[Mike Nolan]

I was talking to someone recently who lives on an acreage outside of town. A year or two back she raised two turkeys from chicks. When they had then prepared, one of them was 55 pounds--dressed.

We see groups of wild turkeys who probably live in Wilderness Park most of the year foraging beside one of the highways just outside Lincoln from time to time, I'd hate to have one of them chasing me, they're monsters.

I remember my grandmother getting these 25 pound birds, she'd do two of them for Thanksgiving, because she had two seatings of about 20 each for Thanksgiving dinner. (She'd cook one the day before and store it on the porch overnight, throwing it back in the oven to reheat between the two servings for dinner.)

[Mike Nolan]

I've got the turkey tenders and the turkey necks in the fridge to thaw out, I'll make stock tomorrow with the necks. The tenders will only take about an hour to roast on Thursday. I have to rework my standard timeline for Thursday, I can start a couple hours later than usual because I don't have to allow 3-4 hours for the turkey. So I may be able to watch most of the Bears-Lions game.

For dessert we're having Texas Chocolate Sheet Cake and an apple pie, I'll probably make those on Wednesday anyway. We have had contractors working in the house the last week doing some drywall repairs from the roof leaks we had several years ago, they're nearly done. But I'm waiting for the dust to settle before I do much in the kitchen.

[Mike Nolan]

We had stuffed red peppers for supper.

[Mike Nolan]

Even when it's fully cooked, wild rice has a bit of a snap to it. I've made a wild rice and mushroom soup a few times, but haven't hit on the right recipe yet. (Famous Dave's had a great version, but dropped it from the menu. I haven't been back since. Zoup has a pretty good one, but all their soups are unnecessarily high in sodium, and most have garlic, so we've stopped going there.)

Caraway tends to be really crunchy in a baked bread, too, but rye bread without caraway isn't an option as far as I'm concerned.

[Mike Nolan]

I've got Vienna bread about to come out of the oven.

[Mike Nolan]

Biologically, corn, wheat and rye are all grasses, too, but from different families. Being from different families is why wild rice isn't considered a true rice.

[Mike Nolan]

You know, of course, that wild rice is not really a form of rice, it's a grass.

There a plenty of rice flour breads in the gluten-free cookbooks, of the ones I've tried, most aren't very tasty and they stale VERY quickly.

[Mike Nolan]

I've never actually watched it, but there's a show on cable called "Murder, She Baked".

There are also the Lucy Burdette "Key West Food Critic" mysteries. (I haven't read any of them yet, but was a big fan of the Emma Lathen series 30 years ago, the protagonist being a Wall Street banker.)

I had a dream recently in which baking played a prominent role in a series of strange events, I'm not sure if there's enough for a book length story, but I added it to my ideas folder. (I'm currently doing some outlining and background research for a novel on a different subject.)

[Mike Nolan]

Not all that surprising, tests on sourdough cultures have shown that after a few months the microbes in it will match the local atmosphere. So that 'San Francisco starter' you bought most likely only kept its San Francisco heritage for a few weeks.

[Mike Nolan]

Nutmeg also goes well with citrus and complements/enhances other spices.

Mace might work well, too, it's nutmeg's close cousin.

[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.

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