Ok, ladies of the gardens, (and kitchens), let's let it ALL hang out now and go for it! We've worked all spring, summer and fall, and now it's time to talk cooking! And enjoying the fruits, (or veggies) of our labors. Like the rest of you, fall is the time when I love to get in the kitchen and cook, filling the house with wonderful smells. That's one of the reason I love Oklahoma, the change of seasons. Fall just brings with it, a change in the feeling of things as we change from one mode to another. It's time for soups, and stews, and baking breads, pies, muffins and biscuits,( slathered with butter and jam or jelly of choice). Tonight, I'm making, more for DS than me, chicken and biscuits. Only I make the biscuits separate, so they don't get soggy baking in the oven with the liquid part of the concoction. Then, he splits them once done and ladles the chicken "gravy" over all. Of course there are a hundred variations on the theme, and I've tried most all of them at one time or another, but that's what's on the menu tonight. I came across this blog and started reading. Great stuff, you can tell these ladies, (and guy) know their way around a biscuit. The one moniker cracked me up, "Old ladies in Fist Fights". Anyway, they were discussing the pros and cons of biscuit making. I am making mine ala Carol's, by the BIG BATCH, with the exception that I use butter. I keep my batch in the fridge or even freezer to keep the butter cold and fresh. I do mine a little different that those discussed in this blog. I melt a large batch of butter in the microwave, and then cool and put it in the freezer til it's ice cold and solid. Then, I work in the cold butter bits, one half at a time, to coat the self-rising flour mixture, to prevent as much gluten from forming as possible. Everythings done with the lightest touch possible and the least mixing. When the biscuits are patted out and cut, in this case, "Cat Head" biscuits, I dip them in melted butter, and pop them in a preheated 450 degree oven til nice and golden. I always make buttermilk biscuits, buttermilk pancakes, buttermilk cornbread, and as often as possible. Carol's method makes this painless. I suppose we could make many of our standard quick bread mixes this way. Salute Carol! Ladies, start your engines, (I mean ovens)! Barbara Here is a link that might be useful: Joes's Biscuit Blog

Well, it's going to be the soup (in small mugs; I don't have any soup mugs). Also hot rolls, the dried apricot/mascarpone/walnut appetizer, and blackberry cobbler from the bakery for dessert. Maybe ice cream with the cobbler, or else just leftover cream from my soup recipe. Makes for an awful lot of cream in this menu, but I guess it will be okay. I'll put out green onion tops to sprinkle on the soup. There is no store even 35 miles away that carries chives. I posted a question about the soup recipe because although I've made it many times it's never seemed to me like the amount of squash called for is right. Thanks so much to all of you for your help.

I use various cheeses. My favorites are fontina, monterey jacks, cheddars (sharp especially for us), gouda, edam, gruyere, mozzarella, parmesan, romano, and provolone. I have melted asiago once and it came out okay too. The trick is to make your white sauce first and then add the cheese as the milk warms in small chunks or shred it. Stir contantly and don't whisk it, just easy stirs. Velvety sauce everytime is my experience. If you aren't making a sauce, or adding it to other ingredients, then almost anything will do I would think, but fresh cheeses like goat cheese can separate on you, I've had that happen once. Most cheese have a huge fat content and have salt. The fatter the cheese, usually the easier it melts I would think. We eat a LOT of cheese in our family, but we like it fresh cut or in a sauce best. Cheddar and mozzarella are the basic toppings for pizza or like tuna melts. Our favorite cheeses for macaroni and cheeses when I do it homemade is a mixture. I will do tomato sauces or white sauce based cheese sauces based on what tag ends of cheese, or cheese I need to use are in the fridge. Fontina is a favorite white cheese around here for melting. And, I think I forgot plain swiss in my list. But, baby swiss to nice ripe swiss cheese always tastes good mixed with beef. Try fontina cheese mixed in with ground veal, and don't forget to use feta cheese with lamb!!

In his defense, he has very bad digestion--ulcerative colitis, so I think he is always worried he is going to aggravate it/have a flare up. But then he limits himself so much food-wise that then he binges on something. Like when he was bragging that he didn't salt his food or like salty foods, I pointed out that the crackers, breads, boxed meals, ham and salami and canned soups he eats are more loaded with salt than any amount you would get from a casual sprinkling from the salt shaker. He just got mad at me and said, "I don't want to argue about it, I'm just saying I don't eat salt." I've tried for DECADES to get him to create some healthy eating habits for himself. It will never work, better and smarter people than me have tried too. But cooking for him is sure a roller coaster ride. Some of his lady friends and neighbors tried cooking for him right after mom died, but they soon gave up! I just do what I can, try to detach, as long as he's not wasting away not eating, there's not much I can do about the quality of what he eats. The more I push for something healthy the more he pushes back, that is just his nature.