which one is easier to find in stores?

I've been buying turkey tenders (from the breast), which are NOT brined. I think 2 or 3 turkey tenders might be enough for 3 people for Thanksgiving, and they'll cook a whole lot faster, too. I'll look around for some frozen turkey necks/giblets to use for gravy. (I'm not sure I've got any turkey stock left in the freezer, I think I lost what I had when the freezer failed a few weeks back.)

[Mike Nolan]

I can't stand the way part-skim mozzarella melts, so I buy whole milk mozzarella in 5 pound bags at Sams Club and divide it up into smaller bags (around 12 ounces) and freeze it. That's the ONLY place in town I can find whole milk mozzarella. (I know several of the local pizza chains use it, but they buy in bulk from wholesalers, or possibly directly from Leprino Foods, the nearly invisible Denver company that supplies cheese to many of the major pizza chains. It's so secretive that when Forbes did a story on it recently, they could not locate a picture of James Leprino, the CEO, and he wouldn't allow photographers into the building.)

[Mike Nolan]

The Kraft website seems to indicate 2% cheese is still available, it may be a regional issue, or related to not being in an urban area.

The last few times I've been in NW Illinois, where I grew up, the grocery stores seemed to carry a lot fewer products than what I can find in Lincoln. And when I'm in the Pittsburgh area visiting my son, the products available there are quite different, and it's not just different brands.

• This reply was modified 7 years ago by Mike Nolan.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making a big pot of potato leek soup for supper, half or more of it will go in the freezer.

[Mike Nolan]

Tuna salad for supper here.

The more I read about saturated vs unsaturated fats, the less I'm sure of. :sigh:

[Mike Nolan]

This article says never use high heat for blind baking:
Blind Baking

[Mike Nolan]

I try to fill up the dishwasher as I'm working, but sometimes I use more than what will fit in one load. At chocolate school, the chef was pretty insistent we clean up messes right away, because they spread quickly. I find that's pretty good advice when it comes to things like flour, too.

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't seen winesap in stores in decades. I got some from the farmer's market a couple of years ago and got some from a u=pick orchard last year.

[Mike Nolan]

I don't specifically remember offering that advice, I think the most important part of blind baking is to make sure you have plenty of pie beans.

I'm not sure what we're doing for either Thanksgiving or Christmas this year, we've told the kids that we're not making the trip to Pittsburgh this year. My younger son, the one who lives in CA, has Zeldathon (an online fundraiser) in Erie PA right after Christmas. My older son was talking about possibly coming here for Thanksgiving, but I haven't heard if that's a go or not. We may invite my wife's sister to come over for Christmas dinner.

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