What Do You Eat When A Feast Is Coming Thursday?

I was going to post about a really great raspberry crisp I made, but a certain wife of mine seems to have made off with it before I could take a photo... It was full of berries, not too sweet, and pretty easy to make..
This week is a tuffy for picking out what to cook and eat before Thanksgiving..Monday I made chicken and cheese open faced sandwiches.. Simple stuff..make a cheese sauce of your liking, mix cooked cubes of boneless chicken breasts in the sauce, spread on a half a bun, and broil. My mom used to make these when I was a kid, and I couldn't get enough of them!
Our T-day menu is planned- traditional all the way! Roast turkey, sage sausage dressing, mashed potato casserole, gravy, an Asian flavored green bean/bean sprout casserole, rolls, and graham cracker crust pumpkin pie... Only five of us this year, so very manageable sized group...
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

What Master Can Do With A Disaster...

Thursday night, I took Picnic Ham out of the freezer(still wrapped and in a white plastic shopping bag) to thaw for Friday night dinner. I planned to make scratch scalloped potatoes to go with the ham.... Imagine my surprise Friday morning when I removed the meat from the bag.... it was not a picnic ham, but a fresh picnic shoulder- uncured pork! The ham and scalloped dinner became an oven pulled pork, with Au Gratin potatoes!... Normally, I would do pulled pork in my smoker- but there was no time for that.. I trimmed all heavy fat off, dry rubbed it with the seasoning shown, put it into a pan, covered it tightly with aluminum foil, and baked for about 7hrs. at 240F.. Sure glad I have a double oven, as the taters needed 350F 1hr covered, 30 min. uncovered. The meat was then shredded(fat removed) into tender strings and shreds, and mixed with white vinegar, and a couple of BB-Q sauces until ready to eat! Wife and son raved, and for a mistake- it was pretty darn good!
Made some home-made coleslaw also.. goes well with or on the sandwich..

Hearty Bean Dip, For Snack Or Meal!

The kids are grown up. The household now consists of my wife, Sher, an aging Airedale named Clara, that was a rescued dog from ATRA, a cat named Willow I got from a meat market that I saved from the incinerators of The Humane Society, and me!
I seldom get to cook the quantities I used to nightly, so a lot of times supper is something between a snack and a meal! With the Holidays approaching at lightspeed, I thought I'd share a simple recipe, that goes with watching football, playing cards, board games, or whatever else you do for relaxation during the season...
Bean Dip. Not your "back of the can" recipe, either! This is substantial, and simple as all get out!
1. 2 cans(15oz.) refried beans
2. 1lb. browned, Tex-Mex seasoned ground beef- on the lean side
3. 1 Onion, chopped and sauteed with the browning ground beef
4. 1 Green bell pepper, chopped and also sauteed with the browned ground beef
5. 8oz. Velveeta(really!)or American cheese
6. 4oz. of a smooth taco sauce, medium heat
7. Drain beef/onion/pepper mix, hand blend all above and simmer on stove until bubbling hot
8. Put in bowl, or bowls, top with a shredded Mexican blend cheese(4oz.) and serve with warmed tortilla chips.
This one isn't rocket science, but people seem to enjoy the hearty texture on a tortilla chip! I haven't brought any leftovers home with me yet!

Doesn't This Look Good? Well, It Wasn't!

Monday night, I fixed boneless skinless chicken breast sandwiches. I had been deliberating between flattening them and rolling them up with ham and cheese, or simply slicing them thinner, and using some that BB-Q sauce my son had sent me for my birthday... Well, the lazies attacked me, and I went with the seasoned sliced BB-Q chicken breasts.. I had been hoarding the sauce, and went with a bottle of Rufus Teagues. The bottle said it was "Blazing Hot", but a lot of them do.. I poured a bit on finger tip, and it was a bit lively! Broiled the chicken, flipped, coated with BB-Q sauce, and broiled some more. In the mean time, I sliced the dill pickles, and onions as the add-ons.. trust me, this flavor works-usually! Trimmed the breasts and made sandwiches on buns... Here's where the wheels fell off the wagon! We bit into this, with meat being tender, nice flavor and crunch from the veggies- but it was a bit hot.. Hot became very hot, then evolved into what I call stupid hot.. It then kept climbing until it reached inedible hot! Now I love hot, and my wife can keep up- but we were both sweating, with noses and eyes running, we both said "No Mas!!!" at the same time! I have had hot sauces that weren't as hot as this so called BB-Q sauce!
The next morning I swear I crapped battery acid! That night we had take out, while the kitchen was declared free of nuclear radiation...

Steak Fajitas, Good Stuff!

Sunday found us taking our time, and enjoying doing little or nothing.. We do have one big meal in early afternoon, which seems to be enough, with a little snacking later that night..
I sliced the remaining prime, rare, rib-eye into thin, red strips of tender, flavorful pieces.. I also sauteed red bell pepper, and thinly sliced onion in olive oil, adding the beef on the end- all seasoned with chili powder, garlic, sea salt, and pepper.. No marinade for this- meat was too noble to do that to it! I then put Jalapeno salsa, and red salsa onto a large, soft flour tortilla, and piled on the fillings, piping hot!
This was good stuff! Bright flavors, and colors- with a nice mix of textures to boot! Wife had a side of rice, with fajita sauce on it.. Son loved it, and wife and I both thought it tasty, and not too heavy! Less can be more..simple things, done well- my Motto in cooking!

Peasant Food, and Food For V.I.P.s..

Sometimes we want simple, sometimes we splurge.. We usually splurge after two or three nights of simple! Hump Day(Wed.!!), we just wanted a simple tuna fish salad sandwich, on that home made wheat bread- just right for the moment! Thursday found my wife joining a bunch of other women after work, who walk for exercise in the halls of a local grade school.. I made a baked mac-n-cheese (negating any good the walk did for her!).. it tasted simple, and good. Friday, we determined we hadn't had a good steak over a charcoal grill in a while, so that was what happened.. I had played Keno that day, and had won about 60 bucks, so I decided Prime Beef Rib-eyes were the treat! $17 a pound, and thick to boot, $35.00 is a lot of dough in these parts for two steaks! I cooked both, one was medium rare, the other rare. We split the medium rare, along with a roasted(baked) potato and fresh bread- for a great Friday night supper! The rare steak will become the world's greatest Fajitas tonight! The butcher cracked me up.. I asked if he had some deli Gouda, or Edam cheese- and he had never heard of them! He then tells me he's of Dutch descent... Thank God he knows quality meat!

Mini-Meme, Coming At 'Cha!

With Christmas advertising and Yuletide songs on the radio already, I've begun to call Thanksgiving "The Forgotten Holiday"... I happen to love Thanksgiving, and wish my family still had the big get-togethers we used to at my house. We would always seem to include a friend or a son's friend who had no where to go that day, and was welcome to enjoy food with our family. I love to watch people enjoy a feast that I fixed- I think I get more pleasure from that than they do eating it!
Our two question format, as usual..
1. Turkey- Do you prefer white meat, or dark meat? Why? Do you even have turkey that day?
2. Dessert- Your favorite on this day, traditional or otherwise..and do you wait an hour or two to have the dessert, or right after the meal?
Some traditions are forced upon us by the media, some are inherited, and some are invented by us! I am always keenly interested in the regional differences we have in America, in addition to the other countries that have an equivalent holiday and their traditions also..
I'm looking forward to your responses!