What a great month it has been...Thanks Melinda for hosting this month. Maryanne-If you check in just a reminder that you are the host for December. I will try and remember to send you a message on facebook. Another day to spend with family tomorrow. DH's family has a get together the Saturday after Thanksgiving so it's tomorrow. His family is so huge we rent a school house so the kids can have the gym to play in. Of course us adults have to play to so we always have a volleyball game after lunch. Mellen-I actually went to Wal-Mart last night and stood in line for a fabulous sheet sale. If it's one thing I like it's good sheets and these were 700 thread count for $24.96. DH and I were the second ones in line so we got 7 sets. Some I got for family members, there was no limit. Shirley

Karen, Very nice cornucopia. AND it stands by itself. It will look nice decorated traditionally OR you can do something a little different too. And the Santa nutcracker--a big one, at that. I'm not sure I've even seen a Santa before, and I also have a (small) collection. My favorite is the fisherman nutcracker but I would like a Santa too. - Magpie p.s. I'm now driving DH's SUV, but strangely enough, even it knows where all the good places are!

Appetizer I like to make and take — Shrimp scampi stuffed mushrooms. I just began making these, sans recipe. Essentially, I buy a lots of large white/button mushrooms. Clean with a soft brush and trum off any hard areas. Remove the stem and caredully remove the gills and center. Save this in a bowl. I pan fry shrimp with garlic In Shell tto maximize flavor, careful to just barely cook. Remove the shrimp from the shell and devein. SAVE shell Chop or cut shrimp into 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces. Set aside. Refry the shrimps shells in more butter, olive oil. You want to brown the shells to maximize flavor. Add some minced garlic 2 to 3 T. Then deglaze pan with a bit (1 to 2 T of pale dry sherry and a bit of chicken broth or water. Make abou 1/2 C of rich shrimp broth. Strain and remove shells. Then in a bowl combine coarsely chopped shrimp, a bit of roasted garlic or garlic powder, bit of ground black pepper., and bread crumbs. Moisten with the shrimp-garlic flavored broth and gently combine. Fill the hollowed out mushrooms caps, being careful not to densely pack. Place the stuffed caps in a buttered pan with a bit of EVOO. You can sprinkle some fresshly grated Parmesan cheese over the top of each stuffed mushroom. Add a bit of water to the bottom of the pan. Cover with aluminum foil and set in a preheated 300 deg F oven, middle rack and bake for about 20 minutes. Check for donenness. Remove foil and bake for another 5 or so minutes. These are good served warm or room temperature. Another Thanksgiving side that I like are baked stuffed artichokes (Italian style). Desserts: Some of those I bake/take include: * Mother Wonderful’s (Myra Chenin’s) Pumpkin Cheesecake. It is the most delicious cheesecake. The recipe was in a local paper years ago and it is in one of her books and perhaps online. Not your ho hum cheesecake. * Deep dish baby-butt smooth baked custard pie. Cooked perfectly. * Flourless chocolate Cake * A cranberry or colorful fruit lattice-topped pie. The juice from the dark berries colors the golden lattice top here and there, making it a visual knockout. Homemade pie crust only.

Lars, Grocery Outlet is a chain so you may want to check out Hungry Onion's discussion thread that has postings from CA and WA on recent finds from GO. Their stock changes often and each store has different close-out/sale items. You can find the GO discussion thread at (link) Hungry Onion's Grocery Outlet: Latest Buys As far as food products go: We are very brand-specific so I get certain items delivered, as they are not available otherwise. Those include: Tillen Farms Baby Cucumber Pickles, sold thru Stonewall Kitchen. Amazon sells them, but that seller has had numerous complaints about poor packaging and jars arriving leaking. Stonewall packs the case very well and I've never had a broken or leaking jar. WeLoveJam, based in the Silicon Valley, is one of the rare farms left in what used to be agricultural land. Their Blenheim Apricot is the least sweet of all the brands we've tried. Their Montmorency Cherry/Blenheim jam is also superb. The owner Eric makes some very unusual jams that sell out quickly, so he has stopped selling wholesale to specialty grocers and just sells to his clientele. One of our friends is addicted to his Kumquat Marmalade, LOL. There's an excellent independent specialty grocer nearby, so we shop there once or twice a month. Very good butcher, specialty breads from Acme &Semifreddi artisanal bakeries, and excellent cheese/charcuterie selections. Spouse is a Brie lover but I prefer Brillat-Savarin or St Angel. There's a better specialty market not much further, but parking is a real pain so we seldom visit. We do use Safeway for delivery of ordinary stuff like TP, cleaning supplies, and some produce. Safeway actually has a lot of CA-based fruit and produce contracts, such as the excellent Artisan line of salad greens from Tanimura & Antle/Salinas, CA. I love their Artisan Romaine and it's the only place that carries it. 99 Ranch is our go-to for Asian staples, but H Mart and Tokyo Central are pushing to make inroads into our area, which is very exciting. If we want fish, we go to the small, old-time Tokyo Fish Market in Berkeley, where we get the fish for sashimi. Oddly, although TFM carries the Kurobuta pork loin chops, they don't carry any other cut which is disappointing. It would be so much more convenient if they'd carry a pork butt roast, my favorite cut! We live next to the largest Latin and Central American district in the Bay Area, so Cardenas is the largest supermarket but there's many smaller grocers. I don't often cook any of these cuisines as it's easier to just dine out at one of the zillion+ Latino restaurants, but Spouse adores Chile Verde Pork so I do make that pretty often. He eats it over Japanese udon noodles, creating his own fusion dish! Occasionally we play around with different coffee brands, but for consistency and strong, low-acid dark roast, we find illy brand (yes, lower case "i") to be the most reliable. The espresso grind, finer than the usual drip, makes a great cup of coffee. We order it from Amazon by the case of 12. We visit two chocolatiers - did you know CA has the most chocolate production companies (and the highest number of artisanal chocolatiers, I believe) in the US? - I like one; Spouse likes the other, and there's one chocolate we both love. - Kollar Chocolates/Yountville, CA. Don't care for his truffles or filled chocolates. But I love nuts - almost any kind - and his dark chocolate Rochers are amazing. Deeply toasted slivered almonds, very lightly coated with fine quality dark bittersweet chocolate - yum! (link) Kollar Dark Chocolate Rochers Michael's Chocolates/Oakland, CA. There are three items we love here: - Spouse loves the chocolate covered orange peels. He says they're not quite as good as [Michael] Recchiuti/SF, but very close. - His chocolate covered espresso beans are superb. Very thin chocolate coating (we hate thick coats of chocolate over anything) over espresso beans which have had the bitter embryo removed. We both love these! - Bourbon Caramel Pecan Bars. You can actually taste the bourbon whiskey, which I love. The caramel has been cooked long enough to be sweet but not cloyingly sweet. (link) Michael's Chocolates Michael's and Kollar are the 'everyday' chocolates as they're the easiest to get and great value for the money. Our splurge chocolates are Recchiuti, especially the Bergamot Tea, Dark Chocolate Caramel and the Ginger Heart. The last is surprising as I don't like white chocolate OR ginger, but this was a stunning confection, without the excessive sugar that white chocolate so often has. (link) Recchiuti Chocolates: Flavors