Thanks for that site, Teresa. I've grown my own garlic in the past, both in the garden and in my flower box. I sent Ann T some of the stuff that grew in my flower box, small but hot, LOL. I quit because somehow or another, I plant the stuff in October, it stays in the ground all winter and is ready to harvest about July. However, no matter who plows my garden spot, they never seem to miss the garlic, it always gets plowed up. Sigh. So I'm not growing garlic this year. I was going to get some containers to grow it in, and didn't manage to accomplish that with everything else going on. I bought some at MagicLand last week, though, they are my local farmer's market, and they grow everything they sell. Garlic is, I think, $1.44 a pound, it's a big and hard necked variety and very good. At the grocery store I can get heads of "fresh" garlic 3/$1 but they are seldom actually fresh, they are usually dried out and have green sprouts... Annie

Mark Bittman had a great tomato recipe this week. Easy and delicious. I added a little bit of Spanish chorizo from the freezer and bakked it in my small cast iron pan in the toaster oven so I didn't heat up the kitchen. Went great with the tiny steak I grilled. The beautiful photo is halfway down the page. (Mine really did look like that.) Recipe: Paella With Tomatoes The Minimalist: A Grand Paella Gives Way to a Simple One (September 5, 2007) 3 1/2 cups stock or water 1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into thick wedges Salt and freshly ground black pepper 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 medium onion, minced 1 tablespoon minced garlic 1 tablespoon tomato paste Large pinch saffron threads (optional) 2 teaspoons Spanish pimentón (smoked paprika), or other paprika 2 cups Spanish or other short-grain rice Minced parsley for garnish. 1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Warm stock or water in a saucepan. Put tomatoes in a medium bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and drizzle them with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Toss to coat. 2. Put remaining oil in a 10- or 12-inch ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables soften, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, saffron if you are using it, and paprika and cook for a minute more. Add rice and cook, stirring occasionally, until it is shiny, another minute or two. Add liquid and stir until just combined. 3. Put tomato wedges on top of rice and drizzle with juices that accumulated in bottom of bowl. Put pan in oven and roast, undisturbed, for 15 minutes. Check to see if rice is dry and just tender. If not, return pan to oven for another 5 minutes. If rice looks too dry but still is not quite done, add a small amount of stock or water (or wine). When rice is ready, turn off oven and let pan sit for 5 to 15 minutes. 4. Remove pan from oven and sprinkle with parsley. If you like, put pan over high heat for a few minutes to develop a bit of a bottom crust before serving. Yield: 4 to 6 servings. Here is a link that might be useful: NY Times food page

Oh man, it all looks delicious. At first I was concerned, then I saw the pink bowl for the stuffing and the pink pan holding spinach dip and all was right with the world. It's amylou, it's gotta have something pink. I think George has taken the correct measures, LOL. He looks a lot like my 25 pound cat, Spark. Orange cats gotta do orange cat things, you know. My Thanksgiving won't be until next Saturday, that's when Ashley has the girls and Makayla can come home for dinner and all other family obligations are fullfilled by all. Elery and I joined the neighbors at the B&B for dinner, the chef there did the cooking and I provided some of the "raw" ingredients. Well brined free range Amish turkey, nearly 30 pounds, some apple/cranberry stuffing, green bean casserole with no C of M soup, just some nicely seasoned white sauce and crunchy pan fried shallots, mashed potatoes from our Kennebecs in storage, gravy, fresh cranberry relish and dinner rolls, dessert was a really nicely spiced apple cake with cream cheese frosting. A couple of cups of coffee, chatting with friends and rooting for the Detroit Lions (who, true to tradition, lost), made a lovely day. Having lost my mother and my brother within the last year it was actually good to have something completely different. I'll start my cooking about Wednesday... Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Annie

I managed to do everything I planned to do despite having a bad reaction to the latest round of chemo on the 20th. We went back to our home in the country and I was feeling relatively OK the next day so I did some prep for cooking, making the sausagemeat stuffing for the turkey and freezing it. I had made pumpkin pies and brownies before we went down to the city for the treatment and put them into the freezer in our unit there. I was glad that I did as I felt dreadful on the Friday and Saturday. I was a little better on the Saturday so I continued with prepping, chopping bread cubes and celery and onions etc for the bread stuffing, then we had to pack it all up and head down to the city again as DD and her little family were arriving at the airport in the early evening. We were lending them DH’s car so at least he had to be there. It was touch and go as to whether I would be up to driving my car down (as opposed to DH’s sister bringing him back to the country and then him driving both of us in my car) but through sheer stubbornness I made it :-). Sunday morning I felt almost human again so I put the ham I had pre-studded with cloves into the oven and basted it with a mix of orange juice, cranberry sauce, honey and mustard at regular intervals. It turned out delicious and moist :-) As it happened I didn’t need to bring salads so I made the cheesecake I had planned to make and that was me done for the day. We took the ham and the desserts and all our presents to my BIL’s place and had a great evening with the whole extended family and then divvied up leftovers. I gave away a fair amount of ham, which was fine with me as I had bought a large one just for the purpose. Christmas morning I made the bread stuffing then stuffed the turkey buffe with it then sealed it in with the sausagemeat stuffing. We took that, the remaining ham and a pumpkin pie to the holiday apartment where DD is staying. Her DH made waffles with fresh fruit and maple syrup for brunch, then we played with DGS and opened presents while the turkey roasted along with the potatoes. After a while DD made an appetiser of brie wedges coated in panko and fried, along with cranberry sauce and rocket salad. Then we had the turkey, ham, green beans with prosciutto, roasted Dutch carrots, cauliflower cheese, hasselback potatoes, bread sauce and gravy and big puffy mini Yorkshire puddings (made by DSIL), followed by pumpkin pie at a decent interval. It was a lovely low key day and we had a great time with DD, DSIL and DGS, who is the most delightful baby 🥰